In a secondary school essay a long time ago, I took Coleridge to task about his explanation for the vile character of Iago in Shakespeare’s Othello (I was irreverent towards orthodoxy even then). Coleridge claimed that Iago was guilty of ‘motiveless malignancy’ – but I disagreed, Iago was malevolent because he enjoyed it.
It is a familiar path in literature. Walter White finally admits in Breaking Bad that the drug dealing mayhem and murder wasn’t for his family – it was for him, he enjoyed it. Monty Burns buys back his dysfunctional nuclear power plant in The Simpsons when he realises that money alone doesn’t allow him to bully his workers anymore. The morals and sanity of Eve Polastri slip away as she comes to enjoy the psychopathy of the narcissistic assassin Vilanelle in Killing Eve.
There are dark places in the human soul – attractive places. Some seek to play with them safely in bondage clubs and private BDSM dungeons where the mantra ‘safe, sane and consensual’ protects the players from any real or lasting harm. The truth though is that for some, sadism is more fun when its real, abuse tastes better for them when the suffering inflicted is non-consensual and there is no risk of being held to account.
Alongside those who take direct pleasure from kicking people for the fun of it are those who giggle while it goes on – this is the vicarious alignment with power, the children who try to curry favour with school bullies because they want a bit of the power to rub off on them.
Some align with bully boys from misguided selfish interest, others applaud thugs to be spared themselves – some just remain silent and hope to remain unnoticed.
What I am describing here is contemporary Britain – a nation that urinates on the homeless on the way home from the pub, that tells the terminally ill they are fit for work and then withdraws their only means of support, that drives record numbers to food banks and then tells them they ought to get a pay day loan.
Lord Dubs was ‘bitterly disappointed and angry’ at the first action of Boris Johnson’s government – to withdraw support for child refugees. and was horrified that the Home Office was breezily ignoring offers from local councils to house them. If Lord Dubs is baffled by this pointless needless cruelty then I am not – why help desperate children when you can slam a door in their face? What would be the fun in that? Motiveless malignancy? I don’t think so.
Austerity was never about saving money or justice – it was partly a political connivance to hide the sins of bankers, but the need for that faded long ago. The real reason why 130,00 were hounded to an early grave and why millions more had grinding fear and misery inflicted on them is simple – the Tories like doing it.
Some people call austerity a class war but I think this misses the point. Iago got Othello to kill Desdemona because he enjoyed it – why did Shylock want his pound of Flesh?
The UK has decayed into an ethos where grotesque bullying has become normal – many are now become accustomed to the idea of booting the sick and the disabled for the ‘sin’ of being sick and disabled. To fall on hard times now is to become fair game for those who enjoy the wealthy sport of poor bashing.
Though the 2019 election result was primarily about Brexit, it was disturbing for a host of other reasons – most disturbing of all is the realisation that though most people were aware of the abuses of the Tories and the savage cost (for the vulnerable) of austerity – it did nothing to damage their popularity. For many, ‘winning’ the Brexit shouting match was all that mattered.
Where is all this going? What happens when a nation drifts downwards into divisive hatred, into psychopathy and sadism? What happens when we embrace liars, narcissists and swaggering bully boys and put them into power?
Trump’s America is showing us the future – nothing that Trump does seems to affect his poll ratings – affronts to truth and decency least of all. Trump tolerates democracy while it feeds his ego – if it becomes an obstruction to his megalomania will he step aside gracefully? I have my doubts as do many others.
But Trump may not have to defy democracy to carry on his dark reign, the USA seems to be sliding into a moral abyss quite happily. Trump and his feverish empty-eyed supporters are symptomatic of that – the UK seems to be sliding into the very same abyss.
This incoming Tory government – the most aggressively amoral and sadistic of all time, is not even a Conservative government – the hubris and spite of past Tory administrations will be seen as mercies compared to what lies ahead.
As the outrages against our humanity pile up (and they will) – every right thinking person has to stand tall and say to each and every instance that these things are WRONG.
If we allow today’s wickedness to become normal it won’t end there – it can’t.
A sadist’s enjoyment starts to dull after a while – they must have new appetites and thrills, the cruelties of today will be replaced by worse tomorrow if good people become invisible.
In the USA – the road from social democracy to Muslim bans and throwing children in cages was frighteningly short. The paths from attacking vulnerable groups in Germany to Arbeit Macht Frei and from racial tensions in Yugosalvia to the massacres at Srebrenica were short also.
If you feel such comparisons are ill-judged, hyperbolic and even offensive – then partly I am glad, there is still a moral majority in the UK that abhors sadism, cruelty and bullying. On the other hand – who would have thought that the premature deaths of 130,000 people would lead to a Tory landslide? Who could have foreseen the rise of the overtly racist Farage and the UKIP take over of the Conservative party? Have we forgotten Grenfell Tower already? The Windrush scandal? The hostile environment? The brazen embrace of lies and the ruthless stranglehold of establishment propaganda?
Oh we must not allow this darkness to creep on any further – what would have been unthinkable a few short decades ago has become normal.
What will be normal in 2050… if good people become invisible now?
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