Lyndon Hood - Eliminuhlator, Lower Hutt
Monday, October 31, 2005
When the Eradicator Becomes the Eradicated
I want to stop flogging him, but he won't lie down.
First up, a correction of my last post: according to Mapp's official press release, the job title is not "Political Correctness Eradication Spokesman" but "Political Correctness Eradicator ". As in, "Roar! Fear me, for I am called the Eradicator!"
It would be an interesting test of anti-PC internal coherence if Mapp were to leave this position and it was handed on to, say, Katherine Rich. If she were not then called the "Political Correctness Eradicatrix", I would be sorely disappointed.
As it happens, though, it's Mapp. This may turn out to be the best thing ever to happen for Political Correctness. I'm reminded of my parents telling me about Patricia Bartlett for the Society for the Protection of Community Standards, or that one maoist guy. Whenever the relevant issue cropped up in the news, they'd be dragged out to say the same thing they always did, and everyone would be all be, like, mocking them derisively.
It might be a windfall for Labour too, if Mapp keeps taking such an all-embracing brief. He'll end up National's Everything Spokesman. Which would be a bit sad, really.
I was hoping Mapp would stick to the party line on the disabled people/human right commission thing - one standard of citizenship. Whether the benefits of those standards are actually accessible to all the actual citizens need not concern able-bodied white folk; no extra assistance just because you're paraplegic or something. He didn't say that in the end.
But I'm not going to have time to go into specifics every time he pipes up, so I won't start now.
Not going on also saves me the trouble of giving qudos to Rodney Hide and Messers Antartic and Adolf from Sir Humphrey's for - while deploring PC in all its forms - admitting the actual appointment in question was pretty dumb. And passing up an obvious opportunity to deliberately miss the point.
Unlike someone else whose contribution to the debate was, rather than addressing the whole Mapp/Brash/Being-a-Dick question, to list some PC things he didn't like. And I've got to say that, if those really are the ten most egregious examples of political correctness internationally, well, the world is not ending. Maybe we should talk, but call off the crusade, huh?
Oh hang on. This is a bit more like it.
I have seen some of that genuine rational discussion of the whole PC thing that I was asking for, too, which is nice. And in order for a debate to start, I suppose someone has to have a challenging point of view.
So it's a bit like the tone Bill English is bringing to treaty issues. Y'know - after the election. Expect Mapp isn't as good at pretending to be reasonable.
New-from-Friday Hood: Suggestions for More 'Innovative' ReshufflingIt's been pointed out to me that Saturday's Dom Post Editorial shares some of my steez. I'm not saying anyone's done a Maxim or anything. Probably just a case of minds thinking alike.
Speaking of Maxim - you need to go read the Fundy Post now.
Update - A caring reader has pointed out that, again and again, I put 'Eliminator' when he is, of course, the 'Eradicator'. I obviously had some subconscious urge to make the job sound fractionally less bizarre. This problem is now fixed.
I want to stop flogging him, but he won't lie down.
First up, a correction of my last post: according to Mapp's official press release, the job title is not "Political Correctness Eradication Spokesman" but "Political Correctness Eradicator ". As in, "Roar! Fear me, for I am called the Eradicator!"
It would be an interesting test of anti-PC internal coherence if Mapp were to leave this position and it was handed on to, say, Katherine Rich. If she were not then called the "Political Correctness Eradicatrix", I would be sorely disappointed.
As it happens, though, it's Mapp. This may turn out to be the best thing ever to happen for Political Correctness. I'm reminded of my parents telling me about Patricia Bartlett for the Society for the Protection of Community Standards, or that one maoist guy. Whenever the relevant issue cropped up in the news, they'd be dragged out to say the same thing they always did, and everyone would be all be, like, mocking them derisively.
It might be a windfall for Labour too, if Mapp keeps taking such an all-embracing brief. He'll end up National's Everything Spokesman. Which would be a bit sad, really.
I was hoping Mapp would stick to the party line on the disabled people/human right commission thing - one standard of citizenship. Whether the benefits of those standards are actually accessible to all the actual citizens need not concern able-bodied white folk; no extra assistance just because you're paraplegic or something. He didn't say that in the end.
But I'm not going to have time to go into specifics every time he pipes up, so I won't start now.
Not going on also saves me the trouble of giving qudos to Rodney Hide and Messers Antartic and Adolf from Sir Humphrey's for - while deploring PC in all its forms - admitting the actual appointment in question was pretty dumb. And passing up an obvious opportunity to deliberately miss the point.
Unlike someone else whose contribution to the debate was, rather than addressing the whole Mapp/Brash/Being-a-Dick question, to list some PC things he didn't like. And I've got to say that, if those really are the ten most egregious examples of political correctness internationally, well, the world is not ending. Maybe we should talk, but call off the crusade, huh?
Oh hang on. This is a bit more like it.
I have seen some of that genuine rational discussion of the whole PC thing that I was asking for, too, which is nice. And in order for a debate to start, I suppose someone has to have a challenging point of view.
So it's a bit like the tone Bill English is bringing to treaty issues. Y'know - after the election. Expect Mapp isn't as good at pretending to be reasonable.
New-from-Friday Hood: Suggestions for More 'Innovative' ReshufflingIt's been pointed out to me that Saturday's Dom Post Editorial shares some of my steez. I'm not saying anyone's done a Maxim or anything. Probably just a case of minds thinking alike.
Speaking of Maxim - you need to go read the Fundy Post now.
Update - A caring reader has pointed out that, again and again, I put 'Eliminator' when he is, of course, the 'Eradicator'. I obviously had some subconscious urge to make the job sound fractionally less bizarre. This problem is now fixed.
