Banning laughter and burning books

Guest blog from Asia, Patrick Corfe

Another week passes and Hong Kong citizens rally against the erosion of rights under the Basic Law.

In theory the UK has a duty to ensure their rights are upheld. In practice it is distracted and incapable.

There is the small matter of Brexit. No less astonishing is the UK’s gradual surrender of liberties - free speech, free association and presumption of innocence - we take for granted.

The problem is diversity. This used to be a cause every right-thinking person could believe in, even when it shaded into a form of affirmative action, advancing minorities by numbers or quotas.

For corporates it has been a no-brainer because of today’s more multi-ethnic and multi-cultural workforce.

Outrage as the judge

Yet increasingly diversity has become a catch-all for militant identity politics, a group-think that paints minorities as victims and champions their ‘empowerment’.

At its extreme a desire to avenge history’s wrongs and unfair dominance of any kind seems to be its self-justification.

Conformity to this dogma precludes arguments based on reason because ‘Who are you to judge?’

Two weeks ago the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority, whose job is to ensure ads do not mislead, banned gender stereotyping.

So, mothers with babies, for example, are taboo as that might be considered too nurturing and suggest women are soft.

Earlier this summer London’s Metropolitan Police chief praised someone who recorded a neighbour’s row and alerted the force.

A domestic tiff, you might think. Well, no, even when the one doing the shouting is the next prime minister, it seems every male could be a violent nutter.

You too

These are not isolated examples of people being told what to think or labelled potential criminals for marginal behaviour.

Several high profile names across society have lost their jobs for alleged transgressions, having been condemned in the court of social media.

Many of those affected face the double humiliation of having to apologise and still find employment long before anyone establishes truth and their guilt or innocence.

It is not just men.

Women who fall afoul of the new codes are also targets. Prize-winning author Lionel Shriver (a male pseudonym) has been denounced for challenging ‘cultural appropriation’.

This is the apparent crime of creative encroachment – of writing, acting, impersonating, etc as if belong to another race, gender or group.

Shakespeare managed well enough with Othello, without censure. Shriver points out how ludicrous it would be to write only of one’s own kind (and risk a new charge of chauvinism).

Surely all good art transcends boundaries.

Disability Britain – with apologies

No one seems especially shocked that people can be shouted down for having views that differ from their own. Not millennials. A generation has studied for degrees in subjects that advertise their biases.

Universities use censorship and ‘un-platform’ guest speakers who don’t toe the line. A quarter of young Britons say living in a democracy is a bad way to run a country.

What happened along the way, then, to the famous British tolerance, common sense and the humour that once spawned, say, Fawlty Towers?

Brexit could in part be a backlash from those fed up with being told how to think and feel. The most popular joke at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival was a pun on Tourette’s.

Western multi-national behaviours

Back to companies. If diversity is becoming a loaded concept, could MNCs be caught between doing too little and doing too much?

Some have policies to promote diversity but often these efforts are token. They may be growing more sensitive to reprisals from both sides lest their policies appear unmeritocratic.

According to their annual reports, nearly every large company has settled instead on low level virtue signalling. Rainbow flags and staff engagement surveys are de rigeur.

But companies need to raise their game. A start would be to show that diversity really can work. Studies suggest diverse teams are only effective if you manage them well. That is the hard, unsung part.

At the same time multinationals in Asia need to be sensitive. People here do not look down on traditional gender roles. One’s private life is just that and discretion is valued. And laws may not protect from discrimination.

So push the diversity button too much and you may only get locals’ backs up.

All this when the West is losing the global battle for economic dominance. Sadly, in the UK’s case, it is losing the ability to talk sense as well, and pulling the temple down with it.