Lucy Mangan and The Sickening hypocrisy of elite condescension
Last week I suggested that when middle class journalists get contemptuous about “the English”, they are rarely engaged in true self-deprecation. They are not, I argued, referring to themselves, but are using superficially anti-patriotic sentiment as cover to express often quite vile opinions about the masses. And so it was that one of my fellow bloggers, Jonathan forwarded me this article by Lucy Mangan for the Guardian. Like Yasmin, whom I mentioned last week, Mangan watched Evan Davis’ The Day The Immigrants Left, and was equally disgusted with the unemployed:
…it was hard not to suspect, as you watched the infuriating dozen, stunned by the prospect of physical labour, resentful of any advice, childish and utterly unmotivated by the presence of a television crew or the knowledge that even their greatest perceived sufferings would be over within 48 hours, that the natives might just be revolting.
With great disapproval she quoted one ‘native’ as saying “I won’t do any job that I find uninteresting.”
Given the nature of journalism, you cannot blame me for having a little wonder about Mangan’s own attitude to the prospect of physical labour or work that she found uninteresting. And so it was that I came upon a short biography of the woman herself. I was more than a little amused to read, in her apparently self-written biography, that:
Lucy Mangan was educated in Catford and Cambridge. She spent two years training to be a solicitor, then left the law as soon as she qualified. She took a placement with the Guardian in 2003 and hung around until they gave her a job
So it seems that Lucy Mangan, too, joined the ranks of the unemployed when she found her job was not interesting enough. Except not quite. Clearly what these young unemployed men need to do is to move to London, and find some way to live for free while doing a placement at a national newspaper. Either that or they should, as Lucy seems to believe, accept their god damn station in life.
Reader Comments
Reuben that’s a very nice spot. Although you really don’t need to use ’sickening’, it diminishes us.
You also have a very odd relationship with caPITal LEttERS.
You make a good point. My headlines have got a but daily mailish lately
An interesting point. but I’m going to test the water and suggest that you probably don’t get into Cambridge without working hard. And she got a job she found interesting. So what actually is your point?
Presumably Reuben’s point would be that when criticising others for not taking jobs that they’re not interested in, it would be wise not to be the kind of person who held off on getting a job until they found one they were interested in. Especially if the only reason it was possible for Lucy Mangan to do so was because she came from a background wealthy enough that she could afford to ‘hang around’ at the Guardian for free on a placement until they had an opening and hired her (helped along by the fact that she had been working there for free for ages, not something everyone else can afford to do, sadly).
I thought it was pretty clearly stated, personally.
I don’t know anything about Lucy Mangan’s parents but as you’ve just stated, she was working, she just wasn’t being paid. Now while this state of affairs may be sickening, working unpaid on a placement is not the same as not taking any job. And as for “not something everyone else can afford to do” well hang on if you can “afford” to be unemployed surely you can afford to take a placement. What am I missing?