As the predominantly bad financial news continues to pour in from the big technology companies - the "bellwethers" and a few of the more prominent members of the flock - two responses prevail in this country.

On the one hand - and this seems to come mainly from people outside the technology sector - there is lots of handwringing about the "inevitable" crash of the entire economy. In this version of reality, the slump is providing trailers for the full horrific glory of the soon-to-be-released disaster movie, Ireland Inc: the Final Days.

Then, there's the head-in-the-sand crowd, which pretends that all that stuff about massive job cuts, profit warnings and company closures is due to - but of course - the "bad business plans" of dotcom and technology companies. That is, American companies, who had it coming and have now messed up their economy. The few companies here affected in the same way? Well, everyone, just everyone, knew they had foolishly adopted the same sort of bad business plan as those US fools.

In my experience, the latter "perspective" (such as it is) seems to be voiced most often by other Internet-oriented companies here who think everyone else (i.e., the competition) deserves to be carted off to the liquidators. They, of course, stoutly maintain that they remain immune (meaning, of course, that they have a "real" business plan). I have heard this at industry events, at dinners, in pubs, at product launches. Such statements are almost always garnished with a note of thinly suppressed glee. Sometimes through that glee one detects an edgy hope that you will concur, verifying their version of things.

Dream on. These are the companies that are most likely to be thrown in the cart when the cry of "bring out your dead" resounds in upcoming months. It is hard to imagine that such small-mindedness and lack of insight in any company's senior management will create a company with any kind of resilience or market nous.

Then there are those who not only predict a crash, but are waiting for it eagerly. They would deny this, because they speak of economic woe in hushed, worried tones. They tsk-tsk the latest market reports, sigh in evident distress, say they are concerned about job losses here, and truly pity the poor people who bought houses at the height of the boom (they bought well before that, of course). They ask me which large computer company I think will close down next, and isn't it just like the 1980s, and serves the Government right for all that talk about e-commerce and hubs.

But it is easy to see their frisson of pleasure as well. For some, such a response is undoubtedly schadenfreude - "damage-joy" - that tendency to jealously will failure on others and then to say, "I told you so", usually while lacking the capacity to have had any such premonition.

Yet there's more to it than that. I'd suggest the willingness to embrace gloom with pleasure is yet another example of an Irish solution to an Irish problem. The problem is not feeling comfortable with success. Admitting that the country is now doing unbelievably well, and is considered a highly desirable location for technology companies, and is going into a "slowdown" economy with growth three times the European average, does not sit well with the historical image presented to the world of the downtrodden but enduring nation.

These people are disturbed that the poor mouth plea no longer works with Europe, and that it gets ever more difficult to persuade Americans to feel sorry - and thus donate funds - to an economy that has outpaced almost every other globally for a decade. They cling to the tourist image presented to the world - still, by and large, the one of emigration, mournful ballads, little cottages and oppression.

Thankfully, that has begun to change - remember the "we are the young Europeans" sign in Dublin Airport? That was initial evidence of a small, but nonetheless monumental, mindshift. It was also, incidentally, a shocking change for many oldschool Irish-Americans. They preferred to believe they were offering their tourist and charity-fund dollars unto a sorrowful nation of balladeers and poets - not of smart young business and engineering graduates who could speak Italian and were fielding job offers from Goldman-Sachs and Oracle.

For many people, such a transformation must have sat uneasily for the past few years. Perhaps it also seemed to be a reckless fist raised towards the heavens, and a taunt deserving of a good smite from the Almighty. A demure nation that prided itself on its modesty and lack of opportunity suddenly went into a languorous glide towards Euro-style bars, posh restaurants, BMWs, Tuscan holidays and text-messaging.

I think many people don't know how to reconcile the old with the new, and some simply don't want to. The old Ireland had an identity that was easier to understand, package, and (to be blunt) milk. An economic downturn seems the appropriately ironic punishment to be meted out to a nation that has lost the run of itself entirely.

I find it hard to understand that attitude, as well as the industrial strength begrudgery so often on display. It drags everyone down. Fortunately many Irish companies, and many pivotal figures in the technology industry here, keep looking forward, even in the current gloom.

They're the ones you get the thoughtful analysis from. They maintain an interest in the circle of larger companies as well as young newcomers. They work to keep the Republic's visibility high on the global tech radar screen, and they talk to each other. They concentrate on looking after their own houses, too, rather than throwing verbal stones at others.

I don't think the economic situation is going to get any better for some time globally, and it's more than likely that we'll continue to take a battering for some time - well into next year, undoubtedly.

Yet, let's put that in perspective. The economy overall remains strong, far ahead of most of Europe. The Republic's significance to the multinationals is clear from their general reluctance to make job cuts here compared to their other operations. Irish companies continue to find funding, even in a sour market.

In other words, meltdown is not imminent. If you're doing OK, you're allowed to enjoy your prosperity. And please do not use the phrase "bad business plan".

klillington@irish-times.ie