It used so much easier than it is now, just engage mouth and speak. Whether you put your brain in gear first didn't seem to matter so much, the most likely consequence was that you might make a fool of yourself by showing your ignorance.
Nowadays, to be ignorant is to be offensive, and to be offensive is to commit an offence.
Racial and Religious Hatred Act, Race Relations Act, Anti-Terrorism Crime and Security Act, Sexual Discrimination, Age Discrimination, the Stern Report, "chip and bin", rubbish in the wrong bag, rubbish in the right bag but on the wrong day, EU regulation, the list in endless.
Being well informed in all of the above might go some way to ensuring that you didn't offend anyone, and in turn could mean avoiding committing an offence.
But why stop there?
Why be so selective, why isn't all behaviour that offends an offence?
Failing to say hello when someone says hello to you, not smiling when someone smiles at you, pushing in front of someone in traffic, the supermarket etc., turning down an invitation, buying the wrong present, having a different point of view, smoking in public, obesity; all cause offence depending on your point of view.
So much for diversity, surely one of the things that make us all different is our views, our outlook on life.
I know what I believe in, and I know what my view is on a lot of things, but I don't know what you believe in or what your views are, on this I am ignorant. The only way I would get an idea is if when I offended you we could talk about it, but by then it may be too late.
So how do I avoid my ignorance causing offence and causing an offence? I really don't know.
And that is what is making me blue.
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