Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/570058
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 13 SEPTEMBER 2015 Opinion 25 uttering the word 'Communism!; – the panic that this absurdly medieval superstition instilled was very real. All it took for horror stories to dominate the media for weeks was the discovery of 'devil worship symbols' spray-painted on the wall of an abandoned building. No other evidence of Satanic ritual was required, of course: the mere sight of a pentagram daubed in paint on a wall was enough to instantly pin the blame on 'Is-Satanisti': a conveniently shadowy subculture that no one seems to know anything about, and that quite frankly probably never even existed (unless you count the 'proof ' in that Pjazza Tlieta programme). It became such an obvious automatic alibi, that even the vandals who struck Mnajdra temples in 1992 – an attack that was later established as having nothing to do with Satanism at all – also sprayed the megaliths with Satanic symbols after toppling them over. You know, just to keep the intrepid investigators' options open that much longer… And just like these 'Satanic symbols' turned out to be a red herring, so too do these cataclysmic predictions invariably fall flat on their faces. The divorce scenario again springs to mind: despite countless warnings of social disintegration, Malta still has the lowest divorce rate in Europe; and where we previously had the highest rate of separations, this statistic (partly for obvious reasons) fell by one fifth in the first year. It may be too early to draw similar conclusions about the introduction of civil unions: but again, the thrust of the scaremongering was all along about the 'need to protect the family unit': for all the world as if the recognition of unorthodox relationship would automatically cause the spontaneous combustion of thousands of happy 'normal' families across the country. As things stand today, the only known effects of this law are that a handful of couples here and there have had their relationships formally acknowledged by the State – saddling them with rights and privileges previously reserved only to married couples – and… um… no, that's pretty much it. No earthquakes, no tsunamis… a couple of waterspouts halfway through August, yes, but that's more likely to do with global warming… and oh look: the Maltese family is no healthier or unhealthier than it was before. Malta did not descend into chaos, either; if anything the chaos lessened, as more types of relationships are now on the State's radar. Same goes for divorce, where the number of previously unregulated relationships has dwindled. But hey! Let's not allow a few boring facts and statistics to get in the way of all the fun. Moral panics are what this country specialises in… so by all means, let's have another one to append to all the rest. What'll it be now? Embryo freezing… ah yes, jolly good, it involves fertilised embryos, so it can always be linked to that instant, panic-inducing magic word, 'abortion'… it's a sufficiently complicated, technology- heavy subject that few people genuinely understand (so it's easy to convince them of the untold horrors it will invariably produce)… so let's kick up some good old-fashioned mass- hysteria about it, like only we – and maybe the Westboro Baptist Church in the USA – know how to do. Of course, it's far likelier that the effects of embryo freezing will be every bit as devastating as the effects of divorce or civil unions. In fact, the only foreseeable consequence will be a boost to the success rate of locally provided IVF services: which should theoretically result in the birth of more new life that would otherwise not be possible. But like all the other moral panics we have seen in the past, the reality of any given situation is hardly the point here. As Bob Dylan would have ended the song, "it's doom alone that counts." We are addicted to apocalyptic prophecies of cataclysmic proportions. So by all means, let's have our fix… I would like to receive the newspaper MaltaToday for a period of one year. Name & Surname .................................................................. Telephone: ........................................ Address ...................................................................................... E-mail: ........................................ FOR €67 YOU CAN RECEIVE THE MALTATODAY, FOR A PERIOD OF ONE YEAR. Send a cheque payable to MediaToday to: Subscriptions, MediaToday, Vjal il-Rihan, San Gwann, SGN 9016 The newspapers are delivered by post and therefore subject to the usual postal timings. Normally, MaltaToday should arrive on Monday. SUBSCRIPTION FORM Embryo freezing can always be linked to the panic-inducing magic word 'abortion'... It is a fairly complicated subject that few people understand, so it's easy to convince them of untold horrors