Sunday 4 November 2012

Charity ends at home

How distant that summer seems now. How absurd our dreams of utopia. As autumn brings wind, rain and darkened skies so too that symbolic torch of light seems to flicker and fade from our collective memory. It was always to be that way, of course, but could anyone have predicted such a sense of betrayal...?

The unmasking of Jimmy Savile strikes to the heart of a nation that seemed so sure of itself but a few months ago. The crimes of the man, as hateful and numerous as they are, only reveal part of the horror. More significant is the question of how this was allowed to happen?

The fact it was, for decades, and under the blind eye of one of our greatest and most celebrated public institutions, only adds to the sense of shame. Even more unnerving is the number of people claiming to have known, or at least suspected, his transgressions. Yet, to a man and woman, they never thought, or felt able, to unveil them.

This is the most frightening revelation. One man nesting himself in a protective cocoon of contacts so stymied by fear of his power and influence that none would speak against him; not dictator, nor terrorist but light entertainer!

Pillory Savile, pillory the BBC, rightly, but don't ignore that worm of the soul which allowed each of those individuals to ignore such crimes. Something not inherent to institutions or organisations but to the heart of everyman.

***

It's been a difficult time to call myself a Chelsea fan. A team that continues to employ John Terry, who, on the balance of probability, racially abused a fellow player. Many at the club ignore the facts to protect their own, citing his utter commitment on the pitch as if that mitigates against all.

Irrelevant, insignificant and further evidence of unwillingness to accept responsibility. Against Shaktar Donetsk in a recent Champions League match, Terry sported a captain's armband brandishing the logo of a registered charity campaigning to rid the game of that very ill which he had helped cultivate.

***

Charity. "His many years of work for charity". "The thousands of pounds he raised for charity". Celebrities who throw themselves so wholeheartedly into such an arena have always bothered me. Frankly, I question their motives. To erase the guilt of their own success? To shift focus from their otherwise considerable flaws? In Savile's case, it seems to be both these and worse - a convenient way to access the vulnerable.

Every year I bridle at the eagerness of our celebrity aristocracy to lend their services to Comic Relief or Children in Need, asking myself if altruism is just a myth?

By all means contribute money - anonymously; set up a foundation - anonymously; visit a homeless shelter without a camera crew following your every move.

Perhaps many do, I hope so, but when Savile's uncloaking follows so closely the rank exposure of cyclist Lance Armstrong as the most prolific cheater in sporting history - a man supposedly representing the values of his own 'Livestrong' campaign - it becomes the ultimate manifestation of those fears, embodied in men who were once acclaimed respectively as the greatest celebrity fundraiser and greatest sportsman of our time!

***

Just last weekend, I was in my local off licence. As I queued at the counter, ahead of me, a threatening and aggressive character begun tacitly abusing the young Asian man serving him. "I don't like him" he exclaimed to everyone and no one in particular; "he's different" he mumbled almost incoherently under his breath. The implication was abundantly clear.

Yet not one of us in that queue acted. No one called him to account, no one defended this poor man from the abuse he was receiving. I felt my cheeks blush and my blood boil but I too chose to turn my head away, ignoring that which I knew had taken place.

Who's responsible for Savile, Terry, Armstrong and their ills...?

I am.

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" - Often attributed to Edmund Burke

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