Mary Kenny“Discipline yourself to wait for what you want” is what we were taught by the Church, writes Mary Kenny
The first bill I pay at the beginning of each month is the sum due on my principal credit card. There was a month, recently, when I overlooked the regular payment – and naturally added interest appeared on the next bill.
I won’t disparage my credit card provider because modern life would be difficult without one. But there is a school of thought that credit cards have undermined the values of thrift and saving over the past 50 years. Although American Express and Diners’ Club issued credit cards in the 1950s to the better-off, it wasn’t until 1966 that credit cards were made available to a much wider public.
Barclaycard launched its card with massive publicity and the catchy slogan which has since been denounced as undermining the basis of western civilisation: “Take the waiting out of wanting!”
This was the ultimate invitation to consumerism. It said that you shouldn’t have to wait for anything you desire. Reflecting the spirit of the age, the novelist Kingsley Amis wrote a book entitled I Want It Now – take the waiting out of wanting anything.
Deferred gratification had been the rock on which a stable bourgeois society had been built. To save for something, putting the pennies in the piggy-bank, and to wait until you had sufficient means to purchase it, was once a hallowed notion, duly accompanied by advice which underlined the message – “cut your coat according to your cloth”.
Abstinence
It could be said that the Church reinforced such ideas at a spiritual level with fasting and abstinence. Discipline yourself to wait for what you want. Defer that chocolate treat until Easter Day!
But the credit card prompted a revolution of instant, rather than deferred gratification. And it is from this mentality – argue some social historians – that nations have piled up huge debts.
When bankers are sent to prison for their misdeeds, isn’t that related to the casual acceptance of easy debt, unreasonable borrowing, and financial bubbles?
Some of, yes, have been irresponsible with our credit cards.
I once had 12 credit cards and was gaily paying interest on all of them until a sensible woman bank manager took me aside – and finally helped reduced me to two.
However, although credit cards did change attitudes, and sometimes prompted financial incontinence, we should remember that people did get into debt before the advent of Visa.
Poor people went to pawnbrokers, and purchased items on the Hire Purchase system, colloquially known as the ‘never-never’ or, in Ireland, the ‘Kathleen Mavourneen’ because of the lines “it may be for years and it may be forever”.
Shame
The Church once condemned usury and being in debt was a cause for shame. It no longer is. But the mad consumerism which lies behind that 1966 message of “take the waiting out of wanting” has brought many headaches and heartaches all the same.
Maynooth and marriage
The reported shenanigans at Maynooth seminary certainly require elucidation and explanation. But the picture of misbehaviour and alleged sexual harassment (and gay dating apps) will surely increase the demand for married priests and for the ordination of women.
I can think of pastorally gifted men who would have made wonderful priests, but they also felt called to marriage and family life. Indeed, my father was in that very position: he studied to be a Jesuit, but felt that he couldn’t maintain lifelong bachelorhood.
The ratchet effect on conscience
It has now been accepted by the British Medical Association (which supports abortion rights) that any doctor who opposes abortion on grounds of conscience can wave goodbye to advance in his or her career.
The 1967 Abortion Act guaranteed a ‘conscience clause’ which promised that doctors (and nurses) should never be forced to carry out abortions against their conscience. But a parliamentary committee at Westminster has heard that the conscience clause is now seldom respected, and the evidence is strong that pro-life doctors are actively discriminated against.
This is what’s known as the ratchet effect of any law or practice: step by step, the ratchet is inched forward, so that what’s exceptional gradually becomes the norm.
Choice
There are doctors in Ireland who believe there should be choice to end a pregnancy, and they’re entitled to express their view, according to their consciences. But they are not discriminated against in their careers – some hold important positions – and not informed, by parliamentary committee, that they cannot advance in their profession because of their opinions.
The virtual ban on pro-life doctors in Britain means that Catholics and other Christians will think twice about entering medicine, and will certainly feel that it is prudent to keep their views to themselves. Which is another way of silencing all objections on grounds of conscience.