The Case for Apathy?

Lurching into our line of sight again like a soiled hobo staggers the distasteful spectacle of the MPs expenses saga, thanks to Sir Thomas Legg's report. And we, like embarrassed onlookers, are posed again with the moral dilemma as to how we should feel about this degrading display. Are we angry? Ashamed of our fellow humanity? Or do we wish it would just piss off and leave us alone?

The idea that MPs are on the make in order to top-up what they consider to be their insufficient salaries is pretty insulting. £64,766 not enough to pay for your hobnobs? Aw, poor love. But it's how crushingly predictable the typical MP's response is that usually results in my having to be restrained from hurling objects and nearby animals at the television.

Mr Career-Politician [with little furrows of concern on his forehead to stress just how earnest he is]:

"I understand the public anger completely, and in fact I have tried hard since being elected to change this system, and I think this a very important inquiry, and that's why I blah blah blah."

It's almost cheering to hear that some cheeky bastards are threatening to defy the inquiry: maybe they've got a point - the system let them get away with it for years, who wouldn't screw extra money out of the public purse given the chance? At least it's more dignified than listening to Alan Duncan say with sincerity that "the whole house of commons needs to apologise for the mess that has arisen" only days after a cringe worthy (and frankly disturbing) appearance on Have I Got News For You where he bragged like a smug, dim-witted little tit about the "fabulous system" that allowed him to claim for a second home.

But as a public we've been battered into submission, into accepting this barefaced bullshit as a fact of life, to accept that MPs talk to us in doublespeak that no-one else would even consider using. When did they get like this? I don't mean historically, I mean as individuals. Are they taught on day one at Westminster? Presumably it's the same PR agency that advises footballers and their managers on how to handle the media: whereby post-match interviews become a remarkable study in speaking for minutes at a time without relaying a single piece of information; and the same agency that tutors reality TV stars in the dark-arts of how, following an extended period of doing absolutely nothing at all except play degrading games for the benefit of a braying public, to then talk about their 'personal journeys' and how they've 'really grown as a person'. Where else could you get away with speaking this appalling nonsense without being hounded out of town by an enraged mob imploring "please stop that, that's bollocks"?

It can't be healthy for us to have grown so accustomed to seeing politicians get away with such barefaced dishonesty. And yet it goes on right in front of us every day and we don't even blink: liars and thieves barely preventing themselves from shrilly giggling "look at what I'm getting away with, it's fucking unbelievable!" as they sail off for a term as president of the EU.

And breath. I'm all worked up and pissed-off now, and with little-to-no-chance of resolving any of the things that lead me to question our position at the top of the evolutionary tree. And look at all of those lot sat over there reading OK Magazine, sat there with nay a bother in the world. Tony who? Hmm.

Perhaps what appears to be apathy is in fact a well developed psychological defense mechanism? How fucking depressing.