THE PSUEDO RADICALISM OF CYNCISM
'The quiet despair about anything ever really changing is the single most
lethal threat to British democracy.'[1]
On Saturday evening I started
to watch The Thick of It, which can be amusing, but it irritates me profoundly
to think that people imagine this stuff to be subversive, even ‘left wing.’[2]
Three minutes in, the dialogue goes as follows:-
“I have persuaded Nicola [Leader of the Opposition] to do a tour of the country.”
Underling: “Oh great,
having people tell you they hate you, in different accents.” He proceeds to
imitate a range of British accents intoning, ‘I hate you.’
Now it is probably true
that some of our elected representatives and their advisors despise the
electorate, however if you believe that whoever writes this kind of stuff doesn’t to
some extent share this worldview you are fooling yourself. The Joke works
because you imagine you are on the inside sharing the joke, when in truth it is
you they are laughing at.
This kind of cynicism masquerading
as sophisticated insight is really just a variant of the phoney worldly wisdom
of ‘they’re all the same, in it for themselves, to line their own pockets!’ The
easy ride, the get out clause for the politically pathologically lazy; they’re
all the same, I’m going back to bed. This is the puerile anarchism of adolescence, political
ignorance dressing itself up as a considered position. It reminds me of a 17yr old
informing me that he knew socialism could not work as he had read Animal Farm. Nor is the kind of cynicism peddled by programmes like The Thick of It quite the innocent fun it would have you believe, nor is it as apolitical. Essentially such corrosive cynicism supports the status quo, it is essentially reactionary, breeding a culture of apathy that serves the interest of a ruling elite.
Most important of all politics is not really about the comings and goings of the Westminster village, a sort of Archers for political geeks; it is not restricted to the parameters set by Andrew Neil or Andrew Marr,[3] it is the stuff of life itself, it does not ‘spill out onto the streets,’ it belongs there.
So next time you hear the corrosive sounds of cynicism, the silly clever line about nothing ever changing, pause for a moment and ask whose purpose this serves.
[1] http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/30/miliband-has-got-answers
[2] Whatever that means
anymore.
[3] Why are not people ruder
to the ubiquitous Andrew Marr, a mediocre chat show host who is under the misapprehension
that he possesses wit and depth, when in fact he is in possession of neither?
