Legendary dance-hall performer, Beenie Man, is in the news this week, having been excised from the Big Day out line-up. Groups and individuals, including Rainbow Youth protested at his inclusion on the bill, because old Beenie Man tunes contain 'homophobic' lyrics. This was further inflamed by an impromptu Facebook group, emerging to condemn the decision. The Facebook group, surprisingly consisted of many people, who did not look like dance-hall fans, or likely to have heard of Beenie Man or dance-hall at all, before this drama erupted .
The furore over these lyrics is old news, he has already given reasons for their misinterpretaion, apologised for any hurt and made a commitment to positivity in Jamaican music. Frankly what he said or his reasons are unimportant to this argument because we are talking about free-speech. The notion of which it seems has become greatly confused with the 'Right to say what you want as long as no-one previously disenfranchised gets upset, and as long as no-one disagrees', which is a far inferior right and frankly not worth having.
What is worrying is the move towards left-wing censorship of ideas, speech, acts that express anything resembling right-wing, intolerant or offensive notions, however deep and wide those notions may go. The idea that a civillised and democratic nation cannot allow certain combinations of 'words', because of their danger to society is both frightening and indicative of a grave insecurity in the concept and the realisation of democracy. Personally I want all ideas, notions and thoughts out in the open, however unpalatable, illogical or apposite to my own views they are. That is how I can learn to understand the issues, the motivations and sometimes the logic of other people who like the rest of humanity are only trying to refine their own instincts and look after 'them and theirs'. That is also how as a society we can deal with issues, through discussion, through debate, through intelligent discourse, not through censorship and definitely not through denial and ignorance.
New Zealand was one of the last western countries to legalise homosexual relations and even then it was opposed by a majority of the public. Homophobia along with racism is alive and well in New Zealand right now, are recalcitrant Jamaican musicians, really the best place to start the fight?
Of course like many of the Facebook group, I too have too much time on my hands at work, allowing me the opportunity to wax philosophical and critique events, as if I had a clue. Maybe this is part of the problem? We have become too used to knowing a little about lots and not much about anything. Now it is so easy, you're at work it's 10am, your friend forwards you some subjective rant about something really facile and PC to side with, animal cruelty, homophobic rappers etc. You are bored and in an effort to dissipate your own frustration at your own life and the world, you start a Facebook group before lunch and lo and behold by hometime, 1000 people have joined it, they've all spewed their guts out about how shocking, appalling, obscene, offensive etc. it all is and you have become an activist and committed leader of a powerful lobby group. Imagine the surprise the next day, when the lobby group gets it's man. No hand printing pamphlets and handing them out on cold Saturday mornings in the high street, no long letter writing campaigns to government, no actual effort beyond a bit of typing and a bit of cut'n'paste from Wikipedia (Cos' you've never heard the songs and wouldn't get the lyrics if you did). In the old days you had to really fight for your cause, pay some dues, walk the talk. Now with modern technology, we can all be activists, and all without leaving our desks, doing our bit to make the world a better place or at least able to dump our crap anywhere in the world but here on anyone but us!
