From the desk of ROLAND ROCCHICCIOLI

THE social media penchant for liking and disliking, and posting and reposting — and all the multifarious computations associated with the wretched habit — is seriously fraught with danger; it has the potential to create an irrevocable calamity. It is a plague on modern society and should be regarded suspiciously.

Equally irritating, is the plaintive whimper: “I didn’t know, did I.”; and “I’m so sorry, I would never say something like that about anyone — it goes against everything I stand for,” which, invariably, follows hot on the heels of a wanton lack of attention in reposting abhorrent content created by others, and which has culminated in a catastrophic incident. There is no acceptable justification for mistakenly reposting, or sharing, racist material. It demonstrates — unequivocally — an unpardonable lack of personal responsibility. It has greater gravity when the perpetrator is a “celebrity”.

The English footballer, Gary Lineker, has fallen victim to his own celebrity. He shared, with scant review, a deeply repugnant post on Instagram about Zionism. While his immediate apology seems heartfelt it does not mitigate the profundity of the antisemitic slur — one which has its genesis in the darkest spectre of Nazism, and is inexpressibly vile. As a direct consequence the BBC has terminated his broadcasting contract. Mr. Lineker was the corporation’s highest-paid personality — 1.3-million pounds annually. Money buys freedom and sometimes emboldens an over-inflated and overbearing self-opinion — a misguided perception of one’s importance in the greater scheme of events. Talent notwithstanding, it is dangerous to believe personal publicity — it can turn-the-head and distort the perspective.

We live in a society which measures success by an accumulation of wealth. Perplexingly, there are too many occasions when opinions are gratuitously sought from those in areas where they no have expertise, and serves only to reveal a gaping lack of academic acumen. Arguably, big-headedness and haughtiness are directly proportional to salary or amassed fortune. Hubris is rampant. In a chillingly disquieting exhibition, while facing contentious allegations of price-gouging and coercing et al., a supermarket chief executive’s cavalier obduracy resulted in a threat of contempt by a Senate Select Committee.

Technology has opened-wide the world in a way we never could have imagined at the conclusion of hostilities in 1945. Its possibilities are intriguing and infinite, and we are mere nurslings in its far-reaching eclipse. To have watched in real-time the inauguration of Pope Leo X1V is technologically mind-boggling; conversely, for all its great merit it has gifted every misogynist, misandrist, homophobe, and xenophobe, with an unfettered platform — and an alarming possibility for international notoriety!

The phrase, quart-d’heure de popularité — fifteen-minutes of popularity — appeared in French print, 1821, and is another version of the misattributed Andy Warhol quote, “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15-minutes.” Before the advent of social media, and global internet immediacy, we spoke — sometimes pejoratively — of a “nine-days’ wonder” — a phrase which dates back to the 16th -century and William Kempe who Morris danced from London to Norwich— a distance of some 120-miles — in nine-days.

Celebrity comes at a heavy price; it is parasite which lives in any carcass. It has no loyalty — no concern for sensibilities, and passes from one victim to the next without a nanosecond of qualm. It is an insidious, universal curse.

If you must repost — then check before you send!

Roland can be heard with Brett Macdonald radio 3BA — Monday 10.40am. Contact: [email protected]