Political Correctness

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Peer pressure is needed. It could be as simple as "if you can't say something nice, don't say anything."  When I went to Boot Camp 1/2 my company was from farm country, the other half from Harlem. We learned to respect each other in that nine weeks.

Unfortunately, in larger groups, that peer pressure (usually as provided by society) tends to look for excuses to lash out at others. And pressure to love is a hell of a lot harder to instill in people than pressure to hate. Case in point: two millennia ago, an itinerant preacher in an obscure corner of the Roman Empire started preaching a message of love, loving your neighbour as yourself and even your enemies. What happened to him? He was executed, specifically in a manner so excruciating the word "excruciating" came into being as a direct analogy for incredibly agonizing experiences. The moment his followers started to gain ground, they were persecuted for 250 years, until the Emperor decided he could use it as an excuse to vanquish his enemies. It grew into the biggest religion on Earth, but people still don't love their neighbours, especially not the followers of this religion built on lovong one's neighbour and even enemies.





You said you were in boot camp, which presumably means the military. Maybe they were getting you to create or modify an in-group (the US military) and an out-group (the enemy).

No, we were getting to know that we weren't the only people on the planet. The plains of Indiana can be mentally desolate. I worked with all kinds of people while I was on active duty, most of whom I would have never encountered in Alexandria, Indiana. (Home of the Bill Gaither Trio if you're into gospel.) My first assignment had me cross-training with a Hawaiian named "Ho", our medic. I had a Filipino learning my job, the engines. We had to get along, or we died.