Musings on political correctness and Israel

On Sunday morning, I heard an thoroughly offensive and very misogynist song on the radio.

The singer was threatening, explicitly, to murder his girlfriend if she would be with another man. The women was referred to as nothing more than an object, one without a name, only to be disparagingly called "little girl." If caught with another man, the singer declares, that would be the end of her life. More than once the singer declares that he would rather see her dead.

The disk jockey didn't think that there was anything wrong with playing this song. No comment was made about these sickening lyrics.

What was this misogynist, hateful song?

It was "Run for your Life" by the Beatles.

In an age of extreme political correctness - where a person can be forced out of his job because of a donation he gave to an anti-gay marriage group several years previously - how can such a song be played on the radio today? Why is John Lennon's reputation clean when others who have said far less offensive things, not nearly as publicly, been viciously attacked and often lost their jobs and reputations? (A single radio station in Ottawa banned it in the early 1990s. That's it.)

What are the lines for political correctness?

It obviously has nothing to do with the offense itself  - threatening to kill your significant other is certainly no more acceptable than racism is, and if, say, a basketball coach is taped threatening to kill his wife he would likely be fired.

So why is Lennon not vilified? Why is a song threatening murder getting played today?

If we are honest, the reason is because people like the Beatles. When you admire someone, you are willing to let them off the hook. You give them slack, You accept excuses for them (the 1960s were a different time, Lennon really didn't like the song, no one takes it literally....)

People feel they have a special relationship with the Beatles and John Lennon. If a brand new band (outside hip-hop, where misogyny is often considered mandatory) tried to sell such a song today they would be the object of anguished op-eds and boycotts, but people don't want to slam those they already admire.

The people who lose their jobs because of political correctness are often not well known to the public. The first that anyone has heard of them is them crossing the PC line. If they were known ahead of time as human beings, with families that they love and volunteer work they do and charities they support, the damage would be limited.

In other words, a prerequisite to demonizing people is to ensure that they are not seen as three dimensional human beings.

The Israel-haters are obviously not motivated by morality or fair play. They use the same weapons against Israelis that are used against the poor souls who are victimized by the self-righteous PC crowd.

This is why the haters are so incensed when Israel is shown in three dimensions. The bizarre logic behind the "pinkwashing" and other charges is that if Israelis are seen as sympathetic human beings, it is much more difficult for the mud to stick. So whenever Israelis do something admirable it must be silenced, using whatever methods are available.

Context is the enemy. Truth is the enemy. Anything that shows that single-minded demonization of the Jewish state is inaccurate must be blasted and belittled.

The irony, of course, is that the haters are acting exactly the same way bigots and racists have acted throughout history - dehumanizing their enemies - in an attempt to brand Israelis as bigots and racists.

Israelis have a very simple request for those who could be swayed by the haters' arguments: come and visit, speak to them, let them speak on college campuses, get to know them, listen to their side of the story. The haters, naturally, work overtime to ensure that any Israelis who could be seen as human beings be excluded from all discussion - they will do everything possible to silence them (all while they claim that their own freedom of speech is somehow being violated.)

The methods of Israel haters and those of the politically correct crowd are very similar. The way to blunt their effects in both cases is simply to provide context and allow people to see both sides of the story.

And this is what the haters are afraid of most of all.