Arrogance is as arrogance does

No, you’re not going to get a disquisition, though I have much to say on the subject. I have a magazine to wrap up and very little time to waste on the sort of people whose day is filled with card-games, coffee, visiting each other, lolling about on the beach, organising quiz nights, and planning what is essentially – though it sounds cruel – the Revenge of the Nerds.

Though ‘arrogant’ has become the favourite insult of the chattering classes, were they to stop and think for a moment they would see that they are the ones who are truly arrogant in their assumption that they speak for others and not just for themselves.

Those who write letters to the newspapers, post comments on timesofmalta.com, write newspaper columns and occasional articles, and protest on behalf of organisations express only their own opinion or that of their organisation. They cannot claim to speak on behalf of The People because they do no know what the people think.

As a columnist for the last 19 years, I have made it clear that my opinion is my own. I have never sought to back it up by referring to The People, even when I have known – through surveys rather than mere guesswork – that tens of thousands of people think exactly as I do.

Those who are now referring to The People in their protests and their objections to the Piano plan do so for one reason alone: they lack balls.

They don’t have to wherewithal to say: this is my opinion, my opinion alone, and if you don’t like it then tough. They must bring in their largely imaginary forces in the form of The People, like children in the playground drawing reinforcements for a stand-off.

It is just unbelievable how they haven’t the guts or the self-confidence to own their opinions, but feel safe only when they’re in a crowd of like-minded people who can reassure and bolster them. It’s Maltese cliquey behaviour at its best (or worst).

And then, of course, there is the logical fallacy that runs throughout their public discourse – and possibly also private, though because I avoid situations in which I am going to hear this sort of rubbish, I wouldn’t know. If enough people say something, then it must be right, and there is no such thing as intrinsic truth or value. Hence, if The People and their chattering-class leaders think that Piano is bollocks and his plans are ‘the emperor’s new clothes’ and make anal jokes about cabrio theatres, then this is the truth which the prime minister must heed.

For all their pretensions to high culture, the leaders of this particular pack don’t seem to understand that this is akin to saying that if The People decree one of those Hamrun paintings of a boy in a red velvet suit to be much better than a Paul Klee, then our museum (chance would be a fine thing) should acquire a Hamrun painting of a boy in a red velvet suit rather than a Paul Klee.

So you got a semi-disquisition, after all. But more about this in my newspaper column tomorrow. Now it’s back to wrapping up Flair magazine.