How sensitive as nation we have become.
It
all seems a million miles from when I was growing up in the same
country. It's as if a script written by the Brothers Grimm had taken
hold of the nation where each move each sentence each thought process is
interrogated by a particular section of the society, sifted, examined
and judged. They pronounce their verdict and a person is damned and
vilified or acclaimed and honoured in a way which would do justice to
the Stasi.
This
filter through which we see others and others see us, is propagated by
the media but whilst we are asked to join in the rules for judging must
have come from somewhere else, some other powerful entity must have been
at work convincing us that these rules of thought and behaviour are a
bedrock for all "civilised people" to live by.
It
doesn't matter if common sense contradicts the rule or if the natural
instinct makes one reject the condemnation or praise, because we have
now this 'cultural manuscript' which defines us in all things. Any dissent is deemed corrosive to the common good and therefore has to be punished.
My
latest reason to pull my hair out (I would be so lucky) is the shrill
pronouncements today aimed at one of the contestants for the Prime
Ministers job, Andrea Leadsom who in a long interview with a newspaper
hack, said she thought that a woman who had had the experience of
raising children was, better placed by the experience than someone who
hasn't had children.
It's
a reasonable statement since the job of bringing up your own kids is
unique in some ways but common to a very large segment of any society
and therefore gives one a shared experience.
The
opposite could also be said, since there is a growing number of woman
who do not want to have children and who feel that having children is
such a commitment that it gets in the way of the opportunity to devote
their time to your own personal journey , demanding so much that the
things they want to do, have to be at best postponed, at worst written
off.
The
argument is particularly a question that only a woman can answer since a
man assumes that most of the things he might like to do with his life
is nor effected by having a family and other than affordability. He can
play the role of being a father without much trouble or hindrance to
his self styled plans.
The
problem arose because the woman inferred in Leadsom's aside to the
reporter was Teresa May who sadly 'can not' have children and therefore
the remark was unsuitable at best and downright crass at worst.
Our language is littered with things we can not say these days for fear of offending.
In
some ways this is a good thing since we would not want to offend
anyone, well at least offend anyone who appears on a long list of
specialised non-offendables. If your not on the list, its 'open
season.
The
people who offend the most, the reporters and columnist who daily
pronounce on subjects which hurt and dismay whole sections of society
are the very ones who are now on their high horse demanding that Leadsom
is not PM material.
It
seems crazy that as a society we are now so led by the nose like
donkey's. That this handful of journalists weald so much power and
influence to persuade. It's as if there was a new religion born and
these people are the 'high priests', holding the book of do's and
don't's on what we can and can't think, an ongoing work in progress as
we are all corralled into an ever tighter fit of politically correct
uniformity.
Heaven help us.
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