LENIN'S TOMB: Public Stupidity And the Liberal Hack...

Wednesday, March 17, 2004

Public Stupidity And the Liberal Hack... posted by Richard Seymour

Let me steal a brilliant satirical piece from my colleague at Media Lies :

Public stupidity and the liberal hack
Every now and then a writer in the liberal press will become fed up with pandering to the public whim and give their readers a stern re-introduction to the harsh home truths. In connection with the Madrid bombings, Peter Preston (“Admit it, we’re all in the dark”, Guardian 15 March) notes tactfully that

“Joe Public UK (or US) likes to "move on" even before being so instructed by his friendly spin doctors. Give him a quick rat-a-tat fix - Oh yes, it's ETA!; Oh no it's not! - and he can just about cope. Give him uncertainty and inquiry and debate, and the attention span shortens dramatically. Real Madrid, not real Madrid.”

I hope you recognise yourself. The thrust of the article seems to be that, since everyone is as ignorant as Peter Preston about the origin of the massacre, we’d all be better off not talking about it. If there’s one thing the forces of democracy need to win the battle against terrorism, it’s an end to all this chatter about who the terrorists actually are.

Preston’s irritation at our shallow and superficial ways was also in evidence a few weeks ago. On 26 January, he told us why so many people thought Blair had to go. Oh, “Baghdad” was a factor, certainly; but the real reason, the underlying cause, was simply this:

“We're bored ... Eleven years of Frasier, nine years of Friends, five years of the Sopranos, seven years of Blair ... We don't care what a twinkling bloke he is any longer. We've had it up to here with mission visions and rictoid grins. Now please, can we switch channels?” (“When it’s time to call time”, Guardian 26 January)

Sadly, the Guardian is by no means the only victim of its readers’ stupidity. Answering a query about his total silence concerning America’s horrendous relationship with Haiti in a purportedly historical analysis of the latter country, Paul Reynolds of BBC Online was in no doubt as to where the responsibility lay:

“One has to select, edit and choose in the process of trying to keep it tight enough so that people in general will actually read it. Believe me, it is a hard enough ask to get them to do that!” (Email to Philip Challinor, 6 March)

Polly Toynbee, like Peter Preston, is occasionally subject to righteous schoolmissy-fits. On 30 January (“Now Labour must show magnanimity in victory”), she defended the Hutton report against the rowdy barbarity of the sceptics:

“Hutton was right to exonerate a prime minister who had been monstrously traduced, in a casual, flippant way.”

The idea that anyone might have factual evidence to back up their traducings was naturally so contemptible as to be unworthy of mention.

But worse was to come. Those casual, flippant traducers just wouldn’t go away. A week later, Toynbee was forced to point out that the happy cameraderie of Guardian news meetings was being tainted by uncertainty as to

“whether the intricate daily arguments about the war – who knew what, when – have become so arcane that they are leaving even our readers behind” (“Revenge or victory”, Guardian 6 February)

Today Toynbee has returned to this theme of revenge or victory – that “the left” must beware of seeking vengeance on Blair at the expense of the next general election. As in her earlier piece, she waves Michael Howard at us in order to make clear what is at stake:

“Michael Howard and Maurice Saatchi are formidable foes - and formidably nasty.” (“Don’t collaborate with our enemies to tear Blair down”, Guardian 17 March)

The idea that Blair and his cronies are a significant improvement is of course so obvious as to be unworthy of discussion. The goodness of the incumbents is not open to doubt. If Labour is to blame for anything at all, it is the under-publicising of its own good works. Labour has failed to realise that the voters are too myopic and dim-witted to understand the golden blessings that have showered down upon them, so now there is a risk that – for the sake of a few thousand bodies littering the Middle East – we’ll piss it all away.

Horror! Give up our Labour government, which imprisons without trial and charges rent for unearned prison sentences; which has accelerated the privatisation of the NHS and which is headed by a war criminal and a pander to war criminals – give all this up for Michael Howard, who would do it all slightly differently? Perish the thought. Before you go charging out to protest on Saturday, reflect upon the wise words of Toynbee:

“There's much the government could do better. Its messages this second term have been a disaster, even if rolling out the delivery has continued apace. But those who want a Labour government - even if they want a different/better one - need to start appreciating the one they've got instead of collaborating with the enemy to tear it down.” (“Don’t collaborate with our enemies to tear Blair down”, Guardian 17 March)

Is that clear enough? You want a change because you’re bored. You’re bored because you don’t understand. You don’t understand because you’re thick. If you want a change, you’ve got to learn to appreciate the same old thing. If you want an improvement, you’d better be satisfied with what you’ve got. And if you want democracy, do as you’re told.

Fantastic stuff...