I never knew who he was but today I do. Someone else got mistaken for him (another Guy), they become famous, Guy Kewney also gets strong press coverage. We’re all winners, right?
Maybe not – Guy Kewney has really taken some hard knocks in comments about his blog posting on the subject. I had a big ranting essay prepared which was sympathetic with Guy Kewney, but I hit the wrong button and it was lost (maybe it’s for the better anyway). What my essay boiled down to was that I think Guy hastily posted on his blog, without considering his wording carefully, and some people mis-interpreted this. Once this happened all and sundry jumped on the bandwagon and unleashed their fury.
I then went on to say that I respected Guy for actually standing up and contributing, and that I had little respect for those who with far less tact and thought than Guy had laid into him, with ignorant accusations of racism and disrespect. It’s easy to annonymously take a dig at someone, but I wonder if those same people would be brave enough to make the same comments if their identity was openly available like Guy’s is. I also wonder if these same people actually make a net contribution to the internet with a blog or website.
At this point my rant turned to my own experiences which I related to Guy’s, concluding that political correctness can be used as a screen and taken too far, which can result in more prejudice and also create the ideal diversion for genuinely bad people. I also babbled a bit about consumption and all take but no give and how even though we’re a very consumer-centric society, many people realise and more are realising the need for a natural balance.