Rexamining Individualism
in a world of Collectivism

Do you know what an 'F-bomb' is? I did not know the answer when I first read a recent MSN travel article* (see link below) about a man who was booted off a plane for 'F-bombing'. At first I assumed it referred to a bodily expulsion of gas, but no, it was referring to the word used to describe everything from sexual intercourse to hitting your thumb with a hammer.

It seems that in New York you still have to watch how you express yourself in mixed company, which used to be called 'polite company'. One man did not, and he made a remark about the plane taking a long time to take off, and in so doing, he used that 'F' word.

I had just flown from Stansted Airport in Essex where a loud passenger behind me on the shuttle bus seemed to have a difficult time in forming any sentence that did not include that word. Not only that, but he was addressing a standing room only captive crowd in order to broadcast his views. No one uttered a word of reproach. But then, in the UK, why would they?

Click on a television set in Britain and you will hear every expletive known to human beings, but then you will hear the same thing in shops, on the street, in fact just about everywhere, and this probably includes churches and court rooms under certain conditions. While British television is certainly a transmitter of offensive language, I can't buy time to express my political or religious views on an 'over-the-air' British television station! This is where the British broadcasting system departs from the American broadcasting system, and this is where it matters most.

In the USA there is still a degree of decorum on the airwaves, but anyone is free to express any half-soaked, half-baked, nutty idea on religion or politics, providing they do it within bounds of linguistic decorum. This also means that sensible ideas on religion and politics can also be expressed using the same formula. But not in Britain with its half-elected Parliament, that lacks a written Constitution, and which operates under a secretive Privy Council dominated by a Crown institution employing a (highly paid) welfare family to wave at the subject People.

What America sees in the British Royal Family is a celebrity show which travels around pretending to be representatives of a goofy stage show. It is good entertainment because it is not real. At least it is not real in the USA because in 1776 'The People' of the USA washed their hands of the Kingdom that had just been created in 1707, and reformulated in 1801 when it cobbled Ireland into its realm, and had to reconfigure yet again in the Twentieth Century when it was left with only a rump in the north of Ireland.

It only took from 1776 to 1789 to create the USA as a federal nation under a written Constitution authored by 'The People', but what a difference that document made. Now 'The People' of America can express their religious and political views quite easily, while 'The People' of the British Isles are stifled. Yet as a poor substitute they are allowed to let off steam using vulgarity on television and just about everywhere else. Hopefully this situation won't last that much longer because its crazy patchwork disunited kingdom is becoming unglued at an ever increasing speed.

Hopefully, when Scotland is once again a separate and independent nation, 'The People' will take full control of their sovereignty and create a written Constitution that will provide a blueprint for 'The People' of England to follow suite. It's just a pity that they did not get the message in 1776 or for that matter in 1649, when they jailed 'Freeborn John' Lilburne instead of adopting his proposal for 'An Agreement of the Free People of England'.

Roll on devolution, roll on independence, and roll on the day that the British Royal Family is given a proper job to perform whereby the senior members become co-equals with Mickey and Minnie Mouse. Then we will all laugh at them knowing that the Royal Family is for polite entertainment purposes only, while uncensored political and religious dialogue is given free reign on television sets within the British Isles.

*http://overheadbin.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/06/13/6848841-f-bombs-get-new-york-man-booted-off-plane

June 30, 2011