Dr. Frank's What's-it

One Step Beyond Here's spiked's

One Step Beyond

Here's spiked's Duleep Alliraja, on the much-discussed attempts to ban competitive "events" at British schools, and the notion that this represents "political correctness gone mad":

The notion that political correctness has gone mad is a strange anthropomorphism. The implication being that political correctness was once a perfectly sane and reasonable chap who only concerned himself with sensible pursuits, such as hounding Nazis and kiddie fiddlers. But then he suffered a breakdown, perhaps triggered by a humiliating sporting experience, and now Mr PC is a twitching, bulgy-eyed loon who has started stalking innocuous targets such as egg-and-spoon races.

But in truth political correctness hasn't so much gone gaga as gone mainstream. The scrapping of competitive sports is the logical consequence of our therapeutic culture that assumes that children are vulnerable creatures whose self-esteem will be irreparably damaged by sporting failure.

I think this is right, but it still seems a bit mad to me. There are, of course, degrees of madness within madness. But the main point is, we need competitive sports so that the guys who can't compete can become alienated, withdraw to their bedrooms, and eventually become rock stars, get the most attractive women, and totally screw up the gene pool. Right?

(via Harry's Place.)

Posted by Dr. Frank at May 25, 2003 10:13 AM | TrackBack