Madam, - I found Charlie McCreevy's comments at the weekend on the wants of the ordinary citizen deeply uncouth. Commissioner McCreevy - not surprisingly given his own political pedigree - displays a deep anti-intellectualism in asserting that most people care only about "earning a living, affording a few pints, watching a game of football and having a bit of sex".
His view of the ordinary citizen reflects a poverty of language, of imagination and of aspiration. To reduce the human condition and experience to these four "wants" is to deny the many and varied ways in which people pursue truth, justice, equality and respect for others in their daily lives. Those who lead us should affirm those aspirations, and not dismiss them.
Social Europe is dismissed by Mr McCreevy as anachronistic, much in the way that George Bush dismissed the concerns of "Old Europe" two years ago. But if we fail to articulate a vision for Social Europe, then we submit to vagaries of the market, and allow many to sink so that some of us can swim.
I do not accept Mr McCreevy's analysis of our society, which is clearly closer to Boston than Berlin. If he has such problems with the high-minded élite directing Europe, why doesn't he do the honourable thing and resign from the Commission? - Yours, etc,
MARY P. CORCORAN,
Fortfield Road,
Dublin 6W.