We are starting to lose the run of ourselves yet again

CHRISTMAS, with all the associated lunatic shopping, is now long over.

The New Year has also been drunkenly welcomed in with yet more cash flowing through the tills in this annual homage to Mammon.

History tells us that the Ancient Romans celebrated the winter solstice with the feast of Saturnalia, which by all accounts was more an orgy of excess than a religious festival. Has anything changed?

There used to be a greater sense of spiritual renewal associated with the birth of Christ and the dawn of a new year but commercial interests have almost completely taken over.

If you were not out shopping as if there was no tomorrow, then it seems you were not partaking in this modern version of a feast that goes back to the time of the druids and probably even further.

On December 22, at 10.40am, I drove into the car park of the Monread shopping centre at Naas.

It was like Derby day at the Curragh, with yellow jacketed men trying desperately to keep the traffic flowing as thousands of shoppers, many in shiny 161 or 162 reg SUVs, anxiously revving and reversing in to trolley land. I was told that later that day, Naas ground to a halt as the weight of traffic proved beyond the capability of the town to absorb it.

Things were no different in Navan, Trim and even in little Kilcock, where thanks to the council’s wisdom in removing most of the former parking spaces, just getting to the local chemist proved a daunting challenge.

Goodness knows what it was like in places like the Liffey Valley shopping centre or in the heart of Dublin’s retail areas.

We are told that approximately 40pc of food purchased over the Christmas period ends up in the waste bin yet all the while, the queues grow outside the Capuchin centre and at those other places throughout Ireland where good people distribute food parcels to the needy.

None of this makes sense, given the stark contrast between poverty, hunger and lavish spending. At least during Saturnalia, for just a few days, the slaves were treated as royalty and served by their owners. The spirit of peace and goodwill to all men seems to have lost the battle.

Consumerism, aided by online shopping that facilitates the purchase of goods we don’t need has won. Yet again, we are starting to lose the run of ourselves and who knows how it may end.

Do I sound like Scrooge? Perhaps, but right now my dream of an ideal Christmas would be to spend it in a cottage in the wilds of Connemara with a warm stove, a candle lighting in the window, not a traffic jam in sight and all the while, the sound of the sea.

It seems we must accept that society has changed utterly.

The standard of living for the majority (except the very wealthiest who have always been able to purchase whatever they wanted), has risen dramatically and we are spending accordingly.

There is no other way to account for the orgy of shopping and associated traffic jams that occurred in late December.

Unfortunately, the more we have, the more we want, and this is where our system of democracy falters under the strain of the never-ending demands for yet more “free” services despite the ostentatious show of wealth on display.

To quote George Bernard Shaw: “A Government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul”.