If in the next weeks you find yourself bossed around by someone in a hazmat suit and mask with breathing thingies on the side, that's when you'll know things have started to get iffy. Photo / AP
If in the next weeks you find yourself bossed around by someone in a hazmat suit and mask with breathing thingies on the side, that's when you'll know things have started to get iffy. Photo / AP
A DOG'S LIFE
Perhaps I am just too blind to see them, or perhaps they have yet to manifest themselves, but so far in this pandemic I have seen no new accoutrements of power.
It was different in the Canterbury earthquakes. Then the new accoutrements of power became evident within days. They consistedof a clipboard, a hi-vis vest and a hard hat. I am not joking. If you had all three you could throw people out of their homes. And if your hard hat had a little light on it you could tell them to shoot the cat on the way out.
So firmly did these items sear themselves into the public mind that there were numerous examples of fraud. People in hi-vis vests knocked on doors, waved their clipboard, switched the light on their hard hat on and off and conned householders out of all sorts of things. But, as I say, I have yet to note any Covid 19 accoutrements.
Power uses accoutrements partly to identify itself and partly to exalt itself. In time the accoutrements take on the mantle of the power that they represent.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern introduces the new alert system for Covid 19 on March 21. So far most Kiwis seem happy to follow the lead of those they've put into power. Photo / NZME
The most obvious and ancient example is a crown. A crown is just a bad metal hat. It doesn't keep the rain off. It doesn't shade you from the sun. It doesn't keep you warm. But people fight to get their hands on it because it has acquired juju by association. It has become what it represents.
We are a hierarchical species and everywhere you look there are symbols of status. A car park attendant may get a badge or jacket to identify him and with it comes the power to enforce rules. Some attendants see that badge or jacket as a crown and they become despots on the instant.
We've all met them. They appoint themselves god-emperors of their carpark. They rule with anger and aggression. And there, right there, is the stain on the human soul, is our species' greatest flaw. We like power too much and we do not handle it well.
Power loves a uniform, and it loves it in two ways. The first way is a uniform for everybody else. You can see why in the roots of the word itself - a uniform reduces people to one form, to sameness. People in uniform become a single identity. A single identity is easy to control and to exploit. It has the deadly force of a mob.
Look at the Nuremberg rallies, Trump's rallies, May Day parades, North Korean choreography. All these things aim to subsume the individual into the whole. It's the oldest form of the consolidation of power.
Power's enemy is always the individual, the one who stands in front of the tank on Tiananmen Square, the independent voice. If power can silence that voice, then it can create, for a while at least, its own version of the truth. You can see Trump trying to do that every day.
Russia's Putin has managed to centralise all power in himself for the past 20 years. Trump is trying to do the same in the United States. Photo / AP
The other uniform power likes is the one it wears itself. This uniform is unique. It distinguishes the owner as the one above, the superior, the representative of all authority, even the authority of him upstairs. Consider the gear they dress the Pope in. Look at the kings, emperors and dictators in their military finery. They can barely move under the weight of gold braid and plumed hats and ceremonial swords, all the mighty accoutrements that say power resides here.
Here in New Zealand we chuckle at such absurdity because we live in a mature democracy, where power is wisely vested in the people. But democracy is far from being invulnerable. Consider Russia.
After 70 years of Soviet tyranny, Russia sought to become a democracy with all the best examples of the world to follow. But it has failed. Putin has managed to centralise all power in himself for the past 20 years. His political opponents have been imprisoned or killed. His political enablers have been enriched. And Trump is trying to do exactly the same in the States.
Power is volatile stuff. It does not like to be contained. It is always threatening to break out. And it is most likely to do so when society is under strain, as it is right now. But so far here in NZ we seem to be okay. We are happy to follow the lead of those we've put into power.
We'll know if we are not okay because those accoutrements will surface. If in the next few weeks you find yourself being bossed around by someone in a hazmat suit and a mask with little breathing thingies on the side, that's when you'll know things have started to get iffy.
