Thought this was quite fitting. No point in being outraged. Just try and understand him (cock that he is). 🙂
Yesterday was not the first time Jeremy Clarkson has chosen to air his unique brand of politically incorrect views in public. It almost certainly won’t be the last.
Despite the anger from well-meaning types over his latest outburst, Clarkson’s fan base will undoubtedly have found it hilarious. His trademark has long been the rejection of thought and sensitivity in favour of boorishness, and his brand, if you wish to call it that, already taps into a ready market of men (and it is mostly men) who feel the same way about the world as he does.
In other words, nothing Clarkson said on Wednesday’s episode of The One Show will be too far outside anything fans of the presenter aren’t already familiar with.
Personally, I’ve always found Clarkson’s rants about ‘political correctness gone mad’ to resemble a grown man tipping his food off the plate because Mummy won’t give him his favourite toy. But then, I quite like political correctness; and women, the disabled and people born in different countries don’t generally upset me or send me into a rage. Nor am I bragging when I say that I don’t feel any particular need to have a phallic symbol in my driveway.
In this respect, railing against Clarkson the individual is almost certainly pointless. Clarkson and his followers represent a more universal frustration – that of the 21st century failed adult male: uncouth, bitter and festooned with the outdated trappings of machismo.
Behind all the boorishness, if you look closely, you can at times glimpse in Clarkson and his disciples something which is actually quite interesting: a deep sense of fear and insecurity in the face of the modern world.
Understanding this is worth more than any amount of ‘outrage’.
