CONTROL, CONTROL AND CONTROL!!

Living beings, by nature and always according to their capacities and possibilities, tend to want to control the space that surrounds them and all those who dwell, swarm or inhabit in, above and below it. A natural tendency that obeys instincts or needs for survival, defence or for the creation of what is known as the sphere of comfort. For such defense or control, all kinds of peaceful means can be used, whether they are standardized or not.

A good example has been the COVID-19 pandemic and the means used for its fight and eradication. Basically, they have consisted of individual and collective prophylactic measures, the almost total confinement of the population not strictly necessary, certain health treatments and above all, a rigid CONTROL. A control, on the population, its movements, degree of relationship and on the possibility of becoming elements of propagation. In today's national and international society, the degree of control over people and things has been widening its scope of action and is no longer limited to specific and concrete issues; it is increasingly extending to more diverse and different fields, related or not, which cover a wide range of possibilities and forms of action.

In this, how in most of the measures adopted and accepted internationally almost unanimously in recent times and on the basis of greater comfort or an improvement in our security to "officially reduce" the risks of suffering terrorist attacks, cyber and other aspects that may affect us individually or collectively, we have been giving in and happily embracing a lot of concessions on our freedom and moreover, we have done so, with hardly any hesitation.

Today nobody is surprised that their image is captured by hundreds of cameras in the course of their daily lives or simply during a walk with friends or family. Nor that we have to give all our identity, tax and employment data to the bank and the Treasury for the fight against tax fraud; that special circumstances force us to pay by card up to the amount of a simple coffee, so that our personal and daily imprint is fully reflected in the bank statements that can be used for many different purposes without our knowledge or personal consent. 

Nor, that we are encouraged to carry everything in our mobile, and when I say everything, that is everything, even our health data, the number of steps taken, the automatic opening of the normal or security elements of our home, the tickets of the places where we move, the places of leisure that we regularly or sporadically visit, our footprint by geolocation that indicates where we move and so many other things that, if we are aware of it, can even scare us.

The pandemic we are suffering has brought us, imposed on us or promoted some phenomena that were there, but that were not very well received in the sense of tradition and popular consensus; I am referring to the much vaunted teleworking, which has been so much talked about and praised in these months, as if it constituted the panacea and the only working future for many and which soon, those very interested in a greater degree of population control, have rushed to praise, without leaving time for reflection on the pros and cons that this type of work brings with it.

Although apparently all are advantages, some are not so much so and among the negatives I highlight that with it has increased and much control of absenteeism. Absenteeism in the usual workplace can be more or less concealed and having to respond from home forces a greater degree of attention and availability because it is very easy to check your response speed and the workload done in a normal day. In short, once again we have fallen into a happy embrace with new control measures that appear before our eyes disguised as an advance, or an improvement in security to the benefit of our working capacity. 

In this case, and in a very short space of time, other types of inconveniences are already beginning to appear such as the assumption of new costs, health and safety in working conditions, compatibility and conciliation of work and family or the influence on salaries of this modality. So much so, that the government is already beginning to regulate things and employers are not seeing it so clearly, much less easy to fit in. 

It has been demonstrated that the increase, refinement and extension of control measures have been widespread throughout the world and there is no need for the governments in power to have a special cut or trend in this regard. For example, we see in countries that have forged and defended democracy such as the United States a president who is carrying out measures that were unthinkable until now in order to exercise control over elements considered untouchable during the history of a country that has fought so hard for that longed-for freedom. However, this does not prevent the goat that always throws in the bush from continuing to do so and that social-communist, totalitarian or dictatorial governments pretend to exercise total control over all the pillars on which the powers of the state are based and, much more so, over those who survive on the outside, disguised as democratic regimes and even boast about it.

In Venezuela and Cuba, to highlight only two of those, the control shown is very clear and we see that when a democratically constituted power does not like the government of the moment, it is set aside, ignored and even created another parallel totally adept at the established regime. In Spain, we have not yet reached such situations, although it is already known that everything that is likely to get worse will undoubtedly do so.

Here at home and following the precepts set out by the two most visible heads of our government, the progressive control over the powers of the State by them is clear and evident. It is not that we have never been an exemplary democracy; our history, errors, desires, vices and customs dragged along for centuries, despite or because of being one of the oldest nations in the world, have led us to tend to control these powers, with greater or lesser intensity, dissimulation and even a certain amount of care.

The current situation is unparalleled by the steps taken towards total control of the State Attorney General's Office -Sanchez dixit-; the State Attorney's Office (with obvious and shameful examples); the bottleneck because of wanting to exercise greater control over the main organs of government or control of the Judiciary and the Constitutional Court itself. Having taken over and tamed the Legislative Power on the basis of support in and from the parties that want to destroy Spain with gifts, cessions and perks, and the progressive control over the heads of the Civil Guard and the Armed Forces, starting, as always, with the most fearsome of them all because of their "coup tradition", the Army.

To this, we must add the great steps taken for control and indoctrination in education, the teaching of all grades, especially the university and the so-called "fourth estate", most of the media and the professional staff working in them; These are both parallel efforts and a lot of effort and tenacity, which are not achieved from one day to the next, but are the result of a long term strategy and of a hard work that is the accomplice of many factors and actors; including the Church itself, which should be brought closer to the cause little by little with deception, new paths, progressiveness and some gifts of all kinds and colors. 

The appropriation, defence and struggle in support of certain groups such as feminists, vegans, animalists, anti-bullfighting people or the LGTBI or other types of religions different from the "perverse Catholic" - which is what feeds hundreds of thousands of needy people in Spain - in some cases, even quite contrary to the principles of the old communist or dictatorial states to make it appear that these new ones are not, is another serious scourge for society in general. 

Its real aim is not to defend such groups, which are already quite strong, expanded, entrenched and involved in all walks of life. Their support and the abusive propaganda in their favour are intended to undermine the morale of those who, although they are not directly attacked and even seem to be respected, feel bored and lazy to see so much praise and greatness, in the face of other more expended and accepted groups by and among society, and yet who only receive kicks, attacks, a certain degree of stinginess in subsidies and even spit on by the government and many other groups. 

I don't need to go into much detail to highlight the scandals, the shenanigans, the dismissals and the defenestrations suffered at the hands of the Guardia Civil at the hands of a former judge, who distinguished himself by his good work - although some say with certain lights and shadows - in the fight against ETA and who now, with the increasingly clear change of jacket, is very solicitous and more than complacent about the "political" successors of those he once prosecuted. 

It seems that the "remodelling" carried out, under his baton, at the head of the Corps, has brought about a great step towards its control and filled it with some grateful stomachs that already show signs of it, without cutting a hair and with all kinds of propaganda open to the general public, how the change of its logo today to honor the LGTBI collective with its "unofficial" flag instead of the Spain that always appears -when the statutes of the Body have forbidden it- to the shame of an Institute and its members that have been serving for many years with honesty and neutrality towards Spain and its governments with equity.       

With respect to the Army, I have to say that it is also beginning to be moved by external agents with certain political cuts, which leads us to moments of difficult explanation. I have spent many years serving in the Army and I was able to see and suffer from everything; purges, sacrifices, unfulfilled promises and certain types of political manoeuvring in difficult situations in which its Commands easily accepted or did not accept the changes in the national situation. We have been more or less victorious in all of this with a lot of effort, personal work, example and tenacity. We were able, with very few means, without experience or equipment, to go abroad, to participate with courage and boldness in Peace Operations, to join NATO and to lavish our presence in support of the UN, the EU and any other type of military partnership. 

We suffer reforms, reductions, changes of direction, problems with equipment, armaments and means of protection; but always, we follow our leaders, thinking that, although it was not totally true, they were chosen by their superiors among the best to follow their example and direction. Now it jumps to the press and also from the hands of a former judge, that someone outside the institution and his sense of honorability, example and the traditional system of selection; puts his hands in the system to assess the merits of those who should be the generals of tomorrow because, apparently, after so many years of doing so, the criteria of merit, service record, courses, destinations and improvement in performance and preparation, should be understood and valued by a civil company, led by a socialist, which puts in solfa all the above. I do not know the final moment and if, despite this "assessment", it is definitely and as always, the moment when the Superior Council of the TE, based on its subjective criteria and own experience, decides who should be awarded and who should not. 

I never totally agreed with that so-called "exchange of stickers" that the aforementioned Council became when it arrived at the act of selection with the idea of defending, at all costs, its personal proposal out of friendship, closeness, having shared destinies or by mere recommendation. But at least, it was them and only them who put their hands in a system that could only be vitiated by someone from the inside even at the cost of their conscience and honor, and it was not a "headhunter" with political tendencies and ideologies from the government's rope, the one that decided to place the Promotion for their promotion in the final order. 

It seems that this is not the first year that this has happened and therefore, I understand that some behavior seen and heard lately, could have some kind of explanation. The Navy and the Air Force will follow, and since the high military positions in the Defence Staff and the Ministry have been trusted by the minister of the moment for many years, the cake will be complete and ready to be baked to the government's liking without any problems, shocks or last minute displeasure.  With this in mind, and in view of the above, I firmly believe that there is little left for everything to be under their maximum and strict control.