On the outside looking in

The following is a personal account of an outsider's view of the European experience in general and the Spanish experience in particular. This post was originally drafted on October 3, 2009 although never published. It has been edited and revised since that time.

I've always wanted to do a critique on Spain as much as I've always detested the thought of writing one. Anyone who knows me, knows I don't put any stock into opinions because I firmly believe that opinions are like nose hairs - everybody has them but no one wants to see them displayed in public. Here in Spain, opinions are a fundamental part of the social fabric; you not only have the right to an opinion, you are encouraged to express it and take part in coffee shop debates. In Spain everyone is an expert on everything. However, these debates are usually one sided in that everybody expresses a position but no one cares what you think. The unwritten maxim is: When I want your opinion, I'll give it to you.

Why Spain? Because Spain offers a perspective of itself unlike that of any other country in Europe. It is a microcosm of the eurozone itself. Spain is composed of 17 autonomous provinces each with its own dialect, customs, traditions and culinary tastes. The eurozone is made up of 17 sovereign states each with its own language, customs, traditions and culinary tastes. See what I'm getting at?

You've seen the tourist promotional ads, "Spain is different!" Well, it is. What happens in the rest of Europe, also happens in Spain except over here, everything is exaggerated by a factor of ten. I'm reminded of TV star and comedian Bill Cosby. In one of his routines he would go around asking college kids why they did cocaine. "Because it intensifies the personality, man," they would respond and Cosby would counter, "OK, but what happens if the person's an a-hole?" This analogy is the best way to describe Spain - very intense but, more often than not, obnoxious and irritating. To understand what makes Spain tick you have to go back and understand its history.

Spain in the context of Europe
What makes Europe such an attractive travel destination is its history, culture, traditions and diversity. Europe has it all: power, intrigue, scandal, sex, wars, religion, science and arts.

At the same time, it is these very attributes that are the downfall of Europe. Thousands of years of traditions, customs, war and distrust are hardwired into every European. So, while on the exterior the economic powers are genuinely trying to unite the continent through the European Union, the underlying sentiment among members is one of animosity and apathy.

Why the animosity? Because of pride. Pride is at the root of everything that is wrong with Europe. Individual member states take pride in their rich history and their contributions to the arts and sciences. So they are not about to readily accept the dictates of a pan European institution that compromises their sovereign will. No place is this more evident than in Spain.

There's a little known book that was published back in 1969 by Fernando Díaz-Plaja. The book, "The Spanish and the 7 Deadly Sins," is a narrative explaining the attitudes of the Spanish. In the foreword the author states that he had not realized the character of the Spanish until he traveled abroad and observed different cultures. In so doing, he found new insight into his native land. It's a short book just 200 odd pages long but two-thirds of it are dedicated to two sins in particular: pride and envy, one being a corollary of the other.

Pride
Perhaps the strongest emotion of the Spanish, however displaced it might be, is pride. The term 'humble spaniard' is a complete oxymoron; the species doesn't exist. Miguel de Unamuno (1864-1936), Spanish philosopher and essayist, expressed it this way in his book, Obras Selectas (Selected Essays): True humility, in those who feel superior to others, is to admit they are superior. And that, in a nutshell, is the definition of Spanish humility.

I remember that as a boy in the 60s traveling to Spain to visit my aunts and uncles, I would ask my uncle why he never bothered to learn English. "What???!!! Me, learn English? Why should I learn English when half the world speaks Spanish? Maybe it is the English who should learn Spanish!" That was the conventional wisdom back then because in its golden age, the sun never set on the Spanish Empire. The Spanish were the conquerors, never the conquered. And a lot of that sentiment has carried on into the present day.

A few years ago I asked several colleagues who where in their 30s why English in Spain was not as widespread as in other European countries. The answer this time was because Franco, through censorship, discouraged the use of foreign languages in the arts. This is not entirely true. There was censorship but it was aimed at political and moral issues. In fact, there were movie houses in Madrid dedicated to showing foreign films in original version. In these cinemas I got to see the original undubbed versions of Night of the Living Dead, Alfred the Great and the Beatles' Yellow Submarine. I found it amusing that a group of people who had not even been born during the Franco dictatorship were so certain of their answer. I suspect that my young colleagues found it more convenient to blame Franco for Spain's inability to embrace the English language because it acquits them of any responsibility, even though they had every opportunity to change that course of action after Franco passed in 1975. But that never happened because films continued to be dubbed. So my colleagues' argument falls flat on its face. I can only conclude that the Spanish still held on to my uncle's way of thinking.

Shortly after Franco's demise, a new constitution was drafted and all the political parties that heretofore had been banned were allowed parliamentary representation. Keep in mind that the representatives of these parties were Franco's sworn enemies (the socialist left and the communists) and now they were in power. So I imagine that shortly thereafter they decided to rewrite the history books, this time with Franco as the evil stepmother and the socialists as the heroic Prince Charming who saves the innocent and abused Spainderella by recovering her fragile glass dignity at the palatial steps of history and restoring her to her rightful place at the throne of the world. The free thinking liberal socialists would be the saviors of Spain.

Credit where credit is due
Spain experienced its greatest prosperity at the hands of the socialists, largely due to the country's entry into the EU and its access to low interest development funds. But by the same token, the country also experienced its two worst economic downturns in history during socialist administrations.

I wasn't around for the first one in 1993-94 but I was present for the second one in 2008. On this point everyone is in agreement: Spain didn't start the crisis but it should have managed it better. So what happened? Simply put, pride.

Rodriguez-Zapatero(ZP), the socialist candidate, assumed power after the electoral defeat of the centrists in 2004. He had inherited a stable growing economy with a budget surplus. During the 2008 elections, when financial markets started going topsy-turvy, ZP denied Spain was being affected. He constantly stated that Spain was in the Champion's League of world economies and that unemployment, while growing, was under control. Now I'm not an economist nor do I claim to know the ups and downs of financial markets but I'm guessing ZP figured he had enough of the budget surplus he inherited to ride out any economic storm. He dismissed the severity of the problem. He figured that if he reiterated that there was nothing to worry about, the people would have to believe him. After all, finance is a question of confidence. It all came to a head when Paul Krugman, 2008 Nobel Prize in Economics, had a tête-à-tête with Zapatero and warned the president of the impending implosion Spain was about to experience. Zapatero's response: "Krugman doesn't know what he's talking about. We are fine." This response was coming from someone who had never worked a day in his life in any sort of business or economic capacity.

This was the height of arrogance and ignorance. Zapatero could not fathom being a failure or going down in history as the president that caused the worst financial crisis of all time. His pride would not allow it, never mind its effect on millions of people. We all know how that ended: Zapatero finally resigned in disgrace and called for anticipated elections in 2011 which his party lost.

As soon as the centrists took over, they initiated economic reforms, the kind of reforms the socialists should have undertaken but decided to defer due to their unpopularity. So what do the leftists do, they convene a general strike and accuse the administration of taking the road to ruin. The culmination of all this is that Javier Lopez, secretary general of the second largest labor union, CCOO, affirms on national TV that the right to strike supersedes the right to work.

In other words, the socialists are liberals and open minded. They believe in the freedom of expression but only if your views coincide with theirs, otherwise they will insult and intimidate you. If you don't believe me, go ask Lourdes Hernandez, lead singer of the rock group Russian Red when she admitted being a centrist and the subsequent backlash she suffered at the hands of the socialists. They basically labeled her a traitor and a disgrace as an artist. You see, the socialists believe they have a monopoly on intelligence and the arts and, as such, all artists by nature are anti-establishment. It is inconceivable that an artist be anything but left leaning.

We see a lot of pride and arrogance coming from all sides in Spain. It doesn't matter who you are or what your background is. If you are Spanish, you are proud and arrogant. It's in the DNA.

When so much pride and arrogance is coming out at you from one place, it should raise red flags. In my case, my flags are telling me that Spain suffers from a case of national collective inferiority complex. It's not rocket science. People who display airs of superiority do so to disguise their deep rooted inferiority. It's that simple and that complicated.