Spain, you have a huge problem

Populism, institutional corruption, totalitarianism and Islamism all converge on a need that has become a defining trait: controlling domestic opinion, and, to the extent possible, foreign opinion. That is, the imposition of an interpretive framework for those elements of reality that pass the test of expediency, as well as for the codes used to recognize like-minded individuals, in short, the mimicry of group and cultural identity.

The methods for doing so are well-worn, given their proven effectiveness. Prejudice as an ideology is remarkably effective. An embarrassing example of its application in the West can be seen in Spain, where antisemitism has been encouraged through official channels and, now, on the occasion of the World Cup, social denigration is directed against the Argentine national team, and what it evidently represents: conspiracy theories must be fueled and encouraged. Even opponents of the government drink from the same contaminated well.

Those who make use of these ideologies, these despicable tactics, do not seek applause, at least not as their primary goal, but rather social degradation. As Zmigrod explained in "The Ideological Brain," ideologies transform our cognition, reflexes and our visceral and biological nature:

“Being immersed in ideology changes the believer; it changes their
explicit and implicit beliefs, but also their cognition in general, their
instinctive responses,… the brain as a whole. In short, it demands that we become
someone else… less curious, less free.”

Because, he continued, ideology demands that reality conform to ideals, or to needs, that ideals conform to one another, that everything be unified and organized.

The subjugation, therefore, is to be expected to be greater the more rudimentary the material that makes up the dogma. It is the crudest and most absolute simplification of reality. in which, moreover. The "we" that is constructed depends inexorably on the existence of an inverted mirror, the indispensable "other," born from the desperation of believing oneself insignificant.

Thus, with the complicity of so many media outlets, the audience ends up being trained to be unable to distinguish truth from fiction, a fact of affirmation; in the belief that truth is that jumble of hackneyed images and words published or spoken by the state, while hoping that reality does not seep into public discourse.

Everything, then, is reduced to the implausible uniformity of a party, of a banner, of a slogan, of contempt: metaphor and euphemism, desire, convenience, as substitutes for facts. The scaffolding of “moral” value itself, of collective and personal self-esteem, is linked to a specific “other”: a conspirator who tarnishes the purity of the things that matter.

The result is the silence of many, the noise of a few fanatics who are granted centrality, the spotlight, as they say, to feign consensus. The consequence is, above all, the erosion of the threads of duties, rights, and civic-mindedness that sustain a society. The incalculable intellectual, economic, moral, and social impoverishment, which can be brought about in a matter of years, may take generations to recover from.

Various Western societies find themselves at different stages of this decline due to the decisions, negligence, or deliberate choices of their governments and institutions: that social contract among citizens is, or is about to become, a thing of the past; values are now malleable, disposable commodities, and, above all, things to be cast aside, and the truth has definitively lost out to lies, to narratives, and to stupidity.

Voltaire wrote in "Questions sur les Miracles": “Once your faith convinces you to believe what your intellect considers absurd, be careful not to sacrifice your reason as well in the conduct of your life. … There were people who told us: ‘You believe in incomprehensible, contradictory, and impossible things because we have ordered you to; well then, commit unjust acts because we also order you to.’ Undoubtedly, whoever has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices.”

For some Spaniards, it’s already considered safe to demand, waving a large flag in the midst of the San Fermin festival, the destruction of Israel. How long, then, will it be before they themselves begin to commit these “eliminationist” acts under the unflinching gaze of the crowd?

Spain has a problem. Antisemitism is just the symptom. Something stinks in Pamplona. And in Barcelona, Valencia and so on and so forth. Because antisemitism says nothing about Jews or Israel; it says something about those who look into that little mirror to see themselves as beautiful, moral and less foolish.

And the normalization of this age-old hatred is, in reality, the normalization of the degradation of the society that practices it.