The Stagnation and Paralysis of Irish Media.

As I sit in my office on a quiet morning in General Practice I can hear strains of Mr Tambourine man wafting in from the radio speakers in the waiting room next door. This is followed by Pat Kenny talking about something utterly predictable, elucidating an array of opinions on the usual subjects; all of which entirely  in keeping with those of the majority of the listening public.  Indeed the rather predictable form of the 'questions' that Kenny asks and the entirely predictable nature of the answers call into question the pace or the very notion of cultural or intellectual evolution, at least in an Irish context? If you hunger for something new then RTE would be a starvation diet of H-Block proportion. 

Mr Tamborine man was written and recorded by Bob Dylan in 1965. It was famously re-released by the Byrds sometime later and is included in Rolling Stone's list of the 500 best songs ever. It is often described as an ode to the use of drugs such as LSD, which was certainly part of the social experiment that was the Hippy sixties.  My point here is that whilst Dylan's muse is of some historical relevance and was clearly of significance in the sixties, why does it and so much more, remain part of the stagnant musical repertoire of RTE today?
 

Fortunately with the internet and Yu-Tube we have access to a world outside of the 'Groundhog-day' that is RTE, and to my delight and sadness my 14yr old son almost every night introduces me to a world of music that evolves on a different planet to RTE. Bands like; Beirut, Joanna Newsome, Anthony and the Johnsons, Life in Film, Devandra Bernhart, M.Ward, and many more all of whom will hardly see the light of day if they are to struggle through the fixed concrete that RTE has poured upon the landscape of Irish media.
 

The interesting thing here is that the artists I have mentioned are not only almost entirely unknown to the Irish mainstream but are however known throughout the world. If the numbers of hits on their Yu-Tube videos are anything to go by, they are part of an evolving world of music that is passing Ireland by.
 

Yet there is also a sinister twist to the artistic stagnation that defines our national Media. It is possible that this national ossification is more by design rather than by accident. One is not suggesting a conspiracy theory here, however there is at present a massive global evolution occurring on the intellectual front as well as the entertainment and artistic front. An evolution which we in Ireland remain almost entirely ignorant of.

Old dogs are being buried around the world, new thinking and new art is awakening. Popular philosophers like Slavov Zizek are re-inventing democracy, capitalism and socialism, and would be very quick to point towards the brutal irony that Joe Duffy is as much a media millionaire as he is a 'man of the people'. That he walks in the material footsteps of the developers and bankers of yesteryear, as much as the footsteps of a self styled James Connolly.
 

The actual social distance between presenters like Duffy, Kenny Finucane, or the late Gerry Ryan and the 'real' people of Ireland could be measured in light years...., and yet theirs is the petrified view that spans the airways and silences dissent and almost all hope of newness. Not only is RTE incapable of evolution and intent upon containing it beneath a thick layer of stone, but it is happy to resurrect the retired, in the form of Gay Byrne who, not arguably but definitely retired years, if not a decade ago! He is now back, presenting a number of shows on radio and television. RTE has at least evolved the notion of the job for life into a job for the after-life.
 

The newness of thinkers of artists and of ideals remains an anathema to RTE, perhaps because newness is an anathema to the Irish people? That we ourselves continue to 'play the lotto' and suffer from the same GPI (General Paralysis of the Insane) which Joyce accused us of in Dubliners and again in Ulysses. The same GPI that caused him to flee to Trieste, and caused Beckett to flee to Paris? Perhaps it is this same paralysis which causes 1000 young people to flee Ireland every week. Perhaps the usual palavar about our young having to leave Ireland because of the recession is as untrue as it is true.. we will never know because only the media tells us so.
 

Perhaps many of the emigrants themselves believe that the sole reason they depart Ireland is economic? And yet despite the media embrace of the recession, there may be more to this. It may be that we Irish have no sense of ownership of our land, no sense of belonging to Ireland! No real sense of pride in who we are and where we have come from. That is why we find it easier not only to leave but to; litter, to decimate our bogs, despoil our heritage, ignore our language and carve up our countryside with motorways and ghost estates?
 

I consider myself a middle class socialist, it is to my mind the path of least destruction amongst the by-ways of political philosophy. I suspect that most in Ireland are of a similar political leaning. The socialist TD Clare Daly has embarked upon a campaign to ignore the new residential tax. The Left as usual in Ireland have missed the bananna boat. Their tactics remain unchanged since the water charges and the bin tax a decade ago. Don't pay,- go to jail and hopefully raise the profile of the socialist agenda. Yipee and here we go again! But the government is ahead of Clare Daly and Joe Higgins, the government has passed legislation to ensure that the socialists will be denied their day in jail, as no one is to be jailed for non-payment, and the non-payers are to have the residential tax taken at source from their wages. Checkmate to socialism.

The real charge that Daly and Higgins and the entire Leopold Blooming nation of ours should be rejecting with heart felt enthusiasm is our TV licence as it is this money that pays for the concrete that is being poured upon the intellectual and artistic landscape of Ireland every single day. And yet it is hard for us to see the trees or the forest, or even the wolves and the sheep, when all is concrete and we must contend with our General Paralysis of the Inane.