I shall feel no shame in singing "human soul," even though I understand the aesthetic objection. I can answer it with what I am certain people have heard many times, the now common feminist critique of using the masculine noun to convey a universal meaning which encompasses both genders. That critique was rarely if ever heard in 1948. But had they written "Was That a Time?" 25 years later, or had the modern feminist movement arisen 25 earlier, there is a good chance Messers. Lowenfels and Hays would have penned the words "human soul" themselves.

That is pure speculation, of course. What is not speculation is that the use of the terms "PC" and "politically correct" has become our contemporary equivalent of red baiting. One who uses those terms is essentially saying, "I will hang a label on you which will all at once dismiss your argument out of hand, belittle you as an individual, and scare off anyone who would come to your defense."

I do admit, however, that I at one time used terms such as "politically correct," but that was always among leftists, and we used them to describe others on the left, particularly would-be Maoists and other "lefter-than-thou" types. In that context, such terms were more humorous than insulting.

--- Steve