I have recently had the dubious fortune of becoming a research assistant with an MEP in the European Parliament. As I was thrust into this new skin I was told that I was entering the ‘frontline of politics’.
It has been fascinating to lend my eyes a perspective I had never come across and in doing so I have tried to distill the essence of the political. It seems to me that the role of a government basically boils down passing a law, or not passing a law. All the familiar debates spiral out from this point.
In the last week the EU Parliament has agreed on a motion to improve energy efficiency by phasing out wasteful goods such as Patio Heaters. Whilst the frantic colluding, compromising and horse-trading was going on around the parliament it became apparent that the political frontline is far from such politicians. Ultimately politics is experienced in everyday life, it’s omnipresent and inescapable. When you sit outside a pub no longer experiencing the absurd comfort of heating up the outdoors, you are on the political frontline.
Power, as opposed to politics is more opaque. Politicians, elected solely by citizens appear in submission to a myriad of other influences. In the name of pragmatism ideals, values and morals are easily relinquished.
The battle to prevent run-away climate change, for example needs decisive political action (law making) but politicians seem unable to manage this. The minority who dismiss climate change as the new ‘millennium bug’ are thankfully giving way to reason, yet despite democratic demand for action politicians remain impotent. Instead unaccountable private groups, corporations and their lobbies appear to run the debate and corrupt democracy. With skilled lobbyists, lawyers and PR departments they create a yawning information asymmetry and stifle political action.
In terms of the media, Britain’s leading left-leaning weekly, The New Statesman, for example, obtains of much of its revenue from advertising companies such as BP and BAE systems. This compromises its ability to criticise both these companies and the wider social structure that allows information to be constrained by such companies. Information is perhaps key to an effective democracy yet it’s blatantly undermined in almost all aspects of the media.
If citizens can overcome this hurdle they face further barriers trying to negotiate the lobbyists of unaccountable interests groups. When debating over legislation or other political action, politicians will face a barrage of highly skilled, well versed people who represent the interests of a tiny minority. When these same interest groups also command the funding of political parties, what hope can the majority have of their voices being heard and getting the appropriate law being passed.
It is a crime to blockade the offices of BP but perfectly legal for BP to emitt 100 million tonnes of CO2 producing crude oil from tar sands.
It is the general public who experience politics but unaccountable minority who dictate it. In this situation where power resides is debatable. Perhaps if people realised that they are the ultimate politicians we could retrieve control over our public lives.
THE TRUTH ABOUT BLACKS!
The other race explained by a black who knows!
“My mates tell me the reason I don’t have a black friend is because my bedroom is a bit on the messy side. Do blacks really make an issue out of that kind of thing?”
To be honest, I don’t know any black who’d be happy to be invited back to a filthy flat. Admittedly some blacks can be obsessive about cleanliness but if you really want to get lucky you’ll just have to live with that.
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The above passage, adjusted from last Friday’s Nuts Magazine shows how quickly ‘harmless fun’ disintegrates into something more sinister when placed in a different context. From the original copy the references made to ‘women’ were changed to ‘blacks’ and ‘men’ to ‘whites’. Whilst the analogy may not be perfect the prejudices it displays remain. Nuts may be a flaccid target for critics but with almost 6000 copies a week sold in the UK it demands attention.
‘Lad’s Mags’ often attract criticism for their objectification of people. Whether objectification need be dehumanising is an important debate. However, in this example I simply question whether the attitudes on display would be deemed unacceptable in a different context.
Like racism, you will never rid society of sexism. Thankfully in the last century much progress has been made on both fronts. The common defence of such publications and the attitudes portrayed is that they are simply what the market demands. Yet, in today’s age it would be unthinkable for companies to sell their goods through a racist card. Why should it be different when dealing with an equally ignorant prejudice?
Racism entails assigning behavioural and cultural traits to the different biological ethnicities. On the basis of these imaginary characteristics a racist concludes that one ethnic group is superior to another. The above article carried a similar process of behavioural assumptions about men and women.
The shocking statistics released last month by the British Crime Survey estimated 200,000 incidents of rape and sexual abuse, of which the police recorded only 12,000 and disgracefully only 5% ended in conviction. This means that of the 200,000 cases of rape committed only 600 men end up in prison.
Too often the pervasive notions of gender prescribed the media are divorced from the visible crimes they reveal themselves in. In no way does reading Nuts amount to raping women but the complacent attitude that brushes aside offensive writing as ‘harmless fun’ does seem to exhibit itself in these far uglier forms.
Last year Anna was savagely beaten up in Notting Hill late one evening. She called the police the morning after, only to be questioned about whether she’d been drinking and what she’d done to provoke this assault. The officer rounded off the call with the news that they were unlikely to catch the man who did this to her so there was little point in proceeding. Yet, in the same area, there is no shortage of yellow Metropolitan police incident boards seeking information when men are the victims of unprovoked violence. Rather than being an isolated incident the statistics suggest cases like this are indicative of the entire system.
Returning to race, if there were numerous magazines reducing and homogenising ethnic groups to imbeciles, accompanied by evidence of intrinsic racism in the police force, there would, quite rightly be public outrage. The two things would be discussed together and wider questions about our attitudes towards race would be raised.
The dominant ideas of both women and men that pervade are ignorant and offensive. The contest to the millennia of misogyny has only just begun. If progress is to be made we must challenge ourselves to make a stand and demand debate about these issues.
