ABSTRACT
Political correctness (PC) has emerged as the most widespread form of institutionalized intolerance in American higher education. While PC has become a form of conventional wisdom, an institutionalized pressure to conform to certain patterns of behavior and public expression, its roots lie in the rebellious, anti-authoritarian beliefs and attitudes of the late 1960s. PC has been a product and attribute of what several commentators, including the present one, have called the adversary culture; except for its institutional-policy implications, PC is virtually identical with it. The essence of PC has been the drive to cast all matters of culture and intellect in political terms. A wide variety of cultural, social, and political factors account for the rise and persistence of PC. The highly interdependent relationship between claims of victimization, a morally enriched sense of identity, and institutionalized compensatory benefits have much to do with the phenomenon of PC, and especially the emotional and political forces driving it.
