Bertie (nearly) Hits the Nail on the Head

national | anti-capitalism | feature Sunday July 08, 2007 18:22 by w.

Alienation & Suicide in a 'Booming Economy'

In his address to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions conference the Taoiseach asked why people who are fed up with the current economic climate don’t just hang themselves. Maybe he hasn’t checked the statistics recently but it would seem like they are.

Suicide is the primary cause of death for males between the ages of 18 – 34 in Ireland. We also have the 5th highest suicide rate in Europe. There are a myriad of reasons why people kill themselves and I won’t assume to speak on behalf of anyone but Bertie’s comments not only showed his contempt for Irish people but also go part of the way to explaining the problem with the current Irish society.

Bertie stated, “Sitting on the sidelines, cribbing and moaning is a lost opportunity. I don't know how people who engage in that don't commit suicide because frankly the only thing that motivates me is being able to actively change something.”

Bertie’s remarks come from a position of privilege, despite his well constructed image as the people’s Taoiseach he has enjoyed a comfortable life and doesn’t understand the troubles most people actually have to endure, few of us have as many rich mates as him to give us regular ‘loans’ or enjoy actually being in a position to make decisions that matter.

The alienation that our celtic tiger society creates is another world for Bertie, one he will never understand. We suffer alienation at every level within this society, everywhere working people are kept atomised and pacified. From our call centres and the daily commute to the alcohol culture which helps us to escape the grind. We have no real control over our lives as lived, power lies with the bosses, politicians and landlords. Social partnership is slowly eating away what little power workers did have, despite our booming economy we must still work to pay our rent and live for the weekend.

In the streets we are isolated from each other, we fear strangers and public space is rolled back to create shopping districts and car parks, vacuous consumer culture invades everything. Dublin City Council does multi-million euro deals with private advertising companies to turn our cities into nauseating endless billboards and bans, under the pretence of their litter act, posters advertising everything from missing persons to public meetings and protests.

Political power is alienated power, pick your favourite party and hope they don’t turn around and fuck you over by entering coalition and dropping their pre-election promises. Parties don’t represent legitimate power, most people don’t vote, the parties embody our alienation and rule on behalf of certain sections of the population. Clientelism and the alienated-power of party politics erodes our capacity for self-organisation and solidarity, nothing is more isolating and depressing than feeling powerless to control your own life and having no sense of support from the community around you.

While Bertie would like to see us hang ourselves in despair the real task is and always has been to overcome this alienated society through the negation of capitalist social relations. As capitalist industry wreaks havoc on the environment we may be the last generation with anything of value left to fight for, by learning from the lessons of history and organising we can create a new humane world.

“The existing social conditions make the individual feel powerless, He lives in contradiction between what he is and what he would like to be...Either he then becomes fully conscious of the contradiction and it’s causes and so joins the political struggle for a full democracy which entails…the overthrow of capitalism”.
(Berger, 1972)