George Monbiot is absolutely spot-on to remind us of how a media pre-occupation with a cult of personality obscures the real issues and contains within it the danger of fascism (Our cult of personality is leaving real life in the shade, Journal, 3 October). In Brecht’s play, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, about the rise of a small-town hoodlum to become a powerful leader, there is the wonderful scene, based on a true account about Hitler’s early life, of him being coached by a ham actor in how to project himself in order to win over a mass audience.
Just imagine if Hitler and Goebbels had had television and social media at their disposal? The Guardian, though, is itself guilty of helping to create such personality cults. Two days running now we have had big pictures of Boris “buffoon” Johnson on the front page. The same cult was concocted around Nigel Farage, and no doubt helped boost the success of Ukip and the Brexit outcome.
My only carp about Monbiot’s piece is that he implicitly maligns the real actors out there. It is not they who are placed centre stage, but so-called celebrities, airhead individuals famous for being media idols and nothing else. I wouldn’t mind interviews with serious and intelligent actors.
John Green
London
• While George Monbiot describes how the world should be, I am afraid the real world is different. If the Guardian did not include a big helping of sparkle in its pages and photos of people whose image is immediately arresting for positive or negative reasons, the newspaper would not sell. The issues that our modern Cassandra raises are important – and, for that reason, depressing – but we need a large helping of entertainment from the hacks to hold our attention.
As Sir Toby says to Malvolio in Twelfth Night: “Dost thou think because thou art virtuous there shall be no more cakes and ale?”
Robin Davies
Tregarth, Gwynedd
• While it would be comforting to think that the photo on your front page (2 October) was illustrating the news that Boris Johnson had been out to grass, this is sadly not the case. Given that he thrives on publicity for his “silliness” while doing real damage with his every U-turn, should the Guardian really be placing him on page one? Surely his foolishness should be consigned to Pass notes in G2, where we can giggle briefly, then continue to ignore him as is fitting to his behaviour.
Lucy Burns
York
• In his conference fringe address, the bumbler formerly called the foreign secretary fulminated, among much else, against allotments (May fights back as Johnson makes his pitch to the party, 3 October). Can anyone please explain why?
My city has close on 2,000 of them, tended by many times that number of people of all social backgrounds and of all political persuasions and none. Is it significant that he should choose to dismiss places where people work and care for one another, and where energy and effort result in productive outcomes?
Frank Paice
Norwich
• The reception of the Tories’ irrepressible buffoon at the fringe of their conference conjures a chilling vision of an avoidable future. Societies led by egotistical sociopaths who whip up xenophobic populism become paranoid, violent and impoverished states, but the slide into abyss is often disguised by amusing and heartwarming jingoistic oratory and a nostalgic, self-sufficient pride. Witness Michael Palin’s recent gentle exposure of the wretched state of North Korea, and Oliver Bullough’s accounts of the miserable legacy of Stalin. Where’s the leadership to lead us back to sanity, before we throw ourselves down the helter-skelter?
William James
Oxford
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