Should we be 'politically correct'?

I posted this in my Human Resource Management module's discussion board:

 

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Came across this passage while I was reading a book called The Big Questions: How Philosophy Can Change Your Life by Lou Marinoff in a cafe -

 

"What's on trial here today is political correctness. Now, political correctness is the idea that assumes that the worst thing we can do is offend somebody. Well, a lot of people were offended when Galileo suggested that the earth was revolving around the sun. A lot of people were offended by Picasso because in his portraits the eyes weren't where they were supposed to be. ... You see, everybody is offended by something. A joke, a TV show, a song, an idea...And offending is very different from hurting...Political correctness tries to protect us from ourselves, but what do we have to give up for it? WE give up our sense of humor, our sense of romance, our sense of play. We give up the courage to be different, to think different. "

 

- Alfred Molina in the TV series Ladies Man

 

The above passage certainly made a very good case that we shouldn't be politically correct, at least most the time. Professor Michael Heng encouraged us to 'SHOOT' and 'KILL' our fellow schoolmates during presentations. Professor Patrick Chan told us to tell the person beside us - "I'm going to EAT you!!!" during last lecture.

 

So, the question is:

 

"Should we really be politically incorrect some of the time? If yes, when?"

 

I mean, look, some of our (ex) opposition leaders had been politically incorrect, and where does it gets them? Does it pay to risk offending somebody, say, in a workplace? 

 

On deeper thought, does the fact that this problem exists reflect a flaw in our education system? By right, the education system should help us cultivate an internal sense of our own moral worthiness. However, most of us were brought up from young in the exact opposite way, restricting our speech and even thought for fear of offending someone. This way we end up rendered (as Singaporeans) somewhat defenseless against and scared of making any "unsanctioned" thoughts or words.

 

I don't know whether what I said made any sense or if it is correct or not. I also don't know the answer to the question in the bigger font. ('I don't know' - most politically correct answer... I hope. Haha! =P) What do you think?

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Hmmm after an incident with a friend recently, I think it will be better to be politically correct most of the time. Ermm... by "most" I mean 99.99% of the time.