Criticism
See also: List of people who have declined a British honourThe order has attracted some criticism for its connection with the idea of the British Empire. Benjamin Zephaniah, a British Jamaican poet, publicly rejected an OBE in 2003 because, he claimed it reminded him of "thousands of years of brutality". He went on to say: "It reminds me of how my foremothers were raped and my forefathers brutalised."
In 2004, a House of Commons Select Committee recommended changing the name of the award to the Order of British Excellence and changing the rank of Commander to Companion, as the former was said to have a "militaristic ring".
A notable person to decline the offer of membership of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire was the author C. S. Lewis (1898–1963), who had been named on the last list of honours by George VI in December 1951 but declined so as to avoid association with any political issues. Another is David Bowie, in 2000.
The members of The Beatles were made MBEs in 1965. John Lennon justified the comparative merits of his investiture by comparing military membership in the order: "Lots of people who complained about us receiving the MBE received theirs for heroism in the war – for killing people… We received ours for entertaining other people. I'd say we deserve ours more." Later, Lennon returned his MBE insignia on 25 November 1969 as part of his ongoing peace protests. Other criticism centres on the claim that many recipients of the Order are being rewarded with honours for simply doing their jobs, they claim that the civil service and judiciary receive far more orders and honours than leaders of other professions.
Chin Peng, long-time leader of the Malayan Communist Party, was appointed an OBE for his share in fighting against the Japanese during World War II, in close cooperation with the British commando Force 136. It was withdrawn by the British government (and became undesirable for Chin Peng himself) when the Communist leader headed his party's guerrilla insurgency against the British in the Malayan Emergency.
Read more about this topic: O.B.E.
Famous quotes containing the word criticism:
“The critic lives at second hand. He writes about. The poem, the novel, or the play must be given to him; criticism exists by the grace of other men’s genius. By virtue of style, criticism can itself become literature. But usually this occurs only when the writer is acting as critic of his own work or as outrider to his own poetics, when the criticism of Coleridge is work in progress or that of T.S. Eliot propaganda.”
—George Steiner (b. 1929)
“People try so hard to believe in leaders now, pitifully hard. But we no sooner get a popular reformer or politician or soldier or writer or philosopher—a Roosevelt, a Tolstoy, a Wood, a Shaw, a Nietzsche, than the cross-currents of criticism wash him away. My Lord, no man can stand prominence these days. It’s the surest path to obscurity. People get sick of hearing the same name over and over.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)
“When you overpay small people you frighten them. They know that their merits or activities entitle them to no such sums as they are receiving. As a result their boss soars out of economic into magic significance. He becomes a source of blessings rather than wages. Criticism is sacrilege, doubt is heresy.”
—Ben Hecht (1893–1964)