You Can't Coach That

Friday, August 24, 2007

Put up your hand if you are sick of having to be politically correct. I know I am. Don’t get me wrong - I am not advocating that we should all go around saying anything we please without any regard for the feelings of others. People who hide behind grand statements such as “I always speak my mind” annoy me as much as having to be politically correct. What I am annoyed about is the way that informed and intelligent debate tends to be quashed on some subjects due to political correctness gone mad.

A case in point is the issue of global warming and climate change. I recently listened to a rather zealous young person give a presentation on this issue. She spoke intelligently and demonstrated an admirable degree of passion for her topic. She also had a wealth of information at her fingertips and she used this information to make a compelling case. What was also quite apparent to me was that she worships at the alter that is Al Gore’s ego. “An Inconvenient Truth” is in her mind a depiction of the second coming rather than an entertaining examination of a serious issue.

And so to my point about political correctness gone mad. It seems that if one tries to debate an issue such as climate change and question some of the “facts” used to demonstrate how quickly we are hurtling towards certain devastation, one is labeled an eco-terrorist. It seems that some people are so determined to show their support for the current hot topic that they are not prepared to discuss both sides of the issue.

“You can’t coach that”