Saturday 4 March 2023
Concealed Ignorance
Bertha still could hardly believe genuine the admiration which her husband excited. Knowing his extreme incapacity, she was astounded that the rest of the world should think him an uncommonly clever fellow. To her his pretensions were merely ridiculous; she marvelled that he should venture to discuss, with dogmatic glibness, subjects of which he knew nothing; but she marvelled still more that people should be impressed thereby: he had an astonishing faculty of concealing his ignorance.
W. Somerset Maugham - Mrs Craddock (1902)
To my mind, the most interesting aspect of the Matt Hancock saga is that it is not particularly revealing. An air of concealed ignorance was there almost from the beginning of the pandemic. Quite unmistakable.
Recognising the dogmatic glibness of our MPs and media is not only frustrating but also interesting. It’s interesting that we are aware of their dishonesty and their scheming even if many details are obscure. Possibly we know nowhere near as much as we suppose, but it’s enough to take the measure of their ignorance and that is where the interest lies.
Take UK party politics as an example. If we know all parties are dishonest then either their integrity has declined, or in a digital age we know more about the way things are done and this has raised our expectations. I’d say the latter, but those people with raised expectations are not the majority.
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2 comments:
There used to be an unspoken deal. We left politicians to worry about the big stuff like wars or the trade balance and we worried about the small stuff like food and shelter.
We are still worried about the small stuff but realise that the deal is broken. Politicians no longer worry about the big stuff, only their place on the slippery pole.
And we don't seem to be able to break out of the gloom spiral. Our votes no longer matter when all Political Parties are the same. They cannot be relied upon to deliver their own primary policies.
DJ - "They cannot be relied upon to deliver their own primary policies."
That's it, they cannot be relied upon. Politicians have followed the bureaucratic tendency to widen remits without making any serious attempt to enforce boundaries and stick to the primary remit. Far too many voters also seem attracted to the security of being micro-managed so they vote for it.
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