Perhaps the worst enemy of a free people and democracy around the world is the evil dark force we all have come to know as Political correctness. The best way to describe Political correctness might be to compare it to the Pharisees from Jesus day who took the Ten Commandments and created tons of detailed rules and regulations to accompany the Commandments until nobody could keep all the commandments. The Pharisees had gotten to the point that walking too far or lifting just about anything was considered wrong if it was done on the Sabbath day. Pretty much the same thing happened during the very early days of the United States when George Washington got into trouble riding his horse on Sunday for important business. In some places back then, even kissing your wife in public on Sunday could get you put in stockades.
Today it is almost impossible to see America, or other democratic countries, going to the extreme on religious principles as to be at the same point as Ph arisees so many years ago, but instead of God being the excuse given to go to extremes with public policy, Political correctness has taken over.
Recently in the UK, the Boomerang channel has agreed, on the original complaint of only one person, to edit out smoking scenes from Tom and Jerry cartoons. Popeye better watch out; he's probably next. At one point Cartoon Network had practically banned Speedy Gonzales cartoons because he might be offensive to those of Mexican origin, even though in Latin countries, Speedy was one of the most popular cartoon characters.
With this type of mentality, you can see how our hands are tied when it comes to security. We know that terrorism is originating primarily from Middle Eastern countries, so in order to not offend those of Middle Eastern origin, shakedowns at airports have gone as far as to examine 12 year old girls, and even Al Gore was patted down once in order to avoid the appearance of favoritism or racial profiling.
Don't get me wrong, I don't want my kid to smoke, or everyone who looks like they are from the Middle East to be put in jail or harassed, but a little common sense would go a long way. Editing Classic cartoons is just stupid, and whether or not Al Gore is your favorite politician, I really don't think he's going to carry a bomb onto a plane, do you?
Take Classic TV shows like F-Troop, which was recently been released on DVD. It is as family friendly as you can get, but it has been almost nonexistent on TV stations. Even TVLand has only shown a couple of episodes here and there in the last few years. Could it be because American Indians are shown to have a sense of humor? I don't know about you, but just how interesting would Comedy be if only white Americans were allowed to participate in order to avoid any possible offense to a minority? Having watched the F-Troop episodes on DVD myself, I can only say that it's great fun. Everybody falls, everybody does stupid th ings, be they Indian or Calvary. It's Comedy. Comedy isn't supposed to be serious.
Will Bewitched be next? It might be offensive to those who claim to be witches. It's amazing the Dukes of Hazzard has been able to beat the Political correctness net with their confederate flag. Even that ruthless Granny on the Beverly Hillbillies was radical enough to carry a confederate flag in defiance of her uppity neighbor Mrs. Drysdale. Will those scenes have to be edited out? For years censors have tried to keep Bugs Bunny and the gang from shoving anvils and rocks onto the heads of their fellow cartoon characters. Remember how boring some of the cartoons got in the 1970's when nobody could hit anybody? How much better would the Superfriends been if Superman could have actually punched Lex Luthor instead of talking him to death?
Life is too short to be taken too seriously. Perhaps Political correctness does just the opposite of its intent. After all, I think we can all get along a lot better if we learn to Laugh at one another just a little. It's hard to hate someone that makes you smile. So let's watch the F-Troop, Speedy Gonzales, & even Popeye and Laugh again. Just tell your kids not too smoke after the show.
F-Troop at http://www.Tvcrazy.net where you can find out about DVDs, collectibles & trivia for all your favorite Classic Television shows.
Author:: Tim Frady
Keywords:: Comedy, Television, TV, F-Troop, Political, Pharisees, Classic, Laugh
Post by History of the Computer | Computer safety tips
No comments:
Post a Comment