An Accusing Eye

Orwell described poverty in literary form in ‘The Road to Wigan Pier’ and ‘Down and Out in a Paris and London’. Ken Loach then brings technology in the form of the camera to it in ‘Cathy Come Home.’ With the technology comes the technocratic, progressive mindset that demands and thinks possible the instant ‘solving’ of poverty. This unfortunate alliance underpins the whole modus operandi of modern news. Every filmed vox pop or interview with a BAME woman whose mother or autistic son just died of COVID contains an implicit unspoken accusation that the government failed to fill this lacuna in the fabric of perfection. Perfection is always only a step away and technocracy can always guarantee it. The eye of the camera is now a permanently accusing eye.