Taking political correctness into consideration...

As our instructor, Mrs. Keith, has proposed, we communicate with others because we want something from them. In order to maximize the effectiveness of our encounters with others, especially those whom we may be unfamiliar, we utilize various communication aids to strengthen the connection we develop with them. This, in my opinion, is where being politically correct comes into play.

Being politically correct, essentially, is to avoid including slang, metaphors, or anything that may be objectionable in our transactions with others. We utilize political correctness as a way to facilitate smoother communication with others in order to more easily attain what we want from them. The most common field where this can be applied is politics, and this is why we refer to this idea as political correctness. Such as in politics, we keep in mind the symbolic attachments our words or phrases may have so that we can either hide our motive or at least appear to be unbiased and/or unaffiliated with certain beliefs.

I don't believe that being politically correct impedes our ability to communicate with others. In fact, as I have already mentioned, I really believe that it is a speaking tool that we use to further the amount that we receive from our transactions with others. We use this aid willingly to hide our agendas or motives. I do believe, however, that it is a way to be dishonest because we hide the beliefs that we hold true to ourselves in order to convince others we are something that we are not (at least in part) and to gain from them. Again, we refer to this function as political correctness because that is the way of politics; utilizing a manufactured image of ourselves in order to better facilitate communication to further our agendas with others (because, in reality, we are always looking to better our position before others).

Also, I would argue that we only act in such a way when we regard the opposite party as neutral or even opposite to our views. We do this, as I have restated, to further our personal agendas, or to obtain more from others. When we are really interested in just communicating with people we have already established a relationship, we often disregard being politically correct. So, in a way, this speaking aid is optionable, and we avoid utilizing it when we are already comfortable with the person to which we are speaking to. Simply, if we know a person well, we cut the bullcrap and, more often then most, freely voice our opinions whether they are politcally correct or not because we already know that we are in welcome company. I, and I am sure everyone reading this, can recall an occasional when somebody we are close too should have been politically correct when they expressed certain beliefs. We may have felt reservations about what was said. However, we go along with it because we care for the person and respect them deeply enough to look past what was said.