Universities and other third-level institutions should see themselves as the social conscience of Irish society and humanity as a whole, writes Tom Inglis
Universities and other third- level institutions have a key role to play in fostering critical reflection about society and the nature of social change. They are some of the few places where people can learn to think differently, to express alternative ideas, to challenge ways of thinking that have become so accepted that any opposition is seen as heresy.
It used to be that the Catholic Church was at least listened to when it preached against materialism. It used to be that socialists were regularly heard denouncing the evils of capitalism. There were even anarchists who reminded us that the real evil was the growth in power and influence of the State itself.
Those days are gone. As the power and influence of big business and transnational companies grow in our lives, and as the State and the European Union follow their agenda, it is important to invest money, time and energy in creating a new generation of people who will stand up to powerful vested interests and their influence on how we organise society and live our lives.
It is easy to forget how powerful big business, the State and the media have become in shaping the agenda of our lives and the way we think we have to live. They are the ones who help create and propagate the sacred cows of our life, that we have to go on consuming, we must continue to grow, our growth depends on our consuming. These sacred cows are false gods. The reality is that we live in bad faith. We have become greedy, we will never be satisfied, we make token gestures to the poor of the world while we watch them die of starvation. Meanwhile, we are using up the earth's resources and destroying the environment. If we are to survive, we need to be able to think differently, to diversify and act differently.
Unless universities and other third-level institutions are given the time, money and encouragement to help foster and develop critically reflective thought, then the diversity of opinion on which civil society and democracy depend will be destroyed and our long-term social, economic and environmental welfare threatened.
It is good to take a long-term historical perspective on life, to develop a detached view of the world and how we live our lives. The Ireland in which we live now is very different and much better than the Ireland of 50 years ago. The health, prosperity and welfare - and probably even happiness - of most people have improved dramatically. We have literally never had it so good.
There are very few who would want to go back to the damp, dark, TB-ridden hovels of the 1950s. There are very few who want to go back to the fears and trepidations created by pontificating priests and bishops. We have dismissed the Catholic view of ourselves and the good life. We have embraced prosperity and with it liberal individualism and hedonism. We work harder to consume more, to go where we don't need to go, to buy what we don't need, to eat and drink what is not good for us. This is the world of materialism and consumer capitalism. It is what keeps the Celtic Tiger alive. It is the opium of the people.
In the pious, humble Ireland in which I grew up, life was hard, unjust and unequal, but it was simple. There was always the comfort and security of the church. It provided the sacred canopy under which all social life took place. Politicians and businessmen toed a Catholic line. The poor and working class led a life of grinding poverty. The middle classes had a more genteel, threadbare existence. They accepted they had to make do. They did not speak of their cravings or desires. To express naked desires and ambitions was as bad as revealing a naked breast or penis. We embodied the language and rhetoric of being as poor and as happy as church mice.
This rhetoric became so deeply ingrained in the Irish mentality that it was propagated as much by politicians as by priests and bishops. Indeed it was de Valera in his famous 1943 St Patrick's Day speech who spelt out his vision of Catholic Ireland, of people wanting to live a spiritual rather than a wealthy life, of being content with a life of frugal comfort. The hope was that we could build a holy dam around Ireland that would protect us from the evils of materialism, atheism and communism.
In the beginning there seemed to be a balance between capitalism and Catholicism. The church continued its tirade against the sins of modernity but everyone, including priests and bishops, was glad to have their radios, televisions, fridges, washing machines, cars, tractors, motorbikes. But the sea of materialism also brought with it sins of the flesh and the fulfilment of all kinds of pleasures and desires. We had moved from a culture of self-denial to a culture of self-indulgence. Young men and women wanted to embrace and taste the world. Soon the mothers of Ireland no longer saw themselves as the handmaidens of the church. It was the beginning of the end of the church's monopoly over Irish morality.
The church tried to move with the times, from being an authority that had to be obeyed to one that would be respected. It announced at the beginning of the 1970s that it would no longer tell us what was right and wrong and, instead, would become the social conscience of Irish society. But it got backed into a moral corner. The fight for the good life became confined to issues of contraception, divorce and abortion. These became the last-ditch stands against materialism.
It seemed unable to take a detached view, to see the capitalist wood for the trees of sexual morality. It no longer had an alternative vision of the future of Irish society. That died with Dev. It seems that the church threw in the towel and accepted that we have reached the end of history. There was no other option but to put all the Catholic eggs into the capitalist basket, to follow the path of ever-increasing production and consumption, to never sitting still unless you were exhausted, to running through life bouncing off pleasures like over-stimulated rats that are never satisfied.
But there was always a problem with the Catholic Church being the conscience of Irish society. We live in a democracy and the church is far from being a democratic society. It is a dogmatic, authoritarian institution, the last absolutist monarchy in Europe, that proclaims infallible truths. Reasoned debate is limited if one party insists it has a monopoly over the truth. Irish society has grown up. It is no longer a question of people being told what is right and wrong. They have to become morally responsible individuals who learn to defend their actions, their way of life, through critical self-reflection. There is ample evidence that the church is anxious and willing to engage in this debate, but it is stymied by not seeing itself as one among many voices but rather as a divinely ordained authority.
So the question for today is simple. Who or what is the social conscience of Ireland? Who tries to proclaim what the good life is? Who steps aside from short-term interests and concerns and takes a long-term historical perspective over where we are going? Who enters into this debate without having a vested interest or hidden agenda? Undoubtedly there are many people who operate in the media who see themselves as guardians of truth and reasoned debate, and as contributing to maintaining and developing a social conscience in Ireland.
However, the problem with the media is that they are dependent on producing products that are bought in the marketplace and, increasingly, they tend to be owned and controlled by people who are committed as much to making profit as proclaiming truth.
There is much talk these days about the decline in social capital and community. There is a hankering for the old days when people belonged to interest groups, talked passionately about their beliefs and values, read serious newspapers and voted in elections.
If we really believe that there is a link between the growth of modern consumer capitalism, the decline of community and the destruction of the environment, then we need to think how and where we are going to foster a forum where the social conscience of the people can be developed. Such a forum would have to be based on reasoned debate and discussion.
It would have to be a place of learning that was inclusive and democratic. It would have to be a place that was free from private vested interests and State interference. It seems to me that the most obvious space for such a public forum is our universities and institutes of third-level education. Every society needs its prophets and heretics, people who think outside the box, who provide an alternative vision.
This does not mean that universities and academics should not be accountable. Academics are first and foremost public intellectuals. They are paid by the State, they have a public moral responsibility. But they should not be pushed into becoming servants of the State or private industry.
Universities and third-level institutions, and the academics who work in them, should see themselves as responsible to the people of Ireland, as the social conscience of Irish society and humanity as a whole. They should be committed to fostering critical reflection, developing reasoned debate, telling the truth and developing the space where a mature, democratic, civil society can be nurtured and developed.
Tom Inglis is associate professor in the department of sociology, University College Dublin