Passionate & Principled (Ben Elton in general)

Member Name: amygdala

Product:	Ben Elton in general
Date:	26/09/00 (23 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: He's done a lot for cynics everywhere.

Disadvantages: Do as he says, not as he does.

I seem to remember hearing Ben Elton say in a radio interview once that he didn't like cynics. If so, that's a shame, because he's done so much to promote the cause of cynicism.

His first novel, for example, was called *Stark* and is about an exceedingly rich, exceedingly greedy, exceedingly selfish Australian businessman who is plainly modelled on Rupert Murdoch. That's the same Rupert Murdoch whose support was so assiduously cultivated by the Labour Government before the general election in 1997. That's the same Labour Government whose chancellor and third most powerful figure (after Peter Mandelson and Alastair Campbell) is called Gordon Brown. That's the same Gordon Brown whose wedding-celebration party was attended by Ben Elton.

And yes, that's the same Ben Elton whose passionate, principled opposition to big businessmen like Rupert Murdoch led him to write books like *Stark*. See what I mean about Elton doing so much to promote the cause of cynicism? Though I wouldn't say he's done very much to promote the cause of English Literature or the English novel. *Stark* is like two or three hundred of his 1980s stand-up routines nailed together to sail the choppy waters of a plot about a small group of exceedingly wealthy businessmen escaping the Earth whose eco-system is about to collapse irrevocably because of their activities. There are two hippies modelled after Neil in The Young Ones, a hapless left-wing heterosexual white male, a thuggish right-wing heterosexual male, a competent left-wing heterosexual female, and two heroic, down-to-earth Aboriginals, plus assorted evil white male businessmen.

And if the Australian villain and Aboriginals hadn't already made you guess, it's set in Australia. I've also heard that Elton, whose passionate, principled opposition to big business has helped him earn a great deal of money, owns a piece of land in Australia that he refuses to let be developed.
He visits it regularly with his wife to enjoy its unspoilt beauty, and though he didn't say I'd guess he doesn't do so by paddling an eco-friendly dug-out canoe there and back again. No, I'd guess he travels there in one of those large, eco-unfriendly jet-planes, though I don't think his passionate, principled opposition to big business has earnt him enough money yet for him to afford one of his own.

Though give him time, I suppose. Kant said that morality consists in acting as though we wished to make the basis of our action a universal principle. The way people live in the West -- wastefully and extravagantly -- fails the Kantian morality test, and the way Ben Elton lives fails it by a wider margin than most. If everyone lived like Ben Elton, the eco-system wouldn't be very healthy for very long. He reminds me a lot of the Duke of Edinburgh or Prince Charles, who lecture the rest of us about the need to defend nature and wildlife while leading lives that the earth could not possibly support if more people took them up. Cynical but true.

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