A rather rustic and just a bit ironic take on Spanish democrazy with no particular bad intentions.I also follow terrific Marxist cultural critic Terry Eagleton here (Figures of Dissent, 2003:121)as I try to readjust my own practice to "a politically skeptical age in which no one is much impressed anymore by robust vitality or unqualified commitment; and when irony or ambiguity seem the closest we can come to what a more confident past knew as the truth." * * *A couple of things after three months: (1) Being a totally amateurish clip-maker I never thought this piece would get past 1000 hits but then again it seems that this one in particular is fulfilling its purpose now that democratic politics in Spain are very much on hold to say the least. More than ten years ago, renown pessimist Marxist Perry Anderson noted that while democracy is more widespread that ever, it is also "thinner" as if "the more universally available it becomes, the less active meaning it retains." Tell us about it: mass arrest of almost the entire socialist, pro-independence political leadership in the Basque land, youth and social movements under total suspicion and scrutiny, parties prevented by law from standing in elections, dodgy anti-terrorist legislation, torture, humiliation of prisoners and their families, huge rise of Spanish nationalism of the nasty and ugly kind, believe you me and what else have you... (2) The immediate temptation with those commnets such as Pablo's is obviously to answer back. This is why I appreciate the clip I've found in 'Insumissao's favourites (Las cifras de la represión,) and also invite everybody to click on this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjD18X... .In this case Pablo may not like the music but he certainly should face it as well and perhaps then he may concede that there is no conscious attempts from my part at whitewashing anything whatsoever. Although at the same time, yes, of course, I am also prepared to concede that something quite obscene may hide in this comparative exercise. I here quote Slavoj Zizek by rope so the chances are that I won't do him any favour. The issue, however, is this: yes, I do all too honestly accept that the symbolic character of suffering relies in the very fact, precisely, that it is selective. Does he? The problem is that while this comparative approach is necessary it is also unacceptable because what is then left to us is standing by a rather relativistic mathematics of guilt and suffering. In other words: there is nothing wrong as such in comparing (900 hundred death you say, 350 says the other clip...) and there is nothing wrong in all of us being aware of all the atrocities that are going on all over the world. But, at the same time, we should also know that this moralising approach is unacceptable too since the only rightful ethical position would be accepting that any individual's violent death is absolute and resists comparison. Having said this I do envy all these pristine democrat chaps with clean hands. Who does the dirty work for you though?

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