Guilty Until Proven Innocent
Consider this Chinese proverb quoted by Jung Chang in Wild Swans: “Where there is a will to convict, there will always be evidence.”
I chaired a health authority for some years. There was a woman in charge of recruiting, let’s call her Yvonne. She cherished a cluster of ingrained prejudices about university graduates that she took pleasure in sharing with anyone with a pulse. Graduates, opined Yvonne, were impractical, opinionated, work-shy, prone to lateness, often with questionable hygiene, of dubious moral character and, worst of all, drug addicts. Very occasionally, there would be sufficient evidence to bolster her absurd views, allowing her to savour her rightness with lip-smacking relish.
Yvonne’s game is played out every day – and when it’s played by heads of state, it can result in nations going to war. Putin, for example, has repeatedly characterised the Ukrainian leadership as Nazis. Once the conviction is established, evidence can always be found to support it. People lose their homes, have their lives destroyed and are killed – recall what Putin did to Alexei Navalny.
When it plays out in the media, the outcome may not appear so drastic, but it can be ruinous for the victims. Once a paper has developed the will to convict, it’s only a matter of time before the “evidence” is published, often backed up by a picture from a mobile phone. Check the press coverage of Badenoch, Burnham and Farage – why wasn’t he or she grieving over some disaster? Then find a picture of him or her with a drink in their hand…
Proof Positive
Recall the picture of disgraced former ambassador to the US, Peter Mandelson, peeing against a wall – which of us hasn’t had an “al fresco pee” at some time or another? Yet the photograph carried an implication – that Mandelson should somehow be displaying repentance for his sins, some gravitas.
It’s an unfair world. Most of us would plead guilty to passing judgement, without evidence, on the people we know and the celebrities we don’t. The consequences are unlikely to be as dramatic or as cruel as what happened to Alexei Navalny, but they can nevertheless be devastating for those who end up with ruined reputations.
Consider the villain Iago’s words in Shakespeare’s Othello:
“Who steals my purse steals trash.
’Tis something, nothing;
’Twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousands;
But he who filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him
And makes me poor indeed.”Thought for the Day
Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity…
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