Doug Casey: A tsunami of political correctness is washing over the entire world. It's not just the US. But it didn't just arise spontaneously in a vacuum.

The first time that I ever heard the term "politically correct" was in a Saturday Night Live skit in the early '80s. At the time, I just thought it was a funny catchphrase. It sounded like a takeoff on the Soviet term "politically unreliable," which was used to describe those who weren't dogmatic communist ideologues. However, it turned out to be an indicator of a much broader trend, one that got underway in the '60s. It started in the universities.

Three generations of people have gone to college since the '60s. In those days, attending college was relatively rare, only around 10% of the youth. It was less than 5% in the previous era. Now it's quite common, with over a third of Americans getting degrees.