Over the years, it has become obvious that despite all the stern efforts at mind-control and making us drones behave, there is a gap growing in society. I'd call it a schism but I went to Secondary Modern so I can't spell it, in which case I will stick with a gap which suggests you can close it. Schism is too much like ravine and sounds unbridgeable.
I am not sure it is bridgeable. The gap we have is between levels of thought and attitude and although we may be berated for not having as much unconditional love for other groups and ethnicities as our superiors might like we find it hard to understand what they are thinking. It's a gap that seems to grow every day, one way or another.
Yesterday I read of a man who was arrested, held and had his computer seized because he posted jokes online about Nelson Mandela. I can see this is a sensitive subject: a 95-year old man dies in another part of the world having, some will suggest, once been in jail for reportedly terrorist related offences. The world's media and the great and good leaders go into overdrive and eulogies and praises pour in. For all I know about South Africa such adulation may well be deserved. I know some people say the Rainbow Nation has turned out to be a violent society that hasn't come to terms with its past and thus not found a place in the modern world, but I am merely repeating what is said.
Given that the police may be called if I make a joke about the man's death (and before you reach for the batphone to summon the law, please note that I wouldn't) I won't say a word. But I am troubled that the police have been wrenched away from enforcing Facebook terms and conditions and required to check out some not-very-funny attempts at humour.
I don't really think a lot of jokes about people dying are all that funny. When much younger I used to hear jokes about people going to heaven and challenged at the Pearly Gates (not a sister of Bill, before you ask) but to be honest they weren't funny. Listening to a painfully told tale of why Sherry, Penny and Fanny couldn't get past St Peter were, well, painful. But arrest? Taking of DNA? Seizing of property?
I think this action is a bridge too far, and it will never cross the growing gap.
This poor man's tribulations were the result of someone -- a local councillor who saw the jokes -- calling the police. There I would suggest is the gap I am talking about. A person thinks something is funny when it might not be and another person apparently thinks it is an offence to make jokes about a dead person. The gap is between two people who see the world differently, and increasingly there are sections of us seeing the world differently.
I may (or may not) see South Africa as a shining example of multi-racial harmony and prefer not believe those stories of increasing numbers of murders and rapes in that part of the world. I have never been to SA though I did have a relative who emigrated there and was happy enough behind the high walls and iron gates round his house. I do believe South Africa is a beautiful country and I am sure it will continue to make progress.
However another gap emerges here between those that say something and those who say 'don't say anything.' The gap is between those who think one thing and those who think another, and that bastion of freedom known as speech is duly checked and restricted in order to achieve harmony. We are told our parliamentary system is based on debate where one person (or group) puts forward one view and someone (or some other group) counters it, and from this a general truth emerges. It's an important principle of democracy that with discussion a gap can be bridged. It might prove a rickety old bridge that can't take any weight, but an effort has been made to join two sides.
While I doubt whether this joke-teller and this councillor could have entered into a meaningful debate I do think the gap between their points of view is one of attitude, and this troubles me more. Attitudes are entrenched, despite all the concerted efforts to tell us otherwise. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that the more anyone insists we adjust our attitude the more we dig our heels in our our side of the gap.
Yes, we could exchange views and agree to disagree. Or I could call the police and demand the full weight of law, or at least the threat of it, be applied.
I would therefore suggest that the person who called in the agents of the state has one mindset and it could not tolerate the thoughts of another. A gap then of huge proportions, and it is everywhere we look. We are assailed daily with suggestions or demands or orders to correct our thinking, but there are people who are told to obey and conform and accept that don't see it that way at all.
These people may ask, with some good cause, why we are so hell-bent on trying to make one mind where there are many. The actions of this councillor in calling for police intervention is troubling because we would like our elected councillors to be thoughtful people who can recognise that there are many shades in society.
But this ill-considered action means the gap has grown a little more between different factions. The 'us and them' divide has been increased a tiny bit more. People who thought that balance and fair play and even tolerance suddenly find themselves a bit further away from an opposing and even authoritarian point of view. The thoughts of one has upset the feelings of another, and something must therefore be done using authority and invested power.
For me these gaps are growing, because we increasingly see those of one attitude trying to insist that their view is the only view possible, and any other opinion is forbidden.
There was a time when people might react to poor jokes with the crushing: "Do you know any with funny endings?" But today jokes are deemed political statements with dubious intent and contain thoughts that must be eradicated in order to ignore the gap at our feet.
I have my views, but please don't get me started on why the chicken crossed the gap.
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