oi. you. shut it!
Last week I had the good fortune of travelling to St Mary’s stadium to watch my team, Preston North End, play a thrilling encounter against fellow Championship contenders, Southampton FC. The fact that we were in the opposition’s half on only three occasions gives the impression that quality football wasn’t really the winner here, but we managed to score on two of them and the afternoon ended with a comfortable three-points in the bag. Furthermore, walking to the ground, enjoying a pre-match beer with the home fans, an obvs away-fan sitting in a season ticket area, and leaving with an understandable smile on my face, all proved to be a thoroughly enjoyable experience and not one grumble or harsh word was directed my way. Result.
Which all seemed at odds with the out-of-control crowds we witnessed a month ago at the Ryder Cup, the transatlantic competition of the gentile game of golf, where the first-tee master of ceremonies set the tone by leading a chant of ‘***k you, Rory!’. After initially playing down the abuse, which grew in intensity and volume over the weekend, American golf officials finally apologised and admitted fan behaviour had ‘crossed the line’. But what if the line has in fact moved and the accepted codes of crowd behaviour have changed? The Broadcasting union, BECTU, recently published a survey that showed 34% of those working in live performance had experienced antisocial behaviour, violence, aggression or harassment from audience members, with that figure rising to almost 80% for front of office staff.
But there is nothing new in sports fans or theatre audiences behaving badly. Greek philosopher Plato complained about spectators becoming mobs; Thomas Hardy took the title of his novel Far from the Maddening Crowd from his experiences of those who disrupted the ‘sacred calm’; Mohammad Ali was roundly jeered during an 1965 exhibition match in Paisley, berating the crowd with “All booing must stop when the king’s in the ring”; And can we ever forget Eric Cantona’s flying kung-fu kick?
Much of the Ryder Cup aftermath focused on the involvement of Donald Trump at the event, which took place at a time when Americanism appears to being redefined. It seeks to affirm the new world against the old, focusing on triumphalism, domination, winning at all costs and success by any means necessary. More importantly it rejects a rule-based order. However, much as I would like to blame him for this and much more besides, we’re kidding ourselves.
Rude, aggressive and belligerent behaviour is everywhere, from objects hurled at concert performers to aggressive heckles during comedy routines, from loudly arguing on speakerphone in a packed railway carriage to stag/hen antics on Ryanair flights. Perhaps it was exacerbated during the Covid lockdown when our standards slipped a little, but the real culprit is social media. Nothing has had a more corrosive effect on discourse and conduct, and, with many platforms now actively removing any form of content moderation, this influence can only continue to grow. Where once we kept unkind and more extreme opinions to ourselves, we now, under the auspices of free speech, feel obliged to share them with the world. Exactly as I am now. Anonymity in the online world has been superseded by in-your-face actions in the real one. Both individual and group behaviour is a barometer of social trends and Trump’s boorishness is merely a symptom of a wider decline. Once upon a time we would pause, reflect and consider, we now scream, shout and swear. Personally, I’m just relieved he’s neither a Saint nor Lillywhite!
