Coincidance - Principia Discordia

COINCIDANCE 189
J.R.A. leaders about such a truce when he was shot, you know. The British
may have thought that if the civil war went on long enough, it would
destroy the Free State.
Why do you think the British signed the Treaty of 1921 at all? After crushing one Irish
rebellion after another for 800 years, why did they suddenly feel, when they still had a
world-wide Empire, that they couldn't crush the 1918-21 rebellion?
The I.R.A. had made it impossible for them to remain here. By 1921, we
had succeeded miliatrily in making their position untenable without a mass
military occupation and repressive measures on a scale that would have
been very unpopular in the United States and with a large segment of
British public opinion. As it was, in the United States, support for the Irish
liberation movement was very extensive and could not be ignored.
Your own solution to the cultural conflicts in the North is the so-called Swiss proposal or
cantonization. Would you explain that?
It is not my solution exactly; it was first proposed as early as 1922, when
the first Irish Constitution was being drafted, and it was the suggestion of
Professor Edward C'Rahilly. Unfortunately, it was not adequately discussed
and debated at the time. I think we accepted the British centralized system of
government, wrongly, because we had been dominated by the British for
800 years and were still thinking in British categories. The Swiss system is
much better for small countries like Switzerland or Ireland, 1 think, and it is
especially appropriate where you have two strongly opposed religious/cultural
traditions. Adopting the Swiss system, we would have 32 independent
counties, like the independent Swiss cantons, and each would have its own
parliament and make its own laws on all matters except international
relations. A small central government would have representatives from the
independent cantons and they would be concerned only with external
affairs. Such devolution and decentralization is the only viable path for a
nation with two religious traditions; it has worked very well for Switzerland.
Tha t is why I revived this proposal and presented it to the New Ireland
Forum last year.
You have written a great deal lately about unemployment which you say is a problem that
will not go away . . .
The computer revolution is changing all our traditional economic
assumptions. There will be more unemployment from now on, not less. No
government has a solution to this; mostly they are afraid to even think
about it. What 1 keep proposing is that they should create jobs by investing
in projects that do not present an immediate economic return. Reforestation
is my favorite example. That's why I'm involved with the "Trees for Ireland