Kathy Sheridan: Crisis is exposing clay feet of strong men, pathetic Churchillian wannabes

Back in 2007, while researching a book on Ireland’s biggest property developers, I was haunted by one question in particular. Why hadn’t they cashed in when they had made a big killing or two and gone off to play golf?

The most plausible explanation came from a leading surveyor who knew them well. People with little money who dream of their options if they suddenly were to get a lot of it, tend to think in terms of freedom, he said; “but these guys think of money as a score... As a rational being, when you’ve broken your back to make a pile of money, do you then go ‘Bang, I’ll hump the lot back on the table’? Of course you don’t. But that’s what the developers did. Repeatedly.”

It was about the score and the score was about ego. There was nothing remotely rational about it. In the end, the bankers, traders, developers and political cheerleaders basically melded into one big steaming cauldron of testosterone.

‘Pure and utter freedom’

One of the most memorable interviews was with an increasingly nervous 30-something with a UCD degree, Ferrari and private plane. Did he actually need the plane, I asked him? “It’s not so much about owning the jet. It’s about having the money to give you the freedom to do what you want, to say what you want. The more money people have, the more free they are, if they have the right psyche. Having a jet means you’re not queuing up for an hour in Dublin or London airports. Money is pure and utter freedom. If you want to wear shades inside, which I often do, I don’t care what people say about me...”

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In many ways, it was that psyche that distilled an era. That particular notion of “freedom” leached into every profession, every workplace, every generation. Money (i.e. credit liberated by the equity in their properties), gave many the freedom to profiteer, to flip properties, to ignore other viewpoints. The wider problem was that they brought many innocents down with them. Like the pandemic, it left few of us unmarked.

The lesson is that almost every reckless, destructive decision ever made can be traced back to someone persuaded that he was a brilliant maverick born with the freedom to go where his maverick gut led. That he might be denying other people’s freedom in the process hardly mattered.

Draw a Venn diagram between the criminally stupid conspiracy theorists who set fire to mobile phone masts and the people who prattle on about ancient freedoms – such as the freedom to become virus-infected and pass it on – and there will be a substantial overlap.

Consider the overlap between the witless, red-capped mobs in the US protesting the lockdown by waving their Second Amendment freedoms in the form of assault rifles and the irony-free, evidence-free Trumpites who chanted “Lock her up” .

You won’t fit a tissue paper between Boris Johnson’s stand for “ancient freedoms” – defiant handshakes for “everybody”, a brief, disastrous dance with “herd immunity”, the refusal to engage with EU pandemic bulk-buying – and the hard-right libertarians of Brexit. On his return to Downing Street on Monday, he once again referred to “ancient freedoms,” only this time in the decidedly chastened manner of a man just out of ICU after a life-threatening encounter with one of those ancient freedoms. At the same time, a few grainy, amateur photographs were being tweeted of Leo Varadkar in a blue scrub top, helping out in Dublin’s north inner city and Morgan Place in Blanchardstown.

Churchillian wannabes

Every crisis is defined by the quality of its leadership. This one is swiftly and deftly exposing the clay underpinnings of the world’s strong men and pathetic Churchillian wannabes. The hubris, machismo, casual bigotry and naked electioneering on the back of mass tragedy cannot compete on the same podium as the consensus-builders, the experts, the decisive, prudent, patient, resolute and respectful. It’s hardly controversial to note that some of the most effective corona crisis leaders have been women – Angela Merkel of Germany, Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan, Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand, Erna Solberg of Norway, Katrin Jakobsdottir of Iceland. And Silveria Jacobs of the Caribbean nation of Sint Maarten, whose no-nonsense, no-loophole, April 1st video went viral: “Simply. Stop. Moving. If you do not have the type of bread you like in your house, eat crackers. If you do not have bread, eat cereal, eat oats, sardines.” An RTÉ Prime Time clip of intensive care physician Dr Catherine Motherway has captured over a million views on Twitter alone.

As we move into the next phase, unassuming attributes such as generosity of spirit, assumption of good faith and the ability to listen will be crucial. As will creativity, robust transparency and moral courage. As “soft” skills, they will never compete for headlines with the self-regarding media-hounds and mavericks and their calls for freedom at any cost to their fellow creatures. But they are the qualities that will bring us safely home.