Once you can believe that Mr Potato Head is evil for being male, you can believe just about anything including the idea that some people need to be killed.

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A war is going on between the good historical figures and the evil ones. The good ones are losing, badly. The main characters are captured by the evil robots and put in a prison cell. There is only one tiny window. Looking out, one of them relates that he can see the execution of Winnie the Pooh occurring, which comes with the immortal line “he’s refusing the blindfold.”

The absurd surrealism of such an event, the mixing of the ludicrous and the serious, is just about the most British thing you will ever encounter. It manages to be hilarious, ridiculous and philosophical all at the same time, offering a comment on political executions which makes people laugh. It’s improved by the fact that you don’t see it, you only hear a character describe it. Somehow that allows your own mind to picture the absurdity more fully than if you saw it as a separate scene. And it’s beautifully conveyed with a tone of bewilderment and sadness.

We are all currently engaged in a war between good and evil, even if we don’t know it. Perhaps we always are, even when we are the only person in a room. People are always telling us that the problem today is this idea of good and evil, that we should see both sides as radical extremes that are equally to blame for what is happening. Only that is not true. There is only one side that is fixing elections. There is only one side that is getting people sacked for an opinion. There is only one side that through corruption and graft and the ruthless promotion of their ideological fellows has turned every major institution into an agent of their increasingly oppressive rule. My side do not have this power, and in the main are not so corrupt as to use it, even if they did.

This is not to say that there isn’t an extreme on the Right too. I’ve seen it. I’ve argued with it. But I know that it is very small, and very powerless. It does not decide what is on our television screens or what books get printed or what is taught in a school. The other extreme does. If we pretend that they are equally dangerous, we are lying to ourselves. So why do I have these serious thoughts in relation to a comedy show?

It’s because cancel culture and the sickness of Woke ideology often manifests as an obvious absurdity, and yet still calls the shots. It’s because the news that Mr Potato Head was going to be cancelled for his toxic masculinity is inherently absurd, and reminded me of that Red Dwarf execution of Winnie the Pooh. But the absurd and the serious go hand in hand. They are, in essence, the human condition. It is when we believe absurd things seriously that human beings are in the greatest trouble, and pose the greatest danger to everything that is humane.

Once you can believe that Mr Potato Head is evil for being male, you can believe just about anything including the idea that some people need to be killed. It is absurd. And it is serious.

Bartholomew Chiaroscuro March 2 at 11:14 PM

There’s an episode of the British sci-fi comedy series Red Dwarf where the main characters visit a planet that is populated solely by waxwork robots who are designed to resemble and behave like famous historical figures or well loved characters from literature or popular culture. There’s a Gandhi, and a Marilyn Monroe, a Hitler and a Caligula. But there’s also Father Christmas and Winnie the Pooh. A war is going on between the good historical figures and the evil ones. The good ones are losing, badly. The main characters are captured by the evil robots and put in a prison cell. There is only one tiny window. Looking out, one of them relates that he can see the execution of Winnie the Pooh occurring, which comes with the immortal line “he’s refusing the blindfold.” The absurd surrealism of such an event, the mixing of the ludicrous and the serious, is just about the most British thing you will ever encounter. It manages to be hilarious, ridiculous and philosophical all at the same time, offering a comment on political executions which makes people laugh. It’s improved by the fact that you don’t see it, you only hear a character describe it. Somehow that allows your own mind to picture the absurdity more fully than if you saw it as a separate scene. And it’s beautifully conveyed with a tone of bewilderment and sadness. We are all currently engaged in a war between good and evil, even if we don’t know it. Perhaps we always are, even when we are the only person in a room. People are always telling us that the problem today is this idea of good and evil, that we should see both sides as radical extremes that are equally to blame for what is happening. Only that is not true. There is only one side that is fixing elections. There is only one side that is getting people sacked for an opinion. There is only one side that through corruption and graft and the ruthless promotion of their ideological fellows has turned every major institution into an agent of their increasingly oppressive rule. My side do not have this power, and in the main are not so corrupt as to use it, even if they did. This is not to say that there isn’t an extreme on the Right too. I’ve seen it. I’ve argued with it. But I know that it is very small, and very powerless. It does not decide what is on our television screens or what books get printed or what is taught in a school. The other extreme does. If we pretend that they are equally dangerous, we are lying to ourselves. So why do I have these serious thoughts in relation to a comedy show? It’s because cancel culture and the sickness of Woke ideology often manifests as an obvious absurdity, and yet still calls the shots. It’s because the news that Mr Potato Head was going to be cancelled for his toxic masculinity is inherently absurd, and reminded me of that Red Dwarf execution of Winnie the Pooh. But the absurd and the serious go hand in hand. They are, in essence, the human condition. It is when we believe absurd things seriously that human beings are in the greatest trouble, and pose the greatest danger to everything that is humane. Once you can believe that Mr Potato Head is evil for being male, you can believe just about anything including the idea that some people need to be killed. It is absurd. And it is serious. - Bartholomew Chiaroscuro March 2 at 11:14 PM

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