We are a soft, self-congratulatory bunch. Consider the fuss currently being made of The Spire and its construction. The technology that went into its creation is being spoken of in hushed tones. Have we forgotten the Irish Round Tower? Now there is a feat of engineering - no giant cranes were involved, and these monuments possesses an element of mystery that The Spire will never achieve.
There are about 80 such towers still standing throughout the country. No one eulogises them or the people who made them. It seems that unless we can ridicule something there is no point in discussing it. How about the magnificent corbelled ceiling of the Newgrange tumulus? What modern contractor is going to attempt emulate it? Think of all the personal injury claims there would be.
We greedy, spoilt first world humans are pathetic. It rains, the country stops. It gets cold, we take to our beds. These dark winter mornings, we stay under the blankets. It frosts, we seek counselling. Commuting to work is the new heroism.
There are many things wrong with us - who to blame? It seems we can't walk anywhere any more. There are shameless people among us capable of requesting a lift to get to the place they are getting a lift from. Children are driven to school. What's wrong with walking, or running? How about bikes? Forget about being a hardy, near amphibious island race (thanks to generations of rain) - we are now indoor invertebrates, sofa slugs. Are able bodied people seriously going to resent walking a few yards to fetch their own mail?
Years ago we had imagination. Children were resourceful, we played. We could swim, run, long jump, climb trees, hurdle, cartwheel without thinking, vault over hedges and ride a horse. Today there is a species of prematurely aged consumers claiming perpetual stress and exhaustion. No one meets for a game of tennis, or a run, or a swim, it's all meals, drinks and therapy.
What's happened? 400 years ago 1,000 Irish people set off on the currently commemorated O'Sullivan's Great March, from Beara in Co Cork to Co Leitrim. Nowadays, even hill walkers equip themselves for an afternoon ramble as if poised to conquer Everest. Blame television; television, convenience foods and evil of evils, central heating
If some of us think the farmers are moaners, too accustomed to money from Europe, the non- farming community should ponder life for the livestock farmer who must rise in the dark, seven dawns a week, to feed animals that don't go away when the weather is not conducive to early morning routines.
Then there are the advertisements. I don't have a television and can't imagine what travesties I'm missing if the current batch of radio ads are anything to go by. Consider one particularly disturbing commercial. A woman appears to be telling a potential harasser to go away. But he persists, driving along beside her, urging her to "get into the car". It is almost frightening. Then it transpires she knows him, but is rejecting him because of "that thing" - his shabby auto. Their relationship is doomed - because he has an old banger.
New cars are the new personal fulfilment. Change your car - even if you have to mortgage your house, send the children and the family pets out to work, but secure that new car. A car can change your self image, even save your relationship. The car dealers are now bribing us to buy a car. Buy a car and they will give us money and presents. Who are these people? Why don't they just give us the cars? The electrical appliance stores also crusade for buying something, anything, just to make us happy. And how about that cosmetic surgery you always dreamed of?
Buy, buy, buy. Feeling depressed? Lonely? Ugly? Fat? Stupid? - all of these things? - there is only one solution; buy something. Excess is all. Many households at Christmas confusingly featured several Santas all trying to gain access simultaneously; Santa on a motorbike, Santa in an air balloon, Santa astride the moon. Whatever happened to the traditional sleigh? Junk food and microwaves mean that no one cooks anymore and judging by the amount of refuse thrown out of passing cars by people speaking on mobile phones, many have taken to eating in, and phoning from, their cars.
The new softness is paradoxical, considering the aggression that sustains modern society. We identified an enemy last year - the plastic bag. Yet did nothing about the litterbugs who continue to abandon their rubbish.
Try opening a window anywhere and you are immediately branded anti-social. In tandem with the smokers polluting what remains of our oxygen, there are the males and female who douse themselves in invasive scent strong enough to remove the paint off a battleship. Our minds are gone too, we don't have the time or energy to read books, the Internet is the new encyclopaedia.
We were once better, more noble. We must have been. Our ancestors survived without electricity or flush toilets, we have everything but merely exist. Okay, so we are not enjoying a heat wave. But it is January.
We can help ourselves to at least appear less feeble. Thermal underwear. Revolting to look at, but highly efficient - and discreet. Thermal underwear and socks will make you seem a finer, more able person, capable of facing life's difficulties - a frosty day, the traffic. Go the thermal way, we have nothing else left to lose.