BY
The Larry Summers mess and the David French PC comment are two sides of the same coin. Political Correctness is another name for fascism, an extension of “might makes right.” When any group, even a majority, can censure and condemn the thoughts and comments of others simply because that group thinks they are not “correct,” then we are lost. It is pointed by civil libertarians that it is, of course, easy to support free speech when you approve of the speech. The test is whether you find the speech aversive.
While you may be entitled to voice your own oppostion, to go any further, to chastise, to punish, to demand “correct thinking” is simply not democratic.
As for Ralph Nader’s comment, we probably are facing a grave threat from lawyers who have no ethics in the same way we are facing a grave threat from corporate boards of directors who have no ethics, politicians who have no ethics, stockbrokers who have no ethics, clergy who have no ethics, accountants who have no ethics and insurance salesmen who have no ethics. That’s where we are.
There was a time when a good reputation was coin. A person could walk into a bank and borrow money on a good word. And I would guess the banks did as well on loan recovery, or better, than they do today. But those days are gone. Reputation is meaningless. Appearance is all. Find someone to cook the books to make the quarterlies look good and the heck with the markets, the investors, the employees, the pensioners. Unethical lawyers are not the cause of anything; they are simply a symptom. As long as they’re politically correct, though, I guess it’s okay. Shame on all of us.
Martin Grayson