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Citizen Cameron: Disclosure, Scandal and
PigGate
SURYANSU GUHA1
This paper looks at the ‘PigGate’ scandal, the element of disclosure in the
scandal and its circulation as a mode of public address. Scandals like
‘Watergate’ or the ‘Panama Papers’ involve maladminist ration, cheating
and fraud of public money; in short, a violation of the office and a misuse
of power that one holds. What makes a scandal work is not a righteous
impulse to blow the whistle on corruptions of political personalities,
because a scandal can very well exist without the element of corruption
that directly influences the material lives of the public. Intentionality of
the whistleblower cannot in itself account for the success of scandals.
While earnestness and nobility may serve as precondition to some
scandals, the question of complicity is fraught with an infinite number of
complexities relating to the relationship of the celebrity with the public.
What is at the heart of scandalizing the public is not the ethico-political
question but rather the public sense of morality and outrage pertaining to
their political stardom. The objective of the paper is to look at how a
particular kind of disclosure causes a momentary or a permanent
collapse of political stardom and increases public accessibility to a figure
whose abstract perfection gets belied by a moment of human
imperfection.
At ev’ry Word a Reputation dies.
Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock (2005: 47)2
1
Suryansu Guha is a research scholar affiliated with the Centre for English Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru
University, India. His current research areas are cyberculture, humour, trauma, pop culture and email.
Suryansu can be contacted at [email protected].
2
Originally published in 1712.