Gauging the public’s mood

As much as the media is regularly blamed for trying to manipulate, influence and generally re-direct what people talk about, I have often noticed that this intangible, slippery “thing” we call public opinion often takes on a life of its own. As hard to grasp and pin down as a slithery jellyfish, it winds its way around stories and topics, lingering on one more than the other, before moving on to the latest hot news.

For example, this past week it was clear to me that there had been a shift, and people seemed to care more about the hullaballoo over the fact that Ira’s song had been changed for the Eurovision than they did about the persistent Panama scandal. The fuss and indignation over the song lasted for around four days and has only now started to peter out. Prior to that, the angst and handwringing (and in some cases, the unabashed glee) revolved around Toni Abela, who was not accepted by the committee who grilled him for the post with the European Court of Auditors.

That went on for a few days as well, with the usual obligatory slanging matches we have now come to expect from our politicians. In between all this there was quite a lot of finger-pointing over who was to blame for allowing St Patrick’s Day to degenerate into a free-for-all in which the St Julian’s seafront was turned into one long party where drunken revellers relieved themselves on people’s doorsteps and turned the whole area into a pigsty.

The thing with public opinion is that people are (understandably) mostly concerned with what hits closest to home. Faced between the choice of some hard to understand scandal about offshore companies and a complete disregard for law and order which is literally in your face, most people will be more concerned with the latter.

Of course, it can also be argued that one naturally leads to the other. When those at the top are perceived to be behaving unethically, how do we expect ordinary people to respect such a simple thing as public peace? Yet, it is the disruption to one’s daily life, the stench, the litter and obnoxious behaviour which registers the highest on people’s consciousness and makes them incandescent with rage. One can hardly blame them.

As for the obsession with everything Eurovision-related, that is something which I have long ago come to terms with, and continue to strive to understand purely because it fascinates me from a pop culture and sociological point of view. This blessed festival matters to a lot of people, full stop. In fact, the yearning and craving for Malta to win it, has now become something almost pathological. Should we ever win it, I fear for people’s blood pressure and those with a heart condition. It is our Holy Grail, our World Cup, our Olympics and our Academy Awards all rolled into one. We need to win it in order to prove that we are the best at something.

So, seen in these terms, it is easier to understand how Ira’s song bumped Panama off the radar, at least for a few days. Given a choice of which is the more “interesting” subject for the average apolitical person, there is just no contest.

Heck, even the sheep saga seems to spark more interest in your average Joe as animal lovers jump to the defense of the hapless sheep, while the more pragmatic quite rightly point out that the potential danger to public health is not a risk we should be prepared to take.

And while political pundits do their utmost to drag public attention back to more serious matters, it has got to a point where I can almost see people’s eyes glazing over in boredom. It was the same during the hunting referendum; I remember sensing the moment when there was a turning point showing that the electorate had made up their minds and simply switched off. The same scenario was replayed during the election campaign, when the word “interconnector” and “oil scandal” were repeated so many times that they acted almost as triggers for people to clap their hands over their ears.

It is probably the hardest thing in the world to keep people interested in an issue when they just don’t want to know or have lost interest. No matter how crucial the issue may be for the country’s democracy and its future, there is an almost invisible gauge, where the public mood starts to flash bright red showing you that their capacity to remain interested has now been depleted.

As with other political issues, I think people have already made up their mind on the current one. To date at least, the fact is that no matter how bad things are getting for Muscat it doesn’t seem to be translating itself into support for the PN. This is not me saying it, but the latest polls which show that people who “gave Labour a chance” in 2013 no longer trust Muscat, but don’t trust Busuttil either.

For the voter who is not emotionally attached or affiliated with either party, there does not seem to be any reason to dwell any further on this whole thing. No wonder then, that they would much rather get all worked up about Ira, and St Paddy’s and heck, yes, even a couple of hundred sheep.