Big Brother Bollocks and Racism

Am I going to talk about the parade of Z-list lower order primates that is this year's Celebrity Big Brother? No, after all the hysterical posturing by the hypocrites in the press who are decrying the programme and then conspicuously asking us to read them for more details, I have to admit being unable to be arsed at all.

However, not unconnected to the tide of slurry the media have washed over us about a TV show that well over 80% of the population doesn't even watch, I saw this fantastic article by the the philosopher Julian Baggini in today's Grauniad. If the book this is excerpted from is anywhere near as cogent and honest as this, then it will be most certainly worth reading.

We have to sit back and wonder whether the "multiculturalism" project is working. Perhaps now we have to admit that it is not, and mainly for the reasons Baggini says. Most people do not like to be told what to say or think. Generally, in day-to-day life, people seem to muck along, not thinking of others in terms of the labels that so-called diversity policies encourage. It's only when we have to think in more abstract terms that the labels rear their ugly heads and we stop thinking of people as, well, just people.