The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #140761   Message #4057043
Posted By: Steve Shaw
03-Jun-20 - 06:49 PM
Thread Name: Are racist, but traditional, songs OK?
Subject: RE: Are racist, but traditional, songs OK?
Dave' persistent question as to who should draw the line is very apposite. In democracies where freedom of choice is paramount, if not totally untrammelled freedom of speech (I've never accepted that), policing of the "of-its-time" stuff that we're discussing sits very uncomfortably with the freedoms we enjoy. The policemen are invariably self-appointed, as we see on this thread. Which is not to say that we have freedom without responsibility. But, in order to restrain ourselves as to what this thread should be about, let's just say that those words and those songs are out there, we didn't invent them, and that it's up to us in our modern times to decide what we do with them. That largely has to be on a personal level. Lots of good points have been made here (plus some rubbish ones, but hey, that's debate...). Thank goodness that I play tunes and don't sing songs. But I still won't play Lillibullero, that Orangeman's tune... :-)