In Spain, the lies of politicians are not penalized in the elections.
Every time political elections take place, self-interested slogans stuffed with common places are diffused to draw voters: the economic model of development must change; invest more in research; promote equality; draw talent; grants; stop being a country of waiters/waitresses. It would appear that only investment was necessary; they lie by keeping quiet about us paying more taxes or the few “rich people” in Spain will pay them.
What can we expect to grow if we water a cement field? Well-fertilised land and the correct amount of water at the right time will provide a good harvest. But neither watering cement nor investing in resources provides a good harvest for society that enjoys its comfortable slumber as if it were a gift. With time and deceitful politicians’ lies, slumbering society claims increasingly more sleeping pills.
When the State owes 1.7 billion euros, does not know how to finance pensions, public spending and taxes grow, the welfare state deteriorates, unemployment never drops below 13%, corruption is endless, the political machinery doubles that of advanced countries, has no idea what to do with tens of thousands of illegal immigrants and unaccompanied foreign minors, and those in favour of independence make the most of the government’s weakness to empty the State and break it up, the analysis should be profounder.
So why are the Spanish worse off than their neighbours when things go badly? We, the Spanish, like everyone else, have some good things and others that are not so good, but each country has its own things. Today we address what can be improved. Our “cement” has been hardened by: shame of our own failure; aversion to risk and effort; mistrusting institutions; waiting for the State and public subsidy to give us everything; scepticism about justice and merit; moral relaxation and preferring to hear pleasant lies than the hard truth.
These weaknesses can be explained, but not today, just like telling truths is a good thing if elections are to be won or not. The Pizarro-Solbes debate, which led to Zapatero’s second government, showed that the Spanish preferred listening to Solbes’ lies. Ten years later, the liar confessed this, but nothing could avoid the harm that was done. With the last elections, the day after counting Pedro Sánchez did the opposite of what the campaign indicated. Some politicians have no scruples about lying to win. In Spain, the liar is never electorally penalised due to prevailing moral relaxation.
Our present reality is that those who speak well of change have many followers, from ignorant people to rogues, with many intermediate degrees of conscience and interests. The Spanish are asleep, anaesthetised, unaware of opportunities from lack of training, for having a poor education, a culture that is burned with the above-cited weaknesses and a leader’s class in need of much improvement.
If the change in the model were simply a matter of investing in education and research, it would not take place because there are no means to do so. Sadly it is not a matter of money, but is much worse and slow to solve; if only right decisions were made, which would be a miracle because parties are incapable of agreeing on anything to do with such issues. The problem is that the country is like an open field covered by a layer of cement; we have no well-fertilised land for good harvests to grow on. Water will be wasted until the layer of cement is removed.
Investing in research resources in large companies is useful because they know how to put them to good use. However, they form a shapeless mass on the other side that, if not trained in and learned to make the best of the opportunity, or it is not the right size, are wasted. Change slowly comes when a sufficient size of the sharp and attentive population, which is enterprising and supported by the Public Administration, can channel its ideas. This is when employment and economic activity grow. Mentality is needed in the population mass because it can create jobs and activity. Financing academics with their particular cement means that they continue with what they do, but more comfortably.
If, besides, the population and Public Administration had been trained in civic and moral values for years, then the country would slowly progress. All the rest amounts to lies and a myth of change; an empty slogan accepted by ignorant people and rogues.
I believe that the problem is a cultural and educational one. For us, and as Hobbes would say, the State does not seem like a Leviathan. Many Spaniards get up every morning believing that they have the right to the State guaranteeing them everything and free of charge: education up to university, health, work and housing. Politicians are used to telling us lies, and we are used to not wanting to hear truths. So we believe them.
A change in the model can only be made when a whole generation from a young age is educated in: making effort from being small; knowing that things are gained from earning them; not overspending or stealing, cooperating, and respecting elders and institutions. It is also important to know how to enjoy oneself, respect others and their freedom, practise sport, and practise civic and moral values. We need moral engagement.
The true change will come when most citizens change their attitude about making effort, taking risks, searching, and not waiting to be given everything for free. Today, the population is neither attentive nor awake. Company size is too small, perhaps because taxes are too high. Public university involves too much red tape, too much vanity and too many “sales” politics. Teacher selection is deficient, professional training is weak, the university is not connected to firms. Every Spanish Autonomous Community does whatever it wishes according to governments, action is discontinuous; conversely, the revanchist Adamism of the recently arrived party attempts to remove what the previous government did right.
We need to be spiritually stronger from Primary Education. It would be better to start from scrap right where we are, rebuild the country and become aware, as Kennedy stated, of what each person can do for the country rather than ask politicians to tell us sweet lies, and us believing them. We have to remove the layer of cement and fertilise Spanish land. If we do not perform this previous work, there will be no harvest or change. The field is Spain, water is prosperity and cement represents lies. Those who water should be good politicians, who are missing, and be able to convert taxes into wealth.
Post published in Las Provincias