Election campaigns and hoaxes
It has always been said, and it is well known for being tremendously true, that election campaigns are good for nothing, except to fill the air of the rallies and the bought minds of those who attend them, the front pages of the newspapers, the talk shows and to open the television news with millions of promises that are never fulfilled because they are impossible or absurd and unrealistic, the talk shows and to open the TV news with millions of promises that are never fulfilled because they are impossible or absurd and unrealistic or because of their exorbitant cost, which makes them unfeasible for the generally battered economy of the country that certain evil-minded individuals want to "save".
The worse the political, economic, international and social situation is, and the more people are barely surviving thanks to family survival and donations or handouts from a motley assortment of organisations, the greater the electoral promises, job offers, constant offers of salary increases, a wide range of social housing almost given away, certain benefits and various perks and everything else that a very perverse mind can imagine.
Despite the reality that similar promises, in similar situations, have been systematically unfulfilled in a high percentage or in their entirety, people continue to believe in the false Magi, the rabbits out of the hat, in the politician who lies more than he talks or in the one who has bought us with gifts or hoaxes, lest we do not appear in the photo with the others or that the flute might blow, even if by pure chance.
This year, with two election campaigns in sight and with a president who is a master of deceit, short-termism and the search for motives to deceive both Tyrians and Trojans, it is very clear to us. The campaign for the regional and local elections has not yet really begun and the basket of incredible and multifaceted offers is already overflowing.
Although political leaders are at pains to tell us again and again that the upcoming elections should not be taken as an example and guide to what will happen at the national level, the general offers appear and overlap in a matter of hours and, as a result, we are already fully immersed in the evil game of who gives the most.
The offers and brilliant ideas appear in droves and it doesn't matter that they have never even been mentioned or that the vast majority of the many promises made throughout the legislature have not been fulfilled, nor will they be in the short and medium term or ever; that there is more poverty than ever; that the debt and deficit are rising daily at breakneck speed; that education is totally depraved and abandoned; that despite the high rate of unemployment there is a lack of general and health workers, judges and other necessary members of the administration of justice or civil servants to make it work; that education is totally depraved and abandoned; that despite the high rate of unemployment, there is a lack of workers in general and of health workers, judges and other necessary members of the administration of justice or of civil servants to run the more than essential Social Security in particular; that the countryside is bleeding for lack of water due to a persistent drought and the lack, for years, of a general plan to fix it or, at least, to try to alleviate it; that the forests, due to excessive heat, lack of previous care and the wickedness of man's hand, burn as easily as a pack of matches burns when a light flame is brought near it; that youth unemployment reaches unprecedented levels; that we survive on a permanent increase in the aforementioned debt or on handouts from others or that we are plunged into an economic, political or national and international identity crisis. Nothing is happening here, the government is not responsible for anything and no one doubts that absolutely everything has a place in any election campaign.
The same government that, illegally and without any remorse, uses all the official state propaganda media to campaign for its own benefit, deceiving taxpayers and duping the poor in spirit or those with a short memory and low intellectual level.
Meanwhile, the opposition is barely hanging on and would do well not to fall into the provocation of giving more than what the government offers - such cartridges tend to backfire - and should focus on uncovering the cake and the paraphernalia surrounding such lies, on exposing, demonstrating and denouncing the irresponsibility of those who mention them or who expose them without modesty or dignity.
But, unfortunately, in Spain this path is not always a good one and does not always produce the desired effect. I still remember one of the most important electoral debates of the past in which the Popular Party debunked, one by one, the false economic theories of the Socialist Party in Zapatero's time by the hand and in the mouth of a man called Solbes, who did so much harm to Spain for being a sold-out lackey by lying without blushing, knowing that what he was saying was not true.
Therefore, I believe that it is the citizens themselves who, before casting their votes, should resolve, analyse and think about what they receive through various channels in order to determine what is or is not the truth, what is pure deception, what is the real message contained in such information and what it might mean if we allow ourselves to be deceived.
However, it so happens that Spain is not a country where the advantages and ways of Critical Thinking are known, used and preached; that way of thinking, breaking down and analysing the information that reaches us by sight, sound or touch, in order to discover what is hidden behind it and to be able to unmask the true message that is being conveyed to us.
The government has spent the entire legislature navel-gazing, kissing up to itself and trying to take over the media, individual and collective wills and the various agencies and bodies that control the independence and proper functioning of civil society in a democratic regime by force or on the basis of royalties.
We have not been able to uncover their tricks and tactics; and if we had, we did not know how to denounce them with sufficient force and clarity to gain an advantageous position to derail them.
Now it is too late, all or almost all media, organisations or entities are taken over, controlled or governed by wimps who put and will put all their eggs in the basket, because their survival, as well as their prestige, depends on their continuity in a position where they can boast and prosper, which is also well paid and where they do not usually work much except at election time.
All they need is for the always sold-out and well-bred trade union organisations to take advantage of today - at a very difficult time for the worker or entrepreneur who wants to prosper - to put all their efforts into extolling a disastrous government - which has done nothing of what it now promises and has riddled us with taxes - which has already taken it upon itself to provide them with plenty of food for when the time comes and, as has happened, they might need them.