In his masterpiece, whose title is borrowed for this piece, Alejo Carpentier distinguishes the difference between magical thinking and the marvelous real -not to be confused with García Márquez’s magical realism-. Writes Carpentier:
“But it is that many forget, by disguising themselves as magicians and at little cost, that the marvelous unequivocally begins to be so when it arises from an unexpected alteration of reality (the miracle), from a privileged revelation of reality, from an unusual or singularly flattering illumination of the unnoticed riches of reality, from an enlargement of the scales and categories of reality, perceived with particular intensity by virtue of an exaltation of the spirit that leads it to a mode of “limit state.” To begin with, the sensation of the marvelous presupposes faith.”
The time for promises is well overdue. No more expectations of a bright future full of happiness for all. It’s time to report on works in progress and what has been achieved. Also, to explain why all the current problems are caused by corruption of the previous administrations and by “external factors”, yet both bravely confronted.
The slogan of “we are not the same“, which intends to exalts its government, in reality, demerits it by comparing it with the professionals who, although they were as corrupt as the current ones, at least had respect for the institutions, the forms, procedures, and rules to which they were subjected, and had what most resembled a national project, not a series of absurd, unnecessary, costly, extravagant and useless projects.
But it is difficult to convince the ruler, who has lived in an alternate, wishful reality for so long, that things are not as he sees them, even when confronted with hard-factual data. As Ortega y Gasset wrote: “Our most deeply rooted, most unquestionable convictions are the most suspicious. They constitute our limit, our confines, our prison“. He sees a photoshopped version of reality.
He sees a photoshopped version of reality.
A president bragging about “savings” as the main achievement of his administration does not understand the purpose for which he is there, even if those savings were substantial and for real. Especially if contrasted with campaign promises of what was going to be achieved, and if those “savings” caused, on the one hand, a significant deterioration in the operation of the administration -either because it caused shortages of medicines or medical equipment and instruments for the care of patients benefiting from the public health system, or because the decrease in salaries caused the massive exodus of qualified personnel -, and on the other hand and more importantly, if the emphasis on “savings” instead of sound economic policies caused an increase in the number of impoverished and the shrinking of the middle class.
There are those who make a wish and wait for things to happen and those who make things happen and dreams come true.
It is preferable to have a president who reports on more equitable growth, incorporating into the economy’s productive sector the population that barely survived thanks to the support of social programs aimed at gaining popularity and votes for its cause, and also those in the informal or shadow economy that would contribute to, and benefit from social security.
Again Carpentier: “The geese were a people of order, of foundation and of system, whose existence was alien to any subjugation of individuals to individuals of the same species. The principle of authority, personified by the Great Goose, was merely necessary to maintain order within the clan….. Tired of random lycanthropies, Ti Noel used his extraordinary powers to transform himself into a goose and coexist with the birds that had settled in his domain.”
“…Thus, Ti Noel soon understood that, even if he insisted for years, he would never have the slightest access to the functions and rites of the clan. He had been given to understand clearly that it was not enough for him to be a goose to believe that all geese were equal. No known goose had sung or danced on his wedding day. No one of the living had seen him born. He presented himself without the slightest record of cleanliness of blood before four generations in palms. In short, he was a foreigner”.
To think that just by wishing for a fairer, happier, and more prosperous country, and expressing it out loud, is enough to achieve it and that just by mentioning the problems, denouncing the vices, and pointing out the obstacles to it, these will be solved by magic, is to have no idea of what the stubborn reality is. But to believe that because this has been desired and expressed publicly daily for four years, it has made reality conform to his desires is evidence of schizophrenia, a case fit for a psychiatrist that belongs in the same ward as Donald Trump -a famous reality TV show star who evolved into a populist politician-, with his hordes of deniers trying to force reality to fit into their theories.
“…burdened with sorrows and Tasks, beautiful in his misery, able to love in the midst of plagues, man can only find his greatness, his maximum measure in the Kingdom of this World.“
A final paragraph from the same Carpentier’s masterpiece:
He felt old for countless centuries. A cosmic tiredness of a planet loaded with stones fell on his shoulders, worn out by so many blows, sweats, and rebellions. Ti Noel had spent his inheritance and, despite having reached the last misery, left the same inheritance received. It was a body of elapsed flesh. And he understood, now, that man never knows for whom he suffers and waits. He suffers and waits and works for people he will never know, who in turn will suffer and wait and work for others who will never be happy either, for man always longs for a happiness beyond the portion he is given. But man’s greatness lies precisely in wanting to improve what he is. In setting himself tasks. In the Kingdom of Heaven there is no greatness to conquer, since there everything is an established hierarchy, a clarified unknown, existence without end, impossibility of sacrifice, rest, and delight. Therefore, burdened with sorrows and Tasks, beautiful in his misery, able to love in the midst of plagues, man can only find his greatness, his maximum measure in the Kingdom of this World.
SEPGRA Political Analysis Group.
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