The tragedy of the country that hated itself
Slowly, like the dagger of young Paul Atreides training in Dune, hatred penetrates between us. The pace is constant and tedious. Every day. With the sinister parsimony of the ticking of a thunderous clock against the sepulchral echo of an empty room. We contemplate, between boredom and amazement, how lacerating wounds are added to the common substratum on which we live; to the bases of our coexistence; to the political structure on which we build our dreams and projects. To our country. Faced with harmony, he inoculates, with the largesse of a well-endowed man, a hatred that feeds on fear and ignorance. And it comes from the hand of those who, in an advanced democracy, should be its greatest enemies: those who govern us. Every day that passes, contempt for Spain is more consecrated as the favorite sport of those in charge. The litany is eloquent and ruthless.
Let's not forget it. This Government has enthusiastically agreed to remain in power with parties that openly proclaim their will to destroy Spain. It is not dialectical or esoteric. They were willing to do their flesh will with a coup. Until recently, some even stained their dreams of foul humidity with a trail of blood. Now they boast that they are in a position to undo Spain in its likeness. They are all united by a disturbing intellectual vulgarity. Following its dictation, war has been declared on Castilian, education, customs, laws and institutions. War has been declared against Madrid, and the history of Spain itself has come into dispute, which they want to dismantle and rewrite, while proclaiming the truth as their exclusive patrimony; a poisonous tale that cannot be discussed. The voices raised to denounce it will never be enough. Here is mine.
It is an unprecedented fact in contemporary history that, in time of peace, a modern nation was the oldest in leading the forge of what Ortega called a suggestive project of life in common, which has led overwhelming achievements with an ecumenical impact, and surpassed ghosts of her past, indulge in the useless passion of destroying herself. It is true that everything happens in the middle of a crisis that no longer produces confusion for millions of Spaniards, but authentic terror, when they see how all the certainties of their daily lives collapse. One by one. 2020 is undoubtedly the perfect substrate to replace ambition with fanaticism, the will to improve through gloating in the mud. But make no mistake, covid-19 is not the beginning. It is just an accelerator. One more factor of possibility.
Spain is at precisely the crucial moment in which all this can still be avoided. And the question is - naturally - what to do. What can we expect? Starting with the Plaza de las Cortes, it would be highly desirable for those who do not participate in the government ordeal to take charge that this is not a time for small politics. Every day has its eagerness, and many may be surprised to discover that there is life beyond the short term; that the big story is forged with agreements and consensuses. Of these, the most desirable were those that could have linked the government with the main opposition parties in a grand pact to bring the effects of the pandemic, the pain for the dead, and the economic crisis to a better port of arrival. then the starting one. That is already impossible. This is what Churchill and Attlee did 80 years ago to save their country from the worst crisis in its history. But those were giants, in front of our squalid t-shirt payroll. The responsibility of those who do not govern for what may happen will be, in short, hardly less if they do not take steps - albeit slowly; necessarily between whispers - to assert that in front of the governmental wasteland there is an alternative that is not only atoms but matter. Ultimately, the opposition cannot be enough to surrender to the picaresque of the mediocre, and wait for better times. I know it is dreaming. But the first step in turning dreams into reality is putting them in writing.
I also appeal to the voters of the parties in the Government, especially the Socialist Party, which has been a fundamental piece in the life of Spain these last forty years. And that it should continue to be. A desperate call for them to prevent the worst of their own history from definitively taking over their present; so that - as far as they can - stop the lawlessness. To the historical leaders of the PSOE, to take more and more firm steps every day. Let them not allow their legacy to be corrupted by teenagers of intellect or ethics, at least without their doing anything. They cannot settle for just practicing condescension to stupidity, ego, or vileness. The cure of Spain will be easier if it is accompanied by that of the PSOE, and this will not take place if it is not born from its own ranks.
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