A recent NZ Herald correspondent finished his letter on the Victorian pandemic with “Poor buggers”.
Reading that now acceptable expression, took my memory back to a 1956 Springbok tour test match. It was a huge event in then non-event New Zealand, with the nation listening to the game broadcast on radio in those pre-television days.
Interviewed after the match All Black Peter Jones exclaimed, “I’m absolutely buggered”.
Although it is probably hard to believe, this “outrage” caused a massive furore at the time.
So, can we conclude we’ve progressed to a more liberal age? Sadly, not so, indeed very much the opposite.
For while expressive everyday language is now acceptable, in this age of ultra-sensitivity wokeism in which racism, ageism, sexism etc is the cry when anyone says anything someone disagrees with, the current regimentation of “correct” thinking is unprecedented in the last 100 years.
The complainant culprits are invariably young women who on my observation share the common denominator of extreme ugliness, usually obesity.
My four comic novellas being published in one volume, is currently being printed in Australia.
One of them targets wokeism with no punches pulled. It will enrage the wokists but delight most people, fed up with this new illiberal order gaining so much publicity.
4 Comments
In fact the language liberalization probably adds fuel with these words more in the current vernacular.
Which of your books is targeting woke-ism Sir Robert? I may need to add it to my collection but if the title is any indication of the content then I have already enjoyed it.
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/07/andrew-sullivan-see-you-next-friday.html – Sir Bob, you will probably like this article. The rest of the buggers here might find it a bit of a struggle…
I shall look forward to when the book is available.