Thinking About It Only Makes It Worse Read Online Free PDF Page A

you really think our country is ready for a white first lady?” It went down well at the time but the next day Newt Gingrich seemed unamused: “What De Niro said last night was inexcusable and the president should apologise for him. It was … beyond the pale and he should be ashamed of himself.”
    That’s a tough response. Gingrich reckons that De Niro’s remark is so offensive that he can’t even apologise for it himself. The apology has to come from the head of state. Not even Russell Brand ever went so far that Her Majesty was called upon publicly to atone. So I doubt that De Niro’s half-hearted attempt to say sorry will have quite slaked Newt’s thirst for contrition: “My remarks, although spoken with satirical jest, were not meant to offend or embarrass anyone – especially the first lady,” the actor said.
    Gingrich is attempting a particularly ambitious scam here, but it comes amid a thriving apology extortion racket in public life.Those who wish to silence others have noticed that expressions of offence and demands that people say sorry are the best way of doing it. Once you’ve demanded an apology, you can logically continue to demand it until you receive it. Often those called upon to apologise will do so just to silence the clamour – they can’t match the complainants for bloody-mindedness.
    Not even Jeremy Clarkson can. He’s a man accustomed to causing offence and yet even he said sorry for a remark he made on
The One Show
, purely to silence apology-extortionists’ demands. I say “purely” because, when seen in context – even a
tiny bit
of context – there was nothing offensive about what he said. On the subject of public sector strikers, he spoke the words: “I would take them outside and execute them in front of their families,” but he was clearly not advocating any such thing, or even using it as an off-colour superlative of disapproval. It was a comedic dig at the BBC’s requirement to represent all opinions. I’d be surprised if I agreed with Jeremy Clarkson’s views on the trade union movement, but not as surprised as if I discovered that they were that strikers should be shot. He’s a Tory, not a Nazi.
    But we live in such lamentably literal times that those who understood the joke were shouted down by an alliance of the stupid and the opportunistic – which meant the government called for an apology, and so did the opposition; the BBC gave way and then Clarkson also caved, saying: “If the BBC and I have caused any offence, I’m quite happy to apologise for it alongside them.” Like De Niro, he covered his pride by saying sorry for the offence caused rather than the remark itself – but you can feel the frustration, the shrug: “So we surrender to stupidity, do we?” Freedom of speech is sacrificed at the altar of manufactured rage.
    It reminds me of being made to apologise as a child. I remember a specific occasion when my parents were furious with me for some reason. And I was furious with them. It was a standoff. They were demanding an apology or else, as I recall it, basicallynothing was to be allowed in future: food, sleep, not eating all my food, not immediately going to sleep, going outside, being allowed inside, contact with the cat – all banned. It was a massive campaign of sanctions and I was livid. And so I apologised. And then my mother said: “Say it like you mean it.”
    “But I don’t mean it!” I screamed, trying to reason with her.
    “Well, it doesn’t count if you don’t mean it.”
    This was evil, I immediately felt. They might be able to force me to apologise but surely it was inhuman for them to attempt to make me mean it. It was none of their business what I meant. Was I to be punished for a thought crime? My insincere apology was the best they were going to get.
    What they tried to explain was that such an apology was worthless to them. They wanted me actually to be sorry, not just to say it – to understand that I’d done something