The global omni-crisis has the capacity to numb us into a catatonic mental state; many people say that they tune out of news coverage because they need to avoid worry, stress and unease in the face of events utterly beyond their control or influence.
Therse are indeed dangerous times. Rule books and values are being thrown on to intellectual and moral bonfires. We risk descent into a global free-for-all.
And yet we must face up to new realities. And double down on our own values.
We live in a good society – by no means perfect, but what society is? We live in an independent state. We have our own Constitution and institutions.
Our rights and freedoms are at stake in times as perilous as the late 1930s
No European city would tolerate the decay and dereliction visible in Dublin
Irish councils lack ability to plan big cities, conference told
Conor McGregor’s presidential hopes are a warning to the Government parties to unite behind a strong candidate
Article nine of the Constitution states that “loyalty to the State” is a “fundamental political duty” of “all citizens”. What does that mean? Is it mere rhetoric?
I think not. I think it is a proposition that should be widely taught, always remembered and deeply pondered. The very idea that every Irish citizen has a fundamental political duty of loyalty to the Irish State has profound implications for us all.
Citizenship is not just about having a passport. While we live in a free, democratic society, we do not dine à la carte as consumers of entitlements from some great ATM outlet known as government.
We live in a political community that has rules and obligations; we have a fundamental political duty to uphold those rules. We owe that democratic state and its institutions our respect. We have each a duty to obey its laws. We not only owe that duty to the State; we owe it to each other as citizens.
Perhaps the greatest constitutional jurisprudent, the late John M Kelly, author, professor, parliamentarian, orator, minister and attorney general, taught students in UCD that rights were meaningless in the absence of some corresponding duties to uphold those rights.
We live in a society where invocation of rights is the very coinage of social discourse. No project, political or social, is of much consequence, we are led to believe, unless it is described as “rights based”. Every political demand is elevated to the level of sacrosanct if it can be described in terms of “human rights”.
If I think myself creative and spend my time painting, writing or making installations as a matter of right, does the State collectively owe me the duty of paying an artist’s basic income?
A whole international academic community has evolved what they themselves describe as “rights speak”. International covenants and conventions are written in rights speak. They argue that these international instruments transcend the constitutions of independent states.
But where is there a word spoken in “duty speak”?
If JM Kelly was right, and I believe he was, why are we rarely, if ever, reminded of our duties to each other and to our democratic State and Constitution? If every desideratum is expressed in rights speak – including human rights, civil rights, economic rights, social rights, environmental rights, climate right and so on, where are the corresponding duties? And by whom are they owed? Are all of those duties only owed by the State as the ultimate collective?
Take one example. We all have as citizens, “men and women equally”, a constitutional right (referred to in Article 45) “to an adequate means of livelihood” through our occupations. Do we have any corresponding duty to work if we can for a living? Or do we simply have a right to a “universal basic income”, as some argue?
If I think myself creative and spend my time painting, writing or making installations as a matter of right, does the State collectively owe me the duty of paying an artist’s basic income? And if I succeed, should my royalties be relieved of the duty to support the State in taxation, while my secretary has no such right?
Can I opt out of work as a matter of right but invoke a duty on the part of everyone else to pay me while I do? Does my citizen’s constitutional right to emigrate and become taxation non-domiciled here while deriving all my income from Ireland entirely relieve me of any duty to pay personal taxes to the Irish State in the same way as my employees here must do?
We accord parents educational rights. But the Constitution speaks of their parental educational duties. What do we really mean by that? What can parents do about that? Demand newly built classrooms but abdicate from what is taught there?
If you completely divorce right from duty – or conceive of duty as collective and right as individual – you create the duty-less selfish ideology of the plutocrats in Washington and Moscow.
If your right to freedom of speech (especially when combined with Musk-like resources) is entirely relieved – US-style – of the duty not to wantonly destroy the character and good name of others (especially those too poor to stand up for themselves), have they rights?
In these perilous times, as perilous as the late 1930s, our rights and freedoms are at stake. Our citizen’s duty of loyalty is to our State to defend them. We are not helpless onlookers.
