Tuesday 24 February 2009

OK, so I'm a bit late with this one...

I read something the other day that really struck a chord with me. I can’t remember where I read it, or who it was that wrote it, but it was a real winner. The basic gist of it was that “offence isn’t given, it’s taken.” It got me thinking how very true that statement actually is, and how well it relates to recent high-profile stories in the press. It also got me thinking, yet again, how a vast number of the general public are complete bloody idiots.

There can be no greater example of late than the whole Jonathan Ross/Russell Brand/Andrew Sachs saga. Now, if you came up to me and said, “Two guys did a prank phone call on someone and swore” I wouldn’t be the least bit interested, let alone offended. Likewise, if someone told me about an incident where a complete stranger had approached another complete stranger and called him an ugly, bulbous scrotum, I would feel entirely indifferent. Strangers insulting strangers really has no bearing on my life.

Does this make me weird? Surely not. So why is it then, that so many people reacted with sheer horror to the whole Ross/Brand/Sachs episode? My bewilderment was only enhanced when I found out that thousands of people who hadn’t even heard the broadcast felt the need to complain. To put it plainly, they didn’t even hear two people they don’t know swear at someone else they don’t know. And they’re up in arms about it! That is a prime example of people TAKING offence to something that really has no effect on their lives at all!

Fair enough, if you’re related to Andrew Sachs or are one of his close friends, you are entitled to feel some grievance towards the folk who badmouthed him. You have BEEN offended. If someone approaches your grandfather and calls him an absolute ruddy-faced shit, you have every right to be offended. But you can’t imagine Bruce, 41, from South Mims will be overly concerned.

So please, I beg of you, general public, please stop taking offence to things that really shouldn’t worry your fleshy, pink brains. I’m not saying I love the Ross/Brand camp and dislike the Sachs camp; I’m merely calling for a return of collective sanity and a touch of perspective.

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