DEATH, LIFE AND POLITICS

It’s been a fascinating few days on the international stage, all told. A million people line the streets of London to celebrate a wedding,  a million more line the streets of Rome to celebrate an elevation to sainthood of a dead Pope, and then thousands spontaneously line the streets of Washington to celebrate someone being shot in the head, albeit someone who was considered to be a very bad person, and incidentally, as a side issue, a President who was struggling with his popularity is suddenly very popular indeed.

Ah well, different strokes for different folks I guess.

Mind you, no matter what atrocities the former “Public Enemy No.1” did, you won’t find me celebrating the death of any human being at the hands of another. I can understand why people are so very glad to be rid of him, of course I can, but, from a personal standpoint, I would prefer not to dance on anyone’s grave, no matter who they are or what they’ve done. This, to me, is not how civilisation works, but I find that I’m probably in a minority there. To me these situations are always “lose-lose” no matter how they might seem in the gung-ho atmosphere of the immediate aftermath. So quickly the ‘jokes’ began – quite a few from ‘religious’ people who I thought might value any life more highly - as if it is perfectly acceptable to mock the death of one of our fellow human beings if we think enough people will share the ‘joke’. The problem is that there really is nothing to laugh about in any part of the long history of this wretched tale, the whole business has been brutal and unpleasant all the way through and I genuinely hope that this marks an end to the affair, but I very much doubt it.

Because, no matter how wicked certain people might appear to be to our point of view, such incidents are still always a personal tragedy for someone, no matter how much we may trumpet the idea of a ‘greater good’. Someone, somewhere will still be crying over a loss and brewing up their own bitter resentment about what happened, and you’d also have to be hopelessly naïve not to believe that somebody else isn’t going to step into the breach or the power vacuum pretty quickly. Meanwhile others will start to doubt the veracity of these events, turn a battered building into a shrine, or use the whole incident as a stick to beat those they perceive as being their oppressors with.

Maybe lives have been saved, or maybe they haven’t. Maybe things will get better, or maybe they might get worse. Maybe such terrible retribution will prove a point that you don’t and shouldn’t mess with one particular way of life, but I doubt it. Maybe the souls of those he killed or caused to be killed will look down and feel thankful, but I doubt that too. Maybe some families will get some kind of peaceful resolution to their pain, although violence breeding violence and leading to yet more violence would hardly give me the rest and comfort I would need.

Putting all these things aside, the truth is that I can only now sit here fully expecting an eventual backlash so dreadful that we can barely imagine it. As a society, we wear a grin and sit in our smug little ivory towers (or glass houses) at our own peril and we will probably pay a very high price for any appearance of arrogance or smugness at these events.

I suppose that I’ve always been what might be considered to be a ‘wet liberal’ at heart. I truly can never find it in my heart to support state sanctioned execution no matter how bad the crime. I even struggle with decisions about the continued incarceration of certain notorious killers being made for me by the state, supposedly in my best interests and with my tacit agreement. These things are done in my name because I am a member of this society and that is how our society chooses to organise things; by having our representatives stand in government to do our bidding. At least that is the theory. However, I can never quite convince myself that putting blood on my hands – because ultimately that is what is happening no matter how it gets dressed up - is the best way to deal with those who have blood on theirs. I’m probably wrong. I frequently am, but I suppose that I was brought up to believe that two wrongs never make a right and, ultimately, state execution is being carried out in my name because, as a member of the electorate it is tacitly understood that I agree with those actions committed by the state and supposedly executed with the blessing of people like me. That is understood to be the contract I marked with my “X” on polling day and, if I don’t like it, in a democracy I am free to complain about it if I feel it would make any real difference.

This is always a tricky one, really. One little “X” in a box every four or five years does not mean that I am in favour of everything my country’s government does, but they tend to assume that I do. My voting slip never actually has an option to state that I broadly agree with much of a party’s philosophy but I have serious issues with your position on this or this or this. Actually, over the years I have found little bits to like in most party manifestoes, but an all-or-nothing option doesn’t give you that choice. My argument was always that the election should be the beginning of the debate and it should never be assumed that the governing party or parties now has a mandate to do everything in their manifesto without anyone questioning it.

Ah well, I suppose on the bright side it did get the grinning toffs off our front pages a lot earlier than otherwise might have been the case. Choosing not to watch the Royal Splicing does not make me any kind of republican, by the way. In a lot of ways I’m a very traditional kind of a chap and I’m quite happy for the monarchy to quietly get on with keeping this country’s democratic processes nice and stable. The problem is that I’d rather the media didn’t make such a big song and dance about it, especially with the endless mindless speculation and gushing sycophantic nonsense. On a more personal level, I even struggle to find my own little ways to enjoy the weddings of people I’ve actually met and like, so I was never going to take much of an interest in the marital doings of the great and the good who I have very little personal dealings with and am never really likely to. Still it seems to have made a fair few people quite happy for a while and I was able to enjoy a relatively peaceful day doing what I chose to do instead, so I guess all-in-all that it was a total “win-win” scenario, really, which makes a change.