Political correctness has an “asphyxiating effect on the creative soul of a society.”
By Bubba Krishnamurti
The fault lines in the hysteria of cancel culture are beginning to be laid bare. Slowly but surely, artists and academics are recognizing the pernicious effects on culture this movement is having. To be sure, it takes a large modicum of bravery to come out against a culture that will visit upon you the very precepts that caused one to come out against it. Singer-songwriter Nick Cave is the latest of these thinkers to come forward and honestly dissect this dangerous group-think movement.
Cave has publicly excoriated cancel culture and political correctness as “bad religion run amuck.” In his latest Red Hand Files newsletter, the Australian artist was asked his opinion of cancel culture and its effects on society. “Political correctness has grown to become the unhappiest religion in the world,” he responded. “Its once honourable attempt to reimagine our society in a more equitable way now embodies all the worst aspects that religion has to offer (and none of the beauty) – moral certainty and self-righteousness shorn even of the capacity for redemption.”
Cave elaborated on how a lack of mercy has inhibited society’s capacity to be “functioning and tolerant.”
“Mercy ultimately acknowledges that we are all imperfect and in doing so allows us the oxygen to breathe — to feel protected within a society, through our mutual fallibility.”
Cave wrote “Without mercy, a society loses its soul, and devours itself.”
“Mercy allows us the ability to engage openly in free-ranging conversation — an expansion of collective discovery toward a common good. If mercy is our guide we have a safety net of mutual consideration, and we can, to quote Oscar Wilde, ‘play gracefully with ideas.’” the somber songwriter continued.
“Yet mercy is not a given,” Cave exclaimed, noting that “It is a value we must nurture and aspire to. Tolerance allows the spirit of enquiry the confidence to roam freely, to make mistakes, to self-correct, to be bold, to dare to doubt and in the process to chance upon new and more advanced ideas. Without mercy society grows inflexible, fearful, vindictive and humourless.”
“As far as I can see, cancel culture is mercy’s antithesis,” Cave urged. Well, duh.
“Political correctness has grown to become the unhappiest religion in the world. Its once honourable attempt to reimagine our society in a more equitable way now embodies all the worst aspects that religion has to offer (and none of the beauty) — moral certainty and self-righteousness shorn even of the capacity for redemption. It has become quite literally, bad religion run amuck.” Cave added.
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