I know that you did not mean everyone, everywhere. That was abundantly clear from what you wrote!! However, I was taking issue in particular with this phrase:

“…many of us, especially those who at first denied the recession was even happening, are acting like we can simply wish ourselves out of recession…”

There will always be turn-that-frown-upside-down merchants out there, but they are a small minority to my mind. Not a scientific observation, but for every cheery we-can-do-it lunatic that accosts us, there is sure to be an end-of-the-world space cadet to be found on the next street corner. The rest of us just try to dodge our way past the lot of them.

I am going to keep this next point shorter than a proper explanation of it requires, but many people are not in denial, they are just weary, anxious, and struggle to properly understand why everything has gone to pot. One could even say that it is what comes of having such a weak form of representative democracy! However, that is a personal bugbear and I will keep it out of this discussion!

Before I go, I remember writing in early October 2008 about how the government were praying for a miracle to get them out of having to nationalise the banks. While the context has changed somewhat since then, the same hope for something to happen lives on 10 months later. Therefore, we do agree on that one to some extent or other!

Thanks for your comments. The post above was written to illustrate a phenomenon which I think actually exists. I don’t argue that it is overwhelmingly the case, to the exclusion of all other attitudes. I don’t even argue that it is the dominant attitude. The examples you give of people adjusting to, rather than denying the new reality are real, and laudable. But there are plenty of people doing the opposite. Not everyone, but a significant amount. When I said that denial is “everywhere” I meant it can be seen all over the place, not that it is literally everywhwere, like God. Perhaps I was careless in my choice of words. Perhaps you are over-literal in your interpretation. Perhaps both. But its a straw man to suggest that I said every single person in the country was in denial, and then proclaim victory by pointing out some people who aren’t.

What is the post meant to achieve? It’s a blog post. It is meant to achieve nothing at all. There is no grand plan here. I just expressed an opinion. I believe that is allowed.

There is, in fact, plenty of hand clapping going on. The examples in the post are, indeed, the more easily mockable of those I have noticed, but far from the only ones. I wrote a post a while back (Here http://url.ie/281x) about the new tendancy amongst media figures to urge a putting aside of politics in favour of a vague notion of “pulling together”. That, to me is magical thinking, and it is coming, not from a few fringe cranks, but from people who would consider themselves prominent opinion-formers. Having written about the phenomenon before, I saw little reason to recapituate in this post.

Were I writing the post again today, I would spend some time on NAMA. For the past week we’ve heard people saying that we must at all costs avoid a “Fire Sale” which would indicate to us the truth about property values. But by saying that, aren’t they admitting that they know the truth but are trying to deny it, conspiring, in fact, to maintain notional property values that are pure fiction? Clap, Clap, Clap…

I am not denying their validity. On the contrary, they clearly do. Yet, I think that you overstate your case in several ways.

Firstly, if you follow the money, I think that the services sector will quickly disagree with your contention about many people being in denial. Rather, customers have tighened their belts in 2009 and the economy is tipped for another huge decline next year.

Equally, your article ignores the many innovations and other ways to keep businesses going since the recession started, e.g. I know of a Dublin pub that now provides a bus service to drive patrons home at night for free. Other pubs have slashed their prices, offer live music, complimentary snacks, etc. You can find similar developments in shops, restaurants, cinemas, theatres, sports events, etc.

In other words, there is no hand clapping here!

Finally, I am not too sure what picking on a few dreamers with some harmless but grandiose aspirtaions is meant to achieve. Most of them are not even running commercial businesses with what they do. They’re just ideas forums like this one.

In fact, what I ended up thinking was that you really just wanted to give those websites a bit of a shoeing, but dressed it up in the clothes of a state-of-the-nation-style argument when you did so. I know that you may not appreciate such a remark, but it was the only way that I could reconcile the quite general nature of your opening few paragraphs with the highly specific nature of the body of your article.

Anyway, I don’t have a glass chin, so punch back on that by all means!