We are experiencing a return to times before the Age of Enlightenment, which gave primacy to reason and the common good. Now the most respectable right is that of the flat earther, freedom of expression when spouting lies or nonsense. Now the heroic thing is to get rich at the expense of the lives of human beings or the health of the planet
Hitler was a communist. Although he came to power to cleanse Germany of Bolsheviks, although he put socialists and communists in concentration camps, although he defended the interests of German capitalists as sacred, Hitler was as communist as Lenin and Trotsky. Alice Weidel said it in conversation with Elon Musk, and she knows what she is talking about: she is the leader of the neo-Nazi AfD party.
Yes, friends, the extreme right has declared open the world championship of bullshit, that old children’s song Let’s tell lies. Remember: hares run through the sea, sardines run through the mountains, will bring.
Immigrants eat the dogs, they eat the cats, they eat the pets of the people who live there, in Springfield (Ohio). Trump recited it during the American election campaign, and he won the elections, of course he won them. The fatter a hoax, the more likely it is to succeed in these times when the digital imperialism of Musk and Zuckerberg sets the ecumenical dogma.
Trump denies climate change, he says it is a tale of reds and greens to spite capitalism. But he has not yet taken office as president and is already announcing his intention to annex Greenland. By force, if necessary. And why? Because climate change is thawing Greenland, thus allowing the exploitation of its gas, oil and rare mineral resources.
Trump doesn’t seem very intellectually coherent on Greenland, but who cares? Coherence is not a virtue today. What is virtuous today, what gives votes, buyers or followersis spouting monumental bullshit and repeating it until it is burned into people’s brains. Like how the epitome of freedom is having drinks in bars during a pandemic. Or letting the elderly die in nursing homes because they were going to die anyway.
Make no mistake, we are not experiencing a political change, we are experiencing a civilizational change. A return to times before the Age of Enlightenment, which gave primacy to reason and the common good. Now the most respectable right is that of the flat earther, freedom of expression when spouting lies or nonsense. Now the heroic thing is to get rich at the expense of the lives of human beings or the health of the planet.
Europe has already been there and we call it the Middle Ages, the dark centuries that preceded the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. When the feudal lords imposed their right to pernada, the law of the strongest by the grace of God. When the inquisitors burned witches and heretics in the squares.
And yet, the Enlightenment ended up convincing us that the Earth is round and moves around the Sun. And that all human beings have the right to happiness based on freedom and equality. Not without much struggle and much pain, these ideas ended up being hegemonic in the second half of the 20th century, at least in the West. A time so close – I lived it myself and I am not Methuselah – and at the same time so far away since forgetfulness was imposed as a test of the vigor of youth.
Savage capitalism and new technologies of mass control are the gods of this century, which we may well begin to call the Century of Shadows. Trump, Musk and Zuckerberg are their prophets from the American Vatican; Milei, Meloni and Ayuso, their bishops in the colonies.
Returned to their condition as flocks, shepherded from social networks, the masses once again practice consensual servitude. Tell me, please, what I have to think, what I have to buy, what I have to vote for. He doesn’t want to think, I want to believe you. You know well that I adore rich people because I am a rich person trapped in the body of a poor person. If you love me, lie to me and I’ll give you a like. I want to believe that I could be like you, with private health insurance, a penthouse in Chamberí and a Maserati.
Bad times for truth, for logic, for common sense, for the general interest. Very bad. Urbi et Orbi. Climate change does not exist, even if I want to take over Greenland because it is thawing, says the new emperor. Hitler was a communist, says his favorite German, who turns out to be a neo-Nazi.
And here in Spain we continue to bingo. Franco was an endearing grandfather who looked out for the good of his subjects. Anyone who makes a fortune trafficking masks during a pandemic and defrauding the Treasury is an honorable citizen and an admirable businessman. Taxes are theft unless they go to bail out struggling banks and businesses. The judges who paper the reds are angelic beings. And so everything. Let’s tell lies, will bring.
#Century #Shadows
