I find it interesting that we are eager to blame Covid for antisocial behaviour (and indeed it might play some part), but it ignores the fact that humans have always taken their cues of behaviour from those higher up in the hierarchy, and we have been ...

Madeleine Morris

I find it interesting that we are eager to blame Covid for antisocial behaviour (and indeed it might play some part), but it ignores the fact that humans have always taken their cues of behaviour from those higher up in the hierarchy, and we have been living through example after example of leaders behaving badly.

https://c.im/@cdarwin/113693690520427442

Madeleine Morris

Ironic that in an era where 'influencer' is actually an income-generating profession, we don't like admitting that we always have and still do model our own social behaviour on the examples given to us by those in positions of leadership. It hurts our sense of individuality (which god knows we've managed to commodify very successfully).

Madeleine Morris

So sure, blame Covid. Blame social media. Blame whatever.

But ultimately, this refusal to act in ways that respect others, this rejection of any sense of social responsibility, lies with us. Individually.

Madeleine Morris

While people liken Trump, Musk, Johnson, etc. to earlier despots, it is worth remembering that even Hitler, Stalin and Mao were careful to preserve their veneers of social respectability for the masses. And for a while, Trump himself was eager to keep his appalling behaviour under wraps. But the nature of his celebrity made that impossible.

It was our collective tolerance and excusing of that behaviour that ushered in a new era. The British media could not get enough of Johnson acting silly

Madeleine Morris

The US evangelicals not only forgave Trump's disgusting excesses, but invented an incoherent reversal - proof of his god-chosenness. Not because he was godly, but exactly the opposite - because he was so flawed.

And there was a time when captains of industry, CEOs of corporations, etc. made an effort to at least pretend to be decent citizens. But Musk doesn't have the self-discipline to bother.

We have accepted the weakness of our leaders because they allow us to excuse our own weaknesses.

Madeleine Morris

But, and here is my plea, I want to exhort us to reject this.

The majority of us still want to imagine ourselves as kind and caring and responsible. It is the degenerate despotic billionaires who want to persuade us that that isn't a valid aspiration.

I think their agenda is to turn us into hateful, anti-social egotists.

But we can refuse. Please refuse.

Madeleine Morris

I want us to remind ourselves of other pleasures - of how sublime a sense of harmony and unity can feel. How tremendously good it feels to do something good for another person. I'm not asking for altruism or puritanical self-sacrifice. Just remember how incredibly good it feels when you do a kind thing. How much it enhances and reinforces your sense of self.