OPINION (AN COLÚN): As 2022 dawns, freedom is going backwards

At the dawn of a new year there is little doubt that freedom is on the retreat around the world. This is because of Covid-19, which has allowed the State extraordinary powers over our lives, curtailing essential rights such as our right to work and our right of movement.
The retreat is also being caused by formerly hopeful states becoming more autocratic.
The lie at the heart of capitalism is also clear to many of us. This lie is that capitalism is a civilising, improving influence. It's not. Fundamentally it's about innovation and competition, which is fine up to a point but doesn't adequately cater for the weak and afflicted in our society.
If the world is to progress we need a leap in consciousness beyond capitalism.
In history we often see these wonderful leaps in consciousness. They happened during the 18th Century Enlightenment, during the Renaissance and during 6th Century BC Athens.
In 6th Century BC Athens there was an extraordinary leap forward in consciousness when the state permitted all adult male citizens to attend the Ecclesia and vote on matters of state. At the time everywhere in the world was dominated by the autocratic system (which stretched back to prehistoric tribes presided over by single, all-powerful rulers), but a number of extraordinary men in Greece, understanding fully the danger of allowing one person absolute rule, threw the whole thing out to many thousand citizens.
These citizens would debate important matters of state at length and vote on proposed actions by show of hands or casting small stones.
Of course our contemporary democracies are vastly improved versions of the structure in Athens, but that magnificent city created the original democratic template.
What is the state of democracy in our contemporary world?
The 2020 report of the Varieties of Democracy Institute found that the global share of democracies declined from 54% in 2009 to 49% in 2019, and that a greater share of the global population lived in autocratizing countries (6% in 2009, 34% in 2019).
The Democracy Index, compiled by the Economist Group makes for fascinating reading. According to this, Canada is a “Full Democracy”, while the United States is a “Flawed Democracy.” France and Belgium are also considered to be Flawed Democracies, while Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Spain and the United Kingdom are considered to be Full Democracies. Russia, China and Belarus are labelled “Authoritarian”. Chile is a Full Democracy and Brazil is a Flawed Democracy. Tunisia and Israel are Flawed. Of 167 countries the Index labels 23 of them Full Democracies, 41 of them Flawed. There are 34 “Hybrid Regimes” and 56 “Authoritarian” regimes. Therefore Rousseau's famous 18th Century dictum, “Man is born free but everywhere is in chains”, still applies to an enormous amount of the world's population.
Climate Change is very fashionable to talk about nowadays, but we should be giving equal focus and coverage to Democratic Freedom and widespread Poverty. It is a great indictment of our system that we are not. The Economist Group says that democracy “was dealt a major blow in 2020.” Almost 70% of countries covered by the Democracy Index recorded a decline in their overall score, as most of them imposed Lockdowns in response to the Pandemic, as well as some arresting journalists and citizens accused of spreading Covid-19 misinformation. The global average score fell to its lowest level since the index began in 2006.
Last month two journalists were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the first time since 1935 that a journalist won it. The winner in 1935 was Carl von Ossietzky who revealed how Hitler was secretly rearming Germany. The 2021 winners were Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov. Muratov is the editor-in-chief of “Novaya Gazeta”, which is one of the last independent newspapers in an increasingly autocratic Russia. Muratov said the award is symbolic of an existential threat to press freedom and of a world on the brink. “I think our world,” he remarked, “has stopped loving democracy and has started reaching for dictatorships. Journalists are like independent media. They're the defence line between dictatorship and war.” Ressa said her country and many other countries are on the verge of fascism. She pointed out that it's different this time compared to 1935 because “it's being enabled by technology but it's also happening faster. There is this insidious manipulation happening at scale and humanity is wrapping its head around that. It's a sliding doors moment.” Perhaps when she used the words “insidious manipulation” she was thinking of major corporations like Facebook and Google. Certainly, these companies, like the oil barons of old, were given carte blanche arrangements by governments. There has been some rowing back on this situation but there's a very long way to go.
Existential moments in history, such as the curtailing of freedoms, percolate of course right down to the local level. Over the last decade it's been very noticeable how things have gone backwards in Offaly, in the wider midlands and indeed Ireland as a whole in terms of the strength of the local press and the autonomy of local government. In 2014 Town Councils were abolished, with worryingly little debate, a disastrous moment in the history of local government in Ireland. This effectively meant less councillors and therefore less people to fight our causes (because no one else is going to). Municipal Districts have worked hard and done their best in the intervening eight years but they are paler versions of what went before. Compared to the other countries of the European Union, Ireland's Local Authorities raise a far lower level of revenue, control a far lower level of general expenditure, and generally exercise far less power and autonomy compared to state and local governments on the continent and in the United Kingdom. At Social Justice Ireland's 2018 Social Policy Conference, Dr Theresa Reidy of University College Cork presented her paper “Power Monopoly: Central - local relations in Ireland” which excellently diagnosed the problem of the centralisation mentality in Ireland. A video of her presentation can be viewed online.
Local papers suffered hard during the Pandemic with many journalists being permanently laid off, furloughed or suffering reduced wages. Like local government, the industry has regressed in recent years. It's high time for a kickback, for a movement towards a healthier situation. Local journalists can take heart from a report published by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland in 2020. This report found that Irish news consumers appear to have a stronger relationship with local news than elsewhere in the world, with 50% of people saying they are interested in local news, compared with 31% in the UK, 45% in Europe, and 47% in North America. The report said that local newspapers are the most used source of local news in Ireland, at 46%, with radio at 37%. A total of 70% of 18 to 24 year olds expressed an interest in local news (a finding which I find very heartening, because the young are the future as well as being a vital demographic in their own right). Some 62% of Irish people said they were concerned about what was real and fake on the internet. In contrast, many of them trust the traditional local press.