This week’s Mediahuis Irish regional newspapers’ column.
Michael Commane
The world sure is a strange place and I’m wondering does it get stranger the older we get. The philosopher Socrates said a long time ago that the youth were rude and uncaring.
Our newscasters, women and men, are perfectly turned out, the news is delivered with perfection from cleverly designed studios. Magazines and newspapers are printed with state of the art technology and appear in pristine condition on shelves in shops and newsagents.
The news they tell us can be a very different story. I’m growing exceedingly frustrated and confused with all the bad news that is bombarding my mind and heart these days.
What at all must it be like for the people in the middle of the hell, whether it’s Ukraine, the Middle East or somewhere in South America or Africa or what people suffer under dictatorships.
But there is so much awful stuff happening right in front of our eyes. I have no idea how many people are violently killed in a month or week in Ireland. The vandalism and rioting across the United Kingdom has all the look of hatred.
Why is it like this? I ask that question because in recent days I’ve experienced one or two unsavoury moments. One would want to be blind not to realise something is amiss.
A few days ago I saw a woman screaming at a Luas driver and telling him to F-off and within minutes of that, three young men were fighting on the street and at one stage I was afraid one of them was going to grab my bicycle. And this all happened in broad daylight.
It dawned on me that moment it wouldn’t take much to set the place on fire. A clever demagogue could easily sow a seed among the alienated, disgruntled, those who feel powerless. Suddenly, they could be given a sense of purpose and worth. I get the impression we are all obsessed with our own little worlds.
Is it simply the human condition? How can you have someone on a salary of half a million euro, living within a short bicycle ride from someone who lives on weekly benefit or unemployment money? It can’t work. Is it too harsh to say that capitalism benefits fewer and fewer? Is it dangerous to say that democracy might be in its dying days?
If our politicians, our leaders, ministers of religion speak the truth, stop patronising, stop spin-doctoring, simply tell us in real true words what is good and wholesome for all of us, might that help?
Talking in Atlanta Georgia Donald Trump said Kamala Harris can’t even talk. He said there are 19 ways to pronounce her name but she only uses three.
He told his adoring listeners that it was because of God that he missed the assassin’s bullet. This man is campaigning for the world’s number one job. Is Trump reading the mood of the people or is he the demagogue who’s urging us to be crude, vulgar and nasty?
‘A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a moulder of consensus.’ - Martin Luther King Jr.
1 comment:
What Socrates said about democracy more than 2000 years ago.
He said that demoracy must fall because it will try to tailor to everyone.
The poor will want the wealth of the rich, and democracy will give it to them.
Young people will want to be respected as elderly and democracy will give it to them.
Women will want to be like men and democracy will give it to them
Foreigners will want the rights of the natives and democracy will give it to them.
Thieves and fraudsters will want important government functions, and democracy will give it to them.
And at that time, when thieves and fraudsters finally democratically take authority because criminals and evil doers want power, there will be worse dictatorship than in the time of any monarchy or oligarchy.
Socrates (470-399 b.c.)
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