« reading Jonathan Franzen | Main | Finding scissors and Truth »
September 16, 2010
A milli-second is all it takes
This is a rather shocking tale, and one from which I'm still recovering.
I was at the Odeon cinema, in London's Leicester Square this week; but don't worry, I wasn't enjoying myself. I was there as a member of the press to consider the pros and cons of the Celibacy rule for Roman Catholic clergy. (Celibacy means abstaining from marriage; abstaining from sex is quite different obviously.)
The evening was divided into two parts. First there was to be a film, followed by a debate led by a panel of the great and good - and stand-up comedian Frank Skinner.
The film was excellent. It's called 'Conspiracy of silence' and is a good story well told about sexual hypocrisy in the Roman church. Beautifully shot, excellently scripted, top performances - and if you want a copy, go to www.conspiracyofsilence.co.uk. It will make a good evening's viewing.
But this is not a blog about the film, but about what happened between the film and the debate. I was sitting next to a woman I didn't know, and we started chatting, as you do. She was clearly a 'liberated catholic', pro-everything the Pope isn't, and very proud of the fact that she hasn't seen her priest in a dog collar for 16 years. She made positive noises about the Guardian and appeared right at the forefront of the liberal concensus. It's all going swimmingly, I thought. What can possibly go wrong? It's nice meeting new people, and always easier if there is some enlightenment in the air.
She looks at my press badge, and asks which paper I work for. I say I do most of my work for the Daily Mail.
Switch.
I can't convey in words what happened in that milli-second. But I went into it chatting happily, and a reasonably nice person, and came out of it, a figure of hate, shit on the pavement of life. She couldn't talk to me from then on. Before I had been a human, but now? I knew how the Jews felt. I'd been given a label, and now anything was legitimate.
She couldn't speak to me for the rest of the evening apart from one or two spiteful comments. I presume anything was fair now, given that I was no longer human, and she was way above me on some moral high ground that had suddenly appeared from nowhere.
Labels, eh?
I did mention that I was glad to see the Pharisees of Jesus' day had survived the centuries - 'I thank you Lord that I am not like them' - but words seemed fairly pointless amid the chilling wind of demonisation.
The good news is that Frank Skinner was a wonderful panellist, very funny and insightful too. At one stage during the debate he had to shout out 'Don't heckle the nun!' which he admitted was not a line he'd ever uttered before onstage.
Posted by Mr Bojangles at September 16, 2010 07:27 PM