100% faithful

On revelation, and seeing things as they truly are

mother

‘I am, and since the start, have been a traitor’ said the boy with poor grammar but a nice smile. The woman standing across from him promptly ran out of the room in tears. Twitter erupted into a predictable fury. WHY DID SHE CHANGE HER VOTE!? – WHY WOULD JAZ VOTE FOR BANISHMENT? IT MAKES NO SENSE?’. Silly little girl, said others. She let the boy with the nice smile tell her everything she wanted to hear. I’d never be so gullible.

So unfolded Friday’s finale of The Traitors, a UK reality show predicated on a group’s ability to identify those selected to betray its number. If the ‘Faithful’ are unsuccessful in their task, then the ‘Traitors’ can steal the jackpot for themselves. It’s utterly compelling viewing, aided to no small degree by Claudia Winkleman’s mushrooming knitwear collection.

Since the finale I’ve felt a little uneasy about Mollie’s inability to trust her gut. Or rather, her inability to see things as they truly were, despite the considerable evidence that was presented to her. Her fellow faithful Jaz specifically asked her before the roundtable to try and view the information he presented to her dispassionately, but it took a dramatic moment of revelation during the endgame for her to understand with her heart the things her head had been telling her. That the person she trusted most had been a traitor from the beginning.

Revelation is derived from the Greek term apokalypsis, meaning ‘unveiling’ or to ‘reveal’. Although the word ‘apocalypse’ is now used as shorthand for armageddon, or end times, I find it fascinating that its etymological roots are also linked most strongly not to an ending, but to the process of something being revealed. So what we often think of as an ending is actually a new beginning, an event which offers us a new way of looking at things.

I think we are living through an important unveiling right now. Many of us in the West are starting to see, perhaps for the first time, that our reality is perhaps not the one we thought we were living through. We are told that we live in a democratic country, which upholds the rule of law and human rights. We are told that regimes which differ to ours are dangerous and threaten these fundamental principles, often due to opposing religious beliefs. That’s why Hamas must be eradicated, and it’s why Iran can’t be trusted, and it’s why we definitely must bomb Yemen! We must banish these ‘traitors’ so that we, ‘the faithful’ can maintain our position and influence in the world … upholding human rights and democratic principles.

I read recently that if you went to a funeral a day for each of the children killed in Gaza it would take you more than 27 years to attend them all. As things currently stand, that would make me 58 years old. I wonder how old I will be, and how many more children will have died, before the British government sees the current bombardment of Gaza for the genocide that it is.  

But rather than confront this awful truth, it seems that Britain has chosen to betray itself. As it has done so many times before. It is betraying the principles and values it purports to uphold whilst enabling a suspected genocide to unfold. And for what? To rescue the hostages taken by Hamas? Tragically, they seem pretty low on anyone’s agenda. Rather, the West’s support of Israel seems to be more about maintaining a sense of military solidarity amongst Judeo-Christian superpowers. The West (led by Biden) is so committed to its ally Israel that it has willingly joined them in their treachery. We call it ‘traitor recruitment’.

It’s the oldest gameplay in the traitor handbook. To build alliances with fellow contestants who will vouch for you even if your behaviour starts looking a little suspicious, and to brutally murder those players who are essentially disposable cannon fodder. Let’s call them ‘civilian casualties’; in Gaza there at 26,000 of them, mostly women and children.

The Scottish writer Nan Shepherd had this to say about ‘our gullible eyes’ and their proneness to ‘deceptions’.

Such illusions, depending on how the eye is placed and used, drive home the truth that our habitual visions of things is not necessarily right: it is only one of an infinite number, and to glimpse an unfamiliar one, even for a moment, unmakes us, but steadies us again.

Look again at our politicians, and their inconsistencies and prevarications. They know they are in uncharted water, that they’ve been tricked into bed with Netanyahu and now it’s all too late. ‘We want you to win’ said Sunak to Israel in the days following October 7th. But at what cost? The very fabric of international law? It would seem so. Predictably, Labour is starting to back peddle, running focus groups in Muslim-backed constituencies which they are concerned feel alienated by their policy (ya think!).

When we look at the video footage from Motaz, and hear the case made by South Africa to the ICC, it is clear that the very norms upon which Western politics have been built are being ripped apart due to it’s unwillingness or inability to see Israel’s actions since October for what they are. This is not about Hamas for Netanyahu, this is about power and the dismantling of Palestine. Anyone who fails to see this is allowing themselves to be played. And in the same way that the UK is betraying itself, Netanyahu is betraying the hostages and those who believed this ‘war’ was about establishing Israel’s security.

We need to listen to the faithfuls, who reveal themselves through their actions, rather than their words. To the Jewish protestors who blocked a LA freeway calling for a ceasefire. To President Ramaphosa of South Africa who said that ‘We, as South Africans, will not be passive bystanders and watch the crimes that were visited upon us being perpetrated elsewhere’. And most importantly, to the people of Palestine themselves. They are demanding that we drop our Western gaze and perceive things as they actually are.

Some of you might argue that the comparison I’m drawing here is too simplistic, that it divides rather than coalesces us around a common goal. That things are ‘more complicated’ than I’m making out. Perhaps. But it is also true that traitors use complex arguments to obscure simple truths - and to deflect from their treacherous actions.

Can you see what is really happening? Even if it means going against the grain?

I fear that facing up to the full extent of Israel’s atrocities in Palestine might be impossible for some. Sometimes it is simply too painful to admit that we’ve been strung along, by political parties or the media. That they’ve taken our trust for granted, and used it to legitimise war crimes. But for those of you who cannot unsee what you have seen, a deeper set of truths and realities emerge. And with them, a deeper revelation: that the way the world is now is not the way it has to be.

Ceasefire now. Ceasefire Yesterday. Ceasefire Forever.

Grace

Recommendation Corner:

1. My friend Harry writes poems and sometimes *sings* them with his friend Chris. It’s all very wholesome. Writing today’s Murmuration reminded me of their song ‘Drop in the Ocean’ which you can listen to here:

2. It’s great to see a flurry of new writer friends join Substack. Shout out to

   Bethany Joy Dawson
   Ann Kennedy Smith
   and
   Dr Lily Dunn
   !

3. For once, I am struggling to read. Everything feels a bit heavy and so I’m on the hunt for poetry and essay recommendations. Share your suggestions in the comments below.