Offensesensitivity

If you have read the comic strip 'Bloom County', you might remember this phrase uttered by one of the greatest comic characters ever, Opus the Penguin. It occurs in a Sunday strip from the early 80's if I recall. Since I have been unable to find it on the web without a paying subscription to a comic site, at least without digging a bit deeper, but it is a Friday night and I have other things to do... um, sort of. Anyway, the gist of it is a bunch of people complaining about being offended about various phrases that might be construed as 'sensitive'. In the end, the bemused Opus, amid a bunch of offended people taking offense, Opus simply proclaims in a calm demeanor, 'Offensesensitivity'. Indeed, this strip was printed before the term 'Political Correctness' was even a glint in the eye of the offensible, or for that matter, offensive. When I was nine, I found that funny, now I find it prophetic, ironic, and still funny, but I always found 'Bloom County' to be at times charming, warm, political, prophetic, sensitive and insensitive all at once, and at age nine I thought the art was pretty cool and it had a bunch of cool animals that loved to pretend they were the crew of 'Star Trek'... (photon flippers and such things :)

So, my whimsical example aside, I wonder if we are less or more sensitive than in say, the early part of the 1980's, before the world of political correctness and revisionist Disney history descended upon our not so tranquil world. The current generation probably cannot remember a time without that phrase in their vocabulary. Of course, few of the Internet generation remember a time when computers were rather utilitarian and gaming was the purview of arcades (such places are getting fewer and fewer). Maybe the world needs more penguins with a sense of humor... oh wait, Opus is still around. Some good things do not end after all.

Hmm.. what started as a possible diatribe on how we might be a little too sensitive these days has turned into a flight of whimsy and retrograde naivety... must be the holidays, or maybe another memory of holidays past.

Have a great weekend everyone.

C.