“It’ll all work out. It’s only politics, and what has that got to do with us?” - Sally Bowles in the hauntingly ominous finale of John Kander and Fred Ebb’s musical Cabaret.
Chester, UK – As the Cabaret characters stare ambiguously out into the auditorium, the audience knows what comes next for our painfully ignorant protagonists – the most destructive war and devastating racial massacre in history.
This statement is supposed to be ironic, but I fear it’s all too true with many people nowadays. People are alienated with politics, and that’s a dangerous way to live.
Too often, when I ask people for opinions on all the chaos of the past weeks, a comment about not following the news will ensue.
Alongside the ever-increasing fake news, this feels like a factor in the racist attacks that have been rampant across the UK. Shop looting, destruction and violent rallies have all held the headlines of the morning and evening for the past few weeks.
Just over a week ago, vandals burned and ransacked a public library in Liverpool, a city near my hometown.
If we don’t engage in politics, we leave the decision making and knowledge in the hands of a select minority, who can manipulate the way we see things.
Transparency is in crisis.
“They’re just children. Mischievous children on their way to school, you understand?” - Cabaret’s Jewish fruit seller Herr Schultz, when discussing having bricks thrown through his windows.
I want to believe that the huge number of people who took part in the violence can’t all be racists. They must have been good people, who are misinformed by a much smaller number of bad people. Rather like immature children, throwing bricks to impress their friends, but later maturing into adults.
But like Herr Schultz’ line above, it’s wishful thinking. Fear, generated by hatred and misinformation, has in turn generated hatred and misinformation in a grotesque cycle that has spiralled out of control.
We blame the internet for corrupting people with unfound accusations that lead to fear and anger. But fear and anger have consequences themselves. It’s hard to understand the only way to tackle this mass hatred is by harsh accountability.
Yet perhaps the most unpleasant realization comes through this much-needed accountability: the sheer number of people who were active in wanting to destroy others.
“And I was dancing with Sally Bowles. And we were both fast asleep.” - Cliff Bradshaw in the opening lines of his novel, which signal the beginning of the end to this musical.
I feel like I was fast asleep to what was happening. But now I realize that the alarm clock had been beeping for some time before I actually awoke.
How could I have missed the noise?
Maybe its first beep came after our general election, when the right-wing, nationalist political party Reform UK – which takes an unforgiving and harsh stance on immigration – accumulated over 4 million votes, the third highest for vote-share of all the parties.
But the beep that finally woke us came after the stabbings in Southport. On July 29, Axel Rudakubana, police say, targeted a Taylor Swift-themed dance and yoga class, and killed three little girls and injured many others.
Quickly, false information that the suspect was a Muslim immigrant spread like wildfire online, and the next night hundreds of people descended onto Southport and attacked a mosque. What came next was a multitude of racially motivated violence in Britain.
But where some describe Southport as the cause of this, I now realize that Southport was a catalyst, not a cause. This had been coming for a time, and we were all fast asleep.
But unlike the unsuspecting characters of Cabaret, I feel we can have hope that this will pass.
Searching for the good
Fury at seeing hateful rioters trying to destroy lives because of the pretentious excuse of race has been shared widely. The anti-racist activists, who led counter-protests and pushbacks to the thuggery, have shown that we amongst all the bad, there is good.
As I detailed in my earlier work about Liverpool’s library, a citizen-organized fundraiser set up to repair the damage quickly flew above and beyond its original financial target. It is so heartening to see a community coming together to resist hate, and pulling in support from people all over the country.
It is too easy to stay ignorant and comfortable, oblivious to the signs that surround us, blaringly bright in our faces. But the resistance and pushback that has arisen in response gives me reason to hope that this will end and never escalate to such extremes again.
Something said by Spellow Library fundraiser Alex McCormick stuck in my head after we spoke.
“We can’t deny that there is badness happening. But for all of that badness there has been so much positivity, so much light, so much community. I think it just goes to show that people will rally in situations like this. The good people will always come together.”
And I hope, sincerely hope, that she’s right.
Gemma Christie is a Senior Reporter with Youth Journalism International.
