Mark Murphy:Political correctness undermines America's greatest strength--it freedom

Mark Murphy: Political correctness undermines America's greatest strength -- its freedom

Posted: April 27, 2014 - 12:17am

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By Mark E. Murphy

On March 24, 2014, Brendan Eich — the inventor of the Javascript scripting language — was named CEO of Mozilla, the company that makes the popular Web browser Firefox.

It was a company he helped found; indeed, had it not been for Eich, Mozilla would never have existed.

But it soon came to light that, in 2008, Eich had contributed $1,000 in support of California’s Proposition 8, which sought to make same-sex marriage unconstitutional in California. This led to a firestorm of controversy: The dating website OKCupid asked its users to boycott Mozilla. Three of Mozilla’s directors resigned.

Several LGBT activists also called for a boycott of the company. And so, on April 4, Eich resigned, both as CEO and from all employment at Mozilla, saying, “Under the present circumstances, I cannot be an effective leader.”

The United States was founded upon principles of freedom — freedom from tyranny, freedom from oppressive government, freedom to practice one’s religion without fear of prosecution. Freedom of speech, guaranteed by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, is a right that all Americans rightly cherish. Adopted on Dec. 15, 1791, the Amendment codifies that freedom by saying, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

But apparently that right does not extrapolate to allowing U.S. citizens freedom of thought.

Although there have been no new laws passed restraining free speech, societal limitations, cloaked in the guise of “political correctness,” have emerged in recent years as a means of reining in ideas that are deemed unacceptable.

Americans can now express social, political and religious views only as long as they conform to the principles set forth by the screaming masses of militant, self-righteous bloggers, activists and lay journalists out there.

Us vs. them

The mass media engage in a feeding frenzy of controversy whenever something that is perceived to be “politically incorrect” surfaces. It’s become the prevailing tactic of the left to demonize anyone who does not adopt the official PC position.

The right wing media often responds in incendiary fashion — and the end result is a contentious, us-vs.-them mentality that is tearing the fabric of our nation into tatters. It has virtually eliminated intelligent discussion; howls of mutual dissent drown out any attempts at logical compromise.

Even the government has gotten in on the act, with both the IRS and the Department of Justice (headed by Attorney General Eric Holder) specifically targeting conservative activist groups in a politically-motivated witch hunt.

George Orwell described this sort of culture perfectly in his novel “1984.” Ladies and gentlemen, this is no longer America; it is Oceania. The Thought Police will see you now.

The ironic thing about all of this is the hypocrisy of it all.

For example, President Obama stated publicly in 2008 that his Christian beliefs made him oppose gay marriage. Former President Bill Clinton signed the much-vilified Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) into law in 1996, despite being heavily supported by the gay and lesbian community during his election campaign.

Both have taken the politically expedient step of renouncing their prior position, but do their retroactive apologies make them less complicit today?

One of the great strengths of this nation has always been its ability to encourage individual freedom of expression. Indeed, that freedom is the lifeblood of America. It is what sets us apart from countries around the globe where individual rights are not protected.

Through those freedoms of expression, our nation has successfully advanced the individual rights of women, of people of various ethnicities and skin colors, and of those who have different sexual orientation. I am not so naïve to think that we have not completely eliminated prejudice, but Americans have consistently struck down codified barriers to freedom that were at odds with our Constitutional Bill of Rights.

Many of these barriers have been eliminated during my lifetime — and their removal makes me proud to be an American. Where would we be without brave souls like Dr. Martin Luther King, whose eloquence gave Black Americans hope that institutionalized racism could at last be removed as a legal barrier to social progress?

And the recent cataclysmic shift in public opinion about same-sex marriage has been based largely upon the courageous efforts of activists who have helped people understand that gay people want the same things as everyone else — financial stability, the chance to build a family, the commitments inherent in a long-term relationship, and so on.

Bully tactics

Americans shudder at the stories we read from other nations — in places like Pakistan, for example, where 12-year-old Malala Yousafzai authored a blog about the need to educate young women (a view at odds with those of many fundamentalist Islamic groups) only to be shot in the face in 2012 by a Taliban gunman on a crowded school bus.

We remember the horrors of the Nazi regime, where millions were sent to their deaths because of their religion or ethnicity, but we forget the fact that the crimes of the Nazis were rooted in the truncation of individual freedoms and the brutal suppression of free speech. Educated discourse, not hysterical vilification, are at the heart of what has historically made America great. Instead of turning people with “politically incorrect” viewpoints into pariahs, we should instead each use our God-given intellect to weigh the data and individually gauge what we feel is the truth.

Otherwise, the pervasive intolerance of other peoples’ perspectives could further mushroom into something truly ugly. Shall Scientologists be prohibited from being CEOs? Should we oust government officials who believe in astrology? Will listening to Ted Nugent be deemed subversive? Where does it all end?

The core essence of the Brendan Eich controversy was perhaps best illustrated by blogger Andrew Sullivan — who is gay, by the way. Not that that matters.

“If we are about intimidating the free speech of others, we are no better than the anti-gay bullies who came before us,” Sullivan said.

It’s time that we ended the tyranny of political correctness that is so pervasive in modern society. We need instead to re-emphasize those basic individual rights that got us here in the first place. If we don’t, we’ll continue traveling down a dark road that leads to an even darker place. Before you know it, the Thought Police will come knocking at my door.

And they won’t be happy to see me.

Mark Murphy, M.D., is a Savannah physician and writer.