The Thought Police

Some say the Irish are thoughtful and innovative and that, alongside the cunning and the craic, our culture is one of ideas and creativity. We’ve traded on these notions ourselves and the newest wheeze, the smart economy, is but the latest pitch of many to the world. But even a cursory look at the headlines would give pause for thought.

In fact, it’s astounding how little of our public discourse is given over to ideas and how little respect we accord to thought. There are many plausible explanations for this anti-intellectualism but four seem particularly relevant.
The first of these is that clerics dominated Irish thought for far longer than was the case in other countries. In France, for example, republicanism espoused a strongly anti-clerical strain. By contrast, in Ireland, although socialists and certain republicans were indeed anti-clerical, on the whole political thought was co-opted and directed by the clergy, and priests infested the various philosophy departments in most universities.
The second is that at some point in the 19th century the majority of Irish seem to have decided that the future lay within the British Empire or in America. That meant getting educated, but as functionaries and administrators rather than critics and thinkers. In such a culture, education is seen as a kind of capital or a bridge to personal advantage rather than as knowledge.
Indeed, the Christian Brothers were excoriated by nationalist and republican Padraig Pearse for educating Irish youth for just such a future, rather than to be citizens of an independent and Gaelic Ireland. Ironic when you think of how he too was co-opted by the Irish mullahs…
The third is that, for various reasons, Irish culture has largely been a peasant culture, one that looks to rural touchstones like farm and field, the weather, horses and sport, gambling and dealing.
This is still largely true even though a majority now live in urban environments. Hence, to take just one example, the absurd comment on an RTE radio programme during a preview of the last Leinster-Munster rugby match that a key difference between the two sets of fans was that Leinster fans wore gloves in cold weather, which somewhat muted their clapping, whereas Munster fans clapped barehanded – the implication being that the former were soft city poofs and the latter were real (ie country) men.
The fourth pillar of anti-intellectualism is more recent, adn that is the significant colonisation of Irish media by British-owned titles, especially the tabloids.
It is surprising how robust it is. Okay, we continue to generate great literature and Joyce and Beckett were extraordinary innovators too. And Eileen Gray was a great designer. But mostly we are really good at interpreting and applying other people’s ideas and at maximising and exploiting them. Music is not as different as we might think, though in fairness we have U2...
All of this is prompted by watching the soap opera that passes for public life and especially politics in this country. To paraphrase William Munnie in Unforgiven, “ideas got nothin’ to do with it” . When anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss died at 100 in France recently it was regarded as a national loss and was the subject of much comment and many tributes. Wouldn’t happen here. As Bertie Ahern put it so memorably, it’s all smoke and daggers.
So, Fianna Fáil got a little bounce after Christmas. Was it for the budget? Or was it that people were impressed by Brian Lenihan’s reaction to his cancer diagnosis?
The big story for Fine Gael was George Lee’s departure. This, and the idea that the party might have wasted the services of a ‘top’ personality was what drove the story, not anything to do with thought or what the party itself actually stands for.
Likewise, there’s a lot of things we might say about the Greens. The party pays more attention to thinking about its positions than most, but yet again the story that really rocked the boat was the resignation of Senator Deirdre de Burca on what seem largely personal grounds.
If Fianna Fáil thought that these developments might build the bounce, they too were whacked. In their case it was the Willie O’Dea’s resignation… not for what his contribution to Irish political science or thought might be (or not be, perhaps) but because he swore a false affidavit…
It’s as though the country is populated by a throng of couch potatoes obsessed with the characters on the screen and swaying this way and that as the storyline ebbs and flows. But the last thing they’ll do is think about it.
Well, it’s little wonder that Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary has entered into the spirit of things. This writer doesn’t know enough about airline maintenance to have an opinion (which puts me in a minority) on the current situation, so I won’t comment.
But what’s going on at the moment is fascinating. He’s another character on the stage and he’s larger than life. He’s neither shy about expressing his opinions nor about wading into politicians and he certainly seems to have it in for the present Government.
I might well disagree with Michael O’Leary on certain things, but I’ll say this: he’s built what started out as an Irish company into a hugely profitable global multinational. It’s a massive achievement.
A successful entrepreneur is the direct opposite of a functionary – though not necessarily an intellectual! But philosopher or not, O’Leary has dramatically changed how the world thinks about flying. As a result, a lot of people would like to give him a free hand with a lot of Ireland’s sacred cows!
The crowd isn’t interested in thinkers – but as the plot thickens it’s set up for action man. Now there’s a curious thought!