Perhaps I’m becoming something of a dinosaur but as sweary and as fruity in language as I can be, I do have limits and believe in time, place and occasion. And never to be worn as an adornment.
Walking around Kylemore Abbey outside Galway, in Ireland, which houses a school and an active order of Benedictine nuns, and as my wife and I were walking out of the church/cathedral, a yob was walking in, in a black T shirt, with capital letters in white and the word ‘FUCK’ emblazoned there on.
I can’t believe he didn’t know better and probably thought it a big joke and I also can’t believe how he got past security. Didn’t anyone notice?
I missed the then and there photo op but I caught up with him later. My eyes weren’t deceiving me.
To wear such attire is not as many would characterise it, a freedom of speech or freedom of expression issue. That is simply a cop out for not doing anything about it for fear of offending or being seen to be intolerant, judgemental or discriminating.
This is an abuse of those same fundamental rights and privileges afforded by free speech which come with responsibilities and obligations attached.
What we need is less tolerance of this kind of ‘free speech‘ abuse, more judgement and greater discrimination, not less. That is partly at least, what has led us to where we are.
Our standards have dropped because we have become less judgmental and less discriminating and as they say, ‘the standard you walk past is the standard you accept.’
It is about common decency and respect, which in a case of Freudian projection we hear a lot about these days from those on the left who are constantly pushing the envelope to denigrate and diminish those very same cornerstones of a decent society.
The question is, would this person try this when visiting a mosque? We all know the answer to that. Would mosque security allow it? We all know the answer to that too.
The muslims at least have a standard they’re prepared to enforce and defend, we in the West in the name of tolerance, diversity, understanding and inclusion and not giving offence aren’t prepared to enforce and defend our culture, values or beliefs.
Seems to me that many have no idea such values or culture even exist or existed.
This is where postmodernism and cultural Maxism has got us. This is the end result of those years of indoctrination, denigration and dumbing down.
In which we case we are doomed to either the yob rabble or Islam taking over.
It’s a basic and fundamental law of physics that if you create a vacuum, including a values or cultural vacuum, something else will rush to fill it.
To reinforce the point, when I took it up with the fifty something woman selling tickets at the ticket box, who one would have thought because of her age had some connection to the real world, she said “how can I turn someone away because of what they’re wearing?”
My response was that you start by having a code of conduct. A dress standard, a standard that reflects what you‘re about and what you represent just like other venues such as a restaurant or night club or even Disneyland and McDonalds. I suggested that they have it sign-posted where people can see it. You put it on your Facebook page and web site as well as at the front gate so people can’t say they didn’t know.
I found it interesting that she was more more concerned and anxious about dealing with one disrespectful individual but not about the thousands of others that would have similarly taken offence but said nothing.
AND this in deeply catholic Ireland of all places.
The mere fact I had to point all this out to her and that she asked the question about how she should deal with it in the first place, demonstrates just how far we’ve fallen.
I ended up speaking to the supervisor who understood the essence of my complaint and understood that she needed to take action.
A memo to all staff would be a good start.
Here‘s hoping.