Boris Johnson’s New Hairdo and the Rhetoric of our Times

 

I am a writer. I used to be reluctant to say that because I have a great deal of regard for writers, and I am by nature someone who thinks I am too small for whatever needs doing. In the sense I want to offer up today, we are all writers. A writer constructs narratives or stories. We all do that to make sense of our world. We need stories in which we can tuck all the troublesome details of everyday life so we can get on with things.

Boris Johnson was renowned for his singular narratives that were more expedient than factual long before he became prime minister. If I were an investigative journalistic kind of writer, I’d insert here references and examples. I’m telling a story so familiar to us all now that I don’t think that’s necessary. Despite knowing he told porkies—as my husband says—he managed to become Prime Minister. And that brings me to his hair—again I might properly insert here examples or references to expert opinion, but I hope without that we can agree for the moment that deliberately mussing up his hair was part of his, self-generated narrative—the part that was meant to say something like ‘Gosh, I may get it wrong sometimes, but I am just a guy trying to do my best for the team.’ And we were supposed to feel as if we were a team.

The team-based rhetoric has also been the narrative of the mainstream media. The news and the newspapers, where we could and should get more nuanced storytelling, report on Covid as if it were a sporting event. Every day we have scores—Covid cases, hospitalisations, deaths—always delivered with just the right emphasis to show some sympathy. As if to counter that, we have numbers of vaccinations and boosters, including a grand total of those vaccinated. Covid is the bad guy; those of us on the booster side are the good guys. As with the Olympics coverage, we are also regularly treated to vignettes of heroes or tragedies. It is, of course, much too simple. Dangerously simple.

That simplified story allows those not on the right team to be vilified. I actually heard someone say of a person not vaccinated who died of the disease that ‘he got what he deserved.’ It also precludes looking at the things we can do—in addition to the vaccinations—to protect ourselves and our loved ones—opening windows, staying home when we can, but most of all being kind to ourselves and to each other no matter what story we tell ourselves.

Truth, they say, is the first victim of war, and I think now the mainstream narrative is shifting to that of a war time drama. And it begins with Boris Johnson’s hair. Now that the ship he has not been steering for some time is sinking as the Covid scorecard gives the game away, he has combed his hair as if to say I am your captain and we will ride this out together. It will take more than a haircut to get this narrative to float, I think, but I am often befuddled by the stories people choose to tell themselves.

As a writer, I am starting here to construct a more inclusive narrative, and I urge you all to join in. No one asked for Covid; no one ‘deserves’ whatever the wily little collection of proteins dishes up. Scientists don’t have all the answers—nor is there a single ‘answer’ to any of the many questions raised by this pandemic. The government could have/should have done better. Public health has been underfunded with now drastic consequences, and we need all of us to be looking around with an eye for more complex narratives: beyond heroes and villains, winners and losers, and above all beyond any rhetoric that puts us at odds with each other.