Although, with which he is falling, it is a myth that is becoming increasingly difficult to accept, there are still people who think that human history is an arrow that always walks forward; that there are momentary ups and downs in the future of the world and especially differences by countries, but that, as a whole, progress exists and is unstoppable. And even if you don’t believe in the inevitability of progress, it is difficult to imagine a radical involution; for slavery to be legal again in most countries, for example, or for women to lose all their rights again. Well, the bad news is that empires collapse, civilizations collapse and humans are capable of forgetting everything. Even who is or who was. It suffices to recall, for example, the intellectual and cultural brilliance of the Greece of Pericles, in the fifth century BC, and the retrograde disarray of the High Middle Ages. In the course of a thousand years, Europe lost a lot.
So who knows, our future may look like one of those dark and trendy dystopias. But the important thing is to be clear that we are at war. And I am not talking about that new global Cold War that is being articulated against Russia and China, but about a daily Tibian War. To fight day after day in defense of essential human rights that have cost the West centuries of sacrifices, blood and suffering, and that are currently being threatened on various fronts. A retrograde avalanche is upon us; on the one hand there is the ultra Islamic dogmatism, in frank expansion, that wants to end democracy and slaughter the democrats, and on the other there are our own devolutionist fanatics, also very grown and ferocious.
I think of all this in the wake of the restrictive and barbaric abortion law that has been passed in Texas, one more battle in the great war. But a very symbolic, visible and exemplary battle. Because, in addition to setting the limit on six weeks of pregnancy (which is calculated to prevent between 85% and 90% of the operations carried out in the State), it is decreed, something extraordinary, that compliance with the law is not enforced by the authorities, but rather that it is the citizens themselves, residing or not in Texas, who sue anyone who “assists or is an accomplice” of an abortion after six weeks of gestation. If the lawsuit is successful and there is a conviction, the plaintiff can receive $ 10,000 in state aid to pay his legal costs. It goes without saying that the accused do not receive a penny even if they are found innocent. This unusual and savage law is made like this, experts say, to prevent federal courts from reviewing it for its blatant unconstitutionality. But I believe that turning citizens into the outpost of repression, and society into a well-paid reporting system, is an essential part of the war strategy; It is a consequence of what I have said before: of the Warm War, every day hotter. All totalitarian regimes supported their power in the neighborhood thugs; all ultras populisms do the same. Look at the friends of Trump who stormed Congress; and the anti-abortionists who stand in front of the doors of the clinics to take photos, insult and threaten women. Well, let’s be clear: this does not stay in Texas. This is a darkness that moves and grows. By the way, those anti-abortion Texans who are so concerned with preserving life have also passed, at the same time, a rule that authorizes citizens to carry firearms in public without the need for permission. This is the measure of their hypocrisy and warmongering.
I, who was born in a dictatorship lacking rights, know what it is to live with my hands tied. For example, until May 1975, in Spain married women could not buy a car, open a bank account, or obtain a passport without the husband’s permission; they also needed her authorization to work, and the husband could collect the wife’s salary. I mean that yesterday is at our heels and can all too easily become tomorrow. Vigilance, pride in what has been achieved and resistance.