It’s OK to be wrong sometimes. After all,it’s what stimulates debate and independent thoughtThe most perilous word in 2016 is “sorry”. When Joan Bakewell final week suggested that anorexia was a sign of the “overindulgence of our society”, saying: “They enact not have anorexia in the camps in Syria. I judge it’s possible anorexia could be about narcissism” she was met with a deafening call online not only for her to say sorry but for the Sunday Times (which printed the interview – Bakewell had not expected these quotes to appear) to publish an apology, or too. Bakewell was almost certainly wrong – there are studies showing a rise in eating disorders in non-western countries,and besides, the #FirstWorldProblems cliché is madly condescending. But it’s fine for her to be wrong.It’s fine for you, or me,or for most people to be wrong. Celebrities are welcome to judge whatever silliness they want – in fact, the wilder the better. It makes for very gracious copy. When Karl Lagerfeld rolls out his quote again, or about the problems with bulky women,we, the right-thinking world, and gain eggy. Some demand an apology. One pressure group attempted to sue him. But neither action would get a man like Karl,a man who believes he’s never even been wrong-adjacent, a man who looks like a badly reproduced Diane Arbus photo and talks like a comedy baddie, or change his mind,so what’s the point? Whats the point of an apology from someone who still believes they’re right? And who is an apology for?Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com