(The Nationalist, 28 July 2000)
As Adam said to Eve on leaving the Garden of Paradise, ‘We live in times of rapid social change’. Indeed we do. One change is the way in which technology affects culture and relationships. That’s not as heavy an idea as it might sound, so read on.
The car may be the most obvious example of new technology changing people’s ways of thinking and relating to each other. It has created new towns, new possibilities for travel, and a new independence. It has sliced the countryside with new roads (how will we ever dispose of roads if some new technology displaces the car as the railway displaced the canal?) It has contributed heavily to global warming. The constant introduction of new models with more and more gimmicks is a way of giving people a bogus significance in their lives. Isn’t the solo motorist driving the latest model saying, ‘I’m king of this castle; here I’m in charge; this makes me feel that I matter’?
The TV has changed family life; it sits on its shrine in the living room, demanding reverent silence of its worshippers – and getting it. The dish-washer means that people no longer talk to each other while washing, drying and putting away the dishes. With the time saved you could walk the dog or exchange information on the Internet with someone in Korea on how to wok a dog.
The ESB got rid of ghosts from old country houses and the cloven hoof at dances; (shouldn’t ghosts sue the ESB, claiming a disturbance allowance or redundancy money?) Double-glazing banished the banshee, with her moaning and wailing through loose window-frames in winter. And tea-bags put an end to reading the future in the leaves at the bottom of the cup. Joxer in Juno and the Paycock said it all: ‘The whole world is in a state of chassis!’
One of the effects of new technology is to separate us, to atomize us into lone rangers. Out goes community; in comes individualism. And that’s not the way to become a human being. Maybe the pub is one of the few places of community left to us. That and the parish, a place where people who have no natural affinity with each other, who may not even like each other very much, come together and share common interests. That can be a school of community and human growth.