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| No Senzayuma Watch |
| 2002-01-16 |
| Andrea points to an MSN article harping on PC office manners. She sez "Guess what? It's not nice to make fun of minorities! Wow. Who knew?" Some things stick in your mind, and others stick in your craw. That article's been in the craw all night and throughout most of the day. I've jumped up and down to try and loosen it, and I had the Little Woman (less than 18 inches tall!) heimlich me a couple times, all with no success. MSN must be a really crummy place to work, a place utterly devoid of humor. If the old senzayuma is what sets man apart from the animals, MSN must be overrun by swine. Think how many jokes you've ever heard in your life that haven't been at someone's expense, drawing a verbal caricature. Pat and Mike? The priest, the minister and the rabbi? Bruce and Lance? Alistaire and Percy? The French army? Abdul and his beloved camel? Cowboy Tom and the sheep? All the hundreds of Clinton jokes? "There were these two hookers, see?" How about Ole and Lena, every Chinese laundry joke ever told, and all those Polish jokes? Tyrone and Tyreene? Horny men? ("'Grewsome, isn't it?' - 'Yes, hasn't it!'") Little Johnny jokes are offensive to foul-mouthed little boys, Little Suzy jokes to promiscuous little girls. Perhaps elephant jokes don't offend a group from one point of view, but let's not be speciesist, or the Animal Liberation Front will burn your house down and PETA will sue you. The really, really awful thing about PC is its utter lack of a senzayuma. The (small L) libertarian cringes at the attempt to control one's very thoughts. Comes the libertarian revolution, after we've shot all the professors of English and sociology and the staff of Salon, everyone will have to take his/her/its/their turn in the barrel of mockery. It is more (small D) democratic for a proud people to be able to offend not only everyone but anyone, with the question of who a person will offend at a given moment being left to tact and good manners. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |