The Ever-Splendid-Silvia brought this sketch to my attention a few years back and it continues to be a favourite of mine. Fry is at his very best, wielding language to devastatingly hilarious effect.
There's one bit where Laurie questions Fry, saying: 'By demagoguery you mean...?' to which Fry replies: 'By demagoguery I mean ... demagoguery'.
You have to see it to appreciate it.
But what a terribly splendid word it is, and it's also closely related to another Greek word 'ochlocracy' - meaning a form of ruling by the masses, the power of passion over reason, a form of mob rule.
And it just struck me that, on reading the BBC news front page today, this is what John Sergeant was trying to avoid by quitting Strictly. And these are the flames that The Sun is fanning by erecting a headstone for 'Baby P' in the crematorium. And the same reason that mothers in Portsmouth threw bricks through the windows of paediatricians thinking they were paedophiles a few years back.
Not to mention that Diana woman.
But I suppose that because both these words come from Greek, and a long time ago at that, we're not exactly looking at a new phenomenon.
2 comments:
'Ochlocracy'.
Brilliant! This almost the word I was searching for in the pub when we were talking about the Brand/Ross uproar and the mad US Motril moms. And yes... that Diana woman. Almost.
But it's not about mob rule, I was thinking more about what it's called when something becomes a social phenomenon. Or a magnetic issue which attracts people like iron filings. Or indeed a social snowball. Does any of this makes sense?
It does indeed, and the closest I could come was demagoguery.
Mob rule's not the right phrase, but demagoguery's not far off. It's about issues that come from the public's emotional reaction to something that is disproportionate to reason. All very unquantifiable stuff, but it's getting there.
And ochlocracy is indeed a great word :-)
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