Silly Old Twit

  Vincent Browne , writing in the Irish Times has entered the O’Searcaigh debate. He writes of the general exploitation of those who live on the minimum wage , those who are marginalised in our society. He also raises the question of the movie itself and wonders if that was exploitative. In short , in spite his liberal credentials he repeats what most other journalist have said on the matter. His interpretation is the classic liberal one and it’s hard to fault it. He presses all the right buttons and is , I would imagine quite sincere in his argument. And yet it has all left me cold. I feel an immense tiredness. It’s hard to put it into words. ……But I’ve been here before …..And I suppose that most of all I am conscious of the fact that I cannot win , that I will be proved wrong in the long run….As I say , I’ve been here before. And the truth is of course that I’m not going to win this argument. I never was going to win. ….And less someone say that this is not about who wins or who loses let me make it quite clear here and now that that is exactly what it IS all about. That , boys and girls is what it’s always about. And there are winners and losers. There always are. And the winner of course gets to write the final chapter.
   And the truth? Well , that doesn’t matter either. He who wins gets to dictate what was or was not true in the first place. You may say , in fact I’m sure you will say that all this is very cynical. But no , it’s not cynical it’s just the truth.  But wait …..at this point the liberal will be heard insisting that there is indeed a thing called truth. He’ll say it loud and clear. He will declaim it from the rooftops. …..If he’s a journalist he will use all his skill and eloquence ….he may well bring a tear to our eyes and a lump to our throats.
     In the movie , “In Cold Blood” there is a scene in which one of the killers is being interrogated by the police and is asked if he feels guilty. His answer is simple. “Guilty , that just a word the man (judge) say’s when your luck runs out.” And of course he’s right (from his point of view). Which only helps to underline the fact that words can and often do mean different things to different people. And that there is always a winner and a loser. In fact it’s all about who wins and who loses.
     Vincent Browne would have us believe that it might have been better (more just) if the movie “Fairytale of Kathmandu” had not been made. And you have to stop here or at least pause a moment because this is where it gets …….well , confused. The movie , he feels was unfair , unbalance even hypocritical ……Like I say , this is where you have to go very slow. This is where you have to start thinking. As they used to say in the old war movies , “Don’t shoot until you see the whites of their eyes”. And in this instance , forget what I said about truth or anything else , just keep watching….because this is how the trick is done. Now , watch closely and don’t let yourself be distracted by anything ….And remember that Browne is a journalist and words are his tools …..
      Vincent Browne would , as I’ve said have preferred the film was never made. He would rather we were not having this debate. He may try to square that circle by telling you that it’s the manner of the debate , the way in which it came into the public realm that he’s got a problem with but the bottom line remains that he didn’t want this film made. Now keep watching and remember what I said , “Don’t let yourself be distracted!” And in case you didn’t hear me the first time let me say it a little louder , “DON’T LET YOURSELF BE DISTRACTED!”.
   Browne would have liked it better if we were not having this conversation. He feels that O’Searcaigh was used by the director of the movie , that we were all used , exploited by Ni Chainain. That the whole thing is in a sense a sham. He makes the point that we live in an unfair society where the poor and underprivileged are exploited daily , he expresses concern …..He puts forward as I’ve said a classic argument. …..He would have liked this whole issue to be debated in a proper manner and in the absence of that he would rather there was no debate. Or at least not this one. He has a perception of what a fair and honest debate is and this is not it. He aims for an ideal and this debate does not meet his rigid standard……that the issue should be presented and examined through the medium of popular television makes him very unhappy. The medium that is , with which the great mass of underprivileged feel most comfortable with , this popular media  is the last place he wants the issue discussed. And yet this very media is used every other day in this manner. It is the norm for investigative journalism and has been for years without Browne having any problem with it.
       He is a bit like the Socialist Worker Party who demand revolution but usually end up critical of anyone who starts one on the basis that it’s not quite pure enough. And like the SWP he has a fundamental distrust if not fear of the great unwashed especially when they start making demands of any sort. He (and all the rest) feel that they know best and they don’t like loosing control. They , the artists , poets and journalist stand shoulder to shoulder protecting their ground. From their privileged position (their near total control of the media) they lecture us on ethics and even philosophy. But they also judge us. And they judge us to be unlearned , unsophisticated in thought and intellect , little short of drones. They look at us and see the mob…..a howling mass of unthinking  humanity that must be protected from itself. Trial by media they shout in disgust …..like magistrates of old they set their faces against the very people they would claim to be serving. They pride themselves on their liberalism but in a different age might have been writing for The Catholic Herald.  
       As I keep repeating over and over again all this has little to do with O’Searcaigh and it has even less to do with any concept of truth. This is about power. And power is not an abstract concept. Power is covetous.  It is the powerful who dictate the terms of debate or if indeed there is to be a debate in the first place. But once in a very blue moon something goes wrong…..somone  somewhere breaks rank….this is the ultimate sin against power.  This way lies anarchy. But anarchy of course is one of those words which can mean different things to different people.  It’s largely a matter of geography and politics and of course who exactly is telling the story. 
     For 20 years the working class have been subjected to trial by media/conviction without due process without as much as blink from the Brownes of this world.  Daily , weekly and monthly they are and have been slandered as racists or homophobes if they dare to raise their heads above the parapet. Entire communities damned as ignorant or just plain stupid and worse still if they have the temerity to express an opinion. And this is never done to our faces but from the safe refuge of their ivory towers , their insulated fortresses. Whole communities marginalised and disfranchised and slandered and not so much as twitch from our modern liberals. Gombeens and hypocrites putting the boot in……and always from that safe distance. Like Mandelstam  and his Lutherans, they mourn the fate of their poet (he’s no Mandlestam -and they known it) but they are really mourning an attack on one of their own class. Like intellectual schizophrenics they will stand by O’Searcaigh before lunch and after a hearty meal will be just as eager to stand by some mad mullah who would be more than happy to castrate him.  Happy to praise the banality of Bowling for Columbine , delighted to raise it to the level of art ………but that was yesterday…..and a long way from home.
           No , this has nothing to do with truth. This is war , class war and it’s vicious. Remember the first rule of war ; know your enemy. And this enemy all have one thing in common , none of them work for the minimum wage. They take a salary that most can only dream of and often supplement that with an Arts Council grant. They would try to convince you that this is about Truth or Justice and other such abstractions but there’s nothing at all abstract about an Arts Council grant or a journalist’s wage. Privilege always attempts to dress itself in fine clothes. And privilege can afford them.
           Free speech is dead and it died on their watch , with their collusion but they didn’t even have the integrity to write it’s obituary. Browne’s article is both subtle and devious parading as he does his  concern for the masses but we must not loose sight of what he is really saying. And he’s telling us to ‘look at the big picture’ ( he assumes , in his arrogance that we have not already done this). He asks us to consider the greater injustice ( but we’ve been saying just that for years ). He would like to divert our attention. Browne is the ‘reasonable man’ but as I’ve said elsewhere and often the reasonable man is always the one with the full belly. The more property/wealth a man acquires the more reasonable he becomes. Empires (once established and consolidated ) demand reason and order. Before we know it these words themselves have acquired an almost mystical quality , a pseudo- religious quality which may not even be questioned. It happens in the blink of an eye. As Dylan wrote , “It’s done with the flick of a wrist” and we never see it coming. “Words are power” and it’s the powerful who controll the media…..and the words.

To read my other posts on the O’Searcaigh affair click here and scroll down.