Political Correctness and the Cost of Freedom
Residing at the core of the American identity is a love for the concept of freedom. American exceptionalism preaches that we are a nation devoted to liberty and dedicated to the safeguarding of individual rights, and that it is our responsibility to spread these values across the world. This is all, of course, despite the fact that we are a nation founded on the backs of slaves and one that struggles to this very moment to take the advice we so quickly offer, if not assault, others with. It is difficult to determine precisely why it is that we trip so often on our journey to a more just world. The concept of equality is not one particularly profound nor complex, and yet it eludes our society at seemingly every turn. The mistake we make is to think of freedom not as a commodity, but as a concept; not as limited, but as endless.
When one adjusts their thinking to see freedom as a limited resource, it does two things: 1) heighten its value and 2) help it to be seen as something that operates within a transactional system. This can come off as a crude way to think of freedom, removing it from its status as something greater than regular human commodities and offerings; taken from being a dream to being an item for sale. In the same moment, however, we must remember that freedom is bought and sold every day, both explicitly and through more subtle societal structures. With freedom considered as a resource, it becomes clear how often we trade our freedom for other things (typically monetary compensation). It also becomes clear how taking additional freedoms for oneself depletes a larger storage of the commodity, a cost that typically is incurred at someone else’s expense.
I bring up this notion of commodifying freedom for the purpose of connecting it to another cultural concept discussed frequently:
political correctness.
Political correctness is often discussed as it relates to a sense of lost freedom on the part of those whose speech or actions are limited by it. A resistance to political correctness is one of the few ideological strands that unites the current conservative population of America, and frustrations around it can be heard from some of those who would consider themselves socially liberal as well. In a culture where personal freedom is considered an inalienable right that should be pursued to its maximum limit, any infringement upon that right is an unfair hardship by default. When freedom is thought of as a noble concept and not considered beyond that, a call for political correctness is easily vilified and undermined.
However, as was stated at the outset, we do not live in a world where everyone is equally able to pursue pure personal freedom to its fullest extent. As much as our vast fiscal economy must eventually reach a real limit, so does our economy of freedom. I draw the comparison between money and freedom because both tend to be distributed unequally across our society, and because one tends to be frequently tied to the other. It must be noted as well that both have been historically contained within the power structures of a system designed to be preferential towards white males. It is also from this population that we hear many of the cries against political correctness, and from which we see much of the driving force in the conservative movement opposing PC culture.
From a purely value-driven mindset, this isn’t surprising. Political correctness incurs a cost on the freedom of those with much and redistributes it to those with less of it. When someone tells you not to use the phrase “spirit animal,” for example, because it appropriates or demeans that culture of Native Americans, what they are proposing is that you give up some of your freedom of expression in recognition of the costs in freedom already lost by others. In that moment, we must come to grips with the harsh, evil reality that surrounds our birth as a country and culture. Too often, however, we ask those whose freedoms white culture has historically stolen to allow them to be taken once more. Those who have been oppressed are asked why they can’t just move on from the past and let it roll off their backs. The problem, of course, is that white American culture can’t let go if its own attachments to a way of thinking that forgives all impositions on others and allows for a freedom so pure that it can only exist if someone else pays for it. White culture, especially conservative white culture, is the one stuck in the past, ever reluctant to let it go.
Americans must grapple with their identity as a people that are devoted to the idea of unlimited personal freedom amidst the need for collective values and a cohesive identity essential for every nation-state. With the rise of income inequality, we also see a growing adoration of libertarian values around pure freedom. The question we must answer then: will we give in to our own aspirations for complete freedom, despite whatever societal cost that freedom comes at? Or can we learn to appreciate communal freedoms and equality to a point where their promotion becomes more important than our own? The answers to those questions lie in our ability, and our determination, to see freedom as the limited resource it is, instead of the idealized endless supply we wish it would be.
