The Pussification of a NationThe other night I was invited to a stand up comedy routine here in Malaysia by a local artist named Jit Murad. I enjoyed the show quite a lot and in fact, standup comedy is one of the things that I sorely miss from the United States in my many years of living over here.
In the past there has not been much standup comedy here, and that is because nine times out of ten, someone is going to be offended and in a country like Malaysia or Singapore, offending the wrong person can quickly result in you being out of business or worse. I'll leave it to you imagination as to what the "worse" can be, but what you can be assured of is that both you life and your livelihood will be destroyed in the process.
Jit Murad is really a funny guy and brave one as well. An equal opportunity offender, he didn't spare anyone with his jokes. He made fun not only of the government, but of the Malays, the Chinese and Indians here. Jit is a Malay and interestingly enough, he received no backlash for his jokes about the other races. You see, Jit might be a Malay, but more importantly he is a Malaysian.
After the performance, I started thinking about how things are changing in the United States, how comedy seems to be changing, almost as if it is coming to the point where very little is funny anymore. How would the standup routines of Richard Pryor or Eddie Murphy be received today?
Comedy in the United States is restricted based on what color your skin is. You see, only black people can make jokes about black people. If a white person attempts to make a joke about black people, he is automatically labeled a racist and more. But it wasn't always like that, years ago
Joe Piscopo poked fun at Stevie Wonder on Saturday Night Live. I can't imagine that happening today.
There was a time when freedom of speech meant just that, you had freedom to say whatever you wanted as long as you didn't endanger the life of someone (Yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theatre). There was no such thing as a "right to not be offended".
Now "being offended" seems to be growing into a big business in the United States, but the day is coming soon when Americans will come to realize that it will be impossible to protect a million special interest groups from being offended.
In many ways, America the self-proclaimed vanguard of freedom of speech seems to be becoming more and more like many authoritative countries such as Malaysia and Singapore with regards to freedom of speech.
It has been said that one never values freedom until they lose it.
Jit Murad and many others can tell you that once you lose the freedom, it is a lot harder to regain it.
My good lman, what you're reading is the mainstream media. There are a great many of the "great unwashed" - in the UK as well as Europe and the U.S. that are seeing what is going on. There is a lot of muttering and dissatisfaction - at the momemt spoken into beers in pub gatherings. Europeans have been de-fanged, but don't think they wouldn't be able to take a stand when the breaking point is reached.
ReplyDeleteAnd as to the U.S., we still have the 2nd Amendment - but more than that, we have the rebellious attitude that is typical.
The reason the islamics are not doing to us what they have the nerve to do in France and Italy with the riots, is that they know very well, Americans will fight back. Especially the "rednecks" in the U.S. South.
Think Gadsden Flag.
Meanwhile, please continue and let us know a little more of what is going on over there. From the "real" world.
Ho, hold on! I didn't mean iman on the previous post. My deep apologies. :) I simply meant to write:
ReplyDelete"My good man."
There was a recent episode of Mind of Mencia in which he all but said verbatim what you are saying. The difference was he could say it, because he's Mexican, where you could not becuase you are caucasian. You aren't the only one realizing this.
ReplyDelete