How do you go about giving an age old society a complete makeover? If you were wise and cared about majority opinion you would make your decisions in the same way a planner sets about the layout of public pathways in a country park. The old advice was to do nothing for a while. Just observe the routes people naturally took as they meandered over the landscape. The main preferred tracks soon become apparent, and permanent paths and amenities would be laid down over and around those well trodden areas. A natural and simple process which made the great majority very happy. This kind of procedure  has been happening to us as a society, but not in the natural way mentioned above. In modern times the reverse method has been applied. Since the nineteen nineties governments of whatever party seem to have been of one mind in seeking to impose a new sense of what society should be. The method has been to lay down paths in heavy duty concrete all over areas which have never before been considered; and never in areas any sizeable majorities would have chosen.

A multicultural and multi-faith society became the new idea, and questions as how to best assimilate these changes into a once stable society has never been satisfactorily solved. Consequently change has been underway for sometime, but the paths being laid have not been decided by the general public. They have been laid down by the government and those the government are listening to; and those they are listening to are in my view dangerous; being influenced by highly motivated pressure groups. Stonewall, the LGBT pressure group advises the government on many issues, including the education of our youth. Ofsted has become the muscle enforcing some of Stonewall’s agenda on schools. Many Christian denominations have given way seemingly in anticipation of public censure and state reprimands. Feminists have also gained a huge amount of political traction. Religions other than Christianity have impacted as well, and in ways perhaps not anticipated. These very varied groups with very different agendas are troubling due to the power they seem to exercise over government agencies. You only need to examine the legislation passed by parliament over recent decades. Ethics and moral standards are now in the hands of those, in my view, least qualified to make judgements. Some of them are ideologues. A definition is: an often blindly partisan advocate or adherent of a particular ideology. An ideology is a system of ideas and ideals, especially one which forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy. This includes beliefs, ideas, ideals, principles, creeds, theories. I admit this accusation could, in the past, when it had influence on government, be laid at the door of the Christian Church. Nevertheless sixty years ago this country still welcomed eccentrics, people who bucked the system and challenged convention. That happy state has been closed down. Take care about what you say or do, or else, learn to conform to the new reality. If not, be prepared for a quick lesson in State compliance.

Society has been transformed and it is I think helpful to look at what has happened, is happening and to consider what may come in the near future. The pressure to conform to the new prospectus is increasing year on year. Protest is encouraged on one side and repressed on the other. This process feels like it is planned. It is vicious towards opponents, even unconscious opponents in the sense they may be unaware it is happening until it happens. Coercion is in the air, and the coercive means being used are not difficult to discern once you begin to look for them. A society which has at its root a plan to change the past and usher in a new form of society is something which can never be done other than through covert control of mind and body. This is how dictatorships are formed. Think in unison with the leader’s thoughts or else! We are a society seeking to encourage diversity, equality and acceptance of all, when every instinct in humanity is known to want to gather around those with whom we feel most comfortable. Which is in part why the immigration issue was so influential in the Brexit vote. Political correctness seeks to end hate when hate is often nothing more in reality than a heated expression of judgement against something we find odious or intolerable. What those of a politically correct nature find odious and intolerable and unnatural many other people think of as reasonable, acceptable, good and even holy. The PC agenda is impossible to achieve without creating an extremely sophisticated system to police it, something which is developing apace. Since coercion and indoctrination are becoming part of daily life, isn’t it time to take a look back at what has been lost and into the future to understand what may be coming.

It is well established that behind the facade of every government office and agency down to county, district and local councils and all their employees, there is a vast bureaucracy. This ensures that the minutiae of legislation is fully enacted and that non compliance is ruled out as an option. It is not just the fact of these departments existence, but their empowering of all members of staff to an intimidating and seemingly unchallengeable level of authority. They have been taken through processes of training steeped in politically correct ideals. The doctrines associated with this training are held to be absolute values: challenging them will achieve nothing unless you follow the procedures they have established. Try complaining with any degree of annoyance and you are likely to be quickly closed down, your attitude considered unacceptable and probably documented and remembered. This, regardless of what is often the hard face of officialdom. The lack of flexibility in the systems is one of the reasons people get upset.

I remember very well my only experience of such training: a two hour session, one of a series given to staff at one of Her Majesty’s Prisons. I was involved in an art teaching course and was offered the opportunity to attend these instructive seminars. Staff, even temporary, were paid to attend, so needing money I decided to give it a try. I sat near the back of the room and listened with growing unease. Afterwards I swore, never again. Those attending were to be trained to accept principles dictated by PC procedures and attitudes which ideally should be followed to the letter. A failure in any small regard was not recommended. The whole session emphasised the seriousness of it all. Humour was altogether absent and I came to the conclusion it would be rare for human errors to be considered an excuse for any perceived failure. And that is the truth, there is little sympathy for those who make mistakes. All it needs is a word or two out of place. Here is an example; it hit the headlines and made a point. Do not offend against political correctness.

“Let me tell you about my trouble with girls. Three things happen when they are in the lab. You fall in love with them, they fall in love with you, and when you criticise them, they cry,” he told delegates.”

The story was told by Sir Tim Hunt. This is a man who had been a government adviser. He won the 2001 Nobel prize in physiology for his work on cell division. And yet over a mild joke he was brought down; within 24 hours he had lost his position at University College London. Hunt knew the consequences: he is quoted as saying “I am finished.” His hopes of promoting science in this country and beyond ended. He had become toxic and his connections  to academic institutes were closed down without a chance given to defend himself. The story of his remark went viral through the “hang em high” mobs who use Twitter like kangaroo courts.

A small joke aimed at getting a laugh rather than making a strike at feminism caused a representative section of academia to fold like pastry. Why? Because it could no longer stand on principle. Political Correctness is no laughing matter, it has power and bite and is enforced by a corrupt application of the Law. These incidents can occur to anyone in any kind of work place anywhere at anytime. This is just one demonstration of PC dogmas in action, and how fast they can operate when linked to a very loud, remorseless section of the public. Twitter approval or disapproval carries terrifying weight. In a situation like that of Tim Hunt it acted like a mercenary force, undisciplined and uncaring of the damage it causes. In fact it glories in the damage it can cause. As you will hear, this phenomena is sometimes the decisive factor in decision making, particularly it seems among universities. Students are so alert to any offence, and the heads of universities so concerned by the consequences that they surrender sometimes even before a complaint is made; a perceived threat is sufficient. Twitter encourages mob action and while mobs are useful if cleverly deployed,  managing them has always been difficult, almost an art form. Serving them a constant and varied diet of victims works well and political correctness provides plenty of targets to gnaw at and spew out. This is one area where the real world of good old common sense gradually fades from view to be replaced by the theatre of the absurd.

Can you imagine the process of endless twaddle that went on before this particular set of guidelines was sent out to the appropriate departments.

It concerns the equality and diversity team at Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust. A set of guidelines had been distributed to staff,. The intention was to avoid any legal action by  employees claiming discrimination due to the choice of timing, the venue, and even the catering of  their Christmas events. The briefing suggested choosing a time for the office Christmas party that was suitable for mothers so as to avoid the accusation of sex discrimination. Care should be taken about providing food that would be suitable for guests of all religions. That is just one example among the many that could be chosen. At face value this looks pathetic and small fry, an annoyance like a wasp at a picnic. But something more substantial is being built. If we have as a society become so sensitive that the slightest disturbance to our equilibrium causes uproar, then how are we to cope if something serious happens? Not so long ago we were robust: give and take was the rule, someone has a dig at you, you gave a dig back and we laugh it off. I worked in the Post Office for fourteen years and grew some backbone while there, in the sense that I learned how to take a joke and give it back. It was very rare if anyone took it hard, let alone complained. And the women gave it out just as good as the men. It was to me, at the time of a rather nervous disposition, the most enjoyable working experience I ever encountered and by far the least politically correct. I left the P.O. in 2000.

So how did this humourless, litigious, vengeful spirit arise in a people once so easy going? How were we changed so greatly and in such a short time? I think this remains a mystery. There seemed nothing obvious, it just crept in like a damp draught chilling the entire atmosphere. Laws from the EU, seemingly petty and ridiculous, came to us from across the Channel. These had to be implemented by parliament and obeyed, so we grumbled as the British do and did very little beyond laughing it off and grumbling some more. But we got used to it, and learned to endure while the received absurdities became the new reality. In the famous book Animal Farm the animals, with the exception of the pigs, watched with doe eyed docility as their freedoms disappeared one by one. The old idea of an Englishman’s home being his castle disappeared as it became plain that officialdom had multiple rights of intrusion trumping any individual rights to keep them out. We were introduced to a new mission, to save the planet. Green Taxes were imposed and we became more and more used to doing what we were told for idealistic reasons. Climate change made us think in global terms: fear of global catastrophes were constantly shoved in our face along with the insistent message that we must do something. The imperative to change was in the air. Every breath we take, every move we make should be done with this realisation in mind. Our survival was at stake. Tiny details mattered, household rubbish had to be sorted exactly as prescribed by the local council. We became used to using the blue bag for papers, black bin, green bin, whatever bloody bin and get it all correct or else expect some kind of reprimand from the council. Suddenly our lives, once easygoing and largely free of officialdom, became rule bound. In my view we are being trained like you might a potentially dangerous animal. The danger to the State are those prepared to says things or do things that are disapproved of, free speech needs managing, coercion is becoming the rule.

Watch out, speak out, and refuse to be influenced by the enforcement of decrees from above or by packs of Twitter fed mobs as to what the Truth is; because of one thing you can be certain, the Truth is far removed from the doctrines of Political Correctness. So, are we losing our bearings?  The speaker in the video below speaks of some of the issues raised in the article. He is American and is speaking about American issues, particularly in universities, however exactly the same things are happening in the UK and all across the Western World, from Scandinavia to Australia.