In 2004, future presidential candidate and most influential musical artist of the aughts Kanye West rapped, "The people highest up got the lowest self-esteem; The prettiest people do the ugliest things, for the road to riches and diamond rings."
Why are we quoting Kanye West’s lyrics from 2004? You might want to ask British Prime Minister David Cameron.
On Sunday, the British tabloid "Daily Mail" published an excerpt from "Call Me Dave," a forthcoming unauthorized biography of Cameron by Michael Ashcroft. Ashcroft, a wealthy British politician who has an axe to grind with Cameron for denying him a cushy position in the government, makes serious allegations in the excerpt that undermine any illusion that Cameron is a man of strong moral fiber. The excerpt alleges that Cameron, during his purported days in the quasi-secret society Piers Gaveston at Oxford University, placed his genitals in the maw of a dead pig during an initiation ritual.
This outrageous story has gotten traction for a number of reasons, chief among them being its resemblance to an episode of "Black Mirror," a dystopian-anthology series created by British television personality and provocateur Charlie Brooker. In the episode "The National Anthem," the fictional Prime Minister Callow ends up having sex with a pig on live television after capitulating to terrorist demands.
Although the episode serves more as a commentary on the ever-hungry nature of the social media beast, both the episode and the allegations speak to several pertinent questions: Are we correct to perceive many of our leaders as morally bankrupt monsters? Are the wealthy and powerful actual boogeymen who place their nethers into the mouths of deceased animals in order to secure their futures as leaders of an aristocratic class?
To answer those questions in short order: yes and probably. Regardless of whether Cameron actually violated a dead pig — which, let’s be honest, given the shady stuff the stupidly wealthy do to secure cooperation among one another is not entirely out of the question — it doesn’t change the fact that as prime minister and a student at Oxford, Cameron and others of his ilk around the world have behaved with total and utter moral impunity as both government officials and private citizens.
As a politician, Cameron and his conservative cronies have widened the wealth gap that has long-defined British political, economic and social culture. As a student, he was involved with secret societies like Piers Gaveston and the Bullingdon Club, which utilized wealth in obscene fashion. Rumors about these organizations concern recent initiation practices such as burning a £50 note in front of a beggar or throwing lavish, drug-fueled parties.
We’re not ragging on Cameron in particular because we have a specific problem with him. We’re ragging on Cameron because there are far too many like him in positions of power around the world. The fact that this salacious rumor has any traction at all speaks to the irrefutable record of ethical hypocrisy and decadence that characterize many of the world’s political and social elites. It’s one thing to have sex with prostitutes and do blow — If you have the money that enables you to live your life in such a fashion and you are unafraid of the consequences, then by all means do so! Just don’t punish lower and middle classes for not being able to play in the same field. If Jeb Bush can get away with smoking marijuana illegally, why can’t law-abiding citizens use it for medicinal purposes? Leaders, regardless of wealth, ought to be held to the same standards as the rest of us.
