TIDE OF
INDIGNATION: WHILE SOME WAKE UP, OTHERS CONTINUE SLEEPING.
It is almost
impossible not to notice a conductive thread that weaves the series of events
that were triggered in January of this year by Tunisia, and that then they went
on becoming replicated in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Yemen, Bahrain, Sudan, Oman,
Kuwait, Libya, and Syria. Later Spain
(in Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Valencia, Logroño, Santiago of Compostela,
Toledo, Bilbao and others) followed suit, and this extended to the rest of
Europe -as it happened in many cities of France, Greece, Germany, Portugal,
Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Austria. In a
way, this was preannounced, among others, by the exemplary case of Iceland in
2008, the massive protests before the G-20 in 2009, and the strikes and trade union
mobilizations all over Europe during the 2010. And what goes on today,
in turn, preannounces much more to come.
Each one of
these cases has specific characteristic proper to the history and current
situation of each country in which it takes place. But all of them have the
unequivocal flavour of a widespread dissatisfaction that became indignant
rebellion in front of the state of affairs. This time, it is difficult for the
defenders of the status quo to underrate and to disqualify these facts,
attributing them to dark manoeuvres of minorities, to the hidden action of foreign
governments or of international terrorism.
Although the banners
of the demands that are waved may vary, all of them exude a deep weariness due
to the immobility of a system paralyzed in the face of the speed of world
changes, due to a self-destructing lethargy that does not get to conceive –and much
less to implement - the deep changes that are necessary to face the challenges
of the new world. And it does not get to it because it still pig-headedly insists
on the past recipes, believing that it is enough to go on alternating the
social conduction with the customary and worn out options, believing that a
more or less media-likeable politician will be enough to appease the clamour
for something really new, believing that the manipulation of macroeconomic
indicators solves everything. It seems as though the blatant examples that are
plentiful in all regions are not enough to finish convincing all that the current
models no longer work.
The banners of
the popular demands that are waved these days are born out of the consensus that
is the common denominator of a wide diversity of unheard demands in all fields,
not only in the political and economic fields, but in the social, cultural,
institutional, ecological ones and others as well. That is to say, the slogans
that we read in the placards are only the proverbial tip of the iceberg of a
massive dissatisfaction with the current state of our societies. Demanding more
than that, would amount to reducing the rallying power. It is a traverse
dissatisfaction that joins generations, income sectors, creeds, regionalisms,
nationalities, and a wide range of stands regarding proposals for change. Maybe
the dissatisfaction is not only due to the frustration generated by the
unfulfilled expectations of well-being and consumption, but also due to a dehumanizing
way of living -even for the minority that is able to satisfy them.
But today's
rebellions may be explained by the present that is suffered as well as by the
future that is aspired to. Thus, hopefully these rebellions do not stop, and
that they go beyond the mass media showiness of manifestations in the public
square, finding other fields and ways of action. Hopefully they enlarge and
deepen their proposal of change beyond the banners that are raised today.
Hopefully they keep their character of being non violent, non discriminatory,
traverse, participatory and decentralized. Hopefully these rebellions do not
simply conceive themselves as local or as partisan claims, but as the multifocal
expression of a worldized way of thinking and feeling, of a nascent sensibility
that corresponds to a future that is held dear.
It is also to
be hoped that to this world wave of rebellion in front of the established, and
to this aspiration for a better world, are accompanied by a similar rebellion
and aspiration for an improvement as human beings, beyond being simply
demanding consumers frustrated by illusory expectations. Because it would be a
half truth and a new dream to attribute all the responsibility of the state of
things only to politicians and bankers, when the handling of the public affairs
was conveniently unloaded on them and, consequently, the control of our lives.
Because the unfulfilled promises and the frauds of all types are not something
that took place in the last few years, but a long-time issue.
May it be a
rebellion guided by vital essential necessities, and not by an unrestrained desire
that is unsustainable and without solidarity. Among those vital essential
necessities there will surely be the one of giving our lives a deep and
transcendental meaning, free from the meaninglessness of placing money as the
central value of personal and social life.
In any event,
the rebellion against the world that is rejected and the construction of the
world that is yearned cannot be "outsourced" -they require the active
commitment of each one of us, before and after the electoral act. Hopefully
this is already understood, and that those that today head the protest do not entrust
once again the professional politicians to solve things for them, but rather
themselves take in their hands the construction of a great movement that takes
this new sensibility to the decision posts corresponding to them. Maybe for
similar reasons Stéphane Hessel wrote "Commit yourselves!" (¡Comprometeos!
in Spanish) after "Time for Outrage!" (Indignez-vous! In French)
In terms of
active commitment, they are still many forces that should add their support to
the protest. These forces are varied and not only political, but also social,
cultural, religious, etc. It is strange to notice that they have not still
manifested their public and resolved support in favour of what is happening. What
is this silence due to? Perhaps because they cannot be the main stars or
monopolize what happens? Perhaps because the protests did not originate in
their own organizations or places? Do they perhaps believe that they are safe from
what is denounced in other places? Do they believe to be able to manage their “happy
island” doing without the global system in which they are immersed? Or are they
maybe so engrossed in their own interests and local scenario that it prevents
them to notice that what is expressed in Europe and Africa is the clamour of
all?
Even some that
ideologically declare themselves to be global or internationalists seem
insensitive before the urgency to replicate and to increase the protest - and
mainly the proposal - in all venues and forums. In particular, the petty
parties and their mean politicians still think in local terms, they continue
feeding the game of the formal democracy of the allotment of posts, privileges
and benefits, while the looting of the peoples continues at the hands of the
clerks of the speculative financial capital.
This non-perfectible
system goes on collapsing, hopelessly condemned to be surpassed. Will the case
be of continuing to still believe in the reformist gradualism when the ship is leaking
on all sides and is dragging all in its shipwreck? Will the case be of
continuing to support the game of the formal democracy, blindly chauvinistic
and classist, or of betting to the global and real change that today is glimpsed
as a possibility in the squares of the world?
Because, what
this rebellion is today does not matter as much as what it could become tomorrow.
Fernando A. García Buenos Aires, May 31, 2011
fernando120750@gmail.com
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