a walk on the wild side
Cards on the table, in the naughtiness stakes I make Teresa May appear a bit of a tear-away. Running through a forbidden wheatfield and crushing the corn, at the risk of being rumbled by an irate farmer and made to clean out the pigsty? Jog-on, boys, I’m off home to study for my O’levels. Even though I’ve only just turned ten years of age. Thankfully, I caught up a little in later life being apprehended by the local bobby-on-the-beat for swinging a paraffin road-warning sign around with gay abandon, only to be subsequently released with nothing more than a ‘may the force be with you, son’. I wonder what ever became of gay abandon?
With hindsight I do now consider a level of naughtiness to be the early stirrings of an independent and challenging mind as opposed to the developmental stages of a future serial killer. I should have tried it more often. It can be healthy to test the boundaries, to rail against authority and to say no in a forceful and determined manner. Why, back in the day it was considered almost a good thing for boys to engage in a bit of recreational, low-level violence and aggro. You were expected to stand your ground, though admittedly this was before ASBOs and the threat of a knife to the heart. And tomboys were the girls we all fancied. And feared.
Furthermore, fictional heroes and heroines always break the rules and therein lies their inherent appeal. They take risks, not least social disapproval, live life on the edge, push boundaries and are all the more enviable for it. Roald Dahl knew this and always has such a character in each and every one of his books: Willy Wonka, Matilda, Fantastic Mr Fox, Danny Champion of the World and George with his Marvellous Medicine. Of course, naughtiness can go too far and many boys remain far too naughty as they transcend into a relatively boring and unexciting adult life. Sport appears to be a pretty decent antidote to male naughtiness and the thrill of gladiatorial competition has probably staved-off many a mugging, act of mindless vandalism or shop-lifting escapade.
I suspect the likes of Teresa May and cohort Jacob Rees Mogg would like to stamp out naughtiness entirely but these people have never pushed or tested their own boundaries of behaviour, either through choice or necessity. Consequently, they’ve little understanding of the wider ‘warts & all’ society at large and their over-arching, law-abiding do-goodiness is unrelentingly destructive. Laws may not have been made to be broken but a good bending now and again won’t do them any harm. Even our very own People’s Princess advised future King William to be as naughty as he liked, provided he didn’t get caught! Being naughty is nothing to be ashamed of, if anything it’s a veritable life skill.
