Cod Almighty | Diary

If...

8 November 2024

Millions of folks have felt ignored and so turned to those who they think listen. Demagogues and charlatans, raconteurs and conmen, who tell us it'll all be beautiful if...if...

So many ifs: if you trust in me, not that one, not that other one, not them; Trump's most used phrase back in 2016 was "believe me", a statement that demands trust and many then and many now gave their trust willingly. His most used individual word is "beautiful", an ironic situation for many but a celebration to even more. The strong man of politics has to have the rhetoric that gets him the attention he needs (and craves). It was ever thus, and in the 21st century it is ever more.

Personal strength cannot be demonstrated physically in societies that consider themselves democracies – save that for bare-chested, judo-grappling Russian leaders – and so rhetoric must be both aggressive and optimistic. Trump's language lurches dramatically between the two. Some publications, including the New York Times, have had to alter their own editorial guidelines for the publication of profanities just so that they can report on his comments, interviews and speeches. And yet he is accused of having little or no control of his communication: he rambles, he dithers, he gets lost in irrelevant tangents, he stops speaking altogether and dances. Badly.

And yet it works. Of course it works. There is something very recognisable in Trump, something very human, not necessarily in him but in our response to him. The psychology of the strong man, the desire to be led, to feel safe knowing someone stronger, more capable than us is often oversimplified, but it is relevant.

The same is true in football. Our idea of an effective leader in the game is not the equivocal but the clear. Artell has a lot of beautiful things to say about the game he wants to play and his players' wellbeing, but he has little that cuts through on what we're doing right now. Perhaps he admits too many mistakes, is too honest about what has or hasn't been dealt with in training. And, yes, I do realise that that contradicts the idea of not wanting an equivocal leader, but as your A46 Diary discussed last week, this is about perception, not truth. We want someone who will project certainty even if that certainty creates contradictions.

Without contradiction, we might argue, there is no need for trust, no need for that most elusive of things, faith. Honesty, it seems, doesn't get faith, because honesty is to admit that the problems we face are not easily solved. Perhaps, then, it isn't certainty we crave but simplicity? Someone to tell us it'll all be okay tomorrow if...if...

Like when we had our last 'strong' leader and Fenty said we'd definitely get a new ground once NE Lincs was "all blue." He would tell us things that to him were facts, to him were going to happen and needed to happen. He would lurch from optimism to fatalism, support to opposition. Yet so many of us took it, accepted it, believed it. Wanted to believe it? Desperate to believe it?

Why was there so little push back against his control? Was he genuinely admired? What was it that made him so impressive or so inventible? There's a debate on capitalism and rigid social hierarchies to be had here, but it'll have to wait for another time. For now, simply remember, remember the fifth away victory in a row! It'll be fireworks tomorrow down in south London as we return to away-day fun.

Make Grimsby Great Again! That sort of says MAGA but it's closer to mugger, I suppose, and mugged off we have been here in strangely-not-cold Grimsby for the last thousand games. And folks are feeling ignored when it comes to home form. Folks may soon be listening for other voices.