Michael D Higgins

Mark from poland wrote: »

Did he really deserve over one million votes ?

Well of course nobody 'deserves' a vote.

If you're asking why he earned over a million votes, the answer has as much to do with the quality of the alternative candidates as it has with Higgins's own Presidential capital.

There was an interesting discussion in this forum recently about Irish people having a reputation for boldness and defiance. I think the Presidency is yet another example of the evidence that such liberalism exists only when it is utterly meaningless.

We are quite prepared to bewstow upon reformative, liberal, even Socialist! candidates like Robinson and Higgins the impotent seal of Presidency, almost as some sort of crotch grabbing demonstration of our bold, lefty credentials.

But when it comes to electing Teedees with strategic, policymaking influence, we're much happier with the Conservative schoolteacher type thank-you-very-much.

The Waltzing Consumer wrote: »

I am going to presume you are from Poland and give you the benefit of ignorance in Irish politics. The President is a largely ceremonial role. Our President has been quite visible and vocal since he took office, more then I expected actually so far, and he has been quite positive in his language.

Visit every secondary school? Is that really the best you can muster up?

I don't know if this will remain open very long as it is a pretty terrible argument.

Am getting married to a Polish girl and have spent a lot of time around Poles, Czechs, Slovaks and other Slavic races, and I cannot trace as much as one hint of the most common slavic linguistic mistakes that even fluent English speakers make in "Mark from poland"'s post. Also Mark is a very uncommon name for a Pole. The closest would be Marek. I also dont see a real Pole, capitalising Mark and not capitalising Poland.

Michael D is going to spend the next 7 years sitting around up in the aras

"Up in the Aras" sounds very Irish to me.

My point being, that by having a username of "Mark from Poland" it seems he is mis-representing himself if he is not in fact from Poland. I set my location as the Czech Republic so as to give context to some of my posts, even though I am Irish.

I therefore question the rest of the post.

syklops wrote: »

Am getting married to a Polish girl and have spent a lot of time around Poles, Czechs, Slovaks and other Slavic races, and I cannot trace as much as one hint of the most common slavic linguistic mistakes that even fluent English speakers make in "Mark from poland"'s post. Also Mark is a very uncommon name for a Pole. The closest would be Marek. I also dont see a real Pole, capitalising Mark and not capitalising Poland.

Yes, and there are clear Irishisms in there too.
Before anybody starts talking about sean gallagher and FF Michael D higgins was in the dail during the "boom" years not once did him

Still, he might be living there, as you say.

Duggys Housemate wrote: »

He is full on Frankfurt school. So it is a good thing the role is ceremonial.

He's on the left of the Labour party, but let's recall that he was part of the Rainbow cabinet, the same govt which introduced the 12.5% corporation tax rate...he's hardly Theodor Adorno.

Duggys Housemate wrote: »

Heavily influenced by The Frankfurt School of theoreticians, such as Thomas Adorno and Herbert Marcuse, who integrated mass society critique into the analysis of monopoly capitalism, Michael D. Higgins sees "culture" as the set of customs, rituals and products that make up the way of life of every section of the community. As such, art is central to the democratic process and accessible to all.

A rigorously researched article, by the look of things...:pac:

Whatever about Michael D's intellectual influences, the point is that he sat in govt with FG, and it's difficult to imagine an Adorno pulling up a chair with the likes of John Bruton. Thank God he has no power because he's "full-on Frankfurt School"? He was in power, as part of a centrist coalition.

Duggys Housemate wrote: »

Adorno, were he given power would share it with anybody it took to get his ideology across. In any case Micky D is influenced by the Frankfurt school, as he is by other stuff, no doubt - like Irish culture, music etc. I was slightly tongue in cheek, but he is, nevertheless, influenced by Frankfurt, as are much of the 1968 generation.

Are we talking about Thomas or Theodor?

So far as I'm aware, Adorno never sought any sort of power, but you only have to look at his contemptuous dismissal of 60s student radicalism to see that he wasn't interested in forging opportunistic alliances to advance his political ideas.

I actually quite like the fact that we have a president who is interested in areas like political theory and sociology, rather than the anti-intellectual types we usually have in high office in Ireland.