Getting our minds above our belly buttons

There has been some discussion about the dumbing down at the BBC and on television elsewhere. We see more and more programmes that are cheap in content, profitable in that viewers are required th use premium rate phone lines to compete and meretricious in tone. The general media – newspapers and magazines – have concentrated their coverage on what is intrusive, exploitive and sometimes even fabricated. The sort of product established by Hello and OK or what are known in America as check-out magazines. This sort of 'entertainment' has crept into the quality papers from thje red tops. We see competitions where a fabulous 2 week holiday in Barbados is the prize. All one has to do is answer just one question. “Is the holiday on offer for A – 2 weeks, B – 14 days or C – a fortnight”
This dumbing down is insidious. My wife watches some sort of CSI – Wherever each based it seems in any major city throughout the whole of America. If not, it is good Old Norman the master joiner with the workshop bigger than Victoria rail station. If ever our local carpenter is stabbed with one of his own Stanley chisels, she would be a natural for leading the investigation. I try to point out to her the incredible mistakes in these CSI scenario but she fails to see that they have been, in those words now famous, sexed up.
I am convinced that this process is having a detrimental effect upon us all. There was a convicted murderess Myra Hindley. She and her slightly mental partner abducted young children, tortured them to death and then buried them in wild places up on the moors. A later reincarnation of these two was Ian Huntley and his partner Carr. Huntley enticed two young girls into his home and there murdered one during a sexual act and killed the other to stop her screams. Huntley was a serial sex-offender involving young girls who came to police attention many times but was never taken to court. Hindley acted with clear intent of killing. Huntley knew exactly what the outcome had to be the moment he closed the door. His perverts paradise as school caretaker would collapse if either girl left that house alive. Two characters well deserving the death penalty we gave up. The manner of their offences truly horrendous. Scary to the parent of any young child.
Yet, within a very short while, what purported to be Hindley jokes started to appear. The least offensive I will show here involves her being asked if she would like to go out from the prison on a holiday as part of her psychiatric treatment. She replies that it would be nice but she would not want to go to the moors because of 'all them kids getting under her feet'. I am sure a few of you are saying, “Well. What is so offensive about that?” At the time this witticism appeared there was a great furore. The story was repeated when Hindley died. Almost total lack of any response.
Last Christmas we had the Huntley joke. The BBC had already drawn criticism over a programme they sent out. The other Huntly story was the question “Why does Huntley not like Christmas?” The sought after answer was “Because he cannot get the smell of Holly off his fingers”. Holly was the given name of one of his victims. This appeared in a number of blogs, forum, web joke pages and elsewhere. Generally, it met with stern condemnation. I've seen the joke repeated just recently – doubtless part of our run up to Christmas. No reaction from those who were all for banning and punishment just a year ago.
I just wonder what the relationship is between dumbing down and what seems to be our acceptance of what would previously have been the unprintable. It extends to the four letter words. The F-word was hardly ever used when I first mixed with adult men. Now, it is introduced as an advertisement and T-shirts are worn by young girls. The C-word was even less heard. Just loiter at the edge of a road rage exchange and see how they are now assimilated into everyday vocabulary. Very obscene and racist chants are heard at football matches regardless of the presence of young children.
I'm sure I come across as 'Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells'. Yes – well maybe. I'm seeing and hearing things I would prefer not to. My Army years removed any suggestion of prudery. I'm seeing the effect of dumbing down on those around me and general standards of public life. It is as if my wish to see some hot young film star in her bikini comes up as a raddled old prostitute in stained and holed knickers.