Peering Behind The Headlines

One of the things I like about travelling abroad is that it disrupts routines and presents different perspectives, particularly when it comes to news and current affairs. Unfamiliar or random online news-feeds oblige you to see things from a different point of view: like the old gag that the Yorkshire Evening Post (had it existed in 1666) would have reported the Great Fire of London with the headline “Leeds Man Escapes Burning House”.

Despite the novelty of perspective, however, there is a disadvantage if, for example, you habitually follow the thread of political developments via particular news and current affairs media. When I returned to Manchester at the beginning of the week I slipped comfortably back into the habit of watching the seven o’clock news on Channel 4, as presented by the genial Jon Snow and his team. Much of the content comprises the manoeuvrings of politicians and makes sense only if followed continuously. But news, in a sense, is a continuum in so far as events comprise a series of developments connected as per interdependence theory. The connections may be too complex for us to comprehend fully and the presentation of news is likely to be edited subjectively in some degree or other but perhaps, one day, a supercomputer will be employed to sort it all out (another white-collar job bites the dust) and we may all get to see what really lies behind the headlines.

This week President Obama was seen shedding tears over the frequent mass-murders of Americans by fellow citizens. The footage may add weight to his plea for legislation to control the availability of guns - I hope it does - but even if he succeeds, the murders will continue: the guns are already out there. The pro and anti-gun lobbies may argue forever but they do not address the real issue: the shooters are people who have become so alienated and detached from society that they are without empathy. Society therefore has a problem which gun-control legislation will not resolve.

And, in London, headline news announced an increase in the use of knives to settle disputes between rival gangs. Some expressed outrage at the fact that lethally dangerous knives can be bought easily - some are even designed to appeal to gang members - and urged that steps should be taken to outlaw such weapons. Well, yes but, as with guns in the US, knives have been and always will be available to those who want them. Violent gang culture is due to a range of social factors which, although well known, are not being addressed adequately. A more insightful headline for the news would have been “It is a false economy to spend money passing legislation and enforcing the banning of knives while simultaneously cutting the resources available to social services dedicated to tackling the root cause of their mis-use.”

And North Korea, it was reported on Tuesday, has “successfully” exploded a hydrogen bomb. In doing so it employs the same tactics as the street-gangs of London: Kim Jong-un believes that the way to protect his interests is to cut up rough with the other gangs (i.e. nations). The concept of soft, economic power is, it seems, not an option and signing up to the International Non-Proliferation Treaty is a mug’s game (they withdrew from it in 2003).

Given that nations find it so difficult to identify and tackle root causes of conflict on the domestic front, the prospects for international agreement don’t look good at all. The North Korean state seems to bear a deep grudge against us which, along with its secretive and unpredictable politics, makes the fact of its Nazi-like dedication to militarism very scary. And talking of scary, take a look at the woman who announced the joyous news of the nuclear explosion. (Short video clip).