Offensive display by a self-centred generation
It is often said there are two certainties in life — death and paying taxes.
I’m prepared to speculate on another near-certainty: That amongst the 80,000 who attended the concert of the American rapper Eminem at Slane Castle last Saturday, I was the only one with a PhD in philosophy, who teaches full-time and is the head of Department of Philosophy at one of Ireland’s most prestigious universities.
I’ve often been accused of being a snob when it comes to music, as my musical taste ranges from the early to the late Baroque period, and any excursions to more modern composers does not stretch beyond Mozart. With one notable exception — I’m a diehard fan of Eminem.
This is something I’ve mostly kept to myself, almost a dirty secret I’m told I ought to be ashamed of.
People find my admiration for Eminem surprising precisely because I’m a moral philosopher. How could someone who preaches to hundreds of university students every year about equality and justice, fairness and toleration, peace and impartiality, be in awe of a rapper universally maligned for his explicit, misogynous, homophobic, violent lyrics? I stand accused of hypocrisy, insincerity, and intellectual dishonesty.
In my defence, there are two facts about Eminem that I feel need to be highlighted.
First of all, the verbal dexterity of this artist is beyond exceptional. There is genius in what Eminem does with language. The ease with which he makes words rhyme is the stuff of sublime poetry.
Eminem is a linguistic gymnast beyond any comparison among rappers, and perhaps the entire contemporary music industry.
Secondly, while it cannot be denied that some of the lyrics of some of his songs make for uncomfortable listening, those who demonise him choose not to listen to the many songs where he opens his heart, and his vulnerability, to the thing most precious in his life: His daughter Hailie, now 18.
These are love songs, and fatherly love is not the material of your average rap song. Eminem writes about his love for his daughter, and his fear of being an inadequate father. Such honesty takes courage, and Eminem has enough to fill many Slane Castles.
Going to Slane to listen to Eminem was an unforgettable experience, but one I will not be doing again. Walking from the camping site to the castle, my wife and I were surrounded by an army of music lovers, half our age and younger, who were so drunk they will probably have few recollections of this memorable concert.
There were countless young men happy to show us their penises as they relieved themselves without even bothering to turn their backs on the thousands of people making their way to the site. And all this accompanied by the constant tossing of empty drink bottles just about anywhere but in the bins.
The next morning, my wife and I rolled up our tent, packed everything in our car, including our trash, and left the site with a feeling of achievement: We had survived Slane Castle.
Sadly the same cannot be said of the teenage girl who has made the front page of many newspapers in the last few days. There are probably many more like her that we don’t know about.
I did not witness the incident but, judging by what I had seen that night, I was not surprised.
The smiling male at the centre of the picture, standing triumphant with his thumbs up, proud of his ability to exploit the weakness of a young female, sums up the attitude of tens of thousands of young people at the concert that night.
This is a generation that appears to suffer from a menacing, self-centred approach to life, a selfish ‘I only care about myself’ social attitude, with a propensity to see fellow human beings merely as a means to their own hedonistic ends, as if their right to party extends to doing whatever they like, to whoever they like, wherever and whenever they like.
It is the boy in the picture, and all the bystanders, who should be the focus of our attention; not the girl. The narcissistic outlook on life on display at Slane Castle on Saturday night is a lot more offensive, disturbing, and potentially socially damaging than anything deplorable that can be found in the lyrics of one of the most talented wordsmiths my generation has encountered.
* Dr Vittorio Bufacchi is head of the Department of Philosophy at University College Cork, and author of Social Injustice: Essays in Political Philosophy.
* Tomorrow: Irish Examiner reviewer Sam Boland responds to Dr Bufacchi.
