All posts tagged: Sinéad O’Connor

How to accomplish nothing: Emotions, Icons, and Mantras

Western culture, these days, could be described as feel-good. Accomplishing something seems to require emotions like anger, popular images, and common and familiar words and phrases. We win any argument if we can broadcast all three. We can be like angry people who shout and wave flags, and that can satisfy our search for truth. If you’re not sure what I mean, we have a recent example. You probably know that Sinéad O’Connor died recently at the age of 56. I was familiar with her songs, and I heard that she had converted to Islam, but I don’t know much more about her. I don’t need to know more, and you are in the same position. Our modern culture will tell us how to think without too many details: Notice, from the title of the CNN article above, we have a highly polarized argument; Sinéad O’Connor versus the Roman Catholic Church. Apparently, Sinéad won. When a Roman Catholic Irish woman converts to Islam, there must be an interesting story. Complexity is a good word to …