Reasons to be cheerful, part III

GCU Flexible Demeanour

Read an article today that I think was meant to scare/depress/humiliate me. Instead, it left me feeling better about our country and the people in it.

A few days ago I had to listen politely while a parent of one of my daughters mates ranted about the State and public servants. He'd sort of half know that I've some kind of State job, and that's good enough. So he goes on with this rant, sort of verbally stepping around me "I'm not saying you'd be like that", as every ill, every failure, is ultimately passed on to anyone earning a living from the State.

As I wonder what's the right thing to do. Just let him rant? Do I try to inject some reason? Because what's on my mind, all the time he's ranting, is that people who look for scapegoats most likely have something they feel they need to hide. He was something to do with construction, so far as I know. Maybe he's up to his oxters in debt, and the banks are chasing him and the fact the industry he was in is now exposed as a Ponzi probably eats at him. And it comes out as blaming the public sector for everything.

So that left me a bit dejected. Not the rant, just the feeling that the economy was so cock-eyed that too many of us ended up in the wrong sectors. Building. Public sector. Retail. Hospitality. And, after yer man's rant, it sort of added to my feeling that many people will do anything rather than wake up to that, and take responsibility for being where we individually are, and (most important) seeing what we can do next.

Then, today, I read Dan O'Brien. I think another of those article meant to make us feel inadequate, particularly when next Friday we collectively vote for the same kind of cabbages to take up residence in the national parliament.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2011/0219/1224290287663.html

IRELAND’S EXTRAORDINARILY moderate and passive society perplexes foreigners. They wonder at the very limited political and societal reaction to the country’s economic crisis.

And, pretty much from the first line, I found myself thinking 'let them be perplexed'. Because, absolutely, mostly we're not losing the run of ourselves. Mostly we're not screaming at some other sector.

Maybe mostly we've figured that some things are beyond are personal control, and life's just about trying to manage whatever situation we're in. Maybe we're comfortable enough in our own skins not to need to rant on at others. Maybe the difference is we've got lives.

Just a thought. I may be utterly wrong. But I am interested if anyone has a slant on that article.

Eve_Dublin

You make an interesting point and I read that article when it was published and I had mixed feelings. I live in Madrid, a city very divided by politics. You're either right or your left or you don't care (or pretend to not care for fear of causing offence). It seems like there's no middle ground. People don't dicuss politics because opinions are so divided. I've been working as an English teacher there for about a year and half and I've tried on numerous occasions to get a discussion about Spanish politics going but failed. People stay silent on this theme because they know there's a good chance that the person sitting across from them has polar opposite opinions on everything. It's historical, of course....I live in a city where the majority supported Franco and is still conservative today, even among young people.

Yesterday we voted in a coalition government formed with a party from the centre-right and the centre-left. This couldn't happen in Spain because so much genuine hatred exists on both sides towards each other. This hatred runs deep within politics and society so nothing is debated or discussed just to keep the peace. At least politics is not a taboo subject here in Ireland. You're free to say what you like without fear of the person you're talking to despising you or judging the kind of person you are by your political persuasion...or at least not to the same degree as Spain.

I find this a deeply frustrating aspect of Spain or at least Madrid. You can't get an opinion from anyone and when you do, it's usually irrational and almost hysterical, like they've supressed it too long. If politics is not discussed openly, how can anything change? Even if both parties came to a compromise (which they sometimes do), both sides will pick holes in it (behind closed doors and within the media) and almost for the sake of it out of loyalty to their position. At least in Ireland there's a rational middle ground and discussion.


HOWEVER, I agree we're passive and we really shouldn't be, particularly as a vast majority of us are opposed to the party that led us the past 14 years. What are we afraid of? We share a common enemy and I believe there's enough anger bubbling under the surface of this country for something to happen i.e. more than just voting this party out....make them pay! Are we afraid of feeling so much anger that were afraid of what we might do? We don't trust ourselves? There was a national day of protest and that was fantastic but we've let a bunch of criminals get away with our dignity and our money and we've done nothing to show our strong disapproval.