They haven’t got Hobbs figured
The clear intent is to ‘correct’ public perception rather than remedy the problems that the series highlighted.
The series has sparked a debate on public policy matters not seen in this State in such a prolonged and wide-ranging format since the Tallaght Strategy in the late 1980s.
As Aristotle noted in his book on ethics, all societies go through periods of communalism and individualism. Our boom resulted in a prolonged period of individualism.
The growing pains experienced here in the last 15 years have encouraged us - at the very least - to notice the decline in communalism, hence Robert Putnam’s recent ubiquity.
The lifestyle debate facilitated by Hobbs’ thesis on modern Ireland is causing people who have not reflected for years on the ‘state of the nation’ to do so now, and this is very welcome.
It enriches and matures us as a society and as a nation - whatever the politicians think.
As a professional who works every day with statistics, I’m certain government spokespersons simply don’t understand the nature of numbers if they think competing sets of data will win the debate. If we were to include the whole truth - as any mathematician would tell you - we would need to include every single number the mind can conceive. If we acknowledge that this is impossible, then we must simplify the presentation of numbers by using conditions that allow us to exclude some elements.
Hobbs has done this. People can present competing versions of the truth and argue its merits, but there is no such thing as the absolute truth as it is too big for our little minds to conceive.
We need simplified versions of the truth to be able to make sense of things so that numbers can be used to tell a story.
The story Hobbs told resonated deeply with citizens of the Republic - citizens the cabinet are meant to be serving. When one of the wealthiest members of the Oireachtas starts a witch-hunt against Hobbs’ thesis through a Dáil committee rather than maturely reflecting and coming up with his own view of modern Ireland as statesmen would, one has to wonder if the ‘people’s party’ understand this most basic of truths.
They serve us, but the current level of service is unacceptable. If they don’t get this, then I doubt even Dev (were he around) would vote for them next time out.
Ross McCarthy
54 Danes Fort
Castle Avenue
Clontarf
Dublin 3
