The Mood Is There For It

We are hitting very interesting times for those willing to connect the dots. For those willing to look past the latest spin and narrative, there is civil unrest brewing across many western nations. The veneer of polite politics versus destruction from either a far right or a far left is crumbling. There is only so long a narrative can last before the reality breaks through.

As the French continue to rise up, as they consistently show themselves willing to, unity is forming between workers, students, and beyond. Attempts by the right to spin this as immigrants and Muslims do not sustain themselves under scrutiny, but are many consumers of online content willing to scrutinise or just to consume?

Unfortunately, for many, it is the latter. This, however, is where situations elsewhere come into play. Similar unrest is Albania is seeing far less coverage. Their country is being sold off (like our own) to American investment. While we are their tax haven, US investors look to turn Albania into a luxury holiday resort while the local population suffers through poverty, and loss of resources. There is little for the right to play with here for their narrative. As a not very wealthy European country outside of the EU, Albania has not seen the same levels of immigration to allow the standard divisive narratives to flourish. This is a country that suffers through its own corrupt politicians without them having the ability to blame migrants. And this is why you will hear little about it in the media. We can also look to Italy where a protest mirroring our fuel protests is underway, where the state is actually calling in the army rather than just threatening it like the slíbhíns here.

For years now, throughout the Western world, feeling the pressure from underneath, the powerful have used the age-old divide and conquer. In this country, immigration became the hot button topic only as FFG were on the brink of losing power. They had seen the success of this tactic across the water in the UK and in the US. They no doubt took note before choosing to woefully mismanaging immigration, putting migrants on the street, and letting the people have their little skirmishes while they put their feet up inside cosy houses paid for by the taxpayer. But there is only so long that these divisive narratives can last. There is only so long you can claim that the foreigners are getting everything when with a little scrutiny you see how bad their own situations are. How bad housing is across the board. There is only so long you can put out apocalyptic visions of Muslims taking over Ireland and ushering in Sharia law until people see the only change that has actually happened is further impoverishment of everyone around them, aka business as usual.

We have seen with the public sector strike, with the fuel protests, that the public is behind anyone sticking it to the government. The energy is there for that to gather and unify the people if people were willing to accept that. If people were willing to move past the idiocy of the last couple of years that made any threat to the state impossible. The roots of our grievances are the same, but these grievances were hijacked by narratives imported by FFG and via social media. Such a statement could provoke ire from "both sides", but the truth is, for all the arguments, some of which are backed by principles, they had the effect of further securing the power of FFG, further locking out the people from decision-making, and now allowing FFG to remove the Triple Lock despite not being supported by the public. People need to do some self-reflection to look at the outcome of all that has transpired.

Similarly to Covid, the mere mention of a topic such as immigration inflames people into zombified repetition of their chosen narrative. One must always ask not whether they are correct in the argument, but what will be the outcome of the debate, where will this lead the country, what empowerment will it give the people to oppose our corrupt rulers as decision-making further retreats into the halls of Leinster House fortified by our guardians of the peace who think "Ah sure, all these protesters are the same," whether left or right.

In that, they have seen a truth that many fail to. We are all the same under the boot of the law and the enemy, once that boot starts pressing, instantly shifts to the state, instantly switches to the guardians of private property once their batons start swinging. France is mature enough to realise that, Albania is mature enough to realise that, when will we?