[MD] Moral cover up

[plattholden at gmail.com]

Hi All, 

The following illustrates the insidiousness of political correctness:

No words are more typical of our moral culture than "inappropriate" and 
"unacceptable." They seem bland, gentle even, yet they carry the full force 
of official power. When you hear them, you feel that you are being tied up 
with little pieces of soft string.
Inappropriate and unacceptable began their modern careers in the 1980s as 
part of the jargon of political correctness. They have more or less replaced 
a number of older, more exact terms: coarse, tactless, vulgar, lewd. They 
encompass most of what would formerly have been called "improper" or 
"indecent." An affair between a teacher and a pupil that was once improper 
is now inappropriate; a once indecent joke is now unacceptable.
This linguistic shift is revealing. Improper and indecent express moral 
judgements, whereas inappropriate and unacceptable suggest breaches of 
some purely social or professional convention. Such "non-judgemental" 
forms of speech are tailored to a society wary of explicit moral language. As 
liberal pluralists, we seek only adherence to rules of the game, not 
agreement on fundamentals. What was once an offence against decency 
must be recast as something akin to a faux pas.
But this new, neutralised language does not spell any increase in freedom. 
When I call your action indecent, I state a fact that can be controverted. 
When I call it inappropriate, I invoke an institutional context-one which, by 
implication, I know better than you. Who can gainsay the Lord Chamberlain 
when he pronounces it "inappropriate" to wear jeans to the Queen´s garden 
party? This is what makes the new idiom so sinister. Calling your action 
indecent appeals to you as a human being; calling it inappropriate asserts 
official power.
The point can be generalised. As a society, we strive to eradicate moral 
language, hoping to eliminate the intolerance that often accompanies it. But 
intolerance has not been eliminated, merely thrust underground. 
"Inappropriate" and "unacceptable" are the catchwords of a moralism that 
dare not speak its name. They hide all measure of righteous fury behind the 
mask of bureaucratic neutrality. For the sake of our own humanity, we 
should strike them from our vocabulary.

--from Prospect Magazine, uk.
Regards,
Platt