Doing the dance of victory

I've just acquired a copy of David Slack's latest book, Civil War & Other Optimistic Predictions. I haven't read it yet (maybe next week), but I have checked out the chapter on political correctness, where David quotes from two of my posts on whether we have become a moral wasteland and the meaning of "political correctness". Idiot does the dance of victory...

As for political correctness itself, I think John Campbell is also worth quoting. In a recent Listener interview, he railed against both the "sad, old right-wing wankers" who "carry on" about political correctness, and their nostalgic vision of the past:

"We were a nasty, racist, homophobic, sexist, miserable bloody society," rails Campbell. "The fact is now we have a burgeoning of Maori identity, women are running the bloody country. Gay people don't have to live secret, miserable lives. This is a direct result of manners and I thank God for manners!"

I don't think manners are the full story - there's more than a little power and privilege in there too - but they're certainly a part of it. We now think its downright rude to call people "faggots", "horis" or "front-bums" - and this has reduced discrimination in other areas as well.