This is a little add-on Sub-Chapter that I decided to write as I was pondering on how to give an example of the power and influence of Pillars thinking on our everyday lives – getting away, a little anyway – from the Focus Group and community work for a while.
(If you have no interest in 20th Century Irish history you can just skip to the next Sub-Chapter, Important Descriptions, Conclusion).
I was between two minds, idir eatartha, as we say as Gaeilge, as to whether or not I’d include it, as it seems a bit off-point. Yet in another way I think that it’s very relevant as I point out in a later post.
When I was putting this website together we were, in Ireland, commemorating the 100th anniversaries of various events that led to, and secured our (partial) freedom from British rule. I decided to use such commemorations (and our attitudes to the historic events) as an example of (as I said above) the power of Pillars influence – and how we sometimes chose to favour myth over reality.
I love the word polemic. I didn’t hear the word until I was about 35 and I started reading books and magazines that challenged a lot of what I had up to that point accepted as true in the world. I associate the word with passionate debate where the arguer really believes in the point he wants to get across. The word rigour also comes to mind, rather than exactitude or precision – and I like that. It is often as much heart as head.
All polemics tend to have a personal flavour, and what you will read in this Sub-Chapter is mine. And, in keeping with the long tradition of polemical discourse, I invite different views!
I quoted George Orwell twice already – and here goes again. He stated that ‘those who control the past control the future; and those who control the present control the past’. George’s words are worth analysing in respect of the Pillars’ perpetuation of their values, norms, principles, and in particular practices.
When Pillars’ practices are under threat, (and because, in a modern democracy, they are reluctant to resist change with force like they did in the old days) they engage in very subtle methods to perpetuate them.
Now, of course, we cannot change the past – but we can interpret it in such a way that distorts its reality and adjusts it to reflect well on the present – that we have a vested interest in controlling. This is known as revisionism. [1].
Similarly, while we cannot predict the future – we can control the present so we can advantage our future prospects by filling the media with propaganda and vague promises that continually offer change for the better.
To turn George’s words around a little, and paraphrase, we can say ‘if we control the present we can control the past and by doing that we can ensure that our practices perpetuate into the future’.
I will offer an opinion on how these words apply to us here in Ireland in this Sub-Chapter beginning with the next post.
[1]. When I was writing this post it happened to be the spring of the year and I noted how different the description of one of our most important saints (St. Brigid) changed over the decades. When I was young she was portrayed as a charitable, kind, humble, prayerful woman who converted loads of pagans to Christianity. Nowadays she is depicted as a kind of feminist icon. I don’t know which one is closest to the truth. Maybe she was both!