In 2021, there was a BBC newsflash. The Nobel Prize winner, musician Bob Dylan (born Robert Zimmermann) had been accused of, essentially, grooming and raping a 12 year old girl back in 1965. The delay in the court filing being due to a new legislation where previously ‘timed-out’ crimes could be reported (note: many crimes can only be processed within a small timeframe).
With this pronouncement and lack of information, the world went into its usual, controlled, considered response- or not. Instantly, many people formed sides. Dylan was either guilty or not depending not on facts and legal cases but on one’s personal feelings (subjectivity).
Someone on a music forum I use, tried to make the thread (part of the board to talk on one issue) on Dylan into a salacious did he/didn’t he thread, and if not him, then which other ‘stars’, who ‘all did this stuff’, will be next? I ignored it and posted a link to a video from Dylan’s latest output, a ‘live event’ called Shadow Kingdom. The person then responded to accuse me of trying to ignore the facts of Dylan’s action etc. I responded along the lines of- if he is guilty, I hope he is found guilty, if not, then not. Neither you nor I nor anyone here have any knowledge or expertise on this matter. This is a place to discuss music, if you do not wish to discuss music, if you find the possibility of underage sex with famous people more ‘titillating’, then may I suggest you find another place to discuss it. Another comment I saw simply stated that, ‘Dylan is God’, presumably forgetting that if the Christian Bible is literal then God carried out genocide on multiple occasions and then sentenced his son to death (or maybe that was his point? Apologises if I misunderstood the nuanced comment).
‘Experts’ on Dylan (i.e., people who have let their whole lives be about someone who famously finds such people repulsive) came out in his defence, saying it could have never happened due to diaries etc. After one small press release, the case had been decided. Dylan was innocent and the lady was a liar. At this point it is important to note that this verdict was reached, not by a legal court but, by the court of public opinion.
Public opinion is usually uniformed and depends very much on cultural trends and subjectivity. Over the last few years, we have seen many great movements destroyed by the ignorance of the leaders and those who make up the public. The #MeToo movement was about the chance to protect people (men and women) from sexual assault. It was designed to bring about legal and social equality. Pretty soon it was turned into a -I hate all men/I hate all women- shouting match with everyone assuming that they were right just because they thought they were (or, more likely, had read someone else who had shaped their thoughts). The Black Lives Matter movement was also designed to bring about social and racial change, to reduce police brutality. However, as with the #MeToo movement, self-interest and ignorance got in the way. Politically Correct terms such as ‘non-white’ were used to denote anyone who isn’t…uh…white? Essentially creating a socially acceptable racial divide in which whites were in one category and the rest were chucked in the miscellaneous category. The Black Lives Matter, as I wrote at the time, became not about racial equality but revenge and the rights of black people. During the same period, assaults on Asians and Asian-Americans in the United States shot through the roof as they were blamed for the pandemic based on their skin colour and ethnicity. However, the Black Lives Matter movement did not support them. Why? Because the court of public opinion had ruled that instead of white/other, the racial categories were white/black/other with the other, a category which, it has to be noted, included some whites, some blacks, Asians, Natives etc., was treated exactly how the black community (again, isn’t it racist to have a community built around the principle of one colour? Imagine of you heard the phrase ‘white community’ and compare and contrast how the two phrases make you feel.) were opposing.
Nothing I have written here is new or surprising, indeed, one must ask, how did this press release re: Dylan’s alleged paedophilia (which is what it is) become public? Simply, the lawyers of Mr Dylan released a press release to bring the court of public opinion to their side. These, one must assume, are smart people who know how to manipulate the public and juries to ‘win’, not find justice, but to win (these are not mutually exclusive terms, one must add- sometimes winning is justice, other times not). If Mr Dylan is guilty, I hope, as someone who owns all of his albums, books etc., he gets thrown in prison and that his reputation is ruined, as what should have happened to the director Roman Polanski for his paedophilia. If he is innocent, then I hope his reputation is saved and he can go one creating great art.
The one thing that defines most judgements by the court of public opinion is ignorance and insecurity (ah, that word again!). People like to assume that they know everything and that their opinions on things they have no expertise on are as, if not more, valid as experts’. We all know that Dylan is innocent just as we all know that Blacks and Whites are superior to the other races, we all know that all Jews are all guilty for the actions of the Israeli Government whilst all Palestinians are saints. How do we know this? Because the court of public opinion has told us that these are our current truths.
Isn’t it nice when people tell you what to think?
‘till next time
thegreaterfool2016 