- Mon Nov 07, 2016 1:17 pm
#483491
In Daily Mail terms, or even just those of the British right-wing press and media generally, I think there’s a strong case to be argued that the word of the decade is “fetishisation”.
What’s that exactly? I hear you ask. The dictionary definition is thus: “to be excessively or irrationally devoted to (an object, activity, etc.) “.
How does it manifest itself ? Widely, and perniciously. It originates, of course, as an element of the “Daily Mail mindset” (remember the luggage carousel?) and is spread deliberately and relentlessly thoughout its readership.
It is attached to many different things. One of the biggest and most high-profile is of course the military, and specifically those servicemen and women making up the rank and file of our armed forces. Almost without exception, every single man or woman serving in the military is, by simple dint of having enrolled in the service, automatically a “hero”. They in fact stop being men and women, and become, unisexually, “our boys”. For the most part, they can do no wrong. Elderly veteran soldiers are particularly fetishised. The strongest and most virulent vitriol is reserved for any small-time criminal that robs the home of one of these (usually) men, even if, as is often the case, the burglar has no idea whatsoever, and no earthly reason to know, that the source of his swag is a war veteran.
Linked closely to the fetishisation of the military is that of Remembrance. What began as a simple but dignified act of national memorialising of those killed during wartime has become, in the minds of the Mail et al, a deeply unhealthy obsession. Its focus is Remembrance Sunday, when opportunities arise to vilify the leader of the Labour party for his scruffy togs or even failing to incline his head at a sufficiently respectful angle. But long before this, from about the 1st October each year, the small red flower whose paper replicas some people attach to their outer clothing during this period to denote personal support for Remembrance itself becomes a powerful object of fetishisation. A widespread draconian edict comes into force that dictates that no-one appearing on television is permitted not to wear the poppy, and those who breach this edict are vilified as Satan himself. Curiously, Nigel Farage seems to be excused from this edict. In the meantime, variations of the simple paper poppy proliferate. Certain right-wing female politicians in particular are guilty of wearing outsized, sometimes bling-encrusted perma-poppy badges, in an ostentatious show of look-at-me worthiness.
And now, following the referendum and in these Brexit-obsessed times, what’s the latest object of fetishisation ?
You’ve got it. It’s “the will of the people”. An advisory referendum that split the voting population more or less 50/50 has delivered a very narrow majority in favour of ending the UK’s membership of the EU.
Arguably, in fact not really arguably at all, it isn’t “the will of the people” at all, but more “the advice of just 37% of the total UK electorate, many of whom were taken in by lies, deliberate distortion, and racist sentiment”. Focusing on the 52% of the referendum vote that was in favour of leave as “the will of the people” in this way is perhaps the most damaging example of fetishisation yet.
The fetishised “will of the people” is being used to shout down any continuing opposition to leaving the EU, to pressurise politicians, and disgracefully and outrageously, personally to attack members of the judiciary whose job it is to uphold and affirm parliament’s role. Supposedly retired UKIP demagogues are planning mass marches on the Supreme Court and openly threatening mob violence.
And we are about to see the trial commence shortly of a fascist simpleton who allegedly brutally murdered a Member of Parliament on the street in broad daylight at the height of the referendum campaign, who grunted "Death to traitors. Freedom for Britain." at his Magistrates Court appearance.
Fetishisation. It’s what the Mail does.
What’s that exactly? I hear you ask. The dictionary definition is thus: “to be excessively or irrationally devoted to (an object, activity, etc.) “.
How does it manifest itself ? Widely, and perniciously. It originates, of course, as an element of the “Daily Mail mindset” (remember the luggage carousel?) and is spread deliberately and relentlessly thoughout its readership.
It is attached to many different things. One of the biggest and most high-profile is of course the military, and specifically those servicemen and women making up the rank and file of our armed forces. Almost without exception, every single man or woman serving in the military is, by simple dint of having enrolled in the service, automatically a “hero”. They in fact stop being men and women, and become, unisexually, “our boys”. For the most part, they can do no wrong. Elderly veteran soldiers are particularly fetishised. The strongest and most virulent vitriol is reserved for any small-time criminal that robs the home of one of these (usually) men, even if, as is often the case, the burglar has no idea whatsoever, and no earthly reason to know, that the source of his swag is a war veteran.
Linked closely to the fetishisation of the military is that of Remembrance. What began as a simple but dignified act of national memorialising of those killed during wartime has become, in the minds of the Mail et al, a deeply unhealthy obsession. Its focus is Remembrance Sunday, when opportunities arise to vilify the leader of the Labour party for his scruffy togs or even failing to incline his head at a sufficiently respectful angle. But long before this, from about the 1st October each year, the small red flower whose paper replicas some people attach to their outer clothing during this period to denote personal support for Remembrance itself becomes a powerful object of fetishisation. A widespread draconian edict comes into force that dictates that no-one appearing on television is permitted not to wear the poppy, and those who breach this edict are vilified as Satan himself. Curiously, Nigel Farage seems to be excused from this edict. In the meantime, variations of the simple paper poppy proliferate. Certain right-wing female politicians in particular are guilty of wearing outsized, sometimes bling-encrusted perma-poppy badges, in an ostentatious show of look-at-me worthiness.
And now, following the referendum and in these Brexit-obsessed times, what’s the latest object of fetishisation ?
You’ve got it. It’s “the will of the people”. An advisory referendum that split the voting population more or less 50/50 has delivered a very narrow majority in favour of ending the UK’s membership of the EU.
Arguably, in fact not really arguably at all, it isn’t “the will of the people” at all, but more “the advice of just 37% of the total UK electorate, many of whom were taken in by lies, deliberate distortion, and racist sentiment”. Focusing on the 52% of the referendum vote that was in favour of leave as “the will of the people” in this way is perhaps the most damaging example of fetishisation yet.
The fetishised “will of the people” is being used to shout down any continuing opposition to leaving the EU, to pressurise politicians, and disgracefully and outrageously, personally to attack members of the judiciary whose job it is to uphold and affirm parliament’s role. Supposedly retired UKIP demagogues are planning mass marches on the Supreme Court and openly threatening mob violence.
And we are about to see the trial commence shortly of a fascist simpleton who allegedly brutally murdered a Member of Parliament on the street in broad daylight at the height of the referendum campaign, who grunted "Death to traitors. Freedom for Britain." at his Magistrates Court appearance.
Fetishisation. It’s what the Mail does.
"The opportunity to serve our country. That is all we ask." John Smith, Leader of the Labour Party, 10 May 1994.
- By Malcolm Armsteen
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