Workers Solidarity Movement

A terrible atrocity has been committed. Democracy is under fire. A thuggish mob below common decency have insulted The President. That is, welcome to the Jobstown media-hysteria Mark II.

They can really pump out the moral outrage when it suits them can't they? The more trivial the offence, the more intense their condemnations. 

But it's hard to take this seriously. It is merely another weapon in the arsenal of bankrupt politicians' realpolitik; so clearly sensationalist fodder for the mainstream media. This is a point-scorer for the establishment.

When was the last time the media circus demanded we condemn poverty? What is at issue here is some curse words and personal insults shouted at the car of the head of state. Political cronies have oozed onto radio and print to denounce such disgraceful 'abuse', and the sanctimony of abusers condemning abuse is too ironic. It is an irony so huge, to entertain these chancers by explaining it is almost giving in to them.

As expected, the usual suspects have enthusiastically excluded any sort of context gives which insight into the situation. Absent from the establishment talking-points is the question of why people would feel driven to protest the president, and why they would have such acrimony for him. 

Well that's not entirely true. They haven't asked the question but they have given a clear answer. The mob has gone wild, it has lost its mind, and this unreasonable beast is lashing out at our precious institutions which keep us on the right side of barbarity. This is the 'we are potentially facing an ISIS type situation' line, a la Noel Coonan TD.

Derek Byrne of Dublin Says NO has been singled out for calling Michael D. Higgins a 'midget parasite' in the heat of the moment. Labour TD John Lyons went so far as to say that Michael D. has done more for Finglas and areas like it than any of the protesters present. This will be news to Mr. Byrne who has faced multiple court appearances for breaking a high court injunction against preventing meter installations, and for a year has been steadfastly dedicated to protesting the water charges and helping others to do so. If this is not doing good for the community, we don't know what is – and this is to only speak of one of the protesters.

Calling Michael D. a midget isn't a good thing – as TD Paul Murphy pointed out it is ableist – but let's not indulge this mountain-to-molehill transformation game. As we said in a previous post, the mainstream media and politicians deliberately switch off their common sense filter. What's lacking here is perspective. Does this story really deserve such enormous attention, such strident disapproval, in comparison with others? It doesn't take much to realise the answer is 'certainly not'.

This kind of arrogance and distortion is exactly part of why people all across Ireland are so furious. We are damn sick of being treated like fools, constantly lied to, constantly manipulated, treated as ticks – thicks even – on a ballot paper. We're sick of one rule for the rich and powerful and another for the rest of us. We're sick of being exploited.

That is why these anti-water charges campaigners protested against president Higgins. In a pseudo-democracy like this where we have almost no control over politics (i.e. our own lives), do these self-appointed angels expect people to pen the frustration inside ourselves forever? That is an aristocratic mentality: you have no power, but know your place.

People releasing that frustration and asserting themselves, organising in their communities, taking direct action, this is the only path to real, sustainable, social change. That is precisely why it must be demonised by the powerful.

So, we ask Enda Thug Kenny, Leo Sinister Fringe Varadkar, Lorraine Attack on Democracy Higgins, and their retinue in the mainstream media, 'Will you condemn this fundamentally unequal society, where the majority live for the enrichment of a bejeweled minority?'.