Remember when you were a teenager? Most of your peers knew nothing about music or politics or anything, the majority of them were fuck-wits whom you despised. So when you’re listening to some young person going on about something or other, bear in mind that they are more likely to be one of the many than one of the few.
This may seem self-evident but I’ve noticed a tendency in myself and other people of my age towards identifying with young people and thus imagining that they are talking sense. Parents are particularly prone to this error because they get into the habit of trying to empathise with the insane whims and fancies of their children.
A simple test of whether someone is talking nonsense is to imagine that it is your Dad or Mum talking. You will then subject what they are saying to a proper level of scrutiny.
I need hardly add that you, gentle reader, are clearly one of the few, far exceeding the common herd in judgement and knowledge.
(My thanks to the Macintosh spelling checker which told me that fuck-wit is hyphenated, something I never imagined.)
A funny thing happened at the BBC yesterday. Someone from the Cairo office rang up the Newsnight programme asking them whether the rumours they had heard that Newsnight was going to be showing the controversial Danish cartoons that night were true. Newsnight were surprised, they said no, nobody on the programme had even suggested that they should show the cartoons, they hadn’t even discussed it. Later that day someone from the British Home Office rang to ask the same question, they had heard the rumour from the Foreign Office. Newsnight were even more surprised than before, but they gave the same answer - it wasn’t even on the agenda. Even later in the day the BBC press office rang. Over 700 people had rung the BBC to complain about Newsnight’s intended showing of the cartoons. A well co-ordinated complaining operation organised by foolish people based on nothing at all, rather like the whole controversy.
So what was going on here? Who was spreading this utterly baseless rumour? Was it the BNP? They must be absolutely delighted about this whole affair. For years they have been saying that Islam isn’t compatible with British values, now thousands of Muslims around the world are rallying in the streets echoing that view. Or could it have been Islamic extremists trying to stoke up the row in order to gain tactical advantages over other more liberal Muslims?
Meanwhile in Pakistan at least 27 people were killed today, torn apart by a bomb set off in a religious procession. The people who were killed were Muslim pilgrims. In the rioting that followed the explosion over half the town’s bazaar was destroyed, an unknown number of people were killed, countless more were injured or had their livelihoods destroyed. Was this bomb more objectionable than a picture in a newspaper, or is it just far easier for simple minded people to protest about some imagined insult instead of addressing the many difficult problems that we already have to deal with?
I find the idea of women walking around covered up with a veil offensive, just as I find the idea of traditional marriage offensive. Of course, some of my best friends are married and I have even attended some weddings and celebrated the love that is expressed at them. What offends me is any suggestion that men and women are not equal and interchangeable. When I see someone marking out their role as a woman in that way it makes me feel that they’re diminishing my role as a parent and an equal partner in my relationship. By suggesting that women should have a particular role - looking after the kids, cooking, staying at home, and that men should be out at work I feel that they are, in some way, attacking the lifestyle that I have chosen.
Of course, I love seeing veiled women walking around because I really enjoy the multi-cultural society I am lucky enough to live in. I know that many women who wear veils consider themselves feminists, they just don’t believe that equality means interchangeability. In the same way I don’t see my married friends’ relationships as any less valid than my own, I’m glad if they’re happy. The point I’m making is that just because someone is a liberal you shouldn’t assume they don’t find things offensive, it’s just that they don’t think they should force you to live your life as they do.
Another thing I find offensive is blasphemy, but I find the attempts by some people to apply religious rules to secular societies even more offensive. The recent outcry about cartoons in a Danish newspaper that poked fun at Mohammed is a timely warning of how unreasonable some people are when it comes to religion. It shows what a good thing it is that the government didn’t entirely manage to introduce this week’s changes to the law concerning incitement to religious hatred.
BBC NEWS | World | Europe | French editor fired over cartoons
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