From Polis to Politically Correct

*The day this post was written John R.K. Howard of Idaho received no jail time for kicking a coat hanger up the rectum of a mentally disabled black teammate #stayWoke*

As we have all seen politics can divide families, destroy friendships, and has the potential to bring about physical harm to self or others. Some background, if you will allow me. The word politics comes from the Greek word polis – which means city-state. Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle noted that an inquiry into ethics necessarily follows into politics, which he declares the philosophy of human affairs. Plato’s Republic propositioned that the city-state should be governed by a ruler capable of comprehending the true nature of reality, justice and wisdom. Along came Machiavelli, the Italian philosopher and civil servant, who stated the leader should rule, swiftly, effectively, and in a calculated manner. Following this notion, politics began to be conceived as an art in which the best rulers were shrewd, and carefully calculated in dealing with enemies, population and timing of certain actions. All modern forms of political thought however recognize that the polis or city-state is of man’s own design; created as a way of collectively enforcing a societal rule beneficial to all people.  Appealing to political thought is ultimately an appeal to how a civil society should behave.

While the notions involved in human affairs, justice and wisdom have gone unchanged, it appears what it means to be a civil society has changed. This makes sense considering the way and manner in which we conduct ourselves has changed. Technology is literally (emphasis added) at our fingertips, both men and women have enjoyed a great deal of sexual liberation, the way in which we communicate has changed vastly – from handwriting letters to shooting a text message to someone thousand a miles away, and of course there is globalization. These are only a few factors that affect our day-to-day life that did not exist in Ancient times…in fact they have not even existed an entire century[1]. 

However, I posit the question should the way we conduct our daily lives change the idea of what it means to behave as a civil society? If justice, human affairs, wisdom are to be considered constant for the purpose of this post, then does it not follow the governing of these values should also remain constant. I remember Mr. Zachman’s 9^th grade government class well, and in particular I remembered his lesson on political correctness (which is ironic if anyone took his class). The term politically correct or “PC” was often used to describe speech that avoided marginalizing people who were socially discriminated against, very often PC speech was considered to be excessive. However, the idea behind it…to not marginalize people who were discriminated against was a worthwhile one. To me this idea…do not marginalize people who are already discriminated was kind of at the core of notions like justice and civility. 

Thus, it was always interesting to me when I went onto college and further education how many people in politics would do just that. They would treat those who were being discriminated as insignificant or worse criminal. These – politicians – in my mind were supposed to be the leaders of a civil society, they were the distributors of justice, they were the heralds of wisdom, and they were the representatives for ideal human behavior.  After all if the leader of the polis is a poor example of any of these things, then how does the city-state continue to run? Moreover, if the leader of society marginalizes those who are already discriminated against then does he actually serve the polis? Or is this a more polarized Machiavellian approach to governing that expands the highest denomination of the population by singling out the others?

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[1] Large scale globalization began occurring in the late 19^th century but the term not formerly recognized until the 1970s