Discussing rubbish seriously

It was a pathetic mistake to give centre-stage to Norman Lowell's loopy Safi rantings on Bondiplus (TVM) last Tuesday.

The danger is this. This Bondiplus programme could easily be perceived by less informed or impressionable viewers as a sign of taking Mr Lowell seriously. For Lou Bondì to say, with a straight face, that the panel was discussing the "ideas" of Norman Lowell, or to say that a particularly disgusting racist Lowell exclamation should be considered "in greater detail", gave the programme a seriously ill-deserved gravitas. One simply cannot discuss rubbish seriously.

Fanatics and seriously deluded people are usually more capable of defending their delusions than a truthful person can defend the truth. Short of descending to their primitive way of reasoning, which is difficult, level-minded people (like Joanna Drake and Andrew Borg Cardona) are incapable of debating seriously with the likes of Norman Lowell as their delusions are based on a dangerous absence of logic and gullibility which is difficult to confront.

For this reason, even having one of Mr Lowell's acolytes, and not the man who was the subject of this absurd discussion, was a mistake. He was also somewhat capable of the sort of devious, illogical way of arguing his point at which Mr Lowell seems to excel. Mr Govè consequently appeared to run rings round Dr Borg Cardona and Dr Drake even though he was talking utter nonsense.

Fortunately Mr Govè came over, on the whole, as a vague, confused kid. But again, even with such an individual, one simply cannot discuss rubbish seriously.   

The programme did, nevertheless, have a certain perverse appeal. The extracts from Mr Lowell's performance in Safi allowed us another peep into the murky confusion inside his cranium. As usual, it was disappointing to find yet again that all he had to say was a load of superficial banalities. It was also obvious that our Mr Lowell must have spent a lot of time watching Hitler footage - he hasn't yet got it quite right,  but he is slowly getting there, and this is the worry.  

Let us hope that none of the viewers became infected with the dreaded NL virus as a result of this programme.