AS IT HAPPENS…

I can’t bear it any more. I’ve had enough.

I don’t want to give the old bastard any more of my time or energy, I really don’t, but this is still bothering me and still making me rage in ways I genuinely never thought that a news story about someone I never really knew actually could.

You know, I really do try and go through life being as fair and as balanced as I can be, but in the end, when the avalanche finally overwhelms you, sometimes you just have to hold your hands up and admit it.

The man, it seems, was a total and utter bastard.

But none of us wanted to believe it, did we?

And this is precisely how these evil, manipulative abusers work and manage to get away with it. The figures in authority, the ones with all the power, the ones with far too much to lose that they couldn’t… They wouldn’t…

But it turns out that they would… And they did…

Because nobody believes that they could possibly be doing what they’re doing and nobody wants to risk doing the “wrong thing” (which, of course would be the right thing to do), and “ruining” a reputation or a career and so they do nothing about it at all. Because, surely  nobody in that position could possibly think about doing such a thing because they’ve got so much to lose.

And then there’s the tiny matter of proof. If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it’s probably a duck, but somebody has to have seen the duck doing whatever it is that the duck is alleged to have done, and then needs to stand up and say it in public, rather than passing on a rumour in a pub somewhere, and then be able to prove it beyond any reasonable doubt in a court of law, which can be almost impossible when enough people are prepared to protect their own self interests when it comes to milking their cash cow, and say that they don’t know what you are talking about, and that what you’re repeating is only hearsay, and look at this fine upstanding pillar of the community and all of his good works, M’lud…

Who’s going to believe a parentless nobody, or a mentally deficient child, or someone who can be labeled as being “jealous” of another’s celebrity, success and status, when they’ve got a multimedia supertanker or juggernaut up against them…? Now, of course, we can see a pattern has emerged. Now we know what was going on, but then everyone may claim that they knew, but none of them knew enough to be sure enough to point the authorities in his direction and say for certain that the king was indeed in the altogether...

If the bloke had still been alive would any of this ever have come out…? Would anyone have ever dared to say anything…? More to the point, would anyone have actually believed them…?

Or would the lawyers have stepped in and slammed down the shutters one more time…?

I think that we all know the answer to that one, don’t we…?

And perhaps that’s why the public sense of moral outrage has been so universal and, depending upon how the individual prefers to deal with such things when they surface, vicious, either physically or verbally or both. You see we all know that, as a society, we let him get away with it. He hoodwinked us all into believing that he was such a good guy, and it depresses us all when we find out that we were wrong, and the massive sense of disappointment and guilt and shame that the whole nation is currently feeling is precisely because collectively we put him in the position to do what he did and then we let him get away with it for so long.

There’s just no ambiguity any more is there? The tabloids are bravely plastering words and expressions  like “sex fiend” and “perv” around their front pages without having to hide behind their usual smokescreens and get-out clauses. Now they can call a duck a duck without any fear of legal recourse and they are doing so openly and without any restraint.

The huge sense of betrayal coming from the entire nation is now assuming staggering proportions and, if the bastard had still been alive, I genuinely believe that the baying mob would be asking for his head (and probably more). Read about what happened to the body of Robert Hubert after his execution in 1666 and tell me how far we’ve come.

Much as I like to believe that I live in a civilised society, as they say, “scratch a bleeding heart liberal and you’ll quickly find the fascist within…” and if your point of view is to dig up, publicly humiliate and ultimately obliterate the body of a man who’s already long dead, well…

It is a point of view…

Although I’m not particularly fond of people playing to the gallery, grandstanding, or going along with the actions of the mob, you are entitled to that opinion if you hold it, even though I think that I am disappointed in the fact that you are kind of missing just about every point that I thought I was making…

Still, we all now like to think that such a thing couldn’t happen now, of course, now that we live in a computer-linked age where all of the tittle-tattle could be pooled together into one huge body of  rock solid evidence, but sadly, I’m sure that we’d be wrong about that, and those evil, clever manipulators who still feed their sick little habits are out there right now doing what they always do.

And if you think that I’m being flippant, well, let me assure you that, sadly, I’ve seen the results of what such attacks can do to people, and I do know only too well the damage it can do to them in the long term.

I know that sometimes I’ve seemed “stand-offish” and “distant” (or – if you prefer - repressed) in my life because I’ve never been much of a one for “chatting people up” (or whatever else the current expression for it might be) all the time, but I think that might just be because I’ve seen - far too many times - the unfortunate results of being on the “wrong side” of all those “free-living” ways, although now I’m starting to believe that I’m possibly very lucky not to have been someone who’s life is mostly driven by their baser urges.

Look how much trouble they seem to cause everyone…

Sometimes I really think that you could stuff the bloody sixties, and the “sexual revolution” and all that “free love” nonsense where the sun doesn’t shine. I’ve had enough of it. I’ve seen far, far too often what it can do and it’s appalling.

I don’t want to write about this any more.

I don’t even want to think about this any more.

I certainly don’t think that I’m going to talk about that wretched man any more, I’m sure you’ll be relieved to hear, although the unfolding story still seems to be bothering me in ways that I still struggle to comprehend.

Let’s just try and forget about him and move on and, if you’ll pardon the expression, not give him the satisfaction of being remembered.

By any of us.