In recent months one has been unable to tune into the news, open a twitter stream or, if one is still part of their now diminishing audience, a newspaper, without further encountering more testimony about the abuses visited upon women by men in positions of power. Many of the accounts of what has taken place are deeply shaming upon those accused (and for those who regard it all as just a bit of fun, try thinking of it in the context of it happening to your daughter); whilst the condemnation that has followed has it seems been wholly justified, it has been accompanied by the unattractive spectacle of (mostly) male celebrities clambering over one another to voice their shock, horror and disgust. The result of this leaves one with the feeling that their revulsion may in some cases be rather more about distancing themselves from contamination by those they had in many cases once known as friends, rather than a genuine desire to voice their support for those they have abused.
The recent shooting at the Parkland School in Florida has brought a timely reminder that these acts of self-preservation are not confined to the debate on sexism. The actor Liam Neeson offers up a glorious example of the epic lack of self-awareness which can result from spending one’s days being cocooned in a fur lined papoose comprised of yes people telling you how wonderful you are. When invited to give his opinion upon the appalling levels of gun crime in the United States he said: “Gun culture is a fuc**ng disgrace”. This is the Liam Neeson of course who has earned an estimated 80 million dollars from the Taken franchise of films. Those whose taste in movies lies a little above plot lines which are utter bollocks and dialogue that does not let the plot down, will probably have given the three episodes of Taken thus far produced a miss. To cut a tediously long story short each can be summed up as follows. Man loses his daughter and wife to kidnappers and then gets them back. This is all interspersed with levels of violence, much of it meted out with the use of, you’ve guessed it, guns. An estimate of how many of Neeson’s enemies are dispatched by our man’s natty way with automatic weapons runs at around 50. The tragedy of all this is that anyone should have thought what this absurd figure has to say on so important a subject of sufficient interest to give it air time. The second is that were Neeson actually bothered about the gun culture of the US, he would disavow appearing in films which directly contribute to it and take a public stand against the proliferation of firearms in his adopted country. Now that would be a bandwagon worth getting a ride on.