I SEE it suggested that recent events in Irish social life "have given the lie to three classic philosophical theories as they relate to Ireland". The coordinator of the Institute for Feminism and Religion, Ms Mary Condren, says that the quests for money (Marx), sex (Freud) or power (Nietzsche) are no longer the only governing social forces.
She believes we are now more devoted to clambering up on the high moral ground in order to indulge feelings of self righteousness.
Well, not me. No. Money, sex and power still drive me the way they always did. It's second gear stuff mostly at this stage of course, and there are the usual difficulties in all three areas, but per aspera ad astra I always say, at least when I am not quoting the old school motto, constantia inter mutanda.
As for the high moral ground, I never could see its attractions. I was always content with the common herd on the low plains. Our pleasures are simpler, our tastes that bit less sophisticated, our aspirations not as high.
Three meals a day, a bit of crack in the office, a laugh with the lads, tousle haired children to come home to, a good TV film with a strong central performance, the odd home based drama that tells us something uplifting about human nature, and perhaps a pint or two at weekends, that's all we look for.
Anyone with notions doesn't last long in this company and we have just as little tolerance for self righteousness. Provided people go to Mass on Sundays and keep their front lawns tidy we don't ask too many questions.
The Tailor and Ansty are, along with Padraig Pearse, among our small pantheon of heroes. We agree that life is only a blue bag and you must knock a bit of fun out of it.
As a neighbour of mine is fond of saying, the yellow bittern that never broke out in a drinking about 4 might as well have drunk, except that the neighbour says it in the original Irish, a fairly harmless vanity. He means we will be dead a long time.
Anyway, Ms Condren calls on politicians and others to serve "Mother Ireland" better than they have hitherto done.
She recalls the old myth of Ireland as a grotesque hag, waiting to be properly appreciated by the rightful king. Men shy away in disgust, until finally one brave fellow embraces her "in all her terror, ambivalence, tragedy and messiness" an embrace, she says, that proves his wisdom.
The next thing we know, fertility, love, fruitfulness and hope return to the land.
I am not good on old Irish my thology, mor mo naire, but the first thing I would say is that whatever about love and fruitfulness, the gradual decrease in male fertility over the past 30 years is worrying a lot of people.
I would not be at all surprised if it has something to do with the dark cow leaving the moor, the pastures poor with greedy weeds. The old hag (which seems a shocking word for a feminist to use about one of her own sex) may be one and the same as the poor old Cailleach Beara, and the whole sad business of depravity, waste, general litter (Bundoran should look into its own heart) and infertility augurs ill for what Ms Condren has in mind.
She wants one of our "brave heroes" from the political, paramilitary or media ranks to embrace the old hag that is Ireland and thereby release all the vast fruitfulness referred to.
It is a great idea but finding the right candidate may take time. There is an element of belling the cat here.
By the way, just because I (and my friends) are still driven by "power (Nietzsche)" does not mean we are under any illusions. We are well aware that Friedrich's hostility to Christianity and the effectiveness of his delineation of the joys of a godless existence can be upsetting to some people.
We know that his actual influence (which, given his overwhelming emphasis on the need for radical change, was exercised entirely on the left), became confused with the so called social Darwinism which increasingly dominated the right in Germany during the decade before the first World War, and that Darwin's "survival of the fittest" and Nietzsche's "will to power", both misunderstood in equal measure, were (wrongly) held between them to have created German militarism.
Down on the low moral ground we are at least sure of our footing. Money/Marx and sex/Freud we will have to leave for another day.
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