Transcripts
"Ireland: Cultural Colonisation & Globalisation"
by Padraic Bennis
I wake up from under a continental quilt, in a room with shelves labouring under the weight of many authors’ work, internationally acclaimed and Irish authors side by side. There is a mug with the remnants of a Colombian coffee, with green mould on the surface, sitting on the desk. I switch on the radio and hearing the news being read in Irish, I wait for the English translation to fill in the gaps. I learn some of what has been happening around the world while I was restlessly asleep.
Moments later, refreshed by lukewarm water, I walk down the stairs, into the kitchen, and surveying the presses I negotiate a breakfast of American corn, French bread and Irish butter. Talk radio dj’s wind up their voice-boxes for another gruelling session of opinion and emotional difficulty, offering pop-psychological sound-bytes in a concerted attempt to help cure the ailments of increasingly dissatisfied listeners. I pick up my pen and start to think.
The world has a population of circa 6 billion people, Ireland accounts for about 3.9million of those. It could never be us against the world, but as we attempt to live within a Global Community what are we leaving behind?
The Irish are an educated, passionate, agricultural, industrial, urban, rural, wealthy, impoverished, ambitious, capable, difficult, fun-loving, witty, illiterate, traditional, businesslike, modern, humanitarian, selfish, generous, spiritual, apathetic and strong, weak people. Our identity, at once diverse and stereotyped, is being branded, marketed and sold to tourists from around the world. Our literature has reached many people, our musicians, politicians and church leaders have affected many more and influenced situations across the globe. Our youth have hitchhiked, emigrated and worked in every corner of the planet. We are global citizens. Many of us are fiercely proud of our indigenous culture, yet welcome interaction with a diverse range of experience whether that be Ethiopian beat music, samba, Goethe, Karl Marx, Hegel, Man United, Robbie Williams, Olive oil, Buddhism, noodles, Hello magazine, and countless other facets of culture from the past and present, from mainland Europe, Africa, America, Asia, and Australasia.
Amidst all this cultural brew, one can see that dominant forces are spreading through the internet, television & radio waves and are battling for position in the daily lives of Irish hearts, minds and actions. Western cultural values, which are almost entirely wrapped in monetary concerns, profit and loss, buy and sell, leave little room for much other than instant gratification, hedonism, escapism, power-trips, thrill-seeking, mind-games, message management, information overload, hyper-competition, bi-polarism, polarization, paranoia, instability, spin, suspicion, two-week holidays, global warming, consumption, pressure groups, war, coca-cola, prozac. The cult of ‘Now’, living in, of, for the moment is fatalistic and disallows perspective and measured judgment. That the individual is king, freedom is absolute, and responsibility is negligible are ideas which are gaining currency in Ireland, attitudes which are sweeping this small nation. This is Westernized thinking, marketed in pop-culture, mass-cultural ads, films, songs, programmes and economic policies.
Politically, Ireland plays a minor role on many stages, including its own. We held a Referendum on the Treaty of Nice, which we rejected for many reasons, one main reason being that the information provided about The Treaty was limited, that language used was beyond the comprehension of the very politicians, both Irish and European who are leading us into a united European future. Now, as the Eurocrats threaten our Government if we reply ‘No’ again in a second referendum on a still un-clarified issue, steamrolling the process over our democratic heads, one feels powerless and perhaps the negative focus of larger European countries will angle towards the westernmost tip of the continent. The idea of a Euro super state was not foremost in this electorate’s mind in 1973 when we joined the EEC.
A loose co-operative was more to the point. We may still not end up as the U.S. of E., but, the Union is centralizing power at an alarming rate and economics rules. Within we may survive, maybe. Without, survival would be more difficult.
There appears to be little choice.
So should we pull up anchor and sail off into the Atlantic? Are we strong enough to endure? As our culture weakens, as our spirits agitate, unsettled and in many cases near broken, what can we do faced with the might of mass cultural ‘values’, pop-corn, tabloid hysteria and success? Will global market forces envelope our once emerald isle?
Is membership of a European superpower still our only option and, finally, not having mentioned defence policies, will Sellafield ever close? One can only live in hope…..
Padraic Bennis is a freelance writer based in Dublin
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