No mentioning names but there’s been one story in the news over the past few weeks and it’s recently come to a head.
The story came out in 2019 with a near-fatal self-inflicted wound caused by a disastrous public interview that saw the beginning of the end for this privileged individual.
Rumours about behaviour and mixing with the wrong kind of people – some very bad – had been circulating for some time but, despite periodical journalistic endeavours, the story was reasonably contained.
And then that interview came along. The one that no PR adviser would ever have allowed a client to agree to. Unfortunately, this client was not the sort who could be told
And so banishment came to pass. The man – for he was a privileged aristocrat no longer – was sent directly to jail (well, an ivory tower of sorts), told not to collect £200 on his way there and given very clearly to understand that no-one was going to be on their way to rescue him. Ever. Punishment indeed.
Now, here’s the problem: some 99.9% recurring of the population think the person concerned has done something horrendous that he deserves everything that has been thrown at him. On the face of it, it’s hard to disagree.
But I’ve managed to find one or two people who do. Not with what he’s alleged to have done but the way he’s been punished. They say, for example, that there was never a court hearing so how does one decide whether or not the person concerned was guilty without a hearing and particularly when the “defendant” insists they did not commit the crime?
On the other hand, our defendant’s accusers say no-one in their right mind would pay out money to a person if they had never met them so clearly he was guilty even if he insisted he wasn’t.
Back to the defendant’s defenders: Those same people argue that he was forced to pay the accuser because pressure was put on him that, to fight the accuser in (a foreign) court would mar his mother’s last year or so as CEO of a pretty big corporation. And, besides, he’d been annoying the rest of his family too. So, they explain, he caved in, much against his natural instinct to defend his corner.
You’ll probably have recognised the story by now so I won’t go on except to mention that the tragic situation worsened earlier this year when the accuser seemingly took her own life. Nothing, it seems, can be resolved as far as he is concerned.
If you’re among the 99.9% recurring group, that’s the end of that and he has his just desserts.
However, if you’re that rare breed of bird, a dissenter, you might feel a little uncomfortable.
In this day and age, a person has been banged up (not necessarily to rights) and effectively imprisoned for the rest of his life. His family has disowned him, his long-standing not-the-wife wife has finally left him and he seems to be completely isolated. If it can happen to somebody from such a privileged position as him, I worry about what might happen to me if someone took against me.
I know. The argument might be that I’m never likely to be in that situation and that’s true but I’m sure there’s some other situation I’ve not even considered where my truth might not out. Then what?
I worry that the judgment of mainstream media has been “turned” a little by social media and is now jumping off the page into our three-dimensional world. (And that’s a phrase I’d never imagined using.)
It’s as if we’re all in one great big video game where there are no consequences to decisions made on real human beings and, while we cheer on the latest win, we quickly forget the euphoria of that hit and move on to find our next quick fix.
But what of the person we’ve left behind? What happens to them?
I understand that the worst thing you can do to a prisoner is to put him or her in solitary confinement. It is known to have adverse effects on a person’s mental health. One report from the US says various harmful psychological effects include hallucinations; hypersensitivity; insomnia and paranoia; uncontrollable feelings of rage and fear; distortions of time and perception; increased risk of suicide and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Experiencing just one of those conditions would be distressing enough, imagine how it would be knowing that you were never going to be set free. How would you feel about that?
We are now well into the 21st century and we are justifiably proud of what we’ve achieved over the past centuries through logic, reason and rational thought. And, in more recent years, we’ve been getting our head around the huge and varied world of emotions, with growing success.
So I’m slightly wondering how, in general terms, we seem to be coming along a storm and yet, in one particular case at least, it could be argued that we in the West have slid backwards to the witch (or warlock)-burning times of the 15th and 16th century?
I suppose that what’s unsettled me about this particular situation is that everyone seems to have rushed to judgment. It’s felt like mob rule is the saddest of ways. This person does not seem to have had many people rushing to his support because he was not generally liked – or likeable. So, because of that, he’s been sentenced for life to a solitary existence despite no trial, no jury and no conclusion so guilt has not been proved.
I’m uncomfortable that one person seems to be carrying the load for all the unknown others who have apparently also disgraced themselves.
Maybe I’m wrong and this is natural justice. I don’t know. But I do know I feel unsettled at the delight so many around me seem to be taking at this person’s punishment. I hope we’re not in danger of losing the compassionate side of our nature.