No chairs for mere mortals when music stops

Over the last decade we have witnessed the results of effectively giving unfettered power to particular groups in the economy and how society as a whole is the worse for the experience.

The banks were allowed to get away with murder — proverbially speaking.

Investments in property, in particular, became enormous Ponzi schemes. Everyone was led to believe, stupidly in retrospect, that prices could only go up. Inevitably, the music stopped and there were no chairs left except for those who had perpetrated it and seen it coming.

Did we learn anything from the collapse? From an Irish perspective it would appear that Government did learn something but not the kind of lesson we would have preferred.

We elected our Government on the basis of the coalition parties’ commitments to row back the austerity excesses of their predecessors, look to the needs of the people rather than the demands of the unelected troika, bring more transparency into the economy and introduce political and public sector reform. However, these commitments were quickly jettisoned while the ink was still drying on the ballot papers.

Unfortunately, our friends in government appear to have learnt that the side to be on was the side of the bankers and the corporate world. It’s becoming clear we are simply cannon fodder for a government whose members are being willingly led by the nose into an Orwellian future.

Orwellian, according to Wikipedia, describes a situation that is “destructive to the welfare of a free and open society. It connotes an attitude and a policy of control by propaganda, surveillance, and inter alia, a denial of truth”.

In the last few weeks we listened to the news of the widespread surveillance of US telecommunications systems allegedly to make the world a safer place. The initial news came with an instant denial that it was happening. However, Senate hearings currently in progress in the US have made it very clear that is ongoing to an extent that is even greater than that perpetrated by Barack Obama’s so-called right wing predecessor, George Bush. Does it extend to here? The only difference between the US and here is that we do not have an Edward Snowden or a Bradley Manning to tell us what’s going on.

Tea Party sympathising lobby groups seeking tax-free status were specifically targeted for special treatment by the IRS while groups supportive of the current regime were apparently given free rein.

In Ireland, the tethers have been taken off the banks to allow them to indulge themselves if they so wish in widespread repossession of homes which are in default on their mortgage payments. Government did bring in a supposed personal insolvency scheme to help people in trouble but then gave the banks the final say. These are the same banks which caused the problem in the first place.

During the Irish Presidency the EU has submitted proposals for amendments to new data protection legislation which favour business. Assuming it is passed, Irish people will be subject to the same endless barrage of spam, nuisance sales calls and harassment by corporates and their agents, like our American cousins, as they try to get us to part with whatever money we have left.

One can only be amused at the reaction of some in government to the comments by the Diageo boss when he suggested that it might not be in Ireland’s interest to ban alcohol companies from sponsoring sporting activities. If these companies are exercising power it’s because it’s been handed to them on a plate by our once sovereign government. Orwell’s book ‘1984’ might have been first published in 1949, but he was so right even if he was out by a decade or two.