Comrades: Do you ever get the feeling that the world as you used to know it has suddenly vanished, and everyone is pretending not to notice? Do you miss laughing and drinking and eating, together with your most beloved friends or family, without fear of recrimination over ideas or opinions? Jenny Holland is a talented writer based in Northern Ireland who ponders these questions.
**Audio starts after 15 seconds
In our conversation, we discuss:
How she defines culture and noticed cultural subversion
Theories on Millennials and Zoomers becoming more based
Contrasts between American and Irish culture, the concept of notions
The demoralization of Ireland from Catholic conservatism to atheist globalism
How much former foes from The Troubles are joining forces against mass migration
How blue collar restaurant work and COVID radicalized her about censorship and taxes
Repairing relationships with friends and family who fell to mass formation psychosis
More about Jenny:
I love poetry, music, disaster movies, food, and people — even the difficult ones. And I love high and low culture and talking about them with my friends. I love to make people laugh, make people dinner and make people think.
For most people 2020 was a year of separation and anxiety. I already lived in exile, far away from the people and activities that once nurtured me, afraid to speak my mind because I feared upsetting friends and family members with my opinions. That is the way of things when you wander off the reservation. I have fallen on the side of the fence that few of my friends and fewer of my family are on.
After sitting in a personal and intellectual wilderness for a few years, 2020 helped me decide that I will not censor myself any more. I will invite people into my thoughts about culture, politics, relationships and how they are all intertwined. I will collaborate with other people of good faith and true intent, as and when I find them. Please join me!
