Mary Kenny
Michel Barnier greeting Theresa May Revolutions don’t always happen with riots in the streets, or even ordered declarations of a new national order. Revolutions sometimes take place quietly, when nobody is paying attention, or by slow, gradual, incremental change.
Back in 1989, a revolution began which none of us even knew about. Sir Tim Berners-Lee, a British engineer and computer analyst, submitted an academic paper to CERN, the European nuclear research agency, which would prove to be the launch of the WorldWideWeb: the invention of the internet as we know it.
Now, 30 years on, Tim Berners-Lee is alarmed at the impact of his own creation. He is warning about the dangers of the “dysfunctional” web, its potential to deliver false information, hatred and malice – and its role in destroying privacy. We have lost control of personal data, he says.
Many an inventor has come to lament the impact of his invention. Dr John Rock, who contributed to the development of the contraceptive pill, believed it should be used to help distressed mothers to space their children, not as an agency of moral irresponsibility. Some of the nuclear scientists who worked on splitting the atom were appalled when their knowledge was used to create the atom bomb.
All developments have the potential for evil as well as good. The motor car revolutionised personal freedom, but caused many tragic road deaths and made a significant contribute to air pollution and the degradation of the environment.
The internet has certainly revolutionised all our lives over the last decade – social media didn’t get going until about 2008. It’s full of bad things as well as good things, and it is certainly hugely intrusive on private life.
Over the last three weeks I have been in Brussels, Maastricht, Aachen, London, Dublin and Ennis, and what do all these locations have in common? Most of the habitants seem to be staring at a hand-held screen. This includes policemen on duty, railway guards at hub train stations, mums pushing buggies, diners facing each other over a restaurant table and even a cyclist whizzing down a street.
Maybe some people are accessing important professional information. But surely not all the time?
Who am I to judge? I can be just as addicted to screen communications, although not on a mobile phone. I open up Twitter every day, receive and transmit information and commentary. Yes, as Berners-Lee says, there is dysfunctional material and fake news. But it’s up to us to develop a sense of discrimination, judgement and savvy attitudes.
It is certainly up to us, and our governments, to protect the young and vulnerable from the darker side of the internet.
Yet not everything turns out as predicted, even in revolutions. It was said that the internet would mean the death of the printed word. But the printed word is fighting back – and successfully too: the Publishers’ Association in London announced this week that book sales have risen by 5% in the past year. Contrary to appearances, communication is not exclusively by screen!
Not patronising but gallantry
Michel Barnier did a very elegant ‘hand-kiss’ when greeting Theresa May in Strasbourg last Monday.
The hand-kiss is a gallant Continental practice, and a historic speciality in Austria and Poland. It’s done very lightly and quickly, and accompanied by a slight bow of the head by the man.
Traditionally, the hand-kiss is for a married lady only.
In Poland, the hand-kiss was sometimes performed during the Communist period quite deliberately because the Communists didn’t approve of it: the courtesy was associated with the old nobility and thus not in alignment with Marxism. I was delighted, when visiting Poland during the 1980s, to be accorded the Handkiss.
As gallantry is regarded by establishment feminism as ‘patronising’ it does not meet with contemporary ‘woke’ approval either.
Perhaps all the more reasons to applaud Monsieur Barnier for adhering to a charming traditional gesture of respect to a woman.