PRESIDENT'S LOG:Cynicism and sarcasm are darkening the national mood but they'll do nothing to sort out our problems, writes FERDINAND VON PRONDZYNSKI
Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act II, scene five. Another part of the forest.
Enter Amiens, Jaques, and others.
Amiens: sings.
Jaques: More, more, I prithee, more.
Amiens: It will make you melancholy, Monsieur Jaques.
Jaques: I thank it. More! I prithee, more. I can suck melancholy out of a song as a weasel sucks eggs. More! I prithee, more.
RIGHT NOW IT seems to me that this country is sucking melancholy out of absolutely everything. The news is bad in Ireland, but as a nation we seem determined to make it worse still.
The entire national discourse is stuck in a groove, endlessly repeating pessimism, fatalism, blame, indignation, cynicism, negativity. We put on the radio or open our newspapers determined to find yet more of that. We debate Nama not because we have a view on it, or at least not one with a justified claim to anyone’s attention, but because we like the opportunity it gives us to make sarcastic remarks about other people’s incompetence. And recently I have started to hear nostalgic comments about the 1980s, and how good they were. Really? The era of 20 per cent inflation, 17 per cent unemployment, strikes and referendum campaigns? Goodness me, enough!
Last year I was talking to some visitors from the US. They are frequent visitors to Ireland, but this was their first visit in 18 months or so. They could not believe the amount of negativity they were encountering. Apart from wondering how on earth we were still managing to get out of bed in the morning, they were observing that, with such an attitude problem, we would probably make our way out of the recession two years after everyone else, by which point also we will have persuaded all potential investors that they should look elsewhere.
However, it’s not like that with everyone. If you live and work in a university as I do, you have a daily opportunity to hear something different from students. Yes, they know about the problems we are facing, and they often have unprintable comments to make about those who got us here. But they tend to keep all that in perspective, and they retain a determination to move to a better future and hold on to a sense of confidence that we can get there.
Well, something is being done to tap into what remains of our national sense of self-confidence. Last year Dr Martin McAleese (pictured right, who is one of the great national heroes of our time) gathered a small group of people to explore the possibility of a competition that would invite people to propose initiatives to re-start the economy.
Initially, the idea was tested on a small group of university students and, when this produced useful ideas, a steering group was established to take the project forward. This culminated in the launch last month by President Mary McAleese of the Your Country, Your Call initiative. The authors of two winning proposals will receive €100,000 each. The prize money will go to those judged to have come up with ideas that could help change the way we do things, allow businesses to grow, employment to be created, etc.
I am hoping that Your Country, Your Call is catching the public imagination. And not just in Ireland: recently I heard about a group of seven pensioners in England, with no connections to Ireland, getting together to make a proposal. To get themselves in the mood and to understand the context, they read The Irish Timeson a daily basis and pore over Government reports and official Irish statistics. So if this group of English pensioners can do this for us, surely the rest of us over here can too.
I have had the great privilege of being associated with this competition from the outset as a member of the steering group. Everyone involved in the project has contributed pro bono, and when you are surrounded by people who are anxious to do their bit and who are looking for a way to help at this time it is hard to be cynical.
In any case, cynicism is a progressive disease that destroys the organism as it spreads. If we continue to wallow in our mood of pessimism we are not just robbing ourselves of the energy to get ourselves out of the mess, we are persuading others looking at us from outside that we are not a good bet because we don’t have the determination to get over our recent losses and roll up our sleeves to create something better.
So unless we think cynicism and sarcasm are such fun that national decline and poverty are a price worth paying, let us get into the spirit of national regeneration and economic recovery. Let us show some determination and optimism. Submit a proposal to yourcountryyourcall.com.
Ferdinand von Prondzynski is president of Dublin City University
