A lot of what used to be funny and acceptable is now racist or sexist or homophobic and not. It’s good we see this.
Sunday, spending time with my partner, watching Blackadder on DVD just to pass the time. The one where he falls in love with ‘Bob’, a pretty girl pretending to be a boy. Blackadder goes to the doctor to be cured of his feelings. He calls the doctor a quack when prescribed a predictable course of leeches. The doctors retorts he’d rather be a quack than a duckie… Old fashioned humours. Pun intended. Watch the video, it’s miles off what would be ok to broadcast now.
Recently even the tame tea time tummy tickler Friends came under criticism, as reported by the Independent, sorry in advance for the state of their website, they are like one of those people who get tattoos and forget to leave room for their face. Apart from with Independent.co.uk it’s all about the adverts. Pop ups are so retro, no>?
Anyway, my point wasn’t to ‘Advert-Shame’ the independent.co.uk website, although someone should. My point is that these instances are indicators of our own, by that I mean societies, changing attitudes. Slavery used to be OK. Now it’s not. Treating women as property used to be OK, now it’s not. At least not in civilised societies. Ooooh, does that mean civilisations that treat women as inferior to men are uncivilised>? Or just differently civilised? Then all are guilty, either historically or currently.
My point, I approach it with caution, is that it’s good we are a changing. Everything else is, including our climate. And for that reason, we should welcome these historical prejudices and cheap shots as reminders of our progress. Who knows. The generation in 50 years from now, a ridiculously long time I know, might look at us with horror. “They actually thought it was OK to let people die because they didn’t have some numbers in a bank account.” “Yeah.. That’s nothing. They actually kept on burning fossil fuels, knowing full well it was posting a letter of Fuck You to us and everyone else coming after them.”
Forgive us. We care not what we do.