All too often we miss the main story and the lessons that might be drawn from it by focusing on secondary aspects. The practice and the politics of distraction and justification are routinely employed to sidestep or ignore fundamentals.
The most recent example of this involves the reporting and subsequent discussion of a black man being beaten by a gang and then thrown into the sea in Mġarr in Gozo.
Apart from the original reasons for the row and the subsequent behaviour of the mob (including its real-world racist undercurrents), the event should cause all Maltese and Gozitans to reflect uneasily.
As the mob delivered its version of ‘justice’, they were reportedly cheered on by a crowd of onlookers who apparently saw this behaviour as in some way justifiable and normal. Much (but by no means all) of the subsequent commentary sought to justify the actions of the mob, to suggest that the colour of the victim was irrelevant, that others have been attacked and thrown in the sea elsewhere without commensurate media reporting and that such events occur in many countries.
There was precious little commentary on the behaviour of the cheering onlookers. Why? Is this because we have come to expect such a response – the cheering on of aggression and criminal violence? Have we reached the point where we expect so little from witnesses to a violent attack and from subsequent commentators?
Do we expect people to now justify the unjustifiable?
The same practice is on public display as regards criminality and corruption. In response to the now almost daily or weekly reporting of such behaviour across all levels of society, we are regaled with arguments and stories intended to precisely do that – justify the unjustifiable.
When criminality is exposed in the current regime and its local and international network, the instantaneous response is to suggest that the ‘others’ did or would do the same. That it is the same the world over or through history or that it's just ‘our way’ of doing things. Therefore, somehow, it’s ok.
Standards have sunk so low that we expect so little from our (mis)leaders in politics and business that we not only accept but justify what is, without doubt criminal behaviour. There appears to be no facet of life that is immune to these low standards, including even the education of our children.
There is now a yawning chasm between the increasingly hysterical pronouncements and declarations of our elite as to their honour and integrity and what we understand to be reality. We have come to expect and accept and even applaud so little from them that we deem this normal.
The downward spiral of the most basic of standards and behaviours has washed across all levels and sectors of society, as the events in Mġarr so disturbingly illustrate. Even as we recognise the wrong of what happened in Mġarr, we shrug our shoulders, mutter under our breaths (‘they’re all the same’) and reach for a justification. Nothing much to see here.
It is chillingly illustrative of Maltese political life at so many levels. The fact that it happens elsewhere or in different contexts and circumstances locally or internationally is utterly irrelevant. It is happening in our society today.
I am heartened greatly by the actions of those who came to the Mġarr victim’s assistance, as I am by the ongoing reporting and challenging of criminality and corruption in Malta by journalists, NGOs and many social commentators and activists. They offer a glimpse of the higher standards that we must begin to insist characterise our society.
Yet, I am equally shocked and saddened by how low the expectations of many are with respect to public and social life. It bodes ill for Malta’s future well-being.