Political correctness

 Why is society getting more narrow minded and easily offended?

In the age of political correctness,we go to great lengths to avoid being seen offending others.so fat shaming is a big no no,being of darker skin is to be associated with inferiority or being associated with a certain race draws negativity.so we create euphemisms to hide the ugly truths like ahem lately  youve been expanding sideways a lot. Excuse me, I would like to buy a tube of duckky toothpaste and what the heck,typical of XXX to behave like hooligans in a football field.

Ive been viewing an interview on Freedom Fest of the comedian John Cleese.titled Dont censor me,its looking at the war on wokeism or political correctness carried too far stifles creativity n the imagination.

I love the British understated dry humour and ascerbic wit.He nails it for Christ's sake when he replies to the interviewers question why artistes draw inspiration when fueled by performance enhancing drugs or alcohol? So do you use any performance enhancing drugs?  His cryptic poker faced reply "Money" had me guffawing in joy.

Imagine he is a Cambridge trained lawyer who pokes fun at his professional fellowmen when he told a joke about how the American postal system decided to design stamps to honour famous American lawyers but decided to withdraw the sale of the stamps a few weeks later when people couldnt decide which side of the stamp to spit on.

John Cleese is hilarious.He criticized the education systems for stifling creativity when at 15 he wrote an essay on Duration in an exam on why he wasnt given enough time to finish his essay and his teacher didnt see the humour and reprimanded him saying thats not the way to write an essay.so he comments the education system in Japan discourages creativity as it stifles the individual to think for himself or herself or oneself to be politically correct.Of course its not politically correct in age of gender fluidity to identify yourself by your sex so what next,toilets renamed as for dicks or boobs or for Humans only,no animals are allowed,what even animals are classified by gender.nope who the hell is she/ he? Should be replaced by gender n colour neutral " it  ".so next time before you enter the toilet,check if it is male or female or the  new category clueless which is unisex.now thats the politically correct euphemism.

For a society to flourish,freedom of expression and freedom to think is vital.so he says having people of diverse cultures work together is one way to encourage diversity of thoughts as people can bounce ideas off each other and let the imagination run wild.

Looking at the Malaysian hypersensitive and control freak censorship environment,how can the creative industry flourish? The killjoys in the political arena cant differentiate between the humour in satire,sarcasm or irony cause they see things literally out of context.So stand up comedy or laugh fest are stifled by those without a funny bone in their bodies.If you laugh at me,I'll break every bone in your body so dont poke fun at me.its the ability to change that they fear.If one is in state of denial and cant admit the flaws,foibles and weaknesses in ourselves,we are reluctant to change our ways.

In Namewees videos,we get a creative Malaysian who embraces diversity of cultures.his music videos doesnt imitate foreign ideas but celebrate Malaysian idiosyncracy like his latest parody of Katak that uses Mandarin,Malay and Tamil singers and pokes fun at the hopping skills of frogs who switch allegiance to parties that offer them monetary benefits.

My sympathy goes to Salman Rushdie who was stabbed in an assasination attempt as a defender of freedom of expression and ex president of PEN International,an organization dedicated to writers promoting mutual respect for all people and nations and ideals.He will be commemorated in defending that the pen is mightier than the sword.If in the West,we hold debates and forum and agree to disagree but in certain nations freedom to think and express or independent thinking is dangerous as it threatens the power of the status quo of entrenched establishments that dictate how the masses should think.

Looking at John Cleese comedic parody in making the comedy The Life of Brian,he certainly offended the religious right in America from the Jews to the Pentecostals.They protested and criticized the movie but never banned it so Cleese was lucky he didnt get a religious edict ordering for a price for his head as Salman Rushdie did.

The backlash Salman Rushdie provoke is a threat to stifle freedom of expression and thought and the fact he continued writing Midnites Children and won awards for it shows his courage to defy the odds,his refusal to fade into obscurity and be silenced.So read between the lines because that which is censored speaks volumes