“Happy holidays,” the PSOE wished us in December. “It says MERRY CHRISTMAS,” the PP corrected him. Vox sent a congratulations with the words “happy holidays” crossed out and corrected: “They are not just holidays. Merry christmas”. Isabel Díaz Ayuso unearthed the hatchet: “Let’s not let those who hate it censor Christmas from us, take it away from us.” It is clear: in a society that is increasingly less Catholic (83% of Spaniards were Catholic in 2000, but only 58% in 2024), the right wants to recover Christmas. But why?
Nostalgia for religion? What aspect of religion, specifically?… Two exhibitions I just saw in Paris suggest answers to me. One is dedicated to surrealism, at the Pompidou Center; the other, at the Carnavalet Museum, explores the period of Terror (1793-1794) that followed the French Revolution.
Surrealism is part of a tradition of rejection of a “disenchanted” modern world (Max Weber dixit). Faced with the ugliness, the uniformity, the bleakly prosaic character of industrial society, surrealism, like romantic poetry, the Gothic novel or Gaudí’s architecture, sought an alternative, at least aesthetic.
As for the French Revolution, it was violently anticlerical, but not exactly anti-religious. At the initiative of Robespierre, the cult of the Christian God gave way to that of the Supreme Being. An engraving in the Carnavalet Museum shows the civic festival that was dedicated to him, in June 1794: an artificial mountain, made of wood and plaster, decorated with plants and crowned by a tree, already to despullate pontiff, Robespierre in person… The thing did not last long (Robespierre was guillotined the following month), but it forces us to ask ourselves what this fear of atheism was about.
The way I see it, there are two reasons. One is the reinforcement that provides morality, compliance with the law, faith in a God who gives clear orders and promises to reward us with Paradise if we comply or punish us with eternal fire if we disobey. The other is community reinforcement. Sharing the same beliefs, going to the same temples, celebrating meals, parties, processions together… creates bonds of love, loyalty, solidarity, which make us accept sacrifices (from paying taxes to losing our lives) that are incomprehensible from the point of view of the human being. particular interest. Although this human warmth has a price, a dark side: the pressure on individuals – especially on individuals – to subordinate themselves to what is best for the group.
Well, from all this, what does the right want to recover?
Beauty, poetry…? Where are they? The emotion of the romantic hermitages, the tragic majesty of Bach’s passions, went down in history. Today’s churches look like offices.
In an increasingly less Catholic society, the right wants to recover Christmas, but why?
Morality, compliance with the rules? What rules? Does the right apply, in the face of immigration, the mandate to clothe the naked and accommodate the pilgrim? In your private life, do you obey the rule of chastity? Abascal is divorced and remarried; Both Feijóo and Ayuso live with their partners without marriage involved. For the Church, all three are in mortal sin.
So…? The clue is given to us by Ayuso when she says that forgetting Christmas “is a betrayal of who we are.” The same idea – in the belligerent style of the party – is expressed by Jorge Buxadé, from Vox, publishing an image of Jesus in the nativity scene wrapped in a Spanish flag. Is that strengthening the community? Only if by collective we mean, not humanity, nor the nation, but the party itself and its voters. The tone, of course, does not suggest “Peace to men of good will,” but “To the enemy, no water.” Curious interpretation of the message of Christ.
By the way: Ayuso gave his Christmas speech before a nativity scene in Puerta del Sol. A 145 square meter thing, with 480 figurines, 1,000 kilos of sand and stones, 1,200 of cork… Just like Robespierre and Nero before him , the president of Madrid likes the bread and circusesin such perfect harmony, today, with the society of entertainment.
Poor Jesus! Come into the world and die on the cross, to end up as a prop in a theme park.
Source: www.lavanguardia.com
