Liz suggests

Email registration

Free weekly email update

Great products and special offers for Spectator readers

Click here for great value reader offers and events

Click here for the latest Spectator Wine Offers

Global Warning

Theodore Dalrymple

Wednesday, 23rd April 2008

Theodore Dalrymple delivers a Global Warning

Death and taxes: these, according to Benjamin Franklin, are the two immovables of human existence. In modern life, however, there is a third: drivel, from which, try as one might, it is now impossible to escape.

I concede, of course, that it is possible that it’s my sensitivity to drivel rather than its incidence or prevalence (to borrow two terms from epidemiology) that has increased over the years. But I don’t think so: I can’t go further than a few yards from my front door without encountering some. That wasn’t true always.

Personally, I blame broadcasting. It insinuates itself everywhere almost without human agency, or none at any rate that dare acknowledge itself, and rots the brain utterly. You can never find who is responsible for the constant stream of drivel in public spaces, to which you can neither give your attention nor entirely ignore, so complaint is futile. You must accept your impotence: the medium is the message.

And when the person responsible for the presence of drivel is obvious, you dare not ask him to turn it off for fear of appearing superior and giving offence. Recently, for example, I was in a taxi from the port of Dun Laoghaire to Dublin and the radio was switched on to the state-run station. I didn’t ask the driver to switch it off. So there was a long discussion, still not over when I arrived at my destination three quarters of an hour later, as a kind of Greek chorus to my thoughts, about a forthcoming football match. There were heated disputations about whether such-and-such a player was past his best or had not yet reached his peak, and whether a manager had paid too much for him or had got a bargain; then the wisest man in Ireland on the subject of football was asked who would win the match.

‘Will “A” beat “B”?’ he said. ‘Well it really depends on the strengths and weaknesses of A, and the strengths and weaknesses of B.’

1 | 2 Next page

More articles from: Theodore Dalrymple | this section

Print this article | Email to a friend | Permalink | Comments (2)

Post this entry to: del.icio.us | Digg | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit

TDK

April 25th, 2008 10:10am

Discussing recessions is an interesting case in itself. Economic downturns can, to a degree, be caused by falling confidence. A prediction of recession from a well regarded economic expert might therefore be a self fulfilling prophecy. It's therefore no surprise that an interviewee will be keen not to be too certain.

I don't see that applies to football.

Dodgy Geezer

April 25th, 2008 12:12pm

I am unhappy to take issue with the Master about banality in broadcasting - a subject on which I agree with him. But to me he seems to have picked the wrong target.

If I were asked to pontificate on a similar question, I might well introduce the subject with such a generalisation about strengths and weaknesses. Then I might go on to ennumerate them, and provide my opinion on the likely outcome. I can see nothing wrong with this.

I think Mr Dalrymple would be on stronger ground if he addressed the forced hyperactivity and fixed grimaces which are de rigeur for any children's programme. Here, banality and ignorance go hand-in-hand with the supposition that young people do not want information, but flashing lights and dance rhythms. Here is where the attention span of a generation is being forced down, and, as with the Jesuits, this should be our primary target.

Incidentally, TDK, in all sporting confrontations team morale is a primary factor, and being 'written off' by an expert commentator is very likely to have some effect on this.