Is it just me, or are our politicians waxing ever more millenarian? The image of 'Mintoff the saviour of Malta' rings redemptively subtle compared with the 20-year plans, the 100 harbour projects, the bridge that will last a 100 years. And, of course, the visions.
The Prime Minister no longer does plain politics. Instead, and much like the Maid of Orleans, he entertains a 'vision' - for his personal sake at least, let us hope with less singeing results. There will be more of this, and more quinquennial potlatch (which we may as well enjoy, given its rarity) in the weeks to come. For these couple of weeks though, 'tis the season to ply a different rhetoric.
While the usual fare is all about change and exciting new times ahead, Christmas messages focus for some reason on tradition, homeliness, and resisting change. In an inversion of Tancredi's famous quip in The Leopard, we are assured that, 'If things are to change, many things have to stay as they are'. The latter being values, which we are invited to cherish because 'they make us Maltese'.
Let us say that the issue of what makes us Maltese belongs to the past, to a time when we had to choose what to put on our euro coins (the lampuki and crabs cleverly sidestepped that one). The problem remains that while everybody lectures us constantly about values, very few ever find the time to tell us what these values actually are.
The sociologist Anthony Giddens defines values as 'ideas held by human individuals or groups about what is desirable, proper, good or bad'. A very broad definition which, unless fleshed out by an indication at least as to what these ideas are, must remain vague and vacantly rhetorical when applied to real-life situations. Ah, but it is not any old values we're talking about - it's family values and the value of solidarity.
Solidarity, how about that. I'm sure it's just me this time, but I find it hard to bond with an apostle of solidarity who has a hearty fire crackling behind him while common mortals are lugging gas cylinders around. Or worse, trying to keep their belongings from getting soaked because all they've been provided in the land of solidarity is a lousy tent.
With respect to family values, the nauseating cliché is that 'we Maltese still hold family values close to our heart'. Of course we do. So say most people in all of the places I've been to and/or read about. The fact that our model of the family appears to be the best is simply the comfort of the familiar, in Malta as everywhere else. It is also highly inconsonant to harp on about traditional family values while extolling the great changes the country is going through - presumably, kinship structures and socio-economic cataclysm are related. And anyway, we still haven't said what these traditional family values are.
It follows logically that the most convincing Christmas message was the Archbishop's. First, there was no fireplace. Second, he told us, among other things and in plain language, to avoid extramarital affairs. He also gave us what he rightly called 'practical suggestions' on how to live. That's tangible, it's something to call desirable, proper, good or bad. Something to cherish or scorn. Therefore it is a value.
Taking things too seriously is not a virtue. Doing the same with words, especially those produced by politicians at Christmas, is probably even less wise. At the same time, I can't help thinking that empty rhetoric is fast becoming the bane of Maltese politics. It may have worked in a time when people went to Church twice a day to take part in something they didn't understand. Not any more.
The role played by language as part of ritual is very special and circumscribed; everyday notions of 'meaning' simply do not apply to it. Since Vatican Council II, church altars have been redesigned and Latin dethroned. Not so with local politics. Increasingly, I find that people are bashing politicians and becoming alienated from the whole game simply because they can't stand the hot air. This is what former British Prime Minister John Major failed to understand with his 'back to basics' rhetoric, which has now become a politics textbook case of what to avoid.
To say that our politicians are generally a flop would be both unfair and inaccurate. It's just that it would be nice to hear them address us as thinking adults. They are perfectly capable of doing so. I met someone the other day who had just had a home visit by a politician. 'You know', he told me, 'she is actually an intelligent person'.
mafalzon@hotmail.com