The wilful ignorance that led to Boris Johnson’s
infantile, damaging racism last month emanates from privilege. This matters
because the mega gobshite is plotting to become Britain’s next prime minister
and in this world where the second-rate, the bigoted and the dysfunctional
rise, it could happen.
As I am not a psychiatrist I'll by-pass
the elements of his behaviour that smack of personality disorder. However, the
ignorance of a man who has had every advantage money can buy is an enigma that
should interest us all. Johnson’s sense of entitlement precedes the colossal
dray of his ego like a six legged cart horse wearing large, immovable blinkers.
The UK opposition is in meltdown with Jeremy Corbyn
lost in the miasma of his own mediocrity. Prime Minister Theresa May’s grasp of
‘now’ was disastrously displayed when she tried to dance with children in a
South African school. Our Head Girl was wooing a continent the UK has
historically raped, exploited and manipulated in a ludicrous attempt to counter
the imminent annihilation of Brexit. She jerked about as if she had a slipped
disc and was trying to shit standing up (see my letter in The Guardian last week) https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/31/the-importance-of-ethical-aid-to-africa
She did us no favours.
Boris Johnson reportedly had the connivance of
repulsive spoilt-baby-president maker – Steve Bannon when he dog whistled the
UK racists with his nasty anti-Muslimism name calling in August. He now
apparently has tactical support from the man who managed Theresa May’s campaign
– Lynton Crosby (Australia - we’ll never forgive you).
Johnson’s is not the spiteful Farage variety of
racism. Even the teachers at Nigel Farage’s private school recognised his
bigotry and apparently wanted to bar him from prefect duties.
Boris Johnson’s racism, like the man himself, is
sloppy; he simply doesn’t see the problem of using racism to get what he wants.
Other people just don’t matter that much. Respect, like duty, restraint and
obeying the law, is for little people. His is not the dog-shit-through-the-letter-box
variety of racism or the knife-at-a-bus-stop kind or the someone-to-beat-up-after-the-pub
sort. It’s not the anonymous racist hate mail type that I experienced as a city
councillor in the 1990s. The potential consequences, for his victims, of
platforming further random hatred towards an already put-up-on minority were
not at the forefront of his mind when he dripped more xenophobic acid. ‘What’s
in it for Boris’ was.
One of the oddest comments from the plethora of
privileged white men, who came out (again) to defend Johnson’s petty, poisonous,
bigoted comments about women in Burkas, was the one claiming that Johnson could
not be a racist because he’d been mayor of London, one of the most diverse cities
on the planet. That’s like claiming a doctor couldn’t be a murderer (anyone
heard of Harold Shipman?) or that someone with responsibility for children
could not be a paedophile (examples - too many to mention). It was a
non-argument. However, it’s easy to see why his cheerleaders are running out of
even vaguely credible excuses.
I do not bother with Re Smogg’s drivel. Our resident Dickensian stick insect did the
maths and realised he’d not be the one to land an available Tory leadership
slot so the best thing was to suck up to the next most likely candidate.
Rowan Atkinson? Maybe he was trying to outdo his elder
brother, a failed would-be UKIP leader. Don’t know don’t care.
Andrew Mitchel of Plebgate? He has form when it
comes to thinking there is one rule for himself and another for the plebs so,
as a Johnson apologist, he can also be yawned off.
In better times, Johnson’s racist language would
have been career ending. Similar utterances by someone lower down the social
food chain might lead to a criminal record. From the racist slur of President
Obama to comments that reeked of judgement so poor (in Myanmar where he was
reined in by the UK attaché) you wonder anyone would leave him in charge of their
cat never mind a country’s global reputation. He was, however, appointed
Foreign Secretary after the Obama
slur and, during his mercifully brief tenure as the UK’s top foreign
representative managed to make the fragile Zagahri-Ratcliffe situation much worse.
Johnson dropped another casual clanger, putting the British-Iranian mother in increased
danger – wrongly and provocatively stating that Ms ZR had been training
journalists.
The dull, older, privileged white men who repeatedly
rescue Johnson from his own utterances try, and fail, for nuanced argument. The
two-dimensional pups who just want their names in the news claim – ‘it’s just
Boris being colourful’. The latter argument might work if he was some fat ugly
bog-eyed ignorant drunk yelling at passers-by from a park bench. But he’s a fat
ugly bog-eyed ignorant potential leader of the UK at one of the most perilous
times in British peace time history.
Johnson’s racism, incompetence, corruption (Garden
Bridge anyone?) vile person, lack of dignity, lack of interest in anything but
himself etc. are acknowledged. What is not flagged up often enough is the obvious
extent of his wilful ignorance.
Ironically, Boris Johnson’s extreme, almost tangible
ignorance comes from his privilege and not despite it. I’ve seen it many times.
He is, like many of his ilk – as shuttered and uncomfortable with the variety
of human existence as a poorly educated young thug with dysfunctional parents
who has never been further than the crumbling edges of a down-at-heel inner-city
estate. Except, the latter might understand more than Boris Johnson of the
range and gift and beauty of human variety.
I have written many times about just how badly
Britain has suffered from the curse of entrenched privilege. I’ve reminded
readers that it is not just that Trevor-poor-but-clever doesn’t get on up where
he could serve our country well, Tim-rich-but-dim gets up there and exposes us
to his inadequacies. And oh boy, where Johnson is concerned, those inadequacies are endless…
(For the moment we’ll leave Tania v Tamara because
that’s a whole other banana).
Yes, not everyone from privilege is bound by it.
Some have insight and self-awareness just as some manage to escape poverty,
prejudice and lack of opportunity. But Johnson has embraced the protection and
career projection of privilege with unprecedented voracity and self-serving, reverting
to the buffoon whenever he tires of pretending to be a statesman. But he cannot
be both.
Frequently, his sycophantic excusers paint
Boris Johnson as a court jester. He is not. The role of the court jester was
often to say things the courtiers could not say. In other words the jester had
licence to speak truth to power. It was not the jester’s job to pick on the
most vulnerable and give them a kicking to please the mob.
Johnson is not even interested in his own tribe. They
should consider that next time they are ready to scuttle out and defend him.
When, in the context of Brexit, he said “fuck business” he meant fuck
everything. Fuck everything apart from what is good for Boris Johnson. If the
UK continues its chaotic slide from manufacturing David to 3rd rate
unstable, service-based economy – see blog 202 The TAT economy – what is it and should we be scared? http://browngirloutsidethering.blogspot.com/2016/09/202-tat-economy-what-is-it-and-should.html
Johnson will not care. It won’t affect him.
Our 2018 world is a grimmer place than it need be.
Even nations with calm sensible mature individuals at the helm stand only some
chance of turning things around. Those run by fat brats with bad hair,
bladder-sack skin, massively inflated opinions of themselves and the moral
rigor of delinquent lab rats after a botched lobotomy, stand no chance.
Never was there a clearer UK example of someone
socially disabled by the wilful ignorance of privilege becoming such a
destructive social force. Trump is the larger contemporary parallel and the
vile white supremacist Steve Bannon – reported to be coaching Johnson - has
already made that connection. If Johnson were to become PM, it would mark a low
point in post-war British social political history which would make Theresa May
look like Gandhi.
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Blog posts should be back to normal shorter length
next week meanwhile, remember to check out my books – thanks