Monday 15 August 2005

Hackish Humbug

Our journalists have been clinched by a queer mania that takes the form of a besetting urge to describe morons as “obviously bright”. I gather that so great a gap between description and reality is most likely a function of a perverse ideal of social justice; for almost invariably the moron afforded this hackish approbation is not some lamebrain or braying dolt of the middle or upper classes, but rather some wan-witted lowly rascal from the streets. The latter receives the largesse of our journalists; the former can expect no such charitable misrepresentation.
.....This bug of belying beneficence, that would in vain redress the scales of life, has its other side in miserliness, whereby a well-to-do person of ample wits is characterised as being a bit dim. Accordingly, if we were in madness to overthrow our senses and take the journalists at their words, we would build a picture of Britain in which the lowest quarters abounded with intellectual talent, and above which there was only a steady growth in privileged dimwittedness. False description weighs nothing, however, and serves only to measure the falsifier’s shortcomings.

5 comments:

dearieme said...

But how many journalists are bright enough to form a useful opinion of who is bright, who dim, in the unlikely event of their wanting to report an honest view?

dearieme said...

P.S. your sub-heading contains the word "lytlað": I trust that this is not an allusion to Mr Blunkett's "little lad"?

Deogolwulf said...

On your first comment: I should say very few; or at least what reasonable judgements they would have been able to form, are wrecked by the expediency of calling something that which it is not.

On your second comment: You'll be disappointed, though unsurprised, to learn that your trust is well-placed.

Sam said...

I think that journalists pride themselves on their being able to describe people how they like and our having to take them (literally) at their word.

I imagine it's the only glimmer of satisfaction you could glean out of such a (mostly) parasitic profession.

Deogolwulf said...

Yes, I think they enjoy the power to obfuscate.