Boris Johnson has his usual Monday op-ed piece in today's Daily Telegraph, in which he writes about the blogosphere. At one point his usual wit shines through where he writes, commenting on one response:
"I think he was called "pheasantplucker", which is presumably some sort of spoonerism."
The main point of this post is to highlight one particular section of Boris' post, where discussing what he terms the "violence of the language on the blogs", he writes:
"Shielded by anonymity, bolstered by the online support of others whose views may be even more gamey than their own, readers are now able to fire back at journalists with a speed and ferocity that has never been possible before – and there are signs that they can be quite intimidating.......In the past few days there have been plenty of people wondering whether the blogosphere, with its seething irascibility, is actually coarsening political discourse. Could all this aggressive language actually encourage aggressive behaviour – or even violence?"
Unfortunately what Boris fails to address is the cause of what he terms aggressive language and why it may actually encourage aggressive behaviour - even resulting in violence. Boris Johnson can be numbered amongst our more intelligent politicians - and if he cannot see the cause and effect, or chooses to ignore it, what hope is there for us amongst the remainder of his fellows? Add in the ineffectualism of our journalists and is it any wonder there is anger?
Update: I must link to Richard North, EU Referendum - not because he links to me - but because he 'takes apart' Boris Johnson and the MSM with so much skill and far better than I that it should not be missed!
5 comments:
Unfortunately, Boris displays his usual quotient of ignorance, confusing the "blogosphere" with the "commentariat". The man actually believes that the low-grade comment section on an MSM web page is the "blogosphere".
The confusion is so fundamental that it merely demonstrates why, as a commentator, Boris is a waste of space - not worth the time spent reading him.
Having read the article thoroughly, although Boris understands the significance of the 'Comments' section outpourings, he still hasn't quite 'got' bloggers.
Interestingly enough he did muse about "It was like being Ceausescu or the late Ben Ali of Tunisia". Liked the last sentence; "What are we going to do about the lawyers?" Indeed.
Unfortunately what Boris fails to address is the cause of what he terms aggressive language
As usual, you've got it in one, Mr. WfromW.
Richard: Tend to agree with you, however his humour does appeal to me as I do like clever use of our language.
BS: Agreed and he confuses bloggers with the communtariat also.
JH: thank you!
While I have some doubts about Boris, I don't know whether we're being entirely fair to him: in light of the lawyers! Who's to say, in such matters - though it's possible to read an allusion to the following little rebellion:
All: God save your majesty!
Cade: I thank you, good people—there shall be no money; all shall eat and drink on my score, and I will apparel them all in one livery, that they may agree like brothers, and worship me their lord.
Dick: The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.
Cade: Nay, that I mean to do.
[Henry The Sixth, Part 2 Act 4, scene 2, 71–78]
Didn't it have something to do with legalistic fooling of the people........?
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