From top: Mural in the car park of Dalymount Park, Dublin last week; Dan Boyle

Not for many in Ireland a “common feeling” with the rest of the World, or the people who live in it.

We do it differently.

Dan Boyle writes:

I’m a fan of the Warren Beatty movie Bulworth (1998). The main character, a US Senator, having arranged his impending death, begins to speak and act according to his real convictions. A kind of Donald Trump of the left, he finds his offensive honesty strikes a chord with the people.

For the first time in 24 years I won’t be contesting the next general election for Dáil Éireann. I want my Bulworth moment.

(pause)

IRELAND COP YOURSELF ON.

Too many of us swallowed the belief that wealth was easily attained and we deserved it. Wealth is rarely created, more usually it is appropriated. For a couple of decades, through our corporate taxation policies, and through a grandiose pyramid scheme of adding a zero to property values, we believed this would be the making of us.

It wasn’t without value. The short term cash surpluses that arrived did allow us to catch up with much needed infrastructure. The fact the some pockets were filled unnecessarily was accepted. It was the Irish way. When the blown up balloon blew up, the real surprise is why we were surprised.

We had become one of the richest countries in the World. Even after our economy was devalued by a fifth, more than most countries, we remained one of wealthiest countries in the World. How wealthy? In 2014 the World Bank lists Ireland as the tenth wealthiest nation in the World, on a nominal GDP per capita basis. The IMF (boo hiss) places us eleventh. In 2013 the United Nations lists us as seventeenth.

Ah but what about inequality you say? There we’re not even as bad as we might think. Between 2007 and 2011 the burden of economic adjustment was borne properly and disproportionately by the richer sectors of our society. Since 2011 this began to change when the poorer sections, this government determined, should carry more of that burden. But even in 2014 Ireland remained below the European Union average for inequality.

None of this matters while we are masters of constructing the myth of Irish exceptionalism. Not for us normal international standards of capital taxation or having to pay for utilities. Not for many of us any common feeling with the rest of the World, or the people who live in it. We do it differently. As long we feel good about ourselves, none of it has to make sense.

Now we are being confronted with what real misery, poverty and inequality in this world is all about. Our response? Sadly too many of us demur, thinking if we are too generous, too giving, too human, we may affect, adversely, our own well being.

Do we have problems? Many. Most caused by a sleeveen approach to governance. Who voted for this approach and those who exercise it – you did. Even if you didn’t vote your non-participation allowed for it to happen.

Who are those deemed possible replacements for our failed politics? It’s those who never want to be in government. Those who are petrified with having to make any decision that might affect this form of popularity they have never before experienced.

Whether they are the whatever you want independents, the Castleknock Socialist Collective, or the bomb no more kill no more ‘republicans’, each are in their comfort zone of telling people what they want to hear, never wanting be honest with people.

Can’t be any worse you might think. That may turn out to be true. I suspect that is less likely to happen. Whoever the torch gets handed onto, the only thing that is certain is that we will get and continue to have the politics we deserve. The politics that reflects who we are as a society.

Dan Boyle is a former Green Party TD. Follow Dan on Twitter: @Sendboyle