Response to Review of Beyond Political Correctness

Abstract

Children, Youth and Environments Vol 13, No.2 (2003) ISSN 1546-2250 Response to Review of Beyond Political Correctness Michael S. Cummings University of Colorado at Denver Citation: Cummings, Michael S. “Response to Review of Beyond Political Correctness.” Children, Youth and Environments 13(2), 2003. This review is careful, informed, and fair-minded. I appreciate the opportunity to clarify three points raised by the reviewer. First, I grant that my arguments “may fragment the liberal vote”— indeed, they already have. For instance, whereas some leftist readers have agreed with my criticism of affirmative action's group preferences as arbitrary and divisive, others have taken great umbrage. For the most part, however, I regard the Left as already so hopelessly divided that radical surgery is the only solution. That is, progressives must frankly face and courageously resolve controversies and contradictions they have kept in the closet as politically incorrect, especially on such issues as race, gender, age, family, crime, and political economy. Even with frank discussion, differences will remain; indeed, divergent thought can actually strengthen a political movement for change, but only if diversity is regarded as a valuable resource rather than an unpardonable sin. Second, I had hoped to make clearer that the win-win values I advocate do not depend upon conscious cooperation— or altruistic self-sacrifice— to work their synergistic magic on society. Rather, citizens' pursuit of such values as knowledge, craftsmanship, friendship, family, and simple pleasures of daily living tend to benefit others even when we pursue them for our own well-being. Moreover, friendly competition— whether over the chessboard, on the playing field, or even in business— involves a range of synergistic values that can often trump the bottom line of victory or defeat. Therefore, it is not 181 quite accurate to label my basic values distinction as one of “cooperative” versus “competitive” values. Rather, in advocating Synergism as an alternative to Liberalism and Communitarianism, I am pointing out the pathological costs of overemphasizing entropic, or win-lose, values such as power, status, and wealth, and I am suggesting a practical, synergistic alternative. Finally, the reviewer faults me for failing to credit conservatives with a number of ideas that I appropriate for my own radical purposes, including family values, an ethic of personal responsibility, and the benefits of free markets. A suspicion arose that I may have failed to do so in order to win points with my main audience: progressives who are shooting themselves in the foot with PC. Here I plead guilty. Conservatives have reacted to the book in a variety of approving and disapproving ways, and I grant that had I been more gracious in acknowledging their contributions to my own thinking, I might have won more of them over. On the other hand, a number of leftists who should know better have, nonetheless, faulted me as a closet conservative! Michael S. Cummings received his Ph.D. in political science from Stanford in 1975, founded the Political Science Department at CU-Denver, and for many years served as its chair. A CU President's Teaching Scholar, he teaches political philosophy, political psychology, and American culture and politics. He has written widely in the areas of utopian and communal studies, union democracy, American political thought, and social change. Beyond Political Correctness won an American Political Science Association sectional award as the "Outstanding Book in Transformational Politics" published in 2000 or 2001. He lives with his family in Denver. ...