By Jove! I Think I've Got It!

I think I’ve actually come up with a genuine theory.

As my regular readers are aware (and by this point, no doubt sick of), I’ve written prolifically on political correctness, plain speaking and over-sensitivity.

You know my views on this subject, so I won’t go into them (again), but today I started wondering…Why are people so over-sensitive today? Why is political correctness such a big deal?

I mean, at one point I was called a racist by someone, because during a conversation on what we found attractive, I mentioned I thought Asian women were pretty.

How am I being racist when I’m saying something complimentary? Sure, I’m making a generalization…but it’s not a negative generalization.

Then today, I was watching America’s Funniest Home Videos. I saw a clip where a toddler was walking along at a theme park when a fountain suddenly burst into life and knocked the poor little tyke over.

What was his reaction?

Hysterical tears.

That was when my theory popped into my head.

If you or I were suddenly hit by a stream of water that made us fall over, we wouldn’t cry. We might be a little embarrassed, but chances are, we’d laugh it off.

So why did this little kid have such an extreme negative reaction? Why do all babies and young children cry or scream when surprised by anything unexpected like a loud noise or a trip and fall?

Because they have no experience of anything ‘bad’ happening.

As far as they know, the world is a perfectly ordered, nice place, where nothing bad or unexpected ever happens. They have no idea…so to a baby, suddenly falling off a chair, or having a balloon suddenly pop next to their ear shocks and unsettles them as much as a semi truck suddenly crashing into your living room would effect us.

So, with all this politically-correct, touchy feely crap, people today have very little experience of any unpleasantness. Like I’ve said before, the concept of winning and losing has been removed from our schools. Failure isn’t punished any more, but rewarded ‘for trying’.

Basically, the only way to learn how to deal with something is to experience it. It’s the only way to develop a ‘thick skin’, so plain speaking doesn’t offend.

We’ve created a ‘bubble culture’ were it’s become completely and totally unacceptable to upset or offend anyone…no matter how much they deserve it.

So this is why we’re so over-sensitive and politically correct. It’s totally wrong to offend anyone, so when someone makes a comment we don’t like, we react the same way a baby would to an unexpected noise. We completely and totally freak out.