{"id":923,"date":"2011-03-02T10:19:58","date_gmt":"2011-03-02T10:19:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aniam.co.uk\/blog\/?p=923"},"modified":"2011-03-15T09:19:25","modified_gmt":"2011-03-15T09:19:25","slug":"thoughtcrime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aniam.co.uk\/blog\/thoughtcrime\/","title":{"rendered":"Thoughtcrime"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I disapprove of this modern trend for sacking people for personal remarks made outside the course of their normal occupation. I am referring, of course, to the sacking of John Galliano by his employer Dior.<\/p>\n

I appreciate Dior’s desire to distance themselves from someone seen to represent them, but the fact remains that Galliano was being a racist prat on his own time and technically that’s not really any of their business. If he’d minced onto the catwalk covered in shiny pink swastikas, then fair enough, but he didn’t.<\/p>\n

I don’t condone Galliano’s views or actions but I will defend his right to say what he thinks, however unpalatable, odious or politically incorrect, on his own time. Very few of us can honestly say that we are absolutely pure of mind. Have you truly never had a slanderous, politically incorrect or downright wicked thought? Or is the crime to express them? We have all said stupid, regrettable things, usually on the spur of the moment or in an outburst of emotion, or as in Galliano’s case, when drunk! Is that now a crime?<\/p>\n

There is also a double standard at work here. Politicians, who represent the wider populace, really have a responsibility to live up to the upstanding public persona they created in order to win our votes. Thus, it is fitting that they lose their jobs when they express views or act in a way that is at odds with what we have been led to believe about them. If I’d known he was a racist\/dishonest\/etc…I’d never have voted for him<\/em>. On the other hand, if they are representing a racist, bigoted minority, then that is fine. I can’t see Nick Griffin getting the sack for the same kind of\u00a0 remarks because we’d expect that kind of thing from him. I voted for him because he represents my bigotry. <\/em>(No, not me ! I didn’t vote for him!)\u00a0 Jeremy Clarkson does rather well out of publicly horrifying the sensibilities of the politically correct, yet dubious off camera remarks made by other presenters are a sackable offence.<\/p>\n

Similarly, footballers, who are supposedly sporting heroes and should be good role models, rarely face any castigation from their employers when caught, as they so frequently are, behaving badly. At worst, they are just given the opportunity to move on and make even more money elsewhere. The reason being, that it matters to their employers more that they are good at their job, than that they are good people.<\/p>\n

Football clubs won’t lose supporters over their players being bad boys, but Dior are getting their knickers in a twist because they could lose money. Also because their even bigger star, Natalie Portman has refused to work with Galliano. It certainly has nothing to do with his ability to design a nice frock. It also begs the question why, if Galliano really is such an awful anti-semite, have they done nothing about it before.\u00a0 I’m pretty sure Dior would have been aware of it by now, given that he’s been there since 1996. So much for the honesty of their moral outrage or indeed their lack of loyalty to someone who has made them good money for 15 years.<\/p>\n

The conclusion we can drawn from this is that if you want to be free to express your views or misbehave on your own time, choose your employer carefully. Personally, I am truly alarmed by the tendency towards a Big Brother view of thoughtcrime and I think that freedom of speech should be just that. These things have a way of finding their own level.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I disapprove of this modern trend for sacking people for personal remarks made outside the course of their normal occupation. I am referring, of course, to the sacking of John Galliano by his employer Dior. 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