Yesterday‘s publish on Plato’s Cave was not, because it seems, the one one to have come out of Saturday morning’s dialogue that Jacqueline and I had on the Weleny Wetlands and Wildlife Belief Reserve.

The second of the three concepts that we developed throughout our dialogue pertains to a phenomenon lengthy identified to us, not least as a result of Jacqueline‘s dad and mom had been each introduced up talking the Irish language. Though in later life they infrequently used it, the syntax of that language closely influenced the way in which wherein my late father-in-law, specifically, used English. The concepts on this publish movement from our newest dialogue on this situation, and the results for the way in which wherein language has itself influenced political-economic considering.

AI was used to make sure that Irish references on this publish are, we hope, correct.

“Disappointment is on me”: Language, Accountability, and Care

In Irish, you don’t say I’m unhappy. You say tá brón orm: actually, “disappointment is on me.”

At first sight, this may occasionally appear to be a quaint idiom. Nevertheless, in actuality, it embodies a radically completely different perspective on duty, care, and human expertise than that to which neoliberal English-speaking societies have grow to be normalised.

This issues as a result of how we body misfortune determines whether or not we deal with it as a private failing or as a shared situation for which society should assume duty. Language issues, then, not least within the political-economic inferences it creates.

1. English individualism and neoliberal grammar

English is a language constructed on the centrality of the phrase and thought of “I.” “I’m unhappy.” “I broke my arm.” “I misplaced my job.” Even when accidents or systemic failures are concerned, English frames them as if the person struggling the consequence is answerable for what has occurred to them. To be unhappy in English isn’t just to expertise disappointment, however to be disappointment. To lose your job just isn’t merely to be made redundant by an financial downturn, however to have failed indirectly.

This behavior of grammar aligns completely with neoliberal ideology. Neoliberalism insists that people are answerable for their very own fates. Poverty, unemployment, debt, or sickness are redefined as private flaws or unhealthy decisions. The grammar of English feeds that narrative: it makes every individual linguistically answerable for their very own misfortune.

2. Irish relationality: states “on” us, not “in” us

Irish undermines this body. Starvation is “on” you (Tá ocras orm). Pleasure is “on” you (Tá áthas orm). Disappointment is “on” you (Tá brón orm). These states don’t describe your essence; they’re circumstances that stumble upon you. They might describe your present situation, however they will additionally cross.

This phrasing acknowledges transience. Disappointment “on me” doesn’t imply I’ll all the time be unhappy. Starvation “on me” doesn’t imply I’m by nature hungry. Feelings and circumstances are guests, not everlasting labels. They will come and so they can go. Crucially, they don’t outline who you’re.

That’s inclusive and non-judgemental. It recognises that completely different folks could expertise completely different states at completely different occasions, with out making these states into everlasting marks of id or failure.

3. Past binaries: no “sure” and “no”

This logic extends to the way in which Irish handles affirmation and denial. Irish has no single phrase for “sure” or “no.” If requested An dtuigeann tú? (“Do you perceive?”), you can’t reply with an summary “sure” or “no.” It’s essential to reply with Tuigim (“I perceive”) or Ní thuigim (“I don’t perceive”). The verb itself carries the affirmation or negation.

That makes solutions all the time contextual, particular, and provisional. They’re in regards to the scenario, not an summary binary. Ní thuigim doesn’t imply “No eternally.” It means “I don’t perceive now.” Understanding could arrive later. Once more, transience is emphasised.

Distinction this with English, which thrives on binaries: sure/no, success/failure, worthy/unworthy, striver/skiver. Neoliberal ideology relies upon on these divides. They permit it to classify populations into the deserving and undeserving, the winners and losers, the employed and the work-shy. The grammar of English matches seamlessly with this worldview. Irish grammar resists it.

4. Nature, nurture, and the politics of blame

This distinction goes even deeper. English is the language of genetic determinism: “I’m who I’m due to my inheritance.” It frames private id as fastened, unchanging, carried within the genes. This dovetails with neoliberal individualism: in case your genes make you what you’re, then your destiny is your individual, and society owes you little. Poverty or ill-health are lowered to biology, reinforcing fatalism and reducing away social duty.

Irish suggests one thing completely different. If disappointment or starvation is “on me,” then I’m not reducible to my inheritance. I reside in a transferring surroundings. I’m formed by the circumstances that stumble upon me, and people circumstances can change. Nurture issues. Context issues. Society issues.

In different phrases, Irish grammar encodes a politics of nurture, not nature. It recognises that we reside in a shifting panorama of influences, some supportive, others dangerous. Who we’re can’t be lowered to a set genetic script; it relies on the circumstances that encompass and act upon us.

5. Gaza: starvation imposed, not chosen

Nowhere is that this distinction extra pressing than in conditions of maximum struggling. Think about Gaza at the moment. In English reporting, individuals are stated to be “hungry.” That phrase carries a hidden implication: starvation is a property of the individual. It’s their state, as if in some way generated from inside.

However that’s profoundly deceptive. Individuals in Gaza aren’t “hungry” within the summary. Starvation is on them. It has been imposed upon them by blockade, by conflict, by the deliberate withholding of meals. They haven’t failed. Starvation has been pressured onto them.

The Irish phrasing captures this reality extra straight. Tá ocras orthu — “starvation is on them.” The duty is displaced from the person to the exterior circumstances that created the starvation. That makes seen the politics of famine and struggling in a approach English can obscure.

6. From grammar to political financial system

Why does this matter for economics? As a result of the way in which we discuss misfortune frames the insurance policies we think about.

• If poverty is one thing you are, then welfare is charity for the undeserving.

• If poverty is one thing that’s on you, then welfare is society lifting a burden that ought to by no means have been there.

• If unemployment is a private failing, then the reply is “work more durable.”

• If unemployment is a situation that comes upon you when the financial system falters, then the reply is to reform the system.

• If disappointment is your id, then remedy turns into a non-public duty.

• If disappointment is “on you,” then care might be shared, and society can play its half in assuaging it.

7. In direction of a politics of care

The politics of care requires us to withstand the binaries of neoliberal thought — winners and losers, taxpayers and scroungers, sure and no. It requires us to see that human circumstances are transient, situational, and imposed as a lot as chosen. It requires us to confess that nurture, not nature, defines the lives most individuals reside.

Irish grammar affords us a ready-made language for this. It doesn’t deny private duty, nevertheless it situates it inside a wider body of shared expertise. It doesn’t cut back folks to their lowest moments, however recognises that circumstances cross. It doesn’t isolate people, however factors all the time to the bigger forces “on” them.

8. Relearning grammar as political apply

If neoliberalism has colonised our minds by way of the grammar of English, then a part of constructing an alternate lies in relearning different grammars. That doesn’t imply everybody should begin talking Irish. It does imply that we will grow to be extra conscious of how language encodes duty, blame, and care.

We are able to be taught to say, not “I’m poor,” however “poverty is upon me.”

Not “I’m a failure,” however “failure has visited me.”

Not “they’re hungry,” however “starvation has been positioned upon them.”

These aren’t evasions of reality. They’re extra correct descriptions of how human lives are lived. They make seen the function of society, financial system, and politics in shaping outcomes. They usually create the linguistic house for solidarity reasonably than judgement.

Conclusion

The phrase tá brón orm – “disappointment is on me” – reminds us that feelings and circumstances aren’t fastened properties of the person, however transient states that transfer by way of us. It resists binary judgements. It factors to nurture and surroundings reasonably than fastened nature. It’s inclusive and non-judgemental.

In a world scarred by neoliberal blame and binary division, and in locations like Gaza the place struggling is imposed upon hundreds of thousands, such grammar just isn’t a curiosity. It’s a reminder that we want new methods of talking and considering — ways in which acknowledge shared duty and construct a politics of care.

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