Graffiti is against Political Correctness

Political correctness is a self-imposed gag.

Please allow me to explain: communist China came up with this “marvellous” concept (so that its regime and constant transgressions wouldn’t be openly critiqued) and the whole world adopted it; each individual swallowed it, self-imposing, thus, a gag.

Political correctness is a carnival mask.

People hide behind this mask (whose mouth is beautifully crafted and shut) in order not to say what they really think about “sensitive issues” and what they feel about certain situations.

Picture a party: etiquette commands that 4 subjects are to be avoided (religion, politics, sports and sexual preferences) but there is always someone who breaks the rules and starts denying the holocaust, bashing gays, and saying that black people do not know how to govern themselves. Some of the present guest want to tell this person off; others want to agree with the individual and others want to see the circus set on fire; notwithstanding, under the flag of PC, everybody cowardly shuts their mouth since PC dictates that one is to talk about the weather for the duration of the event. 

PC=hypocrisy.

The fact that the word “political” is part of the concept is proof enough of the veracity of this statement. Politicians are hypocritical: everybody knows that African leaders, in general, are mobsters (it’s even sickening). But what do the politicians do? They lay back and watch their favourite reality show: African women and children being raped; natural resources being controlled by criminal militias; political leaders starving their people to death; political opposition being tortured and murdered; corruption eroding good governance; racism being used as a means of propaganda; religious differences taking its toll and diseases spreading like warms in dung. 

Through this graffiti journey, LS and I have addressed some tough issues that didn’t please many, shocked others and hurt the susceptibilities of some (I once received an email from a former US reader demanding that I’d delete a post or else...).

Some past anti-PC posts: Letter to America; About Satan; Abortion: What about Men’s Rights?; Hookers & Strippers Legal and Moral?; The Genesis of Evil; Drug Legalization;  My biggest disappointment: Africa. 

By rejecting and denouncing PC rules we remain loyal to ourselves, to our values, to our intellect and its produce. 

Another Anti-PC manifest is available chez honourable LS: Here. 

Vanity Fare

Loving oneself is vital if one is to love others; however excessive amour propre is a deviation of character, as loathsome as egocentrism (cousin of narcissism). 

People should practice beauty of character, of spirit; however many focus so much on the otiose side of life that many times they overlook the reason why they were granted the gift of existence (on earth): to embellish the great canvas which is the world, and to put their inner beauty to work in the service of others. 

People who suffer from the Narcissus Syndrome seem such a waste of breath and time. 

The fare for this type of vanity: commiseration. 

There is nothing wrong with being proud of oneself and one’s own accomplishments. However, there are people who take pride in being boastful. Obviously that simple advice “Never boast” is not taken into account and, thus, they gloat to everybody they know, everybody they meet. And with gloat comes exaggeration: suddenly over-estimation is the name of the game (a pie of truth and lies is baked, and it isn’t even tasty). People begin to dislike these individuals; some will even detest and plot against them...yes, that is the consequence, the fare, of this kind of vanity: gradual ostracism.

The cult to futility is the new religion. People seem to enjoy being futile, shallow, empty. Their selfish id produces vain needs, vain wants, vain desires and vain cravings. Their intellect fabricates vain arguments, vain theories, vain opinions and vain goals. Their mouths vomit vain conversations, vain explanations, vain excuses and vain self-commiseration. 

The fare of this sort of vanity is: contempt.  

A vanity (low table with mirror where one sits while dressing or applying make up) can be an interesting piece of furniture, but even this inanimate object can bring to life the worst in people: it all begins when one sits in front of it to take a glance at one’s appearance, retouching it a bit; then one looks deep into its eyes (thus, taking a walk down the memory lane; which brings to surface all the past disappointments and unsettled business) and hence plotting commences; strategising becomes imperative and vain details begin to be brushed off. 

The fare of this fine object of vanity is: getting even.

Are people ready to pay the fair vanity fare? 

Image: Narcissus by Benczur

Public Service

Serving a nation is a privilege.

A country can be served under several forms: civil service, military service, secret services and governance.

So, what should it mean to work in these fields? It should translate into taking pride in knowing that one is personally contributing to the administration, defence, control and development of one’s Patria.

It should not be viewed either as a guaranteed life-long job or as an alternative employment when one fails to find a position in the private sector.

Civil servants are usually rude, taking their frustrations out on the public; they display a total lack of professionalism; they disrespectfully ignore the long lines forming behind the counter (as if tax payers [who contribute to their salaries] had all day to wait for their willingness to serve); they abuse their right to engage in work stoppage (one thing is to defend labour rights, another thing is to constantly go on strike for partisan agendas that serve nothing but a nation’s disruption) and they make sure to let us know that they only care about their pay-check at the end of the month/week.

Militaries and secret services’ agents seem to have lost their focus. How come classified documents end up in the hands of journalists? Where is the internal control? Since when does any soldier and/or agent have the liberty to decide to copy top secret information, hand it to the media; thus, jeopardising National Security? Yes, indeed...military and secret services seem to have lost the ability to properly recruit, organise, allocate and control their soldiers/agents.

Governance: the biggest honour of them all. Yet, corruption and personal agendas seem to be the plat du jour. Political leaders who pretend not to know they were elected to serve the people and not themselves; and do not truly serve the interests of their nation (i.e. education and health care for all, free information, free elections, equal access to opportunities; infrastructures, free market, defence and internal security) should be prosecuted for fraud. But this might never happen, since they make the same laws that protect their unethical, shameful, dishonourable, deceitful, disappointing and disrespectful conduct.

Public servants should show more consideration for those they serve: tax payers.

Image: London - White Hall and Privy Garden of Richmond House by Canaletto

New Children on the Block

Family Politics: a field in utter crisis.

Back in the days a child was polite; it respected its parents, older people, teachers and law enforcement agents. Children knew what was expected of them and being a child was so beautiful and innocent...
But the new children on the block (generally speaking) are rude; disrespectful; they ignore the meaning of “figure of authority”; they are confused about their place in society, and they get to one’s wits.

Kids are rude and disrespectful
Observe the relationship between them and their parents. Their parents tell them to do something, they won’t. Mommy and daddy rebuke them (due to some mischief) they talk back and putrid language may be uttered. Mamma and papa won’t give them money, or the gadget they want, the spoiled brats either roll on the floor crying or insult their guardians. And by consequence, this bad behaviour is then extended to relationships with society at large.

Kids are ignorant of the term “figure of authority”
I don’t know about your country; but in mine (Portugal) there is a growing number of kids who beat their teachers up; who talk back at them; who use cell-phones in class and insult the teacher when he/she tells them to turn them off.
Law enforcement agents are seen as the number one public enemy. And since Rap Music teaches that famous sentence “F*** the Police!”, children find it funny to disrespect police officers and diminish the importance of their task.

Kids are confused and get to one’s wits
They are confused about the meaning of being a child (which is to respect their elderly and authority; to do as they’re told and question it afterwards; not to use foul language etc); and they are under the illusion that a family is a democracy (news: a family is a dictatorship...not a dictatorship of the proletariat [which we loath] but a familial one – although they may have an opinion they cannot be opinionated).
These kids’ behaviour can be so annoying that one feels like doing as the Latin-American and Latin-European do: smack them like no man’s business.

But who should be blamed for this crisis in Family Politics? The parents.
They need to understand that parenting is not friendship. Being a friend does not imply the same level of responsibility that being a parent does: parenting equals to being a Guardian-Angel, of not only a child but also of the future of society.

It’s time to go back to the basics...

Image: Mother and Child by Brocky