… “Because that’s what they do…” Katy French and socialites. Drugs and Irish society December 9, 2007
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Social Policy, Society.trackback
It’s almost self-evident to suggest that the death of Katy French, a personal tragedy for her and her family and friends, is in tangled in a web of societal processes. It is this last which is both tragedy and indictment of a society where despite lip service to egalitarianism there is a continuing dynamic to generate a layer of people whose claim to fame is just that… fame. Achievements that in any other age would appear threadbare or incomprehensible in their meaninglessness are reified. “Lingerie model”? “Socialite”? “Man about town”? One doesn’t have to take recourse in the puritanical and hypocritical terms ‘decadent’ and ‘hedonist’ to see that something is wrong somewhere. But then, something is always wrong somewhere. Blanche Dubois (played in the photo above by Vivien Leigh) was a socialite too… and Tennessee Williams was making his own points about emptiness and self-loathing back when that was written.
And as someone said to me yesterday, these things happen because, as with Pete Doherty, or Kate Moss or (insert name at random depending on your choice) this is ‘what they do’. Caught somewhere between being performing bears and gladiators these ‘celebrities’ live lives that only the most incoherent could find exemplary. Who would be Doherty, Moss or Winehouse? Well, thousands upon thousands apparently. Their travails are tracked with a forensic precision by the media that puts to shame investigative journalism in other areas. And the templates are so obvious, so pointless. But where once the media light would have shone upon them in a hypocritical (if only because it was so partial) fashion, now there is a sense of the complicit…
An innocent? Perhaps. We’re all innocent, or we’re all guilty. Culpability isn’t easy to measure. Not for nothing does Christianity leave final judgement until we’ve departed the scene. But she was innocent, and yet deeply implicated in a system of measurement of worth. Worth that somehow is best expressed only when you have television, or Sunday magazine coverage, or attend parties that are deemed by a self-selecting crowd to be attended by ’socialites’, in order, one suspects simply to distinguish them from the not in any sense different proles… who also have most if not all of the material comforts of this age. The distinctions might be - to you and me - difficult to discern, but they are what ensure column inches and a certain worth in the eyes of those I suspect you or I might detest. And after all, if someone inhales lines of coke, or whatever, doesn’t that distinguish them even better from the working class estates… Well no. Objectively - to use the old political term - not.
Which leads me to a subject that is connected with celebrity but also distinct. In a good editorial in the Irish Times yesterday there was a sober reflection on the contemporary situation as regards drugs. It pointed to the complete disconnect - particularly in the middle class - between those who use cocaine and other substances and the route such substances take to get here or the wider social ramifications. It almost blamed increasing wealth, which is certainly part of the issue - although it seems to me we’re just playing catch-up really with the rest of the West. It noted that personal responsibility enters into the equation. It also proposed that this was a factor - again particularly in the middle class - which was very recent, perhaps a decade or so.
There is an element of truth in this, but also a fair bit of ignorance or self-deception. The suburbs were awash with cannabis in 1980 and that tide has never retreated. Having said that the mortality rate from cannabis is low (although not entirely non-existent).
There is no greater myth than that of middle class exceptionalism. And yet the truth is that the middle class and the working class use exactly the same drugs. No real difference - except, perhaps, in varying quantities dependent upon income. Nothing remarkable or odd about it.
I’m strongly antagonistic to drug-taking in this society as it is presently structured. I see no point in libertarian excursions - which instinctively I cleave to even on this issue - when it would simply be a case of ‘legal drugs in one country’. Drug use is such a waste of time, an obstacle to the next thing that has to be done. Never trust a junkie. Yep, learned that lesson myself long ago. Never trust a cocaine user. Hardly news to me - and worse again, the boring boring conversations one is subjected to. One might hope that the left would be instinctively averse to those who use the drug which some wag quipped was ‘God’s way of telling you you have too much money’. But it appears that this is not so. And part of that is a sensible response, in that cannabis usage is beyond legal control now so might as well be tolerated - if not sanctioned. That pass was lost long ago. Let’s move on.
But where? And what comes next? Nothing. A big void. There is no answer, whether on the policing side in a context where to seriously lock down such activities the trade-offs with civil liberties would not be countenanced. Nor is there a solution on the libertarian side. Sure, we could legalise all drugs, or even some. But the production of same would - largely - still be within an illegal process in extra-territorial terms, and we might expect some fairly grim unintended consequences, not least being a pull effect from other less liberal polities.
So, until there is a significant international change of opinion on this matter we are set for more of the same. But still, I think that fingers can, and should, be pointed to social processes where young women (and men) are pushed into the same treadmill that Katy French embarked upon. Run, run, run for as long as the media loves you. Not much of an epitaph. Not ‘Ireland’s Princess Di’. Just another statistic in a year racking them up. And the idea, as mooted in yesterday’s Irish Times that somehow the events of recent days would serve as some sort of ‘wake-up call’ is so unlikely as to be hardly worth considering. Any suggestions?
All good WBS - but looking at this on the micro scale where all tradegy realy exisits the role of a certain formerly fat journalist in this foolish young woman’s demise needs to be exaimed. What role this formerly fat journalist has in generally debasing Irish media is intresting. To want extent he is copying a deeply troubled older man is also intresting.
See the question here as I see it is a societal one. Empty-headed wannabe starlets take drugs. The media follows their decline. And if we - and the media - are lucky they die. At that’s it. Presented as a personal story in personal terms. When in reality, drugs are connected to a wide range of social problems, not least terrorists in the north. Yet this is all ignored precisely because it is the middle classes doing it. Well maybe if some of the social problems caused were brought more to their doors, things might improve. IA senior London Metropolitan police officer said something very similar recently. If the cops can see it, what’s the problem with the Left? Idiocy. And quite often a disconnect from the working class communities they seek to speak on behalf of.
Can someone please tell me who Pete is on about? I really don’t follow this stuff much, but all his little hints have got me curious.
Pete, I hadn’t been checking out the rumours, but I agree that there is a micro and a macro scale to this… both have to be examined, as you say.
Garibaldy, I’d agree with much of what you’re saying. The Left has… for various reasons… often been hot and cold on the interface between the criminal and social issues - and one which has often led to a false (or at least unuseful) antagonism to the police. Again, libertarian instincts view with others. But yes, there is a certain hypocrisy in a media that screams about criminality and yet which contains elements who are more than happy to indulge their own vices…
As I say, I think the pass has been sold on cannabis, whether anything can be done to haul back cocaine is a different matter. Social acceptability is difficult to unwind.
Ideally - and this is my meta view on this - none of this would be our business. People could indulge as much as they like. And that’s a seductive message. But in a world where people have social networks, children and/or responsibilities to other people, the broader social aspects of drug use can be very difficult to disentangle from societal impacts. Thrown in deprivation - or indeed extravagant disposable incomes and unfettered drug usage becomes a curse… not to mention the specific impacts of specific types of drugs. Hence, I have a goal of a more libertarian endpoint, but a specific one of tight control until or unless the situation globally changes.
I don’t know Wednesday, although I’ll be some thread on P.ie will explain all…
Subtle WBS. I have in fact seen that thread.
I have to say that I don’t think something as destructive physically as heroin or cocaine and crack can be treated as just something that people should be allowed to take or not take according to their own wishes for exactly the reasons you outline. Never mind the implications politically of a working class out of its mind on drugs. Whose interests would that serve? The whole libertarian thing to my mind on this issue is a red herring. For health, societal, and political reasons, the left should not have a pro-tolerance policy on drugs. Surely the tradition of self-improvement and self-education, of devloping dignity and self-respect among working people goes against tolerance for drugs?
In terms of practical solutions. Arrest everyone caught with drugs, make them do community service to clean up council estates, or sewers or whatever, and I guarantee you either the law would be changed or attitudes would, especially among the irresponsibly, Gordon Gekko-type rich halfwits, and the airhead popstar wannabes.
A coroner in England last Wednesday ruled that “flamboyant fashion director” Isabella Blow killed herself by drinking half a pint of weedkiller.
According to The Independent (London, Thursday), the inquest heard how she was suffering from depression and was deeply concerned about her “waning celebrity status”.
The Establishment media has a real responsibility in this in their exploitation of the cult of celebrity: it builds people up, piles the pressure on them, knocks them down, and then feeds for days off their deaths.
Isabella Blow was an interesting character, but a terribly sad person. How do I know both those things? Because of the media. Are they true? Well the first is - to a degree. I cannot tell if the second is. And I think that validates your point entirely Leveller…
the left should not have a pro-tolerance policy on drugs.
If, for nothing else, the fact that the drug trade is the conditon to which all capitalism must aspire; no pesky unions at the production end, no consumer rights at the retail end, no tax, huge margins…..
I have to say that I don’t think something as destructive physically as heroin or cocaine and crack can be treated as just something that people should be allowed to take or not take according to their own wishes…
Whatever you think, Garibaldy, many people do take them, and will go on taking them. And some people who take them seem to live reasonably happy, healthy, productive lives, for many years. Especially if they’re not short of money.
And why are you not railing against alcohol?
Surely the tradition of self-improvement and self-education, of devloping dignity and self-respect among working people goes against tolerance for drugs?
Yes, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be legalized. Legalization doesn’t mean approval. On the contrary, if those drugs are legalized, the authorities will have a reliable source of funding for drug awareness programmes. At present, young people grow up in abject ignorance about drugs. Many of them are incapable of making an informed choice about taking drugs; they haven’t been informed. So they’re easily persuaded that there’s no big risk…
Talk to Gardai, or police anywhere in the western world. They’ll tell you that we’re not winning “the war on drugs”. So what’s the point of throwing more money at useless law enforcement, filling jails with people who are not a threat, crop eradication programmes in Colombia, Afghanistan, etc. (spraying Monsanto’s Roundup chemical from the air…), and so on? Next we’ll hear that Ireland needs to spend so many billion Euro on coast guard patrol vessels to ensure drugs are not landed.
And who believes in free trade? What about the right of those farmers in Colombia and Afghanistan to sell the stuff they grow, especially when there’s a huge demand for it throughout the world?
Whom would you prefer in control of the drugs trade — gangsters+CIA, or your elected government? Is the answer not obvious? Let people buy their drugs from government-controlled outlets. The druggies will get a quality product that won’t poison them unexpectedly, and ordinary people won’t be plagued by drug-dealers.
What amazes me most about all this is the conspiracy of silence among politicians. Why is no politician willing to articulate the above arguments?
I’m well aware people will continue to take them. It’s the societal, and political, effects that I’m concerned with. A society with easy access to hard drugs is a reciple for disaster. And most people know that. Which is why no politician will make the argument you outline.
Note above I did not say throw people in jail. Make them do community service, eat into their leisure time, and do it for huge numbers of people, especially the well off, and you’ll see change.
As for alcohol, or cigarettes, they’re already legal so are different.
Did you see our man on the telly last night. Salivating all over some other poor young hopeful. How long will our national broadcaster allowing this sick corrupter a free run to prev away – see he is also mocking his ‘cocoa’ use in his publication. Why have people allowed this in your face mockery of anything decent by this thing to go on till he play a role in the death of a largely innocent?
The focus on ‘middle class’ coke use ignores the reality that it is a factor in the mindless stupidity of aggression on our streets. Drunks have always caused trouble but some of the sheer brutality of people getting kicked in is due to hyped up coke heads. A related piece is up on Splintered Sunrise on Belfast aggro. To be honest I was never likely to meet Katy French on a night out. I do however meet teenage dickheads all the time.
That’s fair enough Ed. But notice that the media hates the teenage dickheads and excoriates them, while putting up sympathy notices for the likes of Katy French.
There’s more background info on the drugs trade — and many other issues — on this page in the Guardian today:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2226004,00.html
That’s Simon Jenkins’ article about Afghanistan and the many interesting comments.
[...] suppose though that it does illustrate some aspects of our modern Irish society. WorldbyStorm has already reflected on this, but there are one or two things I think might be worth flagging up. [...]
“It’s the societal, and political, effects that I’m concerned with. A society with easy access to hard drugs is a reciple for disaster.”
Two claims keep getting made in media discussions on this topic. The first is that recreational drugs are supremely dangerous or harmful. The second is that recreational drug-use in Irish society is extremely common and that access to such drugs is easy and widespread.
I find it very difficult to see how both these claims can be true.