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Article: Political Correctness: Words as Weapons
- Article from:
- Business Renaissance Quarterly
- Article date:
- April 1, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright Business Renaissance Institute Spring 2006. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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This essay discusses the dynamics of battles around Political Correctness. These are defined as episodes in which using a particular word comes to stand for group membership about a controversial issue. When this happens, the issue at stake tends to be reduced to a ritual fight around the contested word, with detrimental effects on the case at stake. The paper introduces the roles of protagonist, fan, spectator and arbiter. It then shows how basic values in a society alter the desirability and success of these roles. And it gives three golden rules for getting rid of political correctness battles.
Introduction
What's in a name? In 1976, having graduated from high school in the Netherlands, ...