I cannot be the only one surprised that, almost four years after the episode's release, Prime Minister David Cameron is being accused of engaging in sex acts with a dead pig in his Oxford days. An accusation that he has not yet officially denied.
Apparently this was part of an initiation process for a secret society in Oxford that Cameron was part of. He allegedly put a "private part" of his anatomy into the pig's mouth, and another member of the group is even rumoured to have photographic evidence. But just our luck, he did not respond to the authors' questions.
Overall the correlation between the alleged events and those in Black Mirror is relatively minor; assuming that the biography tells the truth then yes, David Cameron did indeed engage in sexual acts with a pig. But not to save anyone's life. Nor on Live television or with a living animal. And I will assume that his approval rating won't be increasing at any rate should the rumour be confirmed. All of the fornication with none of the praise, it seems. Likely enough Cameron's only influences were peer pressure and the chance to be part of an underground society in one of the western world's most prestigious universities. There's something they never warned us about in school; never once have I been peer pressured into drinking or drugs, but apparently getting in with the wrong crowd at Oxford will get you on the fast track to barnyard necrophila.
In Brooker's dark comedy the Prime Minister broke the hearts of the nation by showing them the power of the vote- the majority decided that the PM would go through with the act in order to save a woman's life. Out of that fictional majority their different motivations are clear- some choose based on morals, others based on fear, others on disdain for their leader. When the fictional Prime Minister goes through with the act, weeping openly as he does it, one can see the faces of the nation drop as they realise that they have forced a human being, dedicated to serving and caring for his country, to degrade and humiliate himself.
Charlie Brooker fans have been claiming that he predicted the future, but it seems to me that he missed the mark by quite a wide margin. The scene from Black Mirror sets up the perfect situation, as nothing is the PM's own fault; terrorists captured the woman, his advisors took the decision and gave it to the public and the public decided that he would go through with it. In Black Mirror the PM's actions, while perverse, are heroic. Brooker shows us what the people want from their leader; self sacrifice, obedience and humanity.
It's almost sad, then, that David Cameron's alleged episode with the pig had none of this pressure or sacrifice. If so we might be able to see our leader as a person, capable of emotion and pain and humiliation. Those of us who refuse to vote because they feel nothing for the candidates might have been inspired to act. If Brooker had really predicted the future, we would be full of remorse for our leader, ashamed for him. Instead we have to humiliate him ourselves to remind ourselves of his humanity. Cameron's is not the ideal scenario for pig molestation, I'm afraid, as one would assume that it was wholly self serving.
The situation overall is saddening. Brooker's dark comedy now serves as a dramatisation of what might have been. Meanwhile in reality we continue on as a country whose leader is yet to earn our respect.
I'm still trying to find my voice so I apologise about this entry being to scattered- I'll aim to update this every Friday from now on.
Overall the correlation between the alleged events and those in Black Mirror is relatively minor; assuming that the biography tells the truth then yes, David Cameron did indeed engage in sexual acts with a pig. But not to save anyone's life. Nor on Live television or with a living animal. And I will assume that his approval rating won't be increasing at any rate should the rumour be confirmed. All of the fornication with none of the praise, it seems. Likely enough Cameron's only influences were peer pressure and the chance to be part of an underground society in one of the western world's most prestigious universities. There's something they never warned us about in school; never once have I been peer pressured into drinking or drugs, but apparently getting in with the wrong crowd at Oxford will get you on the fast track to barnyard necrophila.
In Brooker's dark comedy the Prime Minister broke the hearts of the nation by showing them the power of the vote- the majority decided that the PM would go through with the act in order to save a woman's life. Out of that fictional majority their different motivations are clear- some choose based on morals, others based on fear, others on disdain for their leader. When the fictional Prime Minister goes through with the act, weeping openly as he does it, one can see the faces of the nation drop as they realise that they have forced a human being, dedicated to serving and caring for his country, to degrade and humiliate himself.
Charlie Brooker fans have been claiming that he predicted the future, but it seems to me that he missed the mark by quite a wide margin. The scene from Black Mirror sets up the perfect situation, as nothing is the PM's own fault; terrorists captured the woman, his advisors took the decision and gave it to the public and the public decided that he would go through with it. In Black Mirror the PM's actions, while perverse, are heroic. Brooker shows us what the people want from their leader; self sacrifice, obedience and humanity.
It's almost sad, then, that David Cameron's alleged episode with the pig had none of this pressure or sacrifice. If so we might be able to see our leader as a person, capable of emotion and pain and humiliation. Those of us who refuse to vote because they feel nothing for the candidates might have been inspired to act. If Brooker had really predicted the future, we would be full of remorse for our leader, ashamed for him. Instead we have to humiliate him ourselves to remind ourselves of his humanity. Cameron's is not the ideal scenario for pig molestation, I'm afraid, as one would assume that it was wholly self serving.
The situation overall is saddening. Brooker's dark comedy now serves as a dramatisation of what might have been. Meanwhile in reality we continue on as a country whose leader is yet to earn our respect.
I'm still trying to find my voice so I apologise about this entry being to scattered- I'll aim to update this every Friday from now on.
