Cowardice and Apathy

The primary reason why Ireland is in such a deprived state today, apart from our forgetting of God, is that we have grown apathetic to the thoughts of our ancestors, and grown cowardly when faced with criticism.

The majority of Irishmen today, if someone were to insult their country, would far more likely to be in agreement with our enemies rather than speak of the virtues of our culture and civilisation. Whether they have grown cynical with regards to the reprobate and corrupt political class which seems to endlessly rule our nation without real fear that the political establishment would be overturned should they act poorly, the real mask and true curse of national democracy, or they have seen enough of the vices of their fellow Irishman that they would have no issue with calling down curses upon himself and his neighbour so long as the foreigner would approve.

Now, a certain amount of introspection and criticism of one's faults and that of one's nation is good and healthy, in fact it is one of the perennial virtues of the Irish people that we had this measure of humility as a people, and it is probably one of the factors that helped us keep our virtues and our identity throughout centuries of deprivation. But when one is faced with an enemy on the battlefield, or a stranger at the marketplace, does one denounce and deride his commander and brothers in arms in full view and hearing of the enemy? Does one tell the stranger that his wares are sub-par, that he is a cheat, that his brothers are a cheat and that the stranger should not buy from him or his ilk and think this manner of pitch is wise and humorous?

No sane man of any other nation would do so. Yet the Irishman does. Why?

In my last blogpost I made the case that to get to the Irishman, the world had to tug at his insecurities, and relentlessly hammer home on his faults and failings of the past, to ignore and damn the good virtues and deeds so that in the eyes of the Irishman, he sees that the world can only see his faults and failings, and in time, that is all the Irishman can see too. And so the Irish have become scrupulous to the point of not seeing the forest for the trees. Nationalism is derided, tradition is considered worthless, history is forgotten, and the only thing that the Irish care about is not even their own material wellbeing, but whether the state's material well being in the economy is good.

When a poor man suddenly wins the lottery, he has no idea how to live with that kind of money, and more often than not, finds himself back out onto the street before he knew it. That is the state Ireland is in today, the Celtic Tiger years was a faustian bargain that flooded a historically poor nation with easy, free money but now Irishmen live in debt and deprivation without even the comforts or cultural familiarity that their grandparents had in their day to ease their suffering. And we do not see our suffering is the result of our sins and so we cannot see the trap that we are in, only accept the suffering and think this is the way of things. Our Scrupulosity has been turned into self loathing and we have lost sight of God.

And so the ferocious enemy laughs as they wipe us from the field of battle and the Wiley stranger manipulates our self hatred and guilt into giving up our wares not only for free, but to the point where we owe the stranger interest for the privilege of having our treasures pilfered by him.

This is not the end, the enemy will not rest until St. Patrick is dishonoured and every snake he banished from this fair Emerald at the End of the World comes to rest and strangle us and our cribs lie desolate and fallow. There is one thing our politicians have proven themselves weak towards in their cowardice and apathy, and that is shame. If you want to change in the Republic without overthrowing the democracy and without violence, you must shame them, shame them worse then any criticism of the foreigner, shame them worse than their own cold hearts could bear. Break them with your words so that if nothing else, they will show themselves for the snakes they really are. Or else they will repent, and change their ways.

Stop worrying about the economy, it is never going to be what it once was, we may be prosperous in the future, but it will not come about the same way as the false prosperity that ruined us, and it won't be coming any time soon. Many things need to be changed in Ireland before a man can open up a store and not worry about having to close it in three months time because he cannot pay his rates and his customer's wages do not give them the money to spare in order to give him the means to do so. Not a single iota of this will change the more we worry about the 'high' economy of stocks that only benefits bankers and large corporations but not men. When we change the focus and let the large trees unfit to stand on their own strength fall, the sooner new trees can grow to replace them in the forest.

Do not worry about our debt, we have as of now, already paid the full sum and again of what we owed in 2008 when the world stopped turning. They have not let us off the leash of the Troika and they never will. In fact of all the PIGS nations, Ireland has been the most industrious in trying to pay off its debt, if honouring our debts mattered a damn to them, we'd already be free. Sooner or later we will have to either leave the Union or default on our odious debt, or both. This is inevitable, we will have to suffer the consequences.

Do not worry about the migrant invasion in Europe, for all its horrors, our duty is to look after our own shores and borders. We must have our own house in order before we can begin worrying about the neighbour's house, we're no good to them if we become as flooded as they are.

Do not worry about wars or rumours of wars in the near east or elsewhere, worry instead about the silent war waged upon the entire Irish nation from the shadows of the airwaves and the radio, upon your ancestors, yourselves and your children. You will not raise men fit enough to be soldiers if you do not take care to protect your children from poison meant to weaken them.

Do not worry abut the Pope, pray for him, always, and pray especially for the bishops, cardinals and priests, but a certain degree of detachment from Church affairs is necessary in order to ease your anxiety and help you see clearly what you can actually do. Subsidiarity has always applied in the Church since ancient times, work on your parish level and do what you can do, leave the rest to God.

And above all do not despair. Despair is why we are where we are right now, and despair is what will keep us in chains. You have the blood of kings in your veins and the hearts of warriors in your breasts and, God willing, the souls of Saints. You are descended from the stuff of legends and you are destined to become the songs of heroes.

Act like it. The rest will take care of itself.