Wise heads choose their words painstakingly and experts feel speechless, but here the void is filled with ignorant chatter, says Guardian columnist Rafael Behr
Wise heads choose their words painstakingly and experts feel speechless, but here the void is filled with ignorant chatterhere is not enough argument in British politics, although there is no shortage of dispute. Maybe the distinction is pedantic. The two words can be interchangeable.
When there was an explosion at a hospital in Gaza on Tuesday night, the surge of outrage and condemnation did not wait for confirmation of what had actually happened and who was responsible. The presumption that it was aerial bombardment moves more nimbly through channels that are primed to expect the worst ofthan data supplied less than 24 hours later suggesting it was an Islamic Jihad rocket misfiring.
And yet I sympathise with anyone who now reaches for the dial when the news comes on. I get the lure of avoidance, which is not the same as apathy. I know plenty of people who are deeply engaged in politics, not despairing of British democracy, determined to vote at the next election, but who are also finding contact with news media distressing to the point of physical repellence.
Swathes of what passes for debate about the Middle East has the character of displacement activity. It is the spectacle of people, left and right, grasping for agency when confronted with events that demand action and moral urgency but are unfolding way beyond their control in a complex geopolitical and historical context for which their routine shtick is pitifully inadequate.
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