However, prestidigitation or misdirection is the fundamental backbone of many illusions. The true art of illusion involves focusing the audience’s attention on one object or place while the actual trick is conducted elsewhere.
The art of illusion has always been synonymous with politics through out world history and unfortunately our own shores have not escaped it’s effects.
However, when an entire society subscribes to an illusion, mankind will inevitably correct the transgression, or perish as a whole. Have no doubt; confronting strong proponents of illusions requires eternal vigilance. Vigilance in this context can only mean; confronting a persistent political illusion with a legitimate political vision.
‘Facts are stubborn things; and whatever maybe our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence!’ (John Adams, 2nd American President, 1797–1801),
So how can the art of illusion be adapted to our current political situation. In one word ‘The Good Friday Agreement’!! In my opinion this agreement provided the imaginary cloak for Britain’s plan to burden us with the next phase of it’s very calculated and visionary imperial agenda!
In my previous letter I made reference to British Imperialism and it’s effect upon the Irish people. But on closer inspection Imperialism can take many guises and not just the military form which we all pre-occupied ourselves with and were subject to up until The Good Friday Agreement. (and to some Republican’s still are!!!)
As the British government will know, through their practices both here and on foreign soils, military imperialism is only the first step in establishing imperial hegemony - (a word I will explain later)- and a very uneconomic one at that! It is costly and, by itself, produces few long-term benefits for the colonizer. Therefore, it must be followed by strategies to persuade the colonized to accept their condition and transfer their allegiance to their conquerors to ensure an uninterrupted flow of benefits from colonized to colonizer without further military intervention. Hence military imperialism transforms itself into linguistic and cultural imperialism.
Hegemony can be best described as the processes by which a dominant culture maintains its dominant position: for example, the use of institutions to formalize power; the employment of a bureaucracy to make power seem abstract (and, therefore, not attached to any one individual); the setting up a police force to control opposition. To the sceptics this will resemble very much our Stormont government of today and on the ongoing debate regarding The Irish Language Bill, The Policing & Justice Bill and cultural and emblems issues. The recent rumblings of disquiet from dissident Republican groups are just the repercussions of when, once insurgent ideology, threatens to become hemogenic.
However, let us not kid ourselves that we are any better off from having no more military imperialism. By their very nature, linguistic and cultural imperialism are more insidious than the military form!! There is a very fine line demarcating political vision and political illusion especially since memory and recollection play such a major part in our nationalist and republican tradition.
So to all you traditional Republican’s out there, I will sign of with an extract from one of two ballads inserted in the play ‘The Freedom of the City’ by Brian Friel: and depicts the aftermath of three IRA volunteers who were shot in the Guild Hall Square, Derry.
“We’ll not forget that sunny evening, nor the names of these bold three
Who gave their lives for their ideal – Mother Ireland, one and free.
They join the lines of long-gone heroes, England’s victims, one and all.
We have their memory still to guide us; we have their courage to recall”
0 comments:
Post a Comment