Totalitarian states are notorious for taking every aspect of life so seriously that humour, especially satire, is likely to land the exponent in a cell at best, a shallow grave in the woods at worst. While we're nowehere near that stage yet our politically correct nanny state is certainly heading in that direction.
We used to be renowned for our freedom and liberty, which included free speech and humour, especially in the face of adversity. But one symptom of a nation in decline is a collective lack of humour. Dare tell a joke about a woman and a po-faced member of the sisterhood will sit you down for a serious lecture on sexual equality. If you tell a joke about an Englishman, Irishman and Scotsman you'd better make sure the butt of the joke is the Englishman or you'll be up before Trevor Philips' Equality Gestapo. Sadly, with the connivance or totally apathy of the mass of the population, political correctness is relegating us to a third world style banana republic that takes itself far more seriously than it deserves to and rounds on any dissenters.
Yet again Jeremy Clarkson is in the brown stuff for saying, on a popular light entertainment programme, that public sector workers on strike should be shot. No doubt some po-faced Fabian commissar somewhere heard that as incitement to murder and urged his arrest to protect the glorious workers from the evil capitalist lackey. There has been uproar. If he'd taken a gun from his pocket and dashed from the studio towards a nearby picket line screaming "I'm gonna kill myself a picket" then fair enough. But come on, a flippant remark on a bloody television show. Get a grip!
The saddest thing about these politically correct times is the death of humour, replaced by humourlerss polytechnic lecturers masquerading as 'alternative' comedians self-righteously attacking the Daily Mail and anything they see as reactionary, traditional or 'dangerously right wing'. You know, people like Russell Howard and Marcus Brigstocke.
As long as we have people like Clarkson in the public eye I suppose we have half a chance of killing political correctness. So keep up the good work, I might even start watching Top Gear.
2 comments:
Excellent article.
I really am worried about the direction the UK is heading in. The bosses of the big trade unions are the absolute lowest of the low. They pay themselves thousands upon thousands of pounds every year with pay and perks, whilst laughably claiming to represent the 'common man'. These people are so out of touch, which, I believe is why they seem to think they can call for the sacking of Jeremy Clarkson (which ain't going to happen!)
I saw that somewhere in the region of 4,500 people complained to the BBC after watching the One Show. well what about the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, who were watching who DIDN'T complain.
If I had any sympathy for the strikers before Clarkson's comments (and I didn't.....) then it would have evaporated after their Union bosses comments.
Ta. I think the complaints to the BBC were a variation on the old union block vote sytem: "Hello, Unison here, I'd like to complain about Clarkson being humorously angry and I represent 4500 members".
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