"I did not attend his funeral; but I wrote a nice letter saying I approved of it." - Mark Twain
Niceness is now universal in our society. Everyone and everything is nice to one another, by way of being nice to themselves. Niceness has come to define us, so that when historians come to write of our era they will speak of us as people who were unfailingly "nice".
No. Instead, I would suggest that it will be our niceness which really distinguishes us from those who inhabited other epochs.
This niceness should not be confused for genuine kindness or goodness. It is, at its root, an obsession with being thought well of, not merely by our peers, but by the entire TV audience. Niceness is a sham; sugar-coated narcissism. What lies behind kindness is genuine caring for the other. The energy behind niceness is somehow cloying, as if you were imploring someone to like you. The former is generous, the latter obsequious. The former comes from strength, the latter from weakness. Where one flourishes, the other cannot. Kindness and niceness are mutually exclusive.
Political correctness is not easy to define. It is the philosophy of emptiness, of stripping society bare of those distinguishing features which made it interesting in the first place. It is neither racist nor sexist - it opposes both forms of discrimination, being in essence both the opposite of discrimination and a form of discrimination in its own right. In the past propriety was determined dogmatically, but under political correctness dogmatic thought is ruled intolerant. Despite this, proponents of the phenomenon tend to be no less zealous in applying it than the dogmatists who preceded them.
And the result of these machinations? A world devoid of colour and expression; a bland world of sameness and conformity: in a word, a world of niceness.
It is the coup de grace on the part of the players who designed the game. Now they can do as they wish and cover their tracks with long speeches dripping with false sentiment. Anyone who speaks out against their schemes is marginalized for being too negative. As our rights are taken from us, and as we are herded about we are completely oblivious to the fact that we are in a gigantic prison, because it is so very, very nice!
Niceness is now universal in our society. Everyone and everything is nice to one another, by way of being nice to themselves. Niceness has come to define us, so that when historians come to write of our era they will speak of us as people who were unfailingly "nice".
No. Instead, I would suggest that it will be our niceness which really distinguishes us from those who inhabited other epochs.
This niceness should not be confused for genuine kindness or goodness. It is, at its root, an obsession with being thought well of, not merely by our peers, but by the entire TV audience. Niceness is a sham; sugar-coated narcissism. What lies behind kindness is genuine caring for the other. The energy behind niceness is somehow cloying, as if you were imploring someone to like you. The former is generous, the latter obsequious. The former comes from strength, the latter from weakness. Where one flourishes, the other cannot. Kindness and niceness are mutually exclusive.
Political correctness is not easy to define. It is the philosophy of emptiness, of stripping society bare of those distinguishing features which made it interesting in the first place. It is neither racist nor sexist - it opposes both forms of discrimination, being in essence both the opposite of discrimination and a form of discrimination in its own right. In the past propriety was determined dogmatically, but under political correctness dogmatic thought is ruled intolerant. Despite this, proponents of the phenomenon tend to be no less zealous in applying it than the dogmatists who preceded them.
And the result of these machinations? A world devoid of colour and expression; a bland world of sameness and conformity: in a word, a world of niceness.
It is the coup de grace on the part of the players who designed the game. Now they can do as they wish and cover their tracks with long speeches dripping with false sentiment. Anyone who speaks out against their schemes is marginalized for being too negative. As our rights are taken from us, and as we are herded about we are completely oblivious to the fact that we are in a gigantic prison, because it is so very, very nice!
About the Author:
John Berling Hardy helps people with easy practical strategies on how to deal with the manipulators they encounter. For more of his writings please visit www.playingtheplayers.com
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