Watching the Detectives: King of the Cops

From the very early days of television, the police have been an endless source of inspiration for programme makers in the UK and US and some of the most memorable characters within the popular imagination have been detectives. 

There are still plenty of cop shows on TV, but these days they take themselves very seriously and expect viewers to do so as well; no longer just about catching the bad guys, these crime dramas deal with issues and are often morally ambiguous to the point that you no longer know who to root for. 

Personally, I prefer watching cops who have catchphrases and lollipops rather than psychological problems; the sort of characters that English impressionist Billy Howard gently poked fun at in his top ten single King of the Cops (1975): Kojak, Cannon, Columbo, et al.   

It's impossible to imagine a similar record being released today. For not only are impressionists no longer in vogue in the way they were in the 1970s - Mike Yarwood was a huge star throughout the decade and the ITV sketch show Who Do You Do? ran for five series between 1972-76 - but, as already noted, cop shows just aren't much fun any longer. 

Indeed, I'm tempted to ask: Is anything more carefree in 2019 than in 1974? 

TV, music, film, sport and pretty much everything else - even politics - seemed so much more joyous back then and I would still rather watch re-runs of The Rockford Files or Starsky and Hutch, than Line of Duty and I really don't think this is simply nostalgia on my part; something has significantly changed within popular culture (and not for the better).    

Play: Billy Howard, King of the Cops (Penny Farthing, 1975): click here. 

 

In Memory of Tara Fares (Notes on Fanaticism)

Tara Fares on Instagram / Photo by Omar Moner

Tara Fares, the Iraqi beauty queen and outspoken social media star, has been shot dead in Baghdad by unknown assailants, after receiving a series of vile threats on her life. She was 22. A spokesperson for the Ministry of the Interior promises an investigation - but we all know why she was murdered and by whom.  

Her death comes just days after the murder of Suad al-Ali, an Iraqi human rights activist who was shot and killed in the southern city of Basra. Again, whilst the gunman has so far been unidentified, one doesn't have to be Columbo to crack this case.  

When men enthusiastically put their most cherished ideals and beliefs into action, the result is all too often bloody; history is nothing but this violent trajectory. As Cioran says: "Once a man loses his faculty of indifference he becomes a potential murderer; once he transforms his idea into a god the consequences are incalculable."    

Cries of religious ecstasy and shouts of devotion are echoed in the moans of victims. And blood always flows when epileptics and ideologues - primed with explosive conviction - insist their way is the way; "firm resolve draws the dagger; fiery eyes presage slaughter".

To live peacefully and happily requires learning how to curb enthusiasm and counter all certitudes, absolutes and convictions with irony and a smiling insouciance. For if the former ideals are allowed to contaminate the soul, the result is fanaticism: that fundamental human defect which instills in us the desire for truth and terror.

To quote Cioran once more:

"Only the skeptics (or idlers or aesthetes) escape, because they propose nothing, because they [...] undermine fanaticism's purpose, analyse its frenzy. I feel safer with a Pyrrho than with a Saint Paul, for a jesting wisdom is gentler than an unbridled sanctity. [...] What Diogenes was looking for with his lantern was an indifferent man ..."

He concludes:

"The fanatic is incorruptible: if he kills for an idea, he can just as well get himself killed for one; in either case, tyrant or martyr, he is a monster."

And that's why I prefer Instagram over Islam, fashion over faith ...

See: E. M. Cioran, A Short History of Decay, trans. Richard Howard, (Penguin Books, 2018). Lines quoted are from the section entitled 'Genealogy of Fanaticism' in chapter 1, 'Directions for Decomposition'.