Digitizing Humanity

The other evening, my husband and I were at Barnes & Noble. I wanted to buy that new book by Sarah Palin. I was genuinely curious as to what she wrote, and I wanted to form my own opinion before I made any type of conclusions. Sometimes, we all rush into conclusions about others before we evaluate the whole situation, especially the facts. And these days, media and whatever is pretending to be a “journalistic source” can’t be trusted.

I walked towards the shelf which displayed many copies of “Going Rogue” and very quickly, I snatched the book. It was as if I didn’t want anyone around me to know that I am buying this book; that somehow I ought to be ashamed of it. What am I doing? I didn’t grow up to be a weak person. I wasn’t raised to be ashamed of truth. Both of my parents refused to join the Communist Party (in then Communist Yugoslavia) and they were not ashamed of the refusal to be coerced. The depth of my being didn’t care what the crowds might think about my purchase, but a small part of me wanted to apologize for having Conservative views. I wondered why?

Lack of freedom to express one’s views is not anything new. Many times, we are the ones who impose the absence of freedom. We build prison cells for ourselves. We become captives of our own minds. The question is do we have enough strength to oppose the barrage of collectivist fads? But there is something else at play. My hesitance to reveal Conservative instincts also had a great deal to do with political correctness. This vile thing has no substance and yet in its own reality perpetuates a condition of intellectual and spiritual nausea. We are not “wired” to live like this.

Any free society, like United States is not founded on the principles of political correctness (by the way, I am still trying to figure out what do words “political” and “correct” have to do with the condition it yields). If the United States takes an even further turn towards this tyrannical sensitivity, it will mean a psychological suicide and a slow deterioration of the human spirit. We might as well become machines programmed to be joyless and perfectly global. I wonder: is everyone truly complicit in the maintenance of political correctness?

Another interesting thing happened at the bookstore that evening. I was looking for another book.
“Can I help you?” said the woman behind the customer service desk. She seemed pleasant and interested in actually helping me; not in showing off her managerial prowess.
“Yes. I am looking for William [F.] Buckley’s [Jr.] Cancel Your Own Goddam Subscription,” I said with pride. I even emphasized (rather theatrically I might add) goddam. I was waiting for the woman’s reaction. She smiled. Then she laughed. Her shoulders relaxed and any tension that might have been there before was now gone.
“Oh, I just love that!” she said.
Alas, the book was not available in the bookstore. But I left with a thought (and perhaps a hope) that people want to be able to say what they think, including the word “goddam.” People want to speak and express themselves according to their humanity, not according to forced digitization of human spirit.