Amis, Self-Hate and the Brutal Society

Martin Amis is interviewed in today's Daily Telegraph about the themes of his new novel, The Pregnant Widow, and indeed on the wider state of the nation.

He has this to say on what he calls Britain's current 'brutal philistinism':

“Can we get any more trivial?” he wonders. “The X Factor and Katie Price and Big Brother ... It’s fierce, too, very fierce: the baying for those two boyfriends of Jordan’s to have a fight in the [Celebrity Big Brother] house. Sort of bear pit stuff. There is a lot of that in Britain.

“It’s self-hatred, I think,” he continues. “A sort of wildness to do with marginalisation. I think it must be tied up with Britain’s demotion in terms of a world power. The ideology that started in the Seventies – it’s got a million names, levellism, multiculturalism, relativism – that taught us that we didn’t like empire, we were ashamed we ever had one.

“But you don’t go from being the main power on earth to being a third-rate power without it awakening deep feelings of wounded pride. This triviality and this drunkenness, the yob culture, which is a real thing and not confined to the street. I mean, banking! ... In the City they’ve all got names like Vomit and Cheeseball, and it’s all very violent, and built around terrific bollockings and humiliations. And the politics: Alastair Campbell using the word 'f---’ a lot to show he means business.”

There's much in what Amis says. It struck a chord with me as the next NCF publication is a collection of essays by various contributors on the place of self-hatred in our culture.

The book will deal with various themes, including:

• An exploration of the effects of self-hatred on our national story and national identity.
• An examination of cultural self-laceration in the academic and educational fields.
• Anti-elitism as a disguise for self-hatred
• An examination of self-hatred as a part of the environmentalist movement
• A consideration of the ways in which self-hatred and self-blame shape our response to radical Islam.
• An exploration of the notion of anti-Americanism as an expression of self-hate.
• A look at the part played by self-blame and self-hatred in the giving of Overseas Aid.
• The Cult of Apology

Publication details will of course by posted here in due course. PW

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