What are the political and practical consequences of punishing blasphemy in accordance with Irish law?
At a political level, the signing of the bill reminds the world that Ireland is still the pious Roman Catholic society of yesteryear. The appeal to religious morality as the embodiment of good at a time when loan default is imminent functions to create an image of Ireland as a society more concerned with piety than with wealth. With wealth not an option, the criminalisation of blasphemy serves to initiate a return to the God fearing society Ireland once was, as in ,if Ireland is no longer a leader of technological innovation and material gain, then at least Ireland can guide the world with her high morality.
It is funny how the blasphemy bill is passed when Ireland is at the rubicon of loan default. One wonders whether the Irish ministers are deliberately appealing to morality in an attempt to create a certain image of Ireland abroad, or whether the current interest in criminalising blasphemy is more an unconscious product of the fear felt in the Oireactas about the future of Ireland’s economy. When the future is out of the hands of the individual and when there’s no money to have fun, then superstitiuosly appealing to God himself makes one feel more in control.
The blasphemy law passed by the Irish government states that, “The publication or utterance of blasphemous, seditious, or indecent material is an offence which shall be punishable in accordance with law”[my emphasis added]. Creating laws to control what is published is one thing, but controlling what can be uttered is remniscient of Orwell’s thought control police. Room 101 awaits. And just what is intended by ‘utterance’ here anyway? Is an utterance something that is expressed verbally, or can an utterance be expressed through behaviour?What about those incessant blasphemous internal dialogues? Are we obliged to tell the Gardai about our balsphemous thoughts? Maybe not. Eitherway, we humans are not textual processing machines, we communicate in so many other ways besides the medium of verbal expression and written text. With that in mind can an action of an individual be considered a blasphemous utterance punishable under Irish law? What about the inaction of an individual? Can there be blasphemy punishable by Irish law by an act of omission as well as by an act of commission? Can uttering in the form of, say, not honouring thy mother or father be considered blasphemy punishable under Irish law? What about refusing to get your child christened, is such an act of omission a blasphemous utterance?
The blasphemy bill goes on to define blasphemous matter as “matter that is abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby causing outrage among a substantial number of the adherents of that religion; and he or she intends, by the publication of the matter concerned, to cause such outrage.”Even if we presume that the blasphemy bill applies only to material published via media channels, then what happens when say Fair City, or some other goddam awful TV show, does a show where, say, an unmarried teenager gets pregnant? Prior to joining the EU, the Roman Catholic church had way too much say in the running of the Irish government, and when an unmarried mother got pregnant back then she was locked away in a laundery. Likewise women were locked up for enjoying sex (Google that one). Not surprisingly men weren’t locked away for similar acts. If it weren’t for the secular vision of the EU, then such subjugation of women would still be occuring here in Ireland. Unmarried mothers are blasphemous entities according to the Roman Catholic church. Likewise, according to the Catholic Church, sex is not for pleasure but for procreation, especially if you are a woman. Does this imply that creating a TV episode where a Roman Catholic ethical guideline is trangressed (e.g. an unmarried mother gets pregnant because she likes sex) constitutes blasphemy punishable by Irish law? What about the creation of porn, where the purpose of sex is for enjoyment. Is the creation and publication of porn now a crime punishable by appeal to the blasphemy law? Gets me thinking that the blasphemy law has been passed so as to pump lots of money in to the exchequer fast.
In 1985 the social theorist Stephen Rose emphasised how notions of self are bound to what is known as the ‘psy’ complex, with the ‘psy’ complex constituted by what he calls modern forms of govermentality. Forms of governmentality include religious discourses, political discourses, and the discourses arising from psychological research. Though Rose does not make a media discourse explicit, the proliferation of media in the last 25 years via all things digital has certainly displaced the ‘psy’ complex as conceptualised by Rose. Religious/political discourses no longer control people to the same extent; people are more informed and are more free to choose. With that said, if even one person is prosecuted because of the blasphemy bill, then my belief in people as free individuals will be in need of reevaluation.
