SPAIN ... a letter from 2050

by  Antonio Carlos Pereira-Menaut June 8, 2018

Website  CrisisMagazine

Translation  Adela Kaufmann Original version in English

Italian version

Antonio Carlos Pereira teaches Menaut EU constitutional law at the University of Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain. He is the author of several books including (with Celso Cancela-Outeda) restoration of constitutional engine of the European Union (2012) Political Theory [Political Theory] (2015).

 

Technocracy  in Europe is assured, as many observers clearly understand.

This dehumanized future scenario in Spain is represented by a professor of Constitutional Law of the EU in Santiago de Compostela.

Trapped in the illusion,

"Information overload and a large number of datasets have made that people are unable to discern for themselves with no real official guide from the false, right and wrong, while the real and reality faded from the public mind for decades. "

Source

In 2050, Spain, which was once a proud global empire of strong-willed people, he became the poster boy of Brussels.

Few countries have transformed their anthropology as completely and quickly. Modernization and Europeanisation technocratization have been pushed so dramatically that looks like a super vassal state of the EU.

The quest for democracy has given way while searching for conformity.The Spanish culture is as flat as an iron.

Spaniards have become "the Prussians of the South", unlike its earlier cousins, Italian, Portuguese and Latin American.
 

I. 
At first glance, what strikes you on the streets in 2050 are many robots, cyborgs and enhanced people .

The process of  becoming more like a machine than a human being  is underway. People are separated from physical reality, living their lives with data rather than things (Byung-Chul Han,  In the Swarm , 2017).

Technologization universal, ie machines that perform many tasks better than humans, has meant a gradual loss of human abilities, either predicting the weather or replacing a flat tire.
 

What Chesterton prophesied,

"The fires will be lit to testify that two and two make four. Swords will be drawn to prove that the leaves are green in summer" (Heretics, 1905)

... It happened in Spain for decades.

The era of common sense was long ago, because it involved human nature to experience a sense of proportion and ability to make judgments. Electronic devices, which have isolated people together for decades, now isolate people from physical reality. 

People live their lives according to official protocols. Nothing unforeseen happens. Apart from natural disasters, nothing "tests the souls of men".

Not solve any serious problems for yourself; Instead, you must go to a social worker.

If you have a problem, do not expect a helping hand from neighbors, but civil servants, which prevent people work things out for themselves (to escape a traffic jam on a frozen road, for example).

No one under 50 years has heard of taking responsibility for their free shares. Few people under 40 took radical decisions or overcome serious obstacles or significant hazards.

They have never gone through adversity that shape human personality. 

Unless they are professionally trained, people can not do simple things for themselves, how to cure everyday illnesses, attend bruising children or treat hyperactive children. If something happens, you should refer to public authorities. If you encounter an injured person, do not play the Good Samaritan, not whether they violate legal rules on the transport of injured or speed limits. 

With half a century of the new millennium passed, only a fraction of the Spaniards who come alive stumble through ordinary sex.

Only a few under 50 can cherish childhood memories in a reasonably stable with their biological parents and siblings family; even fewer have had a substantial relationship with their grandparents.

Rootlessness, both territorial and social, is the rule.

Since pedigrees are now extremely intermingled, one can not say correctly, for example,

"We, the Woosters, we had our code of honor since the Crusades"

... because there is no clear and undisputed line  Woosters .

From 2050, relationships between Spaniards, once famous for their strong feelings are weak, not excluding the maternal feelings of your child. The close friendship is rare, even among classmates.

Few couples who know how two young men began telling each other: "If you accept me protect you with my life," or something like that, like Nat Turner or Cherry in 'The Birth of a Nation'.

Lacking these strong, durable and personal commitments, personal relationships were weakened, transferred (new partners or new stepchildren) and (grieving parent or spouse) were deleted.

As expected, these malleable people are more controllable. 

There are redundant people. For the needs of a country des-industrialized in the 2050s, only a fraction of human labor is required.One can count millions of young unemployed and are docile, immature and aimless.

Welfare wages are a way of life for many. 

Shared common views, unless they are politically correct, are scarce.Personal growth is difficult. Prominent personalities are also rare because opportunities for self-expression and creativity are limited.oddballs difficult to find, even in universities.

Except among immigrants, no adult Spanish have had the experience of a child, escaping from the police after a little joke.

Penrod , and l young rascal of the work of  B. Tarkington , if it existed, would be under therapeutic supervision.
 

II. 
Apart from the diverted treated by psychiatrists, ordinary people live their lives through a series of stages regulated to make sure they fit, so that the development of brilliant qualities is rare.
 

Old prudential virtues necessary for our daily lives, atrophy. Few people develop wisdom based on the rule and nobody trusts themselves unless they have obtained a master's degree in self - sufficiency. 

Government, big media and entertainment industry determine the dominant public mindset.

By controlling the language, they have come to control thought. People celebrate what is expected of them:

mothers on Mother's Day, women on Women's Day, etc.

Very few people are "masters of their souls , " and many do not understand why they should be. 

All are observed, even when they go to the baker. Nobody complains because this universal monitoring is carried out not only the government but also its neighbor, your supermarket, employers, etc.

Full control of everything he does and says, that is, what it says to have a beer or raise their children, is in force, and in the near future, will have substantial control even what you think and want (your choices are partly induced by your mobile phone).

In general, the ability of most people to escape control, if desired, is scarce. Since the government, the EU and Google know everything about you anyway, slightly formal intelligence is needed. 

In 2050, the judges make decisions in fear of the opposition, as well as university professors and everyone else.

In this quasi-totalitarian regime transparent, people have become reserved and unable to act boldly, except in very small groups. Over time they have lost almost all memory of the sincere relationships.

The initial mutual trust is not taken for granted, and many just lose it.After decades refrain from autonomous action, this sum of transparency and oversight makes people refrain from thinking independently.

Behave and speak as officially expected until the contrary is thought - a typical practice of the old autocracies - is no longer the case; people now think within the framework politically correct.
 

III. 
The bio-power, once a novelty, is passé.

The psycho-power  now has the lead and is so ubiquitous that the " War on Terror " has become unnecessary. 

Following a trend that is not new, current political problems are political in nature:

instead refer to the human body, heart and mind, behavior, culture and ecology ...

Governments and international agencies no longer pretend that we are all equal; there are political and economic inequalities in abundance.Similarly, human dignity is rarely mentioned.

As expected, the presumption of innocence is no longer fashionable. 

Thought  political correctness  no longer intended to include democracy, which has now disappeared, not only for political or economic reasons, or because of the difficulties of expanding globally, but simply because people are trained to  do nothing  significant in itself same .

If you see each and every one of the problems, however simple (how long to spend his son playing video games), with an "expert" even what once were matters of nature, such as pregnancy, they become a matter expert, becomes totally unprepared to manage his family, let alone the police. 

Almost everything goes beyond the judgment of the "common man".

Things that Mother Nature set us - how to be a parent, a child or an active member of the police, are beyond our ability now. Adults are infantilized, they supervised therapeutically and lack personal initiative outside the field of vocational training. 

The law has also changed. Roman law professed that  hominum constitutum est ius omne cause , but now rootless free human action, the law is no longer anthropocentric. 

Universal jurisdiction and a number of expert committees rule the planet, while the self - governing social organizations are scarce, including universities. Spain has little self - government, let alone of sovereignty.Spaniards are now famous for being an orderly legalistic people enthusiastically fulfilling EU standards. In turn, the EU is nothing more than a political player second rank, overcome   

by globalization . 

Large areas of rural land and oldest Spanish cities are almost deserted.Some kingdoms and principalities of antiquity, after a period of aging and depopulation have disappeared except on maps.

Madrid has 25 million inhabitants. People are so intermingled that locals can hardly be distinguished.

Folklore and cultural, traditionally as varied in Spain, are relics of tourist shows. (The death of folklore arose not multiculturalism but of technological dependence, the atomization of society and uprooting).

Only Muslims, and not all appear to be true to the identity and culture.

IV. 
Therea single global religion with a broad character of New Era, including human rights, ecology and codes of conduct.

In other words, all religions except Islam share the narrative of ethics and general culture. The current positive morality is puritanical and intolerant, and is stricter than previous forms of  puritanism .

Religious denominations that do not fit the dominant narrative (eg, refrain from teaching gender ideology) are punishable by law because the official religion requires  a public order that can be  executed by the judges. 

Deviants are scarce, especially moral, since morality has given way to publicly imposed ethics.

In addition, moral processes have given way long to psychological, biological then finally algorithms.

Psychiatrists, who were once the most common doctors, are now rare because people generally do not suffer from these disorders and, in the few cases that occur, social workers are sufficient. 

For the first time, the liberal arts, the Bible, Socrates and Cicero are erased from the public mind. People without notions of history, Christianity or humanities, have proved easier to handle. 

Spain has become practical terms in  an English - speaking.

All children under 40 years learned English by their parents in childhood.Gender specific language - woman, man, child - is prohibited by law, but as long since disappeared due to political correctness, the prohibition is not very upset. 

Information overload and a large number of datasets have made people unable to discern itself without official guidance, true or false or right, while reality and reality faded from the public mind for decades .

Bombarded by information, Spanish contemporaries lack any ability to discern when they make judgments.

Therefore, they are ready to be sent to work in the Antipodes for a few weeks and then another remote location where transnational decide employers, regardless of their family.

Postscript from  2084

Against all odds, things are changing.

This is not due to a revival of traditional Spanish culture, made dead, but human nature again riding time. Moral consciousness could be asleep, but not dead (Bauman).

Wealthy families began sending their children to schools without Internet. 

Natural disasters related to climate change have made people withdraw their trust of governments and experts. Now it is blatantly clear that they have the means to control nature.

As the British politician said,  Michael Gove  long ago,

"People in this country [Britain] has enough experts".

After severe floods, fires and massive desertification horrible, the idea of ​​unlimited economic growth and technological change insurance no longer taken for granted.

The incessant depletion of raw materials led to the redistribution of existing wealth. Unquestioning reliance on technology to solve all the new problems has vanished. 

In addition, technology and economic "science" they have generated a miserable underclass living social deals. Therefore, the Spanish question its primacy.

To experience first hand the materialistic individualism became parts of machines, people also have moved away from hedonism. The shortage of social resources made them rediscover the collaboration in small communities, much like traditional families.

Similarly, now they prefer to work for themselves and talk to real people. 

Time has shown that world government is governed by fallible people, if not corrupt, who have indisputably shown that not always seek the common good, leaving aside the difficulty of identifying a common good for everyone.

This reinforced the tendency to distrust authority and encouraged a rediscovery of common sense, purpose and morality.

Since the economy and technology had often been hostile to common in recent times people also rediscovered  the need to govern themselves , at least locally ...