Friday 30 January 2009

What shall we do with Political Correctness?

It's not often I can use a cartoon from the back-catalogue to so aptly illustrate a piece of current affairs. Especially a piece of current affairs that really pisses me off.
You see, I read today that the charity Bookstart has changed the words to 'What shall we do with the drunken sailor?', eradicating all mention of his lack of sobriety. Yes folks, it's now 'What shall we do with the grumpy pirate?' Whats shall we do with the fucking grumpy pirate indeed...
And this is how it now goes:

What shall we do with the grumpy pirate?
What shall we do with the grumpy pirate?
What shall we do with the grumpy pirate?
Early in the morning
Hooray and up she rises

Hooray and up she rises
Hooray and up she rises
Early in the morning
Do a little jig and make him smile

Do a little jig and make him smile
Do a little jig and make him smile
Early in the morning

Fuck me.

Of course, Bookstart insist that it has nothing to do with political correctness. Whoa there Bookstart! No one was accusing you of that! You mentioned political correctness, not us!
Whatever the reason (and of course it's some ridiculous PC element thats caused it, we're not fucking idiots), it's not right. Why change it? Why? Has this seemingly innocuous nursery rhyme secretly been turning generations of children to booze, churning out alcoholics and drink-soaked adults? Or has it been giving sailors and the proud men and women of the Navy a bad name? Fighting a war with a rifle in one hand and a bottle of rum in the other, shooting wildly at passing seagulls before passing out on deck, is that it?
I could moan on for pages and pages about my hatred of the PC society we live in, but I won't because chances are you feel just as bewildered and incensed as me. Plus I want to go and have a drink. I just posted this to show you what a fucking insane world we live in, and to warn you that there are idiots out there who think changing words in nursery rhymes is perfectly reasonable. Credit crisis, war, famine, poverty, disease, suffering... and some people still decide that its a constructive use of time to sanitize children's classics that should remain untouchable. It drives me insane. What next? 'Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall, Humpty Dumpty carefully climbed back down the wall using a properly braced ladder under the supervision of a health and safety inspector'?

Here's the article. Read it and then feel your blood-pressure soar.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7860869.stm

1 comments:

Christopher said...

I don't really know what to say about that.

The cartoon is awesome.

Political correctness is not.