A Jolly Rogering
Administrated by the late great George MacDonald Fraser, in his 2002 jihad vs. mainly British politicial correctness in this excerpt “Light’s On At Signpost.” Daily Mail:
… I think little of people who will deny their history because it doesn’t present the picture they would like.
My forebears from the Highlands of Scotland were a fairly primitive, treacherous, blood-thirsty bunch and, as Robert Louis Stevenson once wrote, would have been none the worse for washing. Fine, let them be so depicted, if any film maker feels like it; better that than insulting, inaccurate drivel like Braveheart.
The philosophy of political correctness is now firmly entrenched over here, too, and at its core is a refusal to look the truth squarely in the face, unpalatable as it may be.
Political correctness is about denial, usually in the weasel circumlocutory jargon which distorts and evades and seldom stands up to honest analysis.
It comes in many guises, some of them so effective that the PC can be difficult to detect. The silly euphemisms, apparently harmless, but forever dripping to wear away common sense - the naivete of the phrase “a caring force for the future” on Remembrance poppy trays, which suggests that the army is some kind of peace corps, when in fact its true function is killing.
The continual attempt to soften and sanitise the harsh realities of life in the name of liberalism, in an effort to suppress truths unwelcome to the PC mind; the social engineering which plays down Christianity, demanding equal status for alien religions.
…
They regard themselves as a completely liberated society when in fact they are less free than any generation since the Middle Ages.
Indeed, there may never have been such an enslaved generation, in thrall to hang-ups, taboos, restrictions and oppressions unknown to their ancestors (to say nothing of being neck-deep in debt, thanks to a moneylender’s economy).
We were freer by far 50 years ago - yes, even with conscription, censorship, direction of labour, rationing, and shortages of everything that nowadays is regarded as essential to enjoyment.
We still had liberty beyond modern understanding because we had other freedoms, the really important ones, that are denied to the youth of today.
We could say what we liked; they can’t.
Whole thing here, with his must-read description of the drunken Indian scene from his Lone Ranger script that caused Hollywood to blanche.
My tribute to GMcDF and yours here, with Flashman links
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 12:00 pm on Sunday, January 6, 2008
4 Responses to “A Jolly Rogering”
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January 6th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
Mr. Fraser nailed the state of affairs, God rest his soul.
January 6th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
A wise man who saw the tyranny of political correctness quite clearly.
January 6th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
I often wonder how many are like him. I don’t mean those who would replace the “liberal” oppression of liberty with their own “conservative” version, but those who have looked beyond their PC indoctrination to study history and, within that perspective, understand that this is just a new version of a very old political conundrum–man against men–to be fought, pledging our lives and fortunes.
January 6th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
In America (at least) I believe the rise in (so called) political correctness is intimately tied to the dumbing down of American public education.
Once the secular progressives (geez, what label to use… ?) took control of the educational system and started promulgating their tiny little notions of the universe and inculcating them into students’ heads….we were doomed.
Racism, sexism, sexism, racism , all day long. (Got a chip on your shoulder yet ? If not, we’ll put one there) The ideas that were supposed to be crushed forever with ML King and the Women’s Liberation Movement (whatever) are kept alive and flogged daily in America’s public schools.
Not to mention America’s institutions of (so called) higher education.
I guess it beats actual teaching since, apparently, the teachers now are themselves products of the dumbing down process.
How completely boring.
While the sophistication of the humor of a Fraser, whose Flashman could make everybody laugh because he was so over the top…was also doomed.