Constat inter Omnes

national | miscellaneous | opinion/analysis Friday June 01, 2007 11:45 by Sean Crudden - impero sean at impero dot iol dot ie Jenkinstown, Dundalk, Co Louth. 087 9739945

The Tyranny of The Consensus

Looking out on a balmy morning (1 June 2007) listening to a Haydn quartet on the hi-fi it seems churlish to question the concept of "consensus" for indeed, today, it appears as if God is in his heaven and all is right with the world.

Sean Crudden

"I have a few different swings which I use - although not all of them work all the time."

That is an accurate paraphrase of a statement made on TV by the professional golfer, Scott Hoch, a few years ago on a Monday morning after he defeated Jim Furyx in a delayed finish to an event on the PGA tour. If I am not mistaken it was Hoch’s last PGA tour victory - he is now a member of the senior tour in America.

One remembers from "apologetics" class (in the 1950’s) that St Thomas Aquinas proved the "existence" of God seven or eight different ways and in maths class we often found more than one "way" to solve a problem or prove a proposition.

Remembering vaguely I think that Aristotle commenting on politics asserted that there were various systems and different peoples were suited by different systems i.e. he eschewed the idea that one particular political system is inherently superior to others. (I hope the revered Aristotle is not revolving in his grave - wherever it is - at the cast I am ascribing to his thought).

We are all influenced to one degree or another by fashion - in clothes, hairstyles (for those who have hair), art, music. Whether fashion represents a true or false consensus does not seem to be a very important matter and we are all vaguely aware that changes in fashion have a lot to do with keeping the wheels of industry turning.

Equally we are all aware of the recent and enduring monopolistic political consensus of the Thatcher/Reagan/McDowell era backed up by a sort of simplistic Orwellian rhetoric "Right is good: Left is bad." The whole "Anti-Terrorist" movement in justification of recent wars is another example of a contrived consensus which has proven to be misleading and destructive.

My own concerns are about the consensus which reigns in education and in mental health. Everyone feels that there are major deficiencies in each of these areas yet society persists in a very restricted approach and a totally impoverished way of doing things when dealing with the young and also with the mentally ill.