Patrick West

from The Catholic Herald, January 20, 2012

2012-01-24T03:00:00.000-08:00

God, the brain and the myth of 'rude atheism'

'War of the Worldviews', by Deepak Chopra & Leonard Mlodinow

In the 21st century’s “war” between religion and the New Atheists, both sides often like to protest that they are the underdog. The former point to aggressive secularism in the workplace and public sphere, while the latter lament the persistence of Christian Creationism, especially in the United States, and the appeal of violent Islamism. In a society that places a premium on victimhood this is not surprising, but is it true? And as they say, can the two sides ever be reconciled?
This series of dialogues between Deepak Chopra, “a world-renowned authority in the field of mind-body medicine”, and the theoretical physicist Professor Leonard Mlodinow, mercifully avoids repeating the cliche that “science explains the how and religion explains the why”. Instead, it is a measured exchange that seeks to address pithily all the big questions: how did the universe begin? Why is there something rather than nothing? Can there be a mind without a brain? And is God an illusion?
The authors’ central point of contention is the mind-body division, and if there really is one. This, it transpires, is the key to determining the meaning (or lack of it) of existence. If there is no “mind”, only brain activity, there is no soul, and therefore no God (as we know Him). Mlodinow, a materialist, doesn’t believe that there is a “ghost in the machine”, elaborating that neuroscientific experiments demonstrate that thoughts, feelings and sensations in subjects’ minds can all be traced to specific areas and activities in the brain. “Every day more evidence emerges to support the idea that mental experiences like beauty, love, hope, and pain are produced by the physical brain,” he writes.
This is most commonly seen in people who suffer damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, with a consequent loss of empathy and reduced revulsion to hurting others. Strokes also can alter personalities. Last November it was reported that after suffering a stroke while playing rugby, a 19-year-old man from South Wales recovered to find he had become gay. Other stroke victims have woken up with hitherto unknown artistic skills or speaking in a foreign accent, which adds weight to the argument that who you are is what you are made of: literally.
Mlodinow’s counterpart remains unconvinced, regarding the mind and brain as working in symbiosis. “Human consciousness created science, which ironically is now moving to exclude consciousness, its very creator!” he says. And he is even less keen on atheists than he is on scientists. “We live in a time of rude atheism,” writes Chopra, repeating a now familiar cry, that at the mere mention of God, your average atheist will become enraged, start shouting and throw furniture around the room. If you read the journalism of the late Christopher Hitchens or listen to Richard Dawkins on the radio, you could be forgiven for thinking this. But most atheists are not so intolerant (and thus not so vocal), and Dawkins the author of science books is far more measured than Dawkins the crabby media personality.
Dawkins has argued that the straw man of the “militant atheist” is the creation of those who believe it taboo to have their belief system questioned. And some people do not like having their feelings hurt. Rather than seeking to refute the argument that those who experience visions or mystical experiences may be suffering from brain lesions or epilepsy, Chopra decries such judgments as “foolish” and “insulting”. This is not a rational retort, but it is befitting of our culture in which being “offensive” has become a secular sin (witness the disproportionate opprobrium recently heaped upon footballers who’ve said stupid things), and being a “victim” bequeaths one secular sainthood. Chopra may bemoan the hegemony of science (“Now we are paying the price... Homo sapiens is in danger of extinction”), but Mlodinow replies similarly by complaining about how many Americans don’t believe in evolution, and that America would never elect an atheist president. “Science is not the lord of modern life Deepak imagines, but its under-appreciated servant”.
In an age of being inoffensive, Chopra’s perspective is appropriately “spiritual” and “non-dogmatic”. His response to dealing with life’s big questions is therapeutic: “I believe every home should have a nook devoted to divinity – a shrine or roses, or an altar of scented lavender. A shard of crystal would do, or a small bronze Buddha placed where the sun can warm it.” Ultimately, in a logical dead end, he announces: “Belief becomes knowledge that can be trusted.”
Urging us to be “open-minded”, not “empty-minded”, Mlodinow is more circumspect, asking what, if there is a designer, explains wisdom teeth and the appendix. There needn’t be Intelligent Design either, he says: beauty can emerge from randomness, in the form of rainbows and snowflakes. “Whereas Deepak and I both would like to see a better world, one in which people have transcended their worst impulses, as a scientist I cannot let the way I want the world to be drive my apprehension of the way the world is,” he writes.
This strikes me as a more honest appraisal of your average atheist, who is sceptical rather than cynical, a slightly gloomy borderline agnostic, and more likely to be a secularist than a dogmatist.
Despite the inconclusive nature of War of The Worldviews, the sober dialogue is refreshing, and far removed from the shrill certitudes held and insults often exchanged on this matter.

Patrick West is a music columnist for Spiked-online.com

in spiked, January 4, 2012

2012-01-11T09:40:00.000-08:00

When instrumental music strikes a false chord
When music is used as a weapon, a shopping aid or an educational tool, we lose sight of its ability to move us.

in Culture Wars, December 16, 2011

2011-12-23T09:07:00.000-08:00

‘I am the simulacrum of myself’

Baudrillard, A Graphic Guide, by Chris Horrocks and Zoran Jevtic (Icon Books, 2011)

in spiked, November 30, 2011

2011-12-01T13:28:00.000-08:00

Classical music ain’t just for snobs

Demanding and ambitious, the BBC’s Symphonyseries recalls a time when Haydn and Mozart were pop.

in spiked, November 8, 2011

2011-11-18T14:48:00.000-08:00

Questo corso è molto prevenuto

Language courses always come with baggage, like the BBC one that teaches you to talk about climate change in Italian.

in spiked, October 21, 2011

2011-10-21T07:46:00.000-07:00

Stone Roses reunion would be Fool’s Gold

The doyens of Madchester have announced a comeback, but they should stay where they belong: in our memories.

in spiked, September 16, 2011

2011-10-19T03:31:00.000-07:00

All together: ‘We’re the best country in the world’

The Last Night of the Proms is about more than Little Englanders having a sing-song. It’s a celebration of nationalism itself.

in spiked, August 19, 2011

2011-08-29T04:25:00.000-07:00

Love the music, hate the artist

Wagner may have been a vile anti-Semite and Bono might be a self-righteous plonker, but their music can still be great.

in spiked, July 15, 2011

2011-08-29T04:22:00.000-07:00

Mash-ups: a Derridean delight

Pomo thinkers said ours is an era of endless cultural cannibalism. The rise of the internet mash-up has proved them righ

in spiked, June 3, 2011

2011-08-29T04:17:00.000-07:00

Don’t they remember Elvis the Pelvis?

Far from suddenly using ‘faux porn’ to sell records, pop stars have always been sexist and, well, sexy.

in spiked, June 30, 2011

2011-08-29T04:11:00.000-07:00

Father Kit: neither monster nor saint

It’s a shock to the system when you discover that an old family friend was once a ‘paedophile priest’.

in Voltaire (Sweden) May 2011

2011-06-02T07:02:00.000-07:00

THIN LIZZY OCH DEN PLATONISKA ESSENTIALISMEN

in spiked, May 6, 2011

2011-06-02T06:56:00.000-07:00

Pride and self-pity, set to music

National anthems are generally tedious, jingoistic dirges - but they come alive when we watch sporting events we actually care about.

in spiked, March 4, 2011

2011-03-31T08:04:00.000-07:00

Viva Verdi?

As Italy approaches its 150th birthday, Verdi’s ability to stir nationalist sentiment has apparently become problematic.

in spiked, February 4, 2011

2011-02-17T06:14:00.000-08:00

Thin Lizzy and Platonic essentialism
What's the point of Thin Lizzy when Phil Lynott is dead? A band is just a brand without its creative founders.

from spiked, January 7, 2011

2011-02-17T06:09:00.000-08:00

The joy of wallowing in musical misery
Kicking off his new music column, Patrick West sticks up for the cathartic power of self-pitying songs.

in spiked, December 3, 2010

2010-12-18T17:45:00.000-08:00

Germany: don’t onlymention the war

From Bratwurst to Brecht, the BBC’s German season was a welcome change from British TV’s obsession with Nazis.

in Culture Wars, November 18, 2010

2010-11-18T08:14:00.000-08:00

Stranger friends

A Short History of Celebrity, by Fred Inglis (Princeton University Press, 2010)

In many respects the 20th century saw an extension, not a revolution, in the way public figures were regarded. The likes of Jackson Pollock and Tracey Emin continued where Reynolds left off. After Byron has come a multitude of stars from James Dean to Pete Doherty, whose embrace of the Dionysian has enthralled and appalled.

in spiked, November 12, 2010

2010-11-15T01:11:00.000-08:00

Some sports are more jingoistic than others

Why born-and-bred Dubliner Eoin Morgan's imminent selection for the England cricket team raises barely an eyebrow.

From The Catholic Herald, November 5, 2010

2010-11-11T04:28:00.000-08:00

A demonic scheme to destroy the Dutch Jews

Reprinted from The Catholic Herald

Ashes in The Wind, The Destruction of Dutch Jewry
By Dr Jacob Presser
Souvenir Press, £15

In the popular imagination, when one thinks of the fate of Dutch Jewry in the Second World War, the lives of Anne Frank, Edith Stein and Charlotte Saloman spring to mind. More recently, Paul Verhoeven's 2006 film Zwartboek (Black Book) has raised consciousness as to the miserable fate of Jews in Holland during that conflict.

Although Zwartboek received many awards and accolades internationally, reaction to it in The Netherlands was decidedly mixed. This owed to the fact that the movie was a tale of ambivalence, in which not all Germans were portrayed as evil, many Dutchmen were showed as being complicit with the Nazis, and in which some Jews were depicted as collaborating against their own people to save themselves. By eschewing a Manichaean narrative, Verhoven's film proved difficult to digest among compatriots who wanted to believe that their grandparents had behaved better.

Ashes in the Wind, first published in 1965 and released in a new edition, had a similar effect on the reading public. Its central theme is that war can make good people do bad things, and how ideology can make good people behave with appalling inhumanity - and not just the perpetrators of an ideology, but sometimes its victims, too.

In a world where the boundaries between good and evil are perennially questioned and doubted, the Holocaust is often invoked as an ethical reference point, to affirm that morality is not perspectival and provisional. This is one reason why discussing the Holocaust has become problematic. But long before postmodern historians and far-right anti-semites came to be accused of belittling the Holocaust, Dr Presser - a Dutch Jew who survived the ordeal - reminded us that we cannot comprehend this catastrophe with childlike simplicity.

The Jew/German Nazi dichotomy collapses here on many fronts. It was not only Nazified Germans who were responsible for effecting the Holocaust, such as the concentration camp Kommandant who gave his son fifty Jews for target practice as a birthday present, but ordinary Germans who sank to levels of barbarity. In the Amsterdam house raids of July 1942 "German female employees hung out of the windows taking snaps for their albums and, judging by their screams of laughter, were having a highly enjoyable time; several German police officers joined in the merriment, which increased to hilarity when a young Jewish women, suddenly wrenched away from her pram and child, had a fit of hysteria".

Elsewhere, there are tales of German remorse (or at least displays of it): the Commander of German Security Police and Head of Zentralstelle consulting a rabbi, cursing "the fate that had put him in this predicament", or of a German soldier "who got drunk every night to forget his part in gassing Jewish children in trains. He could not put it out of his mind and kept thinking of his own five children."

Additionally, the Germans did not regard "the Jews" as a coherent ethno-religious group. They showed little interest in monitoring and rounding up the "Portuguese Jews" (presumably, Sephardi), which adds weight to the argument that Nazi anti-semitism was racially, rather than religiously, inspired. Indeed, the Christian churches mostly conducted themselves courageously. The Catholic hierarchy constantly spoke out against the incremental measures taken against Dutch Jews. The Lutheran Church was somewhat less forthcoming. But the real heroes of the appalling episode were the Calvinist Dutch, who, the Nazis complained, sided with Dutch Jews at every opportunity for " 'so-called' reasons of conscience". (Many Gentile Dutch men and woman were as brave as to display solidarity by wearing yellow stars; still, Holland had the highest collaboration rate of all the German-occupied European countries). Perhaps this denomination's resistance can be partly explained culturally, in that Calvinists, who traditionally shunned idolatry and ritual, may have been immune to Nazism's seductive use of icons and lavish ceremony.

There was cleavage within the Jewish community, too. In the transit camps antagonism arose between Dutch Jews and German Jews, the latter accused by the former of "behaving like a caste, an oligarchy... and [who] far too often showed a 'German' predilection for bossing people about". There were even Jews who remained members of the Nationall-Socialistische Beweging in Nederland, a Dutch political party that may have not have began as anti-semitic, but by 1940 certainly had become so.

In this essential work, Dr Presser directed his most concentrated opprobrium towards the Jewish Council of Holland itself. German Nazis were objectively the villains here, of course; but he intimates that the Jewish Council's betrayal of its own people was ethically even less defensible.

The Nazis sought to get rid of the Jews by stages, with little disruption as possible. To do this they need co-operation from the victims themselves. The invaders followed threats and instructions with concessions, and the Jewish Council duly appeased, hoping that by sacrificing a few the majority could be saved. This ingoing game of cat and mouse had a salami-slice effect on the community, which withered. The Nazis had established a daemonic scheme which had chilling consequences, and that "by granting temporary privileges to a minority, they succeeded in liquidating the rest without too much fuss or bother." Every Dutch Jew who survived the death camps, Dr Presser relates, was forced to betray someone, to leave another to his sorry destiny. It was the fate of the survivors to have to live with their consciences thereafter.

Ashes To The Wind reminds us that while, today, we are prone to invoke the Holocaust as a morality tale, it was an event blemished sometimes by ambiguity and amorality.

Patrick West

in spiked, November 5, 2010

2010-11-06T04:57:00.000-07:00

Power Snooker: another example of dumbing down?
Thirty-minute snooker matches are not a product of shorter attention spans, but a reminder of sport’s endless evolution.

From The Catholic Herald, September 24, 2010

2010-11-03T09:05:00.001-07:00

This was a PR disaster for atheism

Full text of an article that appeared in The Catholic Herald

Well, I think we can safely say that the Pope's visit to Britain was something of a triumph. The vast numbers who came to greet the Holy Father dwarfed the coterie of angry atheists who came "to protest" him. And as much as I regret to admit it, the whole affair has proved to be something of a public relations disaster for atheism.

Some reasons for this are obvious. There was the shrill invective of the likes of Richard Dawkins and A.C. Grayling, who both continue to ignore the first rule of proselytising, in that you are not going to win friends or influence people if you call them horrid names all the time. There was also the idiotic innuendo about the Pope being a Nazi; calling someone a "Nazi" is invariably a substitute for seeking to refute their arguments. And it's juvenile. "You're just like Hitler!" is the kind of cry made by teenagers when told to tidy their bedrooms.

Moreover, there was the omnipresence of celebrities giving their two pence worth. You always know there is something suspect about a cause when it is endorsed by actors and pop stars.

The garrulous Stephen Fry was the best-known culprit, referring to the Vatican thus: "It is a rump accident of history that this place has an autonomous, or autocratic, absolute monarchy of one organisation". This line, that the Vatican is not a real country, and consequently that the Pope didn't merit a state visit, was bandied around routinely. But it ignores the fact that no states are essentially natural, and that the creation of the Vatican City in 1929 only gave back to the Holy See what had been taken away from it in 1870, when the Papal States were incorporated into a united Italy.

Then there was the singer Sinead O'Connor calling for the entire Catholic hierarchy to resign over child sex abuse. The comedian Stewart Lee, the fantasy writer Terry Pratchett and restaurant critic Jonathan Meades also voiced their opposition to the visit on the grounds of the Pope's views abortion, condoms, human rights... you know the rest.

People often bemoan our "celebrity culture" as manifest in tabloid newspapers and magazines such as "Hello!" and "OK!". We are told that it is vacuous, and resembles a kind of ersatz religion. I don't think in itself this is a bad thing. People need their circuses as well as their bread. And it is not necessarily a new thing. People gossiped as much about Nelson's affair with Lady Hamilton and George IV's disastrous marriage to Caroline of Brunswick as much as they discussed their roles as statesmen. In his day Joshua Reynolds was as much a celebrity as he was a painter.

What is novel and objectionable, roughly since Jane Fonda's opinions on the Vietnam War were given publicity, is the notion that we should take seriously the opinions of performers. After all, actors are, literally, professional liars: they earn their living by pretending to be someone they are not. Comedians and fiction writers are by definition fantasists. These people shouldn't be allowed to vote, let alone be indulged by the media so generously.

I had hoped the marvellous 2004 film "Team America: World Police" had put an end to all this nonsense. The movie lampooned the self-importance of actors and their political opinions, featuring marionettes representing the likes of George Clooney, Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn, all parroting left-liberal, anti-American dogma. It featured a grotesque representation of the film maker Michael Moore, whose rampant egomania was not too far removed from the real thing. In it we had Penn's character declare: "Last year I went to Iraq. Before Team America showed up, it was a happy place. They had flowery meadows and rainbow skies, and rivers made of chocolate, where the children danced and laughed and played with gumdrop smiles".

It was not a particularly partisan film. It also satirised America's aggressive and reckless foreign policy (all the best satire targets both the Left and the Right, from Jonathan Swift to Monty Python.) "Team America"'s essential message was that the US was wrong to invade Iraq, yet it was equally wrong for us to listen to the opinion of Hollywood stars. It should be mandatory viewing for anyone who assumes that people who appears on television are automatically conferred special wisdom as a consequence. We should pay no more attention to Stephen Fry's views on Catholicism than Mel Gibson's pseudo-Catholic reflections.

Ultimately, the Pope's visit was a triumph because it demonstrates that people full of resentment, self-pity and spite are unappealing, where as Benedict, who exuded humility and grace, put a smile on millions of faces. You don't have to be religious to recognise this basic lesson in human nature: be nice and people will like you.

in The Times Online, August 26, 2010

2010-11-03T08:57:00.000-07:00

Articles of Faith: Ireland and The Angelus

Full text of an article that appeared thetimes.co.uk/articlesoffaith

The Republic of Ireland's transformation from a predominately Roman Catholic country into a broadly agnostic and multi-religious one has been well-documented in recent years. This, however, has not been to the liking of the many practising Catholics, who suspect this transition has been exaggerated, and who also feel secularists have been overbearing in their crusade to purge Ireland of the vestiges of its religious past and present. A microcosm of this debate can be witnessed in the quarrel about the existence of The Angelus on radio and television.

Predominately a Catholic devotion, The Angelus is broadcast at noon and 6pm daily on Raidio Teilifis Eireann's (RTE) flagship television and radio stations. Consisting of a bell chiming languorously, and for decades accompanied by Catholic imagery, The Angelus celebrates 60 years on RTE this month. And the debate about its place on a publicly-owned broadcaster is almost as old as the broadcast itself.

Its existence continues to irk secularists who perceive it as an anathema and anachronism, especially as RTE is state-funded; it vexes Ireland's campaigning atheists much for the same reasons BBC Radio 4's Thought For The Day antagonises Britain's. Michael Nugent, chairman of Atheist Ireland, believes that The Angelus is little more than a free advert for the Church. "If RTE was to broadcast a minute of atheist propaganda at prime time every day, most people would intuitively realise that this would be inappropriate," Nugent asserted last week. "In a religious state, the state broadcasting system would be promoting religion. In an atheist state, the state broadcasting system would be promoting atheism. In a secular state, it would do neither".

Former Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble once quipped that Southern Ireland was the only country in Europe in which the six o'clock news began at one minute past the hour. Yet the vitriol levelled at The Angelus has become more acute recently as Ireland has become less religiously observant - and certainly as attacks on the Church itself have become commonplace. Revelations of child abuse by the clergy have persisted here since the early-1990s and the country continues to have chronic episodes of anti-clericalism.

RTE has sought to ameliorate objections to The Angelus by making it more "inclusive". Its television version was rebranded last September so that traditional images of old master paintings and of the Virgin Mary were replaced by "visual reflections" - featuring among others, a working fisherman, a grieving mother and Zambian office workers - designed, according to RTE religious programmes editor Roger Childs, to take time out from "the weariness, the fever and the fret" of contemporary life. "With this new series of The Angelus we are seeking to reflect modern Ireland while still retaining the integrity of the original broadcast some 49 years ago."

This has riled secularists further. "Recent attempts to soften its impact, by illustrating it with nonreligious images and rebranding it as a pause for reflection, simply make it worse," writes Nugent. "This suggests that people of all religions and none can unite under a Roman Catholic call to prayer." The Catholic community seems to have accepted the reinvention - which has seemingly reinterpreted a religious call to prayer as an ersatz television advert for bubble bath lotion - grudgingly.

If, however, the new incarnation of The Angelus seeks to reflect modern Ireland, so does the discourse employed by its detractors. I caught a debate on a Dublin radio station last week in which the claim was made that it is "offensive" to agnostics, atheists and those of other faiths. The accusation that it is "offensive" is a common one, and indicates that many who would otherwise call themselves children of the Enlightenment are just as guilty of turning the political into the personal, of appealing to emotion not reason, of employing the language of victimhood. "I find that offensive" is code for "you can't say that", a censorious plea unbefitting for those who often cite Voltaire with such reverence. Seeking to abolish something because it hurts your feelings, or because you find it aesthetically displeasing, is a profoundly irrational argument.

What is more, as with comparable debates over race, religion, culture and ethnicity in Britain, those deemed to feel "offence" in these matters often feel nothing of the sort. The Clonskeagh Mosque in Dublin, the Church of Ireland broadcast committee and the outgoing Chief Rabbi have voiced their support for The Angelus's continuation on RTE. Ali Selim, based at the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland, Dublin, told the BBC: "We see it as something that belongs to people of another faith," remarked Selim, who arrived in Ireland from Egypt in 1999. "If it is exclusive for Catholics, then what's wrong with that? Muslims have their prayer call and it is exclusive for them."

"The secularists pretend that Protestants, Muslims, Jews find The Angelus offensive. When you actually ask them they say 'not me'," David Quinn, former editor of the Irish Catholic and now head of the Iona Institute, told me. The campaign to seek its abolition, he says, is "equivalent to having a guest in your house and taking down every picture unless you offend them."

As it transpired, protests against The Angelus this year have been pianissimo, and I predict that it will be on the Irish airwaves for many years to come. It will be for the same reason that many pillar boxes here still bear the monograms of British monarchs, or that you can still find The Royal Irish Academy and Royal Dublin Society in a republic that hasn't had a monarch since 1948. The Republic of Ireland might be a post-Catholic, and post-colonial, country, but this doesn't mean everyone wants to eradicate its culture and history in a pique of literal-mindedness.

The Angelus is comparable to the 1701 Act of Settlement prohibiting Catholics from the English throne: logically indefensible, but in the wider scheme of things, a trifling and harmless anachronism. Militant secularists could well use a dose of common sense sometimes, and certainly stop getting things out of proportion.

in spiked, August 26, 2010

2010-08-26T09:57:00.000-07:00

A blend of Miss World and Mastermind, the Rose of Tralee’s appeal defies the snobbery of the Dublin 4 set.

A televised escape from economic woe

in spiked, August 20, 2010

2010-08-20T02:28:00.000-07:00

Where else could you get a minute’s religious devotion and a show in which contestants cook their own takeaways?

Welcome to the wacky world of Irish TV

In Culture Wars, August 19, 2010

2010-08-19T06:50:00.000-07:00

The internet: made for Islam?

In Telegraph blogs, April 17, 2010

2010-08-19T06:48:00.000-07:00

Chris Evans, a loudmouth surrounded by sycophants, is so wrong for The One Show

in forth, June 1, 2010

2010-06-01T10:17:00.001-07:00

England? No

PATRICK WEST says Irish football fans shouldn’t be cheering on England come the World Cup—and it has nothing to do with Anglo-Irish relations

It has become a vexed biennial question of recent years: with Ireland having failed to qualify, should the Irish instead lend their support to England in a major soccer tournament?

Among right-thinking people, the answer to this query is usually 'yes'. The consensus seems to be that in doing so, the Irish people would be displaying maturity and confidence - in happy contradistinction to the petty and anachronistic nationalism that poisoned Anglo-Irish relations in the second half of the twentieth century. 'The "English" are a close neighbour and friend and their country is home to seven million Irish who are almost certainly England supporters,' wrote one correspondent to the Irish Independent four years ago. 'The year is 2006, not 1798 or 1916, and the English always support the Republic. Many people in the Republic do support England, as reflected in the BBC's large share of the TV audience (170,000) from the Republic.'

It would also demonstrate that Ireland no longer has an inferiority complex. This was a prominent theme made especially after 1996, when the Republic of Ireland's GDP per capita overtook the UK's, and in the subsequent era of the 'Celtic Tiger'. 'Years ago the reason given for such unsporting churlishness was "the 800 years of misery and oppression".' wrote Carol Hunt in the Sunday Independent in 2006. 'But nationalism is about as fashionable as socialism to the new Celtic Tiger generation. Even the GAA, that bastion of anti-English sentiment, has had to relent and admit that times have changed.'

Yet, I can't help feeling that people who forward such arguments don't really understand football. By this, I don't mean the technicalities of the sport itself, but its ritualistic role in society and culture. Although I have an Irish mother and hold an Irish passport, I am culturally English and mostly call myself an Englishman. However, were I full a Irishman, I would dearly be hoping Fabio Capello's men a swift and disgraceful exit from the World Cup in South Africa.

This is because football is not properly real life. At least, it occupies a strange no man's land between reality and fiction. It is theatre without script. Roland Barthes made a similar point about wrestling half a century ago, yet it still irritates me to hear football illiterates bemoan the torrents of abuse and invective they hear from the terraces of soccer stadiums. Synthetic hatred is intrinsic to the ritual, and hating your local rivals is an elementary component to the system. 'Your going to get your fucking head kicked in' is a completely different statement when chanted on the terraces as opposed to said to a bypasser on the streets - just as punching a stranger in the face is acceptable in the boxing ring and unacceptable outside it.

Asking the Irish to back England is akin to expecting Manchester City fans to support Manchester United in the Champions League final. Sporting ignoramuses don't comprehend the notion of ersatz hatred - nor the idea that in sport familiarity breeds not solidarity but contempt. Those who employ the argument that 'England and Ireland share so much common culture, history and blood ties in opposition to continental Europeans' might as well ask Rangers fans to cheer on Celtic on account of both sides sharing a Scottish culture.

A similar argument goes that because many English people cheer on Ireland as a second team (which was manifest acutely on my side of the Irish Sea during the 1994 World Cup finals), wouldn't it be polite to return the favour? This misses the point that England are a bigger side. For instance, there are many fans of Chelsea who would likewise patronisingly lend their support to their smaller west-London neighbours Brentford should they ever embark on an (unlikely) successful FA Cup run. But Brentford fans would be unlikely to reciprocate automatically. They certainly wouldn't do so towards more highly-placed West London sides such as Fulham or Queen's Park Rangers - the hatred Brentford fans possess towards them is not mutually felt. The truth is that when an Englishman declares his support for the Republic of Ireland, he is metaphorically patting dear old Paddy on the head.

Of course, you can not divorce politics and history from football. Those who urge the Irish to back England are acting in commendable sincerity, in that they would like to see the relative calm in the North in the last 12 years mirrored among sports-loving spectators in the pubs and bars of Ireland. But that misses the whole point: confusing football with politics is the chief fallacy. That was the problem with the GAA for decades, and same the reason why Lansdowne Road was vandalised in 1995 by some far-Right English morons.

Essentially, mistaking football for reality is a categorical error (which, incidentally, is why the Eurovision Song Contest is in such a comparable mess). This is the mistake soccer hooligans make, who interpret defeat on a sports field to represent some slight on their character, area or tribe. It's the same fallacy made by those who send hatemail to the likes of Neil Lennon or Sol Campbell for having the temerity to sign for the 'wrong' side, or got David Beckham's lapse of judgment in the 1998 World Cup so wholly out of proportion. Indeed, we witnessed a comparable outburst after Thierry Henry's 'goal' last November which sent sections of Ireland into spasms of Francophobia. If much of it was meant to be tongue-in-cheek, a great deal of the reaction was disproportionate and bizarre - akin to my countrymen's reaction to that 'goal' by Maradona in 1986.

So it's a bit ironic that well-meaning commentators in Ireland now do the same every two years. Let's not take real-life pantomime too seriously. Football is only a game. Which is why I hope and expect you will be praying for England's ignominious downfall in South Africa later this month.

Patrick West is author of Beating Them At Their Own Game: How The Irish Conquered English Soccer (Liberties Press, 2006)

reproduced from forth.ie 01/06/2010

in Telegraph blogs, April 8, 2010

2010-04-08T08:13:00.000-07:00

These show-off TV chefs are starting to drive me mad

in Telegraph blogs, April 1, 2010

2010-04-02T07:26:00.000-07:00

Being obsessed with Nazi war films isn't morbid – it's entirely human

in Telegraph blogs, March 25, 2010

2010-04-02T07:22:00.000-07:00

Forget The Archers, it’s BBC Radio’s gang of Lefty comedians that betrays its political bias

in spiked March 25, 2010

2010-04-02T07:20:00.000-07:00

An alien perspective on the human race

In his last TV column for spiked, Patrick West muses on the idea that extraterrestrials watch human TV shows.

in the Telegraph, March 15, 2010

2010-03-17T10:47:00.000-07:00

Airplane! killed off aircraft disaster movies. Now we need a merciless parody of Avatar

in spiked March 13, 2010

2010-03-13T01:00:00.000-08:00

Going all Jesus freaky over the solar system

Professor Brian Cox is an engaging guide to the wonders of space. But he might be just a bit toowide-eyed.

in spiked March 5, 2010

2010-03-05T15:53:00.000-08:00

Why everyone laughs at Canada

With giant beavers and Alanis Morissette, the closing ceremony of the Winter Games was a feast of stereotypes.

in Telegraph blogs, March 4, 2010

2010-03-05T15:48:00.000-08:00

Why the Left hates Michael Moore

in spiked, February 25, 2010

2010-02-25T04:53:00.001-08:00

Why we still love the ‘man in black’

A radio series on Johnny Cash explains why this singer of dark’n’moody country songs still lives in our affections.

In Telegraph blogs, February 23, 2010

2010-02-23T07:51:00.000-08:00

Why 'blacking up' white actors isn't necessarily racist

in spiked, February 19, 2010

2010-02-19T05:07:00.000-08:00

The Brit Awards: nostalgic for nostalgia

With the pop stars being either old or imitating a time when nostalgia was in, the ceremony was a post-modern pastiche.

in spiked February 5, 2010

2010-02-08T07:58:00.000-08:00

Does anyone believe in Danny Dyer?
In a programme that was as much about the much-mocked cockney as UFOs, Dyer showed an unidentified side of himself.

in spiked January 28, 2010

2010-02-08T07:56:00.000-08:00

The BBC: there is no agenda
A question for all those who think the Beeb is just one big liberal-left conspiracy: have you actually watched TV lately?

in spiked January 22, 2010

2010-02-08T07:53:00.000-08:00

Sports commentary: they think it’s all over
The death of ‘the voice of rugby’ Bill McLaren has prompted too much nostalgia for an era that never was.

in forth, January 15, 2010

2010-01-15T08:20:00.000-08:00

Weathering stormy science

Both climate changers and their opponents should stop blowing hot air over cold weather

in spiked January 15, 2010

2010-01-15T06:50:00.000-08:00

A minor hiccup for freakshow television
A film about a man trying to cope with a distressing condition suggested we’re only really moved by the truly weird.

in spiked January 8, 2010

2010-01-08T04:19:00.000-08:00

Punk music: never mind the cynicism

There was more to the punk scene than sneering, swearing and affected nihilism. There were some decent tunes, too.

in the Sunday Independent (Ireland), January 3, 2010

2010-01-04T05:53:00.000-08:00

Albert Scanlon

Left-winger and one of the 'Busby Babes' to recover from the Munich air crash

in The Times Online, December 30, 2009

2009-12-30T09:04:00.000-08:00

Catholic education: a church divided

in spiked, December 18, 2009

2009-12-18T04:14:00.000-08:00

Cooped-up children? Don’t blame it on the box

BBC Four’s Hop, Skip and Jump suggested the culture of risk-aversion is a bigger problem for kids than TV and gangs.

in forth, December 3, 2009

2009-12-14T13:45:00.000-08:00

Invasion of the modernity snatchers

Thu 03 Dec, 2009

Patrick West says the SF revival mirrors our dark view of the world – and our place in it

in spiked November 26, 2009

2009-12-14T13:43:00.000-08:00

Revisiting the Great Tennessee Monkey Trial

Ignoring the BBC’s implicit anti-Americanism, its radio play on the 1925 creationists-v-evolutionists trial was excellent.

in spiked November 20, 2009

2009-11-20T09:02:00.000-08:00

Never mind the guest presenters

The fashion for using a variety of hosts to replace a familiar front man reveals the BBC's indecision

In Culture Wars, November 13, 2009

2009-11-17T03:49:00.000-08:00

Forget about it

Delete, The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age, by Viktor Mayer-Schönberger (Princeton University Press)

In many respects, search engines know more about you than you do yourself. Human beings forget; digital databases do not. Thus, Mayer-Schönberger suggests, the digital age is becoming an enemy of progress. Forgetting is what make us human. Amnesia is what allows us to move on, develop and mature.

in spiked November 13, 2009

2009-11-17T03:46:00.000-08:00

Communists can’t make cola
The Secret Life of The Berlin Wall was gripping, but it didn’t explain anything new, like why East German coke was so bad

in spiked November 6, 2009

2009-11-17T03:45:00.000-08:00

The Noughties: 10 years of nostalgia

The most striking thing about this decade is how much of it we spent looking back at past decades.

in spiked October 30, 2009

2009-10-30T06:28:00.000-07:00

Steve McQueen, without the car chase
BBC Radio 4’s brave choice to rework the ultra-visual Bullittshowed that old-school noir can still be entertaining

in spiked October 23, 2009

2009-10-23T06:33:00.000-07:00

‘My name’s Josie... and I have a penis’

Age 8 and Wanting a Sex Change took an unusually empathic look at ‘gender dysphoria’ amongst children.

in Culture Wars, October 16, 2009

2009-10-20T05:09:00.000-07:00

Children’s rites

'I'm Adult! Aren't I': Understanding Juvenile Delinquency and Creating Adults out of Children: The Case For A Formal Rite of Passage, by Geoffrey Ben-Nathan (Rubin Mass 2009)

in spiked October 16, 2009

2009-10-20T05:04:00.000-07:00

Giving animals human motivations: that’s Life

Like so many nature series, David Attenborough’s latest show is visually stunning but built on childish storytellinga

in forth October 12, 2009

2009-10-11T17:16:00.000-07:00

Sinn Farage?

Ukip and Sinn Féin share a common gene-pool

in spiked October 10, 2009

2009-10-10T04:54:00.000-07:00

‘To coventrate’: destroy a city from the air

A documentary about the Luftwaffe bombing of Coventry in 1940 challenged prejudices about both Germans and Brits.

in The Catholic Herald 24/4/2008

2009-09-28T03:13:00.000-07:00

Tintin’ s creator was never a far-Right propagandist

in The Catholic Herald, 31/7/2009

2009-09-28T03:09:00.000-07:00

The thinker who says we are all mad for believing

in spiked 24/9/2009

2009-09-27T12:28:00.000-07:00

Not anti-war so much as anti-hope

Slaughterhouse-Five, a fatalistic, despairing work, is perfect radio listening for a Sunday afternoon.

in spiked 18/9/2009

2009-09-27T12:27:00.000-07:00

Keith Floyd and the end of an era

It’s not the death of the wine-soaked celebrity chef that has been changing TV cookery shows, but the recession

in spiked 11/9/2009

2009-09-27T12:25:00.000-07:00

A TV postcard from Dublin

Forget about the Lisbon Treaty vote and the economic crisis, the burning topic in Ireland is the new Late Late Show host

in spiked 28/8/2009

2009-09-27T12:24:00.000-07:00

The Futurists’ assault on our lugholes

Most of us associate Futurism with painting, but as Radio 3 recently revealed they made music - well, noise - too

in spiked 21/8/2009

2009-09-27T12:22:00.000-07:00

Science TV strikes back

After a decade of decline, the semi-silly science programme is making a comeback – will it inspire kids to become geniuses?

in spiked 14/8/2009

2009-09-27T12:21:00.000-07:00

An obituary to
a once-great station

The eclectic mix of re-runs on ITV4 remind us that mainstream, commercial television could be great.

in spiked 7/8/2009

2009-09-27T12:19:00.000-07:00

There’s nothing wrong with good repeats

Instead of rubbish new productions, cash-strapped channels like ITV should plunder their vaults for some TV gold

in spiked 30/7/2009

2009-09-27T12:18:00.000-07:00

Why I prefer to Wake Up To Wogan

The Irish veteran's warm-hearted whimsy is far preferable to the quarrelsome heavyweight news on Today

in spiked 24/7/2009

2009-09-27T12:16:00.000-07:00

Why does everyone want to be Irish?

From Angela's Ashes to Who Do You Think You Are?, the Emerald Isle is still a reliable source of self-pity

in spiked 10/7/2009

2009-09-27T12:15:00.000-07:00

British TV’s sci-fi inferiority complex

Swearier, flashier, gayer and set in Cardiff, BBC’sDr Who spin-off Torchwood shows UK sci-fi can’t take itself seriously.

in spiked 3/7/2009

2009-09-27T12:13:00.000-07:00

NASA: ‘Risk is the price of progress’

A brilliant documentary on the Apollo missions reminds us that, yes, going to space is a risky business, but it's worth it

in spiked 25/6/2009

2009-09-27T12:08:00.000-07:00

Letting Ordinary Joe loose on the nation

Radio producers think phone-in shows are democratic. In truth they’re stuffed with whiny, clichéd invective

in spiked 19/6/2009

2009-09-27T11:10:00.000-07:00

Funny women need to develop some balls

If TV panel shows are confrontational and laddish, female performers should stop moaning and get stuck in

in spiked 12/6/2009

2009-09-27T11:08:00.000-07:00

Mitchell and Webb: third time unlucky

The third series of the comedy duo’s sketch show is too self-referential and knowing to be funny

in spiked 5/6/2009

2009-09-27T11:06:00.000-07:00

Hey, let's all have a laugh at the past!

BBC4’s Meet the British showed us how the UK saw itself in the past, but only to snigger at our forebears’ misplaced optimism

in spiked 28/5/2009

2009-09-27T11:05:00.000-07:00

Freud: not such a moody bastard

The Radio 4 tribute to Clement Freud showed that the BBC at least still does good radio

in spiked 22/5/2009

2009-09-27T11:03:00.000-07:00

Why are so many people blank about verse?

BBC One’s Why Poetry Matters was a noble idea, but it proved to be more patronising than inspiring.

In Culture Wars, October 23, 2008

2009-09-27T11:02:00.000-07:00

It is a cliché that today we live in a culture obsessed by ‘celebrity’, with the lumpen proletariat forever fawning over the minutiae of talentless non-entities who are famous merely for being famous. The popularity and power wielded by Hello!magazine, the profusion of famous nobodies spawned from and spewed out by Channel Four’s Big Brother and other reality television programmes, are often cited as proof of this cultural phenomenon. Perhaps the most visible evidence of our celebrity culture can be witnessed at local newsagents, which now sell a cornucopia of cheap magazine titles devoted entirely to the inexplicably famous.

in spiked 15/5/2009

2009-09-27T10:59:00.000-07:00

Picking fights is just as human as taking flight

This week’s Horizon programme on violence showed that even pacifists can get a kick out of a punch-up

in spiked 1/5/2009

2009-09-27T10:58:00.000-07:00

How the bottle gets the Best of you

BBC2’s Best: His Mother’s Son was a poignant tale about how alcoholism can ruin the lives of the most unlikely people

in spiked 23/4/2009

2009-09-27T10:57:00.000-07:00

Comedy’s man of steel

Mark Steel's sharp and self-deprecatory humour shines through in his new laugh-out-loud radio show

in spiked 17/4/2009

2009-09-27T10:55:00.000-07:00

A freakshow dressed up as documentary

Embarrassing Bodies is only a symptom of the deeper disease of dumbing down that now afflicts Channel 4

in spiked 9/4/2009

2009-09-27T10:54:00.000-07:00

The world’s most deadly TV genre

As yet another ‘world’s toughest job’ show, Oil Riggers feels like a substandard rip-off with a Texan accent

in spiked 3/4/2009

2009-09-27T10:53:00.000-07:00

Unoriginal, sterotypical, geeky — and very funny

Cult comedy Red Dwarf, set on a spaceship, is returning to our TV screens, with an injection of postmodern irony

in spiked 20/3/2009

2009-09-27T10:51:00.000-07:00

Robert Peston: the most annoying man on TV?

Forget Fred the Shred: in his weird, garbled tones, it’s the BBC’s business editor who’s been talking us into a recession

in spiked 26/2/2009

2009-09-27T10:49:00.000-07:00

The science of sleep

As two BBC documentaries revealed this week, we really need those 40 winks; without them, we'd go mad

in spiked 20/2/2009

2009-09-27T10:47:00.000-07:00

The Amish are more American than you thin k

Amish communities are often depicted as a monolithic ‘Other’ to modern society, but the truth is far more complex

in spiked 6/2/2009

2009-09-27T10:45:00.000-07:00

The all-new Minder: a passable knock-off

It’s a nice little earner for Shane Richie, but the remake of the Eighties favourite takes a few ‘diabolical liberties’

in spiked 29/1/2009

2009-09-27T10:40:00.001-07:00

Expletives: the good, the bad and the crude

Yes, swearing can be a substitute for real humour. But used wisely and judiciously it can also be subversively witty

in spiked 23/1/2009

2009-09-27T10:38:00.000-07:00

The changing climate of weather forecasts

From isobars and trained meteorologists to 3-D graphics and pretty faces, the evolution of weather forecasts is telling

in spiked 16/1/2009

2009-09-27T10:37:00.000-07:00

The boring but
beautiful game

We should resist demands to ‘sex up’ snooker: this sport requires patience, silence, decency and dickie bows

in spiked 9/1/2009

2009-09-27T10:31:00.000-07:00

A shooting star in the comedy firmament

True or false: the one-off Christmas special of Vic and Bob’s cult quiz show proved it still has comedy cache?

in spiked 19/12/2008

2009-09-27T10:29:00.000-07:00

Is this the end for the TV reviewer?

Multi-channel, multi-platform TV limits moments of shared viewing - and the need for someone to write about them

in spiked 5/12/2008

2009-09-27T10:28:00.000-07:00

How to broaden the viewer’s mind

As the BBC’s recent Horizon programme proves, challenging, thought-provoking TV just needs a little time

in spiked 28/11/2008

2009-09-27T10:26:00.000-07:00

Survivors: we’re bad and we deserve to die

The BBC’s new series, in which millions are wiped out by a virus, is perfectly attuned to the gloom of the moment

in spiked 20/11/2008

2009-09-27T10:24:00.000-07:00

Stalin and Hitler were both evil? Go figure!

The BBC’s latest high-profile documentary on the Second World War finds a new way to tell us the blindingly obvious.

in spiked 14/11/2008

2009-09-27T10:23:00.001-07:00

A heartwarming display of class contempt

Channel 4’s Rich Kid, Poor Kid was a hackneyed examination of class warfare. But it was touching all the same.

in spiked 7/11/2008

2009-09-27T10:21:00.000-07:00

World’s Largest Metaphor Hits Iceberg

The Unsinkable Titanic told the story of the doomed liner without the usual waves of misanthropy and anti-science