Madam, — I am writing in response to John Waters’s article “Soul poison hides lack of meaning for Picnickers” (Opinion, September 10th). In this sanctimonious diatribe, he manages to dismiss the Electric Picnic experience as hollow and superficial, with its disillusioned attendees intent on getting “completely blasted” to forget that they cannot “find what they were searching for”.
Electric Picnic is a music and arts festival, not an elaborate search for hidden personal depth. Like most Irish social occasions, Electric Picnic is indeed about imbibing a little “soul poison” but it’s largely about fulfilling a dream of seeing a favourite band or meeting a hero.
Mr Waters’s pity for a generation deprived of “a comprehensible map of the greater meaning of things” rings false, given his own desire to derive satisfaction and depth from the single day he spent at the festival.
Festival-bound in search of meaning and a little nostalgia, I would suggest that it is Mr Waters who sought something that he could not find – the excitement and enthusiasm of his youth, undampened by age or the Irish weather. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – I have a humble suggestion for John Waters. Should he deign to “do” the Electric Picnic again next year, he ought to carry with him a blackthorn stick. With such an implement he could clear the hedgerows of the young in one another’s arms.
He could then start on the birds in the trees. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – I believe that Mr Waters has eloquently identified the fact that so many of our citizens are trying to find true meaning and purpose to life and living, and are doing so by the excessive consumption of chemically mind-altering interventions such as alcohol.
Take away these “interventions” and what are you left with? Probably a so-called society that has lost its soul, not in a religious sense of the word, but in terms of many individuals who are living lives of quiet desperation. Obviously, in a recession, there are understandably people who are distressed with job losses, repossession of homes, and other negative factors, all of which cause a loss of meaning and purpose to life and living.
I suggest that our education system should include a strong emphasis upon the development of mind-nourishing activities such as sports, hobbies and any other “food for the soul”, and then perhaps we can help people to find enjoyment based upon a real engagement with their neighbours, their families, their communities, and not rely solely upon mind-altering drugs to give them a false sense of wellbeing.
In many other European countries, people seem to rely less on alcohol and other drugs to find meaning and purpose. – Yours, etc,