It’s a week ago since Jamie Carragher had his moment of spitty madness. He’s apologised to all concerned of course and you can certainly understand why.

But I don’t see anyone considering what might have caused him to snap like that, in the face of relatively moderate pish-taking by a typical member of the public. And I don’t see any analysis of why grown men think it’s okay to bait a famous person and film him, whilst driving with your child.

Of both parties, Carragher’s behaviour – whilst needlessly unpleasant – was easily the most understandable. I don’t think it was right but I’d suggest that it may have happened because this sort of thing is a regular occurrence every time he is in public. He can’t be a normal working-class fella anymore, he’s ‘Jamie Carragher Football Celebrity’, and as such is treated by a significant number of people as some sort of entertainment opportunity. There are plenty of people like that driver who seem to assume that somebody’s fame gives them a licence to behave differently than they would towards any other stranger.

I say this because he accidentally said something very revealing.

“When you see someone off the telly you get a bit giddy. As he was ex-Liverpool as well, I thought I would just have a bit of banter about the result. I just wanted to have a laugh with him because he comes across as a very amiable guy.”

Do you really get “giddy” when you see someone off the telly? Really? That’s an oddly immature thing for a 42-year-old adult to say. The fact this person wanted to ‘have a bit of banter’ (it’s always the banter defence, isn’t it?) with Jamie, shows an assumption of public ownership of a public figure.

But Carragher is not public property; he’s not there for your personal entertainment. Gentle ribbing between mates is common enough, but doing it with a stranger, and he is a stranger, is an entirely different and very weird thing altogether.

It suggests that the man in his car implicitly believes Carra’s fame allows him to do this. That perhaps he should even expect it. But Jamie doesn’t know you. He hasn’t a clue who you are or what you’re like, and nor does he care. Why should he? How would you like strangers taking the pish out of you when you’re just trying to get home to your loved ones? You wouldn’t like it happening even once, let alone every day.

On top of that, of course, the man is filming it all (illegally) on his phone to preserve the hoped-for banter for posterity (that’s a whole other column). It then shamelessly finds its way onto the internet, presumably in pursuit of some sort of 15 minutes of fame. Is this the life we all wanted?

This is an intrusion into Carragher’s private life that he didn’t invite, didn’t want and you are filming this invasion of his privacy. And then, oh, it’s YOU who’s been hard done by when he reacts badly?

This is just one occurrence – there are many, many more that get less publicity because the famous person tries not to make a fuss for fear of looking bad. It is almost routine.

Robbie Savage spoke last week about the ceaseless abuse he gets going about his daily business and how scary it can be. It sounded appalling. I wouldn’t hesitate to say it is an infringement against his human rights to live a free life. But nothing is done. Indeed, it is laughed at. What sort of world are we living in now where this vulgarity is some sort of common default? Whatever happened to being decent and well-mannered?

Lots of things are in play here, I think.

There is an increasing infantilisation of adulthood where childish, unsophisticated, emotional responses are prolonged into later years. With age comes rights and responsibilities. You should know where boundaries lie and how to behave properly. Clearly, many do not. The causes of this are many and varied but an important one is the tabloid media.

In the tabloid media, footballers and others are regularly stripped of their humanity and reduced to merely being a unit of financial worth. ‘Footballer buys car’ and ‘footballer shops in a shop’ shockingly count as a ‘news’ story now. They are not talked about as if they’re real people. No. They’re framed as objects of envy or hate or worship, symbols of good or bad. Immorality or morality. But ironically, the tabloid world is an amoral world. It exists only for clicky clicky, yet its values have infected the public consciousness completely.

In this vile culture, women that footballers have relationships with are treated not as humans at all, not as people with their own character and world view, but as a fleshly accessory that exists merely for the titillation of others. The WAGS acronym is the ultimate dehumanising terminology. You are not a sentient soul, you are merely playing a role defined against a man. You have no individuality, you cast no shadow, you are only illuminated by the light from the famous footballer and even then, only if in a bikini.

This horrible cultural trend is a form of abuse, normalised through widespread repetition over years. And what happens if you strip all these people of their humanity? You get incidents like the Carragher one, don’t you? You get adults feeling entitled to their banterous moment.

But the sickness doesn’t stop there. To compound what to me is already total weirdness, and to illustrate just what a very, very twisted world we live in, the man who filmed Carragher’s impressive saliva expulsion starts getting death threats from those seeking to defend the Liverpool man, like they’re some sort of private army.

These are not people who know Jamie either, except on a pitch or on the TV, yet they’re defending him like he’s an abused member of their own kin. It’s not just overly familiar, it seems to be mistaking familiarity for a relationship, or even friendship. Carragher even had to ask them to stop this behaviour and leave the man alone. It’s all part of the same mindset.

In all of this, the only sane person has been Jamie Carragher and ironically he’s the one who’s been suspended from his job.

I do understand that seeing a famous person is a slightly odd experience. You recognise them, but they obviously don’t know you at all. But can’t you just behave normally and be respectful of their privacy and personal space? I also recognise the Carragher incident was far from the most egregious and the man in question meant no harm per se.

But we seem to now live in a world where our brains are twisted and our values distorted by social and football media intent on subjugating us to their monetisation of our basest instincts. That is what is behind this. We must resist. We must shake ourselves and others out of this grotesque hypnosis. We have no right to treat people like Jamie Carragher in this way, in this situation. More broadly, we need to encourage a reconnection to a well-mannered, polite way of life.

No matter how famous or familiar from TV they are, they are not our plaything, they are not our cue for banter and we need to be more understanding of others and less desperate to become a YouTube hero. I can’t believe this even needs saying.

Honestly, it’s enough to make you want to spit.

John Nicholson

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