Parochial

One of my colleagues is a member of a Lewes bonfire society whose chosen guy this year was apparently Angela Merkel sat atop a shattered Acropolis, doing some sort of cross between a Usein lighting bolt and a Nazi salute. This could be interpreted as exasperation with some of the most overexposed media images of the year, but I think that is possibly a little generous. In all likelihood this is a fine example of all that is insular, small minded and parochial about this great country of ours. It is a feeble piece of sixth form politics to think that Angela Merkel is singlehandedly responsible for the troubles that Greece currently finds itself in. Then again I guess it's hard to fit the overenthusiastic politicians and lawyers who drafted the Maastricht treaty, the legions of Greek politicians too full of the kudos of power to actually deal with political realities, the bankers hopped up on hubris who allowed the property bubble, all the people who bought property they couldn't afford with sub-prime mortgages and the tax-dodging Greek wealthy on top of a bonfire. So instead some of the good people of Lewes thought it might be easier to make an inaccurate political point and reinforce some fairly ugly stereotypes at the same time. Of course we shouldn't take any of this too seriously right? People just stick effigies of popular hate figures on bonfires because of how they are portrayed, not because they genuinely believe the portrayal, right?
Even if we assume that the highest intellectual standards are being applied to the casual demonisation of public figures we can't escape from the fact that such things reinforce negative stereotypes. One should always try to be aware of the consequences of one's actions, and that any nuance implied is likely to be lost on all but the most clued up observers. In a global society it worth thinking about the subtleties that are lost in translation. The song 'Gangnam Style' is a satirical dig at the ridiculousness of those who ape the elites of a district of Seoul, it is effectively the Korean version of a song ridiculing the cast of Made in Chelsea (except that would be pointless - they have a whole TV program in which to make themselves look utterly ridiculous). However it is likely that, as the song is untranslated, the majority of its 700 million YouTube viewers* watch it because of the man doing the funny dance. I guess there is nothing fundamentally wrong with this (and certainly Psy doesn't seem to mind), as it is light entertainment, but the fact that the point of the song is entirely lost on most of the people who watch the video is important. What if there had been something in the video that could have been misinterpreted in a negative way, what if the video had seemingly encouraged the abuse of horses? Doubtless there would then have been an outcry over the perceived encouragement of animal abuse, regardless of whether that encouragement was actual.
We live in a visual world where perception is everything and therefore it is our responsibility to make sure that every message we present is as clear and easily read as possible. With something like satire this is not so easy, as it relies implicitly on a decent amount of cultural and linguistic knowledge to be effective. However, that just means it is only truly great satire when not a single cultural or linguistic subtlety is misplaced. Making crass political points based on inaccurate generalisations based on prejudice is not satire, it is incitement.
I'm sure the people of Lewes would take me to task for being far too serious about something that is just a bit of fun and maybe they're right, but I can't help thinking that too many of the things we excuse as 'just a bit of fun' require that label as an excuse for their negative connotations. The bonfires of Lewes would be just as fun with historical or fictional demons atop them, without inciting needless and misguided hatred. Our society already has a surplus of that.

*obviously I am being simplistic. 700 million YouTube views does not translate to 700 million viewers. I assume (incorrectly) that everyone, like me, considers anything on YouTube worth watching only once.