“I would never leave the party. I am a fourth generation person. First generation was when an Arrigo was a speaker of parliament. (Talk of crossing to Labour) would come from some foul-mouthed people.” – Robert Arrigo (interviewed by Herman Grech on www.timesofmalta.com)
Robert Arrigo must be cool. By his own admission he is an ongoing success story. No matter how constructively critical he is of the nationalist party and no matter how much his constructive criticism is not heeded he will not leave the party. Which is good. J’accuse likes the way Robert Arrigo thinks. Others might define Robert’s actions in a different manner. Nowadays it seems that there are two categories coming straight out of Scooby Doo cartoons of the sixties and seventies. Since the next election will be won or lost depending on the cohort of disgruntled 40 pluses I guess the language of “cool and hip” might hit home. Somewhere. Maybe.
Adriano Celentano last tried this distinction between “cool” and uncool” when he came up with the “rock/lento” distinction. Celentano though is the epitome of cool – and his word on what is “rock” or “lento” (slow) really counts. Others who might decide to wave their broom/sceptre and divide the world between what is “cool” and “uncool” as though political arguments would be decided by these factors are slightly below par in the “cool” department.
The latest victim of the “cool” brigade is artist Kenneth Zammit Tabona who has found himself in the line of fire of the combined ultra-coolness of Borg Cardona and Caruana Galizia. The alphabetsoup of columnists took Zammit Tabona to task for having dared comment on the opera house plans and having criticised “the GonziPN” and it’s attitude towards its detractors. Never one to make too fine a point here is DCG commenting on a KZT comment that had been left on ABC’s article on the Times:
In a comment you posted beneath your own letter in the same newspaper, you wrote “My mother always told me that it is better to keep your mouth shut and let people think you are a fool rather than open it and remove all doubt.” She’s right, and you should have taken her advice. “The EFA government”, “the Gonzipn and its apologists” – dear God in heaven, what self-abjection. Worse still, Kenneth, you appear to believe that criticising somebody ‘personally’ (is there any other way?) is unacceptable and your not doing it puts you above the rest. But being a political masochist and licking the butt of the very person who tried his damnedest to deny you an EU passport just six short years ago is…..intelligent and sophisticated. What is this I see about me: a race to the finish in the Most Gullible and Credulous competition?
Take it from me, Kenneth: supporting Labour is not cool. It is the opposite of cool. I could be really rude and say that you’re the proof of that, but there are limits and I won’t.
The Gonzipn! The EFA government! Unbelievable. No dignity.
No diggity. What’s all this dissin’ aye? An all that. Isn’t it funny how whenever Daphne doesn’t want to pass judgement or not say something she usually does? But that is beside the point. What is the point is how KZT is being taken to task (and telling him to keep his mouth shut) for doing the unimaginable: pointing out that maybe, only just maybe, GonziPN does not exactly fit squarely with what EFA’s PN was all about. This realisation (which J’accuse pointed out would happen a long time ago – in a letter to the newspapers prior to the national elections) is one that recognises the fact that an unprincipled PN leads to ditching all that was struggled for by previous generations – including the cool and hip generations that led to “Xoghol, Gustizzja, Libertà”.
Now the reaction to such a realistion by those that KZT calls the “apologists” cannot but be vehement. Said apologists will recognise that the paradigmatic shift from “the values of PN” to a recognition of a “PN with no spine” (Call it GonziPN if you will…. they coined the name so it MUST be cool) comes at a high cost for the marketing department of a PN desperately seeking the Holy Grail of re-election. If voters find a reason no longer to identify themselves with this PN then they will shift their voting preference more readily. The serfs are freed from their feudal overlords. The tribal fidelity link is shattered. Enter the pundits who will piss onto the deck of a drowning ship thus facilitating the trip to the bottom and they will insult the already hesitant voter.
Now whether you agree with the idea or not, it is lack of respect of a voter (and sadly, what he or she considers to be respect) that shifts votes. They’ve done it to the “wasted voters” last time round and rather than thank their lucky gods for having escaped a bloody carnage with dear GonziPN still at the helm they are busy tearing at the sails, digging holes in the ship’s belly and roughing people off to the welcoming arms of the artful dodger who is cunningly (at least his entourage seems to think so) morphing into one of their own.
The sad thing is that the artful dodger is more of the same… and the even sadder thing is that the intelligentsia behind the PN marketing savagery fail to recognise that, cool and hip as they may think they are, their words begin to have less and less value for the people (no matter how uncool and unhip they may call them).
And in the end guess who gets a government into power? Is it a cool and hip marketing savant or a cool and hip restaurant uncritic? Nope… it’s the people stupid!
(or as they would have it… the stupid people).
