I wonder if the Daily Mail has finally succeeded in opening the eyes of its apathetic readers to the true nature of its anthropology (that is, what they think is the intrinsic value or meaning of human beings in society).
The Miliband saga has intensified, with expressions of anger from some unlikely people.
What interests me most is how this feeds into a more general problem in the public discourse: the conscious and deliberate corruption of language. It is disingenuous of the Deputy Editor of the Mail to say in yesterday's Newsnight debate with Alastair Campbell that “headlines have to be read in conjunction with the text of the article” when the world and his wife knows (a) that headlines often mislead (deliberately?) and (b) that deliberate association goes beyond the literal text or juxtaposition.
Repeated use of simple phrases makes a powerful appeal to the subconscious that goes beyond the specific words. At the Conservative Party Conference this week the word 'hardworking' hung over and behind the stage on which speeches were made. The word dripped into the rhetoric of many speakers and commentators – as if we all understood what was meant by it and who was included in it. Or assumed to be included in it. Poor hardworking people (in multiple part-time and low-paid jobs and who are increasingly using foodbanks) are clearly not included.
Aren't stay-at-home parents 'hardworking'?
To go back to the Daily Mail furore for a moment: why was it illegitimate to recall the Daily Mail's antisemitism, support for fascism and affection for Adolf Hitler at the same time as deeming it (obviously) legitimate to quote from Ralph Miliband's teenage diary?
As I have argued many times on this blog, the corruption of language is deliberate and very dangerous. It is used to suggest and associate – working at a subliminal level and categorising people without always spelling out what is going on here and why. It is something George Orwell understood very well and articulated very clearly.
“Arbeit macht frei” is a simple and 'true' slogan, isn't it?
