Hi all

I have been absent for a while.

The reason is that I was hit by a couple of negative comments and I was told my blog was too politically incorrect and inappropriate.

It really saddened me that people could not tell the difference between a joke and something truly offensive or damaging;  however I took my time to think about it, deleted the “offending” post and paused.

I am particularly sad because the article I deleted was really tongue in cheek (avoidable mistakes women make to please men) and it had been the most read post of all.  Not only, I got some many positive notes, especially from women.  In addition, due to my lack of ability in site management, I deleted it permanently and since I had not saved it, I now do not even remember all its contents.

Anyway, so it goes.  And then recently a few people asked me about the blog and why I was not writing it anymore.  There you go, that is why, I got hit by political correctness.

Because of that, I spend a few more words ranting against political correctness and its pernicious effect on society.

Political correctness is an overreaction to aspects of behaviour that are incorrect.  Racism, sexism, any other isms are to be condemned.  But there is a big difference between real discrimination and a joke.  We all have flaws. In fact, pretty much anything that makes us laugh is a pun at our own or someone else’s flaws.  Are we going to abolish laughter?

Political correctness is the defence of people for whom form matters more than substance. And it is typically adopted like some sort of mainstream conformism.  No one would have a problem speaking badly about smokers (not even smokers themselves) however the mere word “fat” has become anathema. Yet one could argue that the personal and social cost of obesity is as bad if not worse than that of smoking.  But there you go, different social sensitivity at play.

On women, let me state this after many years of corporate life.  Take a look at large companies who herald the banner of diversity promotion and political correctness.  Then, count the number of female senior executives in these same organisations.  I assure you that discrimination against women on the work place exists, but I equally assure you it is nothing to do with form, it has nothing to do with a little joke.  It has a lot to do with substance, with the subtle yet politically correct discrimination that occurs during recruiting, promotions or salary decisions.

I miss my post which I had to delete.  Political correctness almost killed my blog.

But maybe I am back