A lost community

In this week’s Questions and Answers programme on RTE (10thNov) Dr Edward Walsh declared very confidently when giving his opinion on the reason for anti-social behaviour and social anarchy that it was all down to the break up of the traditional family. He used as evidence for this a survey which was carried out in some state in North America which found that there was a high concentration of crime in communities which had a high percentage of one parent families. The traditional family argument is a favourite for the Right-wing and the conservative religious. But I think they are seeing things narrowly.

I believe that it isn’t the break down of the family which is the problem in relation to society today and its various ills but that it’s the break down of community. I lay the blame for this squarely at the foot of the economic system which we have been living under. Capitalism needs and encourages competition between people to survive, without it it simply wouldn’t work. Competition, as we all know, breeds greedy people. People who are only out for themselves and who close themselves away from the community. Can we honestly say that we are surprised to find an Ireland full of greedy, self interested people when the economic system we live under needs the people to have these exact qualities to survive? Competition is a good thing when practiced in things like sport, but surely when peoples lives are at risk we shouldn’t use it as a way of controlling society? Is it just me or is that just wrong?

Dr Walsh proclaims that the lack of a male role model from families which have broken down is the reason why we have some youths today who are out of control. Can’t he see that young people do not only have their fathers when it comes to male role models? I personally could name 20 or so males who I seen as role models when I was growing up and I took a bit from each of them as well as my father. This is why it is important that community does not break down. A close community which operates in solidarity holds up to the youth an abundance of role models, male and female alike. I believe we are seeing a break down of this type of community because of the affects of the greedy competitive system we live under, and this is why the youth are lacking role models. The community has turned its back on them.

Another point which Dr Walsh made on the show explains my point more clearly. He stated that poverty is no excuse for anti-social behaviour because back when Ireland was very poor there was no anti-social behaviour. He failed to notice that back then everybody was poor and there was not the gap between the have and the have-nots which we have today. The Celtic tiger has increased the gap between the rich and the poor so it has increased the amount of people who feel aggrieved about this. My parents talk a lot about those times and they say that “yes, we were very poor, but you know, we were happy”. I can tell you this, they are not happy today. They have worked since the age of 14 and they are facing the last 20 years of their life in poverty because of the joke of a pension they will receive. The problem is not the lack of wealth; it’s the un-even distribution of it.

This is what gets peoples backs up, this is what turns them against “foreign” workers, this is what turns them against others in their community, this is what makes them put their head down and hope for a win in the lotto. That’s the society we live in today and it is clearly very bad for our kids to grow up in. Yes we all agree that a two parent family is probably the best way to raise a child but if marriage does break down the community should be able to fill the gap easily. It’s not our faults; we were bred to be the animals we are. We have to be to survive. If we weren’t greedy we would probably starve. Not only does capitalism need us to be greedy to survive but we need to be greedy in order to survive under capitalism. Greedy competitive people do not make the best role models for your kids.