We are living in a "PC" world.

A while back, I believe it was the day we, at work, went to the TREX show in New York. It was while we were driving there that I was listening to a talk show and the subject was about the phrase "merry christmas". I think some jewish person was taking offense to the idea of people saying merry christmas and that it should be phrased happy holidays. The norm over here stateside is that people already do say happy holidays because god forbid if you were to say happy christmas then that would just cause such an uproar and every corner of society, every pundit with an agenda and every public figure would have their say and tell you how much out of line you were.

Back in the day when Ireland was an indiginous island and not made up of various international immigrants it was fine and ok to slag each other off. Culchies against the dubs and visa versa, it was often just a slagging and at the time it was part of your daily routine. Especially when I came to Dublin to college and I had my fresh culchie Kildare accent and then when I started my first major job in Stereo & Forme and Vinnie would slag me about my KIldare roots, but it was all just good fun and helped those days at work go by easier. Fast forward to present day and living in America and I am only just getting a sense of this country and its underlying ethnic groups and the fact that you have a whole lot of different cultures and different ways of living their lives. These groups dont all appreciate the ways of sarcasm and some take offense and have done down through the years. Some of this offense has been justified and some of it has been taken to a ridiculous level. Nowadays everyone is so afraid to say the wrong thing and there has to be this sensitivity when relating from one group to another.

I firmly believe that we have gone too far and over-indulged the whimperings of the few and that now every little event or statement is held to firm scrutiny and checked for political correctness. Such little scrutiny about the phrase which is used most in this time of year shows us as the human race to be very petty and silly.

Other such examples of PC going too far were displayed in the games between Arsenal FC and Chelsea FC the other week. With the much publicised departure of Ashley Cole to Chelsea during the summer and in such acrimonious circumstances there was going to be demonstrations in the stands by the Arsenal supporters, such as waving fake 20 pound notes with Coles image on them and also inflatable mobile phones, both of which signified Cole's greed for the russian money and also his willingness to contact Chelsea illegally whilst still under contract to Arsenal FC. However in this PC world it was deemed to dangerous to allow fans into the ground with pieces of paper and inflatable objects, surely mass rioting resulting in thousands of paper cuts and damage to the head with the inflatable object would have ensued.

Furthermore it seems that Arsenal FC have taken this PC to a whole new level now banning national flags from the Emirates Stadium after recieving some complaints from what can only be assumed are local fans. Seems like it was a Turk/Cypriot versus Greek/Cypriot argument. Why oh why did Arsenal feel the need to indulge such a silly set of circumstances. PC world gone made. Reminds me of an Aslan song ....sing along with me to the tune of "crazy world".....[how can I protect you in a PC world]... [its all right]. Somebody please tell me it will be all right.