Opinion Third person singular
A hijacked passenger gets stick for taking a selfie, but it was shot by someone else
EgyptAir plane hijacking suspect Seif Eddin Mustafa, second left, is escorted by Cyprus police officers as he leaves a court after a remand hearing as authorities investigate him on charges including hijacking, illegal possession of explosives and abduction in the Cypriot coastal town of Larnaca Wednesday, March 30, 2016. Mustafa described as “psychologically unstable” hijacked a flight Tuesday from Egypt to Cyprus and threatened to blow it up. His explosives turned out to be fake, and he surrendered with all passengers released unharmed after a bizarre six-hour standoff. (Source: AP Photo)
The Stockholm syndrome has been given a new visual dimension by the improbably cheerful Ben Innes of Leeds, who appeared on social media in a controversial image with the EgyptAir hijacker Seif Eldin Mustafa. Visually, it is epic — a large Briton with an even larger grin getting chummy with a goofy hijacker with a fake explosive belt and a surprisingly vulnerable gaze, which seems to indicate that he knows that the belt is fake. Headlined “the best selfie ever”, the image has caused more acrimony than the hijack itself.
Innes has been derided by the moral majority of the internet as an irresponsible idiot, who could have precipitated a situation. His own mother has called his act “stupid”, but for other reasons. Mothers generally do not want their children to attract the attention of maniacs, which Mustafa could have been. Meanwhile, the authorities have dismissed Mustafa as a plain idiot, refusing to honour him even with the charge of insanity. That honour, it is argued, should go to real terrorists.
The image has been held up as a symptom of a peculiar disorder which has overtaken the human race — the irresistible urge to freeze all situations, even potentially terminal ones, in dramatic images featuring oneself. Thoughtful analysts have weighed in on the subject, predicting the end of civilisation as we know it. If the selfie is the logical consequence of the age of individualism, what does it say about the state of the self? But as Innes’s mother has protested, the picture isn’t a selfie at all. It was shot by an unidentified accomplice, who should be getting the brickbats which Innes is gleefully gathering. That’s the internet for you: It is rarely what it seems to be, and its dramatis personae frequently turn out to be anonymous actors.
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