Doctrines cause more problems than they solve
THIS Easter, supermarket Iceland decided to provide hot cross buns with a tick instead of the traditional symbol.
A hot cross bun is decorated with a cross to represent the crucifixion of Jesus, and is traditionally eaten on Good Friday. Indeed, hot cross buns have been linked to Good Friday for the past 350 years. No doubt, just like holiday trees at Christmas, this was another nonsensical act to prevent upsetting non-Christians.
It seems a day can’t go by without more news of those in authority issuing new laws and guidance to help combat people being offended or getting upset.
Indeed, one of the latest is the decision by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) to uprate the classic 1964 Oscar winning children’s film Mary Poppins from a U to a PG. The reason being, in one scene the character Admiral Boom uses the term ‘Hottentots’. It seems this word refers to the Khoikhoi people of South Africa who were the first native people to come into contact with the Dutch settlers in the mid17th century. As the Dutch took over land for farms, the Khoikhoi were dispossessed, exterminated or enslaved and therefore their numbers dwindled so the word is generally considered offensive.
Me and my children have seen Mary Poppins many times and, no doubt, over the past 60 years many millions of others have too. Until I read about the BBFC decision to change the films rating I’d never heard of Hottentots or the Khoikhoi people and I wager no one else did either. I also don’t think anyone has felt upset or offended after watching Mary Poppins.
Where will we go next? Will butchers be compelled to cover their shop windows to avoid offending vegans? Will there be a banning of poppies and cancelled Remembrance Sunday parades in case they offend pacifists? It’s all getting a little silly and out of hand.
Unfortunately, we now have government departments, town halls, businesses, high street retailers, the NHS, schools and universities, to name but a few, frantically analysing almost every facet of their operations and protocols to ensure they don’t upset or offend anyone. The difficulty is, it flies in the face of human nature. In researching this, it was surprising to find out that there are over six different classifications of human emotions and over 40 different actual emotions. Happiness, love and compassion, for example, have a positive connotation; whereas the likes of anxiety, frustration and suffering a negative one.
Clinicians and social scientists have long acknowledged the importance all human emotions, both positive and negative, play in how we think and behave. The emotions we feel each day can compel us to take action and influence the decisions we make about our lives, both large and small.
When it comes to being healthy we are all regularly told that to keep physically fit requires we endure some pain, stress and discomfort on a regular basis. So, when it comes to keeping mentally fit it is probably important to experience, endure and manage all emotions both positive and negative.
In the news recently it’s been reported that there is a big increase in people suffering from mental health issues. A good contact of mine, Doc Anand, is a retired GP and I asked his thoughts on this subject. He said: “As a medical student since 1966 and working in the NHS since 1978, I’m of the view that overprotecting children hinders their development. We can encourage healthy challenges, overcoming obstacles in sports, mastering a new skill, or navigating friendships to build resilience and confidence.
This equips them to face the complexities of life, not with fear, but with the strength and creativity that comes from navigating real-world experiences.”
Doc Anand is not alone, there are many healthcare professionals who believe attempting to suppress negative thoughts and emotions could backfire and even diminish our sense of contentment. So there we have it; danger, hurt, upset and offence are perfectly natural experiences that ought not to be contained or managed by society or the state.
While largely noble in cause, much of our modern PC-inspired doctrines, are now causing more problems than they solve. Like being trapped in quicksand, the greater the movement, the further one sinks into the mire.
Perhaps it’s time political correctness was deemed a risk to sanity and should now come with a government health warning? It should come with a warning because we need our schools to educate, our NHS to treat the sick, our police to uphold the law, our military to defend the realm, our athletes to win medals and our businesses to compete on an international stage. We can’t do that by holding back and worrying about who may, or may not, get upset by anything we do, say or depict. Pointless political correctness is becoming an institutional canker offering precious little benefit but much detriment to our national psyche.
While we are fussing about trying to create a self-imposed society of comfort-living sybarites in a painfree utopia, the studious people of Asia and other developing nations are simply and diligently getting on with a day’s work – thereby making them more efficient, profitable and attractive to investors.
I do believe that if our industry, economy and society, as a whole, wants to reclaim its industrial and economic heritage we need to be led by fewer students of political correctness and more graduates in common sense.