Empty vessels don’t always make the most noise

Like most people I know, when I first signed up for social media, I would accept friend requests from anyone who sent them. This meant that, since I was adding every butcher, baker and candlestick maker, I had an interesting and unique cross section of Maltese society on my friends list.

Over the years, I’ve done a considerable amount of spring cleaning like everyone else but I have been careful to try not to remove people just because they have differing opinions to mine. It’s these people that save me from the echo chamber my social media would otherwise be and who give me a unique perspective on several local issues. They’re always particularly useful around election time.

On my feed, the run-up to the elections was pretty much in line with what most of the surveys predicted. The usual Labour diehard mouthpieces were spouting the same rhetoric and I felt that the chasm between the two big parties had remained quite large; however, since Sunday afternoon, I’ve noticed a very big shift in what is being posted online.

Many Maltese people seem to swear by ‘favours’

It’s almost like the lack of numbers have made people feel emboldened to speak out about what’s bothering them. It feels like the fact there is no safety in numbers has made people more prone to criticise rather than less.

So, what are they saying? Well, the vast majority that have decided to speak out on my socials seem to be disgruntled they haven’t gotten something. I don’t know who first put this idea in our heads many moons ago but, for some reason, many Maltese people seem to swear by ‘favours’.

One woman seemed to think that her son was entitled to a job because he had lost his previous one; another was upset that she hadn’t gotten access to some form of social housing.

I’m always speechless in the face of such open entitlement but, over the years, I’ve come to understand that this culture is so ingrained that I’m sure that many Maltese people think that this “you scratch my back I scratch yours” is literally the only way to vote.

What I do understand less though is the prime minister deciding to saddle the MEP election result to public sector workers, of all things. If that wasn’t enough, the topic of abortion was also unceremoniously dragged in.

I suppose that since we are all out of gay rights to bandy with, it was inevitable that other hot topics would be teased into the fray to distract the public at large. It really would seem that the capacity of those in power to gas light and not publicly shoulder responsibility for anything at all is the only thing which remains constant.

I don’t yet know what results like last week’s tell us but I do know that things are quietly changing in people’s houses. Ironically, it wasn’t the people who I was expecting to give me answers and indications who did but a growing number of people who are clearly refusing to publicly stand up and be counted while silently doing their own thing.

It turns out that all those vessels making the most noise served only as a decoy to distract from the fact that people have had enough.