Yesterday I posted an opinion on Facebook sent to me by a friend. It is a well written, auto critical piece of introspection of the current situation in Spain. I translate it here for my English speaking friends. I do not know who authored it.
Perhaps the time has come for us to finally accept that what's going on in Spain is more than just an economic crisis. It goes beyond laying blame on political parties, banking greed and financial mismanagement or the risk premium. Our problems will not end with the changing of the political guard, the imposition of financial controls or the threat of general strikes. It is time to admit that the problem in Spain is not Greece, the euro or Angela Merkel. It is time to accept that we have become a country of mediocrity.
No country attains this level of deficiency overnight or in three years. It is the result of a chain of events that starts with the educational system and extends to the ruling class. We have created a culture in which average is rewarded - in school, in the office, in the media and in politics.
We are so comfortable with mediocrity that we have accepted it as the natural state of things. The excellence we have demonstrated in sports only serves to obscure and deny the reality of the situation.
- Mediocre is a country whose people watch an average of 134 minutes of teletrash daily.
- Mediocre is a country that, in its 34 year democracy, has not produced a single president capable of speaking English or of having some semblance of knowledge of international affairs.
- Mediocre is the only country in the world that, in its desire to be sectarian, has even managed to divide associations of victims of terrorism.
- Mediocre is a country that has reformed its educational system three times in three decades to the point of having the least prepared students in the industrialized world.
- Mediocre is a country who does not have a single university in the top 150 of the world and whose best scientists must seek opportunities abroad.
- Mediocre is a country with a 25 percent unemployment rate, and yet, is able to feel disgust because its neighboring country makes fun of its sporting figures.
- Mediocre is a country where a person's ingenuity is viewed negatively, where creativity is marginalized and where independent thinking is villified.
This is a country that has converted mediocre into the great national hope and aspiration, sought after by youths whose only goal is to be selected to join the next edition of Big Brother, by politicians that insult without providing a single solution, by bosses that surround themselves with simpletons to disguise their own shortcomings and by students who ridicule those that show initiative.
Mediocre is a country that has allowed, celebrated and promoted the triumph of the average, sidelining excellence with two options: leave or assimilate yourself in that unstoppable gray tide of mediocrity.
Monday, August 6, 2012
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