Cancel Culture

Cancel culture. What is it? Where did it come from? Should we care? I'll keep this as brief as possible.

It has become a 21st century social phenomenon, whereby a conscious 'collective' decision is made to call out and/or censor (i.e. block or remove) an individual or group or their cultural legacy (books, records, paintings, plays etc), even historical associations (place names, commemorative artefacts) from the public domain on account of association, attitude or content that the 'collective' finds unacceptable. 

As a term it appears to have gained popularity with the rise to ubiquity of social media platforms like Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter. Billions of people now have the opportunity to express and share their opinions online, to be influenced by what they read on these platforms and to gang up.

In one sense it is nothing new. Social pressure (as opposed to state diktat) has 'cancelled' artists and their works in the past - for instance the mass burning of Beatles records in America's bible belt in 1966 following the mis-reported comments by Lennon about the popularity of The Beatles compared to Jesus, or the backlash against Cat Stevens (a Muslim convert) when it was reported in 1989 that he supported the death fatwa against Salman Rushdie, after which fellow musicians stopped covering his songs, radio stations removed him from playlists, stores stopped selling his records. What is new is the scale, scope and speed of 'cancellations' in recent years, which  has been remarkable. Here's a short list of examples:

Musicians The Dixie Chicks had their career 'cancelled' after one of their number publicly criticised the President. Stores pulled their records, promoters boycotted them and fans deserted them, leaving the group out in the cold.

Film producer Harvey Weinstein had his career 'cancelled' by the MeToo movement that called him out for historical sexual impropriety. He was jailed for 23 years and has had his honorary CBE rescinded.

Author J.K.Rowling caused a bit of a stir with comments about transgender rights and gender identity. Some have accused her of transphobia. Many wanted her 'cancelled', have said they will never read a Harry Potter book again and some would even "unread the ones I've read if I could."

NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick chose to kneel during the American national anthem as a protest against racial injustice (the start of the recent 'take the knee' movement). He was effectively 'cancelled' by the NFL for his stance and hasn't played since.

Broadcaster Joe Rogan was perceived to be putting out anti-vax propaganda on his Spotify podcasts. Various artists (including Neil Young and Joni Mitchell) withdrew their music from Spotify in an effort to get Rogan 'cancelled'. Spotify didn't ban him but they did remove a couple of episodes and fronted the rest with disclaimers.

Imperialist Cecil Rhodes had statues of himself 'cancelled' when students in Cape Town and Oxford voted to have the memorials removed on account of his historical exploitation of native South Africans.

So-called politician Donald Trump found himself 'cancelled' by both Facebook and Twitter who blocked him after he used his social media platforms to incite insurrection on 6th January 2020.

Actress Jodie Comer found there was a clamour for her to be 'cancelled' (no more 'Villanelle ') because by coincidence her boyfriend had the same name as an outspoken Trump supporter. That's as tenuous and as silly as it gets in an age of disinformation and lack of accountability.

Cancel culture is just part of the new social media maelstrom feeding frenzy that includes terms like 'snowflake', 'virtue signalling' and 'woke', all of which have gained currency in the last five years and are used pejoratively by those on the right against those on the left of the socio-political spectrum who are perceived to be the ones doing much - but by no means all - of the 'cancelling'. And while some of what goes on is little more than the equivalent of toddler temper tantrums by people who won't take the time or don't have the inclination to establish the facts and reach an informed opinion, some of it is a legitimate reassessment of the past in terms of the changing social values of the present; history up for reappraisal. However, we should be worried by some of the implications.

Of course the exponential reach of social media via mobile internet devices has widened out a complex debate around free speech, the ownership, control and manipulation of modes of communication, the accountability and responsibility of platforms for monitoring content that is posted online, as well as issues of how to spot and take down content that breaks the law (from hate speech to pornography), and to what extent it is acceptable to rewrite the past.

Someone once described television (in somewhat extreme terms) as "an open sewer running through the living room". At least it is channelled and regulated. Compared to TV, social media is more like shit being thrown at a fan! I'm not opposed to the technology. Its accessibility and universality make it a great facility if used sensibly. It's a dynamic situation that needs maturity and a degree of shaping. The fact that social media is full of fake accounts and fake news is a serious issue for our fragile democracy and the new media barons are no more to be trusted unequivocally than the old ones. Witch trials and the engendering of a lynch mentality appear to have moved online in recent years and are factors in the growth of cancel culture at both ends of the spectrum. The feverish clamour to denounce great works of art or culture just because it appears their creators had something "unacceptable" in their make-up (Beethoven was a revolutionary, Lewis Carroll and JD Salinger liked young girls, Eric Clapton supported Enoch Powell's 'Keep Britain White' stance) should be viewed with a degree of scepticism.

I would suggest the response required from platform providers and governments is open and democratic moderation, with accredited and verified users and enforceable accountability for what is posted. And when it comes to us, the masses, it would be nice to think that such a facility might in time lead to a more nuanced and intelligent debate, might broaden minds rather than narrow them, might create a more generous general public.

Talking of  'cancellations', finally that bullying, mendacious, misogynistic narcissist has been forced to resign as PM - the worst in living memory - though for a while it looked like he might be summoning "the fourteen million who voted for me" Trump-style to metaphorically storm the capital and demand he stays, except that opinion polls suggest at least half of those fourteen million have come to their senses and now realise what a total liability Johnson is. A shame it took so long.

Goodbye Boris Johnson*

Your Oxfordshire bedroom was red white and blue

You were never short of a golden guinea or two

Your school rugby team was called The Collegers

You changed mistresses when it suited you

   Gave you a smug, thuggish sort of feeling

   The joke was always on us

You had a music box played I'm The Main Man

Your favourite building was Chequers

Your favourite food was cake with champagne

Your favourite Christmas song was Little Donkeys

   Gave you a smug, thuggish sort of feeling

   The joke was always on us

Your favourite person was Alexander Boris de Pfeffel

You won Number Ten playing poker with the voters

Your favourite lie was 'I never knowingly lie'

You didn't give a shit and you never wiped your arse

   Gave you a smug, thuggish sort of feeling

   The joke was always on us

* after Adrian Mitchell's 'Goodbye Richard Nixon '. I was seriously tempted to title the poem Fuck Off Boris Johnson, but that would have strayed too far from pure pastiche. 

Thanks for reading, S ;-)