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 anada   "Politically Correct                                     #          
 210         Lachrymite"               +###           +###    +####    +###  
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 06                     Lachrymite   #    .#  ## #  #    .#  #   .#  #    .# 
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 2000 .+#################################################################.net

	I've been thinking, and I've been quite an asshole over the years.
 I can't count how many times I may have said something a minority group,
 whether women, a racial minority, or people from a certain economic
 background, may have found offensive.  This was obviously extremely evil
 and heinous of me, and I'd like to turn over a new leaf.  As a matter of
 fact, I think that we should outlaw all words that may offend a minority
 group of some sort.  That way, members of minority social groups won't
 feel held down and oppressed by long standing hate terms.  We won't have
 to worry about someone not reaching their potential, because they won't
 have anyone trying to scar their self-esteem.  It would be a step towards
 a level playing field for everyone.

	You know, while we are on the subject, maybe we should try to make
 everybody happy.  Maybe we should try to not say things that individuals
 will find offensive either.  We should probably outlaw individual insults
 towards people, because those might hurt their self-esteem.  We shouldn't
 have to make them rely on building up any self-esteem of their own, despite
 harsh words; let's not take the chance of limiting their world and possibly
 oppressing them with our ridiculing comments.  I do realize that this may
 be a little extreme, but in the end it's for the betterment of everyone.
 It's best not to take chances and gamble with someone's self image.

	Hey, I just thought of something.  Some people might find me talking
 about certain subjects offensive.  Now, I know I'm not insulting them or
 anything, but what if they've had a traumatic experience related to it? I
 think we should outlaw talking about child molestation, for example, to
 spare the feelings of all those poor people who were sexually abused as
 children.  We don't want to make them re-live that, that would cause even
 more emotional problems for them than they may have already.  We should
 probably outlaw talking about religion, too, because someone of different
 beliefs might get offended.  We don't want to risk ruining anyone's
 potential as a human because of an emotionally scarring experience they
 have to have flashbacks to, flashbacks triggered by a careless thought or
 conversation.  Abusive nuns and religious fasting for days on end, we
 really shouldn't mention any of it around people who may have experienced
 it.  Let's outlaw talking about molestation and religion, that way we don't
 have to worry about offending anyone.

	People generally get upset by death too.  We don't want to upset
 anyone, so let's outlaw talking about the different ways you can die, in
 case someone had a relative or close friend die that way.  It would make
 them upset to be reminded of it, and they might get depressed or morbidly
 obsessed with the death of the loved one.  So let's outlaw talking about
 cancer, heart disease, AIDS, brain aneurisms, and pretty much every other
 medical problem.  Actually, now that I think about it, we should probably
 not let people talk about cars either, because people die in car accidents,
 and guns kill people too, so we shouldn't talk about them either.  Lots of
 people drown, even more than are killed by guns, so let's not talk about
 water.  And what about all of the Jewish people killed in the Holocaust?
 We don't want to risk upsetting anyone of Jewish descent or belief, so
 let's not talking about World War II.

	Hmm.  Phairgirl has this weird hatred of certain words.  I won't
 use any of them, because that might oppress her skills as an editor. She
 might not be able to make sure this file is grammatically correct, if I
 used a word she didn't like hearing or looking at.  We can't have that
 limit her potential as an editor, so let's outlaw the infamous word she
 hates.  I'm afraid I'll have to write it once so everyone knows which word
 is illegal... so cover your eyes, Phairgirl, here goes...

	CREAMY.

	Yes, she completely hates that word.  It makes her cringe.  Let's
 just outlaw it, because it upsets her, and we don't want anyone getting
 upset and potentially having their personal growth as a human being
 limited.

	Finally, we should probably outlaw talking about politics.  It
 causes a lot of arguments, debates, and unhappiness.  Couples break up and
 friends part ways because of intensely held political beliefs.  Politics
 has caused too much war and death, which of course limit human potential.
 We won't have to worry about people picking a political candidate anymore
 or anything, because we're doing a good job running everything for everyone
 anyways, under our rule everybody gets an equal chance to reach their full
 potential.  Now that the people are unable to make any choice contrary to
 the best interests of everyone, everyone will be happy.

	Of course, there are all those pesky writers and musicians and all
 those damned artists and film makers.  But who cares about them?  Now that
 we've outlawed saying anything from child molestation to the word Phairgirl
 hates, they won't have enough material to create anything anyways.  That
 means they'll have to break the law to do so, and then we can just throw
 them in jail for oppressing other people.  No more unhappy artists!

                              *       *       *

	Now, while that's obviously going to extremes, it's by no means an
 unrealistic possibility for the future.  The quickest way to a dictatorship
 is when the people no longer are able to speak.  The fastest way to an
 oppressive government is to destroy an individual's right to have their
 opinion, however controverisal, be known.  It seems to me that most people
 who are crying for the end of oppression from verbal insult really just
 want one thing.  They don't want an end to the oppression.  They want to
 run your life the way they think it should best be run.  That isn't freedom
 from oppression, that's just a tyranny of misplaced goodwill.

	I believe only one person knows how best to run my life; me.  And
 I believe only one person knows how best to runs yours.  You do.  Not Al
 Gore, not George W. Bush, not even Ralph Nader.  None of these people know
 what's really best for you.  Each of them would gladly silence a particular
 voice, whether it be saying nasty things to people, or making "irreverent"
 art.

	That's why I'm voting for Harry Browne.  The Libertarian Party isn't
 out to run your life.  They're out to try to make sure you're allowed to
 run your life as you see fit, and not how Gore or Bush or Nader do.  I
 don't know about you, but that's a lot more appealing to me than being
 forced to live the way someone else wants me to.  So I guess now it becomes
 a question of, do you want aNAda to be inspected by the government every
 release for possibly offensive content?  Neither do I.  Maybe you should
 be voting for Harry Browne, too.

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 anada210 by Lachrymite                                              (c) 2000
 ###################################################################anada.net
