Enforcement of political correctness really amounts to the theft of our voices. PC creates a climate of fear that causes a lot of folks to remain silent, or to parrot back the PC line. This in turn feeds the illusion of public opinion approval. The dictators are under the spotlights, center stage, promoting their lies. They are completely invested in their own power, so they use others — behind the curtain — to comply with their agendas. In the process they either squash or co-opt the talents and thoughts of others. Watch this classic clip from the 1952 movie Singing in the Rain to see something of a metaphor for this sort of PC bullying.
The plot centers around the arrival of sound to cinema. A major film star from the silent movie era is slated to play in a studio’s first sound picture. The star, Lina Lamont (played by Jean Hagen) has an abrasive voice., She’s also self-absorbed and abusive to others. But since she’s so popular, the studio arranges for an unknown and talented actress and singer — Kathy, played by Deborah Kerr — to dub Lina’s voice. Lina has been nasty to Kathy and has threatened to sue if the studio gives Kathy any credit.
The scene above takes place just after the Hollywood premiere of the studio’s new “talking picture” and the theater audience wants Lina to sing for them — in person! So Kathy is told to cover for Lina. She sings behind the curtain, humiliated, while Lina lipsynches under the lights. Lina is stealing and using the voice of Kathy in order to promote her own self-serving agenda. In this sense, the scene is very symbolic of political correctness.
Since singing is so connected with expressing what’s in our hearts, the beginning of the scene is disturbing. We see a talented and good person being used and abused as she glorifies an ungrateful and narcissistic prima donna who is lacking in talent. And even though Kathy was singing, her true voice, her identity, was being suppressed. You get the picture. When we can’t identify ourselves and speak truly to what we believe and who we really are, we end up trapped like Kathy.
We put ourselves in darkness, behind the curtain, speaking only at the behest of others who use us — or silence us — to promote their own agendas. The end of the scene is filled with poetic justice. Let it remind us that we ought to help one another come out from behind the curtain — to sing out and speak out in the light with our own true voices. And when it seems we’re all alone? Think of it as singing in the rain.
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