Why our meek acceptance of all the austerity being thrown at us?

A photograph in the financial section of an English newspaper last week has prompted me to make some comparisons between our reaction to the banking scandals and economic crisis of the last few years and that of citizens in mainland Europe. The photograph shows four uniformed Spanish policeman. One has his arms folded and is looking away from the little tableaux behind him. Three of his colleagues are carrying a well-dressed, seemingly respectable woman, perhaps in her 60s, away from the front of the Bankia bank's headquarters in Puerta de Europa Tower in Madrid. She has been protesting against the eviction of people who are in mortgage arrears, a very touchy subject in Spain, most especially since the suicide in November of Amaia Egana (53), a former socialist councillor in northern Spain who jumped to her death from a fourth floor building as bailiffs were trying to evict her under foreclosure laws. From a quick glance at the photograph, it appears that the policemen are acting with the highest possible restraint, while the woman's stance appears to say "Estoy colgando de mi bolso a toda costa (I'm hanging on to my purse at all costs)" because she has a death's grip on the large receptacle which women of her age feel it necessary to carry with them at all times. She wants to make her point and is making it with as much dignity as she can muster. Which prompts me to ask, where has our own sense of outrage gone? We have been faced with potentially one of the worst crises in our history. Our sovereignty has gone, we are in hock to European banks and the IMF, our government has laid the lash on the backs of the most vulnerable, and yet we sit on our hands and hope the storm passes over our heads. We're putting up with all this hardship (with no possibility of relief in the short or long term) with hardly a whimper. The last time voices were raised against a government measure seen to be unjust and discriminatory was when thousands of pensioners took to the streets of Dublin to protest against changes in the medical card scheme. What is it about us that most of us want to act as disinterested bystanders when unfortunate mortgage-holders have to shuffle into the Commercial Court to be threatened with eviction by the banks over non-payment, or when cuts are proposed in respite care grants? Over the years of the 'boom', the vast majority of us were mere onlookers as the greedy minority in this country gorged themselves on the "spoils" dished out by the bankers, egged on by a corrupt political system. If that 'boom' had brought a decent equality in society, we would have nothing to complain about. However, if anything, it worsened the divide between rich and poor. Of course, we recognise that we are in a bad place as a nation and that we must in some way try to claw our way back to some semblance of respectability and social cohesion. But it must not be done on the backs of those who have gained little, economically or socially, from the Celtic Tiger years. I have raised the question of the loss of our sense of outrage. I am not suggesting that we all go and smash all the windows in the Dail but we must raise our voices in legitimate protest when we see the need to do it. Of course, we have our Oireachtas representatives to whom we can make representations but many people have given up in despair at adopting that approach. It would be far better if we were to go onto the streets to shout out our anger and despair at what is being done to us. We should not take all this punishment lying down. Exercise your right to protest or lose it!