How does one react to the nonsensical gobshitery of a politician without resorting to cheap insults? Should one address one’s remarks to him? To his supporters? To people who already think he’s a nonsensical gobshite? I was unsure until I remembered the main aim of this blog is to explain me, to me. All else is incidental. If I’m angry and/or confused about something, I write about it, make sense of it and hopefully the anger dissipates.
Danny Healy Rae thinks there is no such thing as man-made Climate Change. He’s against a woman’s right to choose. He doesn’t think gay couples can raise children. He’s for shooting people who break into his house. Well actually I’m not angry or confused about that last one.
I care not one jot for the safety of someone who breaks into my house. I’m concerned that in America people who protect their house with guns frequently have those guns turned on them. I’m concerned about the siege mentality that exists in rural areas. Many people regard themselves as under attack from roving bands of bandits. Statistics don’t appear to bear out this incessant assault but the emotion exists, and it’s a useful vote getter. But as someone who has been burgled twice, I really don’t have any enlightened feelings towards criminals who trespass on my property. I’m probably as reactionary as your common or garden Healy-Rae on this topic.
As for Danny’s opinions on women and gay people, I find I can only shrug my shoulders. I was already well aware of his antediluvian views there. From reading The Kerryman’s letter pages I know there’s a large rump of bitter fucks who’ve never gotten over their defeat in the Marriage Equality referendum. There are a lot of votes in that box of lemons.
What gets me all self-righteous and angry is Danny doubling-down on his Climate Change denial. And the thing is I shouldn’t get that annoyed. I’m middle-aged and childless. When things fall apart I’ll either be dead or near enough to dead, that I’ll send a #toldyouso tweet before taking a final comforting hot bath, satisfied that at least the gobshites will suffer too.
Climate Change, or our attitude towards it, highlights frailties that have long existed in our species. We are awful at making sacrifices now for something that may happen in the future. We use feelings when we should use our heads. We love nothing more than being told what we want to hear. And we produce people who delight in exploiting those frailties.
When I’m unwell I go to a doctor. I trust that a doctor has gone through a rather intense training process before being allowed pronounce on my ailments and put potentially dangerous drugs into my body. But I’m not naïve enough to trust an individual doctor at all times. Neither do good doctors. I will get a second opinion if I think it necessary, look for a referral to a consultant, I might even have a peek at the internet. Ultimately I am trusting a process, the scientific method.
It’s not perfect but I have neither the time nor the inclination to do the research myself. If I don’t feel 100%, an increasingly frequent occurrence as I look hard into my mid-forties, I trust in medical science to ameliorate the impact of getting older and any other incidental issues I may encounter. I’m not a big fan of being ignorant of so much about my own body. I don’t like putting my faith in the hands of others, but medicine is a specialisation of specialisations. To venture an opinion beyond misdiagnosing a cold as a flu, is unspeakably arrogant.
But there now exists an entire industry built upon the notion that charlatans and purveyors of snake-oil are a legitimate alternative to doctors and the scientific method. Billions of euro are being spent on this nonsense, because we want to be told that those scary and brusque doctors are wrong. Take this magic water and your asthma will clear right up.
So successful has this money making scheme been, that it has infected whole swathes of our population. We’ve dismissed the method that eliminated polio, put a man on the moon and split the atom, for people who think water has memory, that prodding your feet ‘in a special way’ can help your kidneys and that magic hands can heal. The more science has progressed our species, the dumber our species is getting.
97% of the scientists who study and research our Climate have determined that our species has changed it and that unless we do something now, our civilisation will collapse. Look at that sentence again. 97% of scientists who study the climate think there’s a problem. Opposed to them is a man who thinks the Ark myth is a true story. If 97 doctors tell me I have cancer, I am not going to refuse treatment because 3 doctors have access to a Burning Bush that says I’m grand.
But the people of Kerry, in fact most of the world are either unwilling to deal with what scientists are saying or are so scared and/or thick, they’ll believe the tiny minority who tell them want they want to hear. They will vote for anyone who promises them nothing is wrong and nothing has to change.
I don’t think I’m angry with Danny Healy-Rae. No one was forced to vote for him. No one is forced to take him seriously. And I bet he’ll increase his vote come the next election. People just love being told exactly what they want to hear. I don’t think I’m even angry with the cowardly eejits who vote for such obvious gobshitery. I think my anger is more with our entire species. We know what we are doing is going to end in disaster, but instead of doing something about it we’d prefer to have our bellies tickled by a poor man’s Trump.
