Where Have All The Heroes Gone?

Nothing like a nice little rant to get you back in the saddle. I’m not very happy with my wheels still on sick leave, but I’m going to practise patience today – easier said than done. Anyway. Quite a few things have scared me over the years, but very few things have scared me enough to make me want to run or hide. Being an indie author cruising around the interweb generally makes me pause for thought these days before I weigh in on any subject close to my heart, because most people are afraid to get involved with publicly contentious issues. But a couple of things mean more to me than keeping my face clean, and I’m not afraid of any sort of bully.

Freedom of speech is good. Go and stand under a tree and spew your filth, and see what cretins emerge from beneath their rocks to listen to and adore you. Well done. But hurl your crepuscular self viciously at normal decent human beings, and if I’m in the neighbourhood and eyeball this, I will probably be absolutely incapable of stopping myself from inserting a large boot into your rotten backside. That’s freedom of the boot in my book. Consequences – there should always be consequences.

I have been reading about these people who go on shooting rampages, killing innocent strangers, and then themselves so that they don’t have to face the consequences of their actions. Cowards. They go about their business for years, with people too afraid to step on their toes, or rock the boat. Political correctness more important than human decency, and fear of being seen as a radical weirdo more important than stepping up to do what really is right. Students refusing to read books that could possibly upset them. Trigger alerts for the classics – really!? Higher incidences of mental illness and anxiety related disorders than ever before. Something is very, very wrong. Smack those deviant little tools man. Boot them in their insignificant backsides. Show them that their behaviour is unacceptable. Before they get to their impressive killing rampage.

From a scribblers perspective, I’ve already seen the self appointed political correctness police in action. A writer I knew was once attacked because she had a rape scene in one of her books. Just writing about it apparently condones rape in the eyes of some people. Sorry to say, she actually changed it – she altered her story to make it more politically correct. Bad, bad, bad! We allow weirdoes to say and do what they like because they scare us, and responding to them is always a no no. Mostly I agree with and recommend the ignore troll rule, but sometimes you really should just grow a pair and step into the fray. Some “people” really do need to be shown that their words or deeds are not acceptable to decent human society. I’ve seen so many people freak out at images of animal cruelty, especially on Facebook. I totally get that these are not the sort of things that you want to see – ever – but before blocking and banning the sharer I reckon it might not be a bad idea to take a deep breath, look again, and ask yourself if seeing what is being done hurts more than the thing that you’re seeing being done to whatever person or creature it’s being done to. You don’t have to rage out of your house with guns ablazing to protect the innocent – there are plenty of incredibly brave souls already doing that. But be aware of your world. Know what is happening in it. If you fancy lending your voice to help then do that, but if you’re too scared of repercussions then don’t. It’s a shame though. There is a lot of power when people get together to stop evil. I reckon that we’ve all gone way too far with this fear of getting involved, and fear of having our reputations tarnished by being seen to be supporting a supposedly radical cause. When did it become radical to tell a bully to shut up anyway? When did it become the thing to do to never voice your opinion when you come across someone attacking another? We really need to stop being such craven ninnies.

Call it political correctness, fear of personal disfavour or attack, call it whatever you like, but from what I’ve seen lately it’s all just fear. And as long as we cowardly allow deviants to blossom in public, spreading their hatred and filth to shockingly receptive audiences, they will continue to grow their sick and twisted egos unchecked until they end up doing something just grand in their view. Something that usually ends up with innocents losing their lives.

Kudos to those of you who speak out against evil of any kind – whether done to humans or animals. And bigger kudos to those of you who have the balls to bite back, and send those crappy little zombies tumbling from their stupid little soapboxes of self pity and self entitlement. Just being aware of what goes on in the world can only make you a kinder person, so even if you are too afraid to lend your voice, at least have the courage to not turn your face away. I won’t ever shut up about things I believe in, and I won’t ever feel bad about hurting those who wilfully hurt. Why not? One thing that I learned in Africa is that sometimes you can only quench a fire with a much bigger blaze. Anyway. Back to books now.