Fifty years ago today, on november the 20th 1975, Francisco Franco Bahamonde finally died after 39 years ruling Spain and after a horrible agony in the end. The medical bulletins about his health or progressive lack thereof became a meme before Richard Dawkins (The Selfish Gene was published one year after Franco’s death, in 1976) coined and the internet popularised the term. Many saw his suffering as a compensation, no matter how insufficient, for the pain he had caused others. I can relate. He is still dead, and will remain so forever.
But today many in Spain, particularly many young people who did not live through his dictatorship, say they miss him. Here is NYT gift link to today’s article about that phenomenon:
Deplorable, disgusting and reprehensible, but that is the way it is. Xitter, fake news from the right and bigotry are in part responsible for that, and resentment from the losers and the fascists fuels that. May Godott have mercy on their souls.
Nothing you can do about this: some people will be assholes, always and everywhere. Just a warning to you all: in 50 years time there will be a lot of idiots in your country that will say trump was fantastic and they whished he came back because they miss him. It is regrettable, but I fear it is unavoidable. Just so you know: be prepared.
But today is a day to remember when I was a kid and we felt some hope. Much has improved in Spain since, even if the situation is not perfect by a long stretch. Today I will raise my glass to a death I remember personally, a death I associated with good news. A cada cerdo su San Martín. Sometimes it just takes awfully long.
The human craving to be under the thumb of a raging asshole is eternal. And much more widespread than we’d all hope.
Damned shame, but not a surprise. I’m glad he’s still dead and Spain continues to recover.
Heck, right now there’s 30+% of the country that lurves everything he does and wishes he’d do about 10x more than he has so far. Once he’s dead and gone and disgraced in the eyes of all sensible people, that percentage will remain constant or grow; just not as loudly. When wearing rose-colored glasses the bloodshed doesn’t look quite so crimson.
It’s surprising how realistic “The Lord of the Rings” was, considering the subject matter.
For example when the Professor tells us that evil is never really defeated and has to be beaten again and again, from time to time.
We are, it seems currently on one of those times:
“Frodo: I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.
Gandalf: So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”
Ain’t that always the problem? People deal with some horrible heinous problem, their kids grow up hearing about how bad it was so they remain wary, and then their kids grow up without first or even second hand experience of the problem so they repeat the mistakes of the past.
A few years ago we had a Uzbekistani intern who looked at me with a straight face while explaining the many virtues of Joseph Stalin. When I asked him about the purges and the many Soviet lives his policies ended he just shrugged it off.
You’re right, we’re going to find people who continue to hold onto Trump for many, many years. We’ve got people who still admire Hitler and the Confederacy even though both lost, bringing destruction, misery, and shame to their own country.
I’m in the middle of reading a review about a book on Franco in the New York Review. I knew he was a piece of slime, but I hadn’t realized how big of one he was. And I never realized how antisemitic he was either.
I think it would be really cool if major newspapers would just devote a little section to saying “President Donald Trump is still alive” on their front pages every day from now on until that’s no longer true.
How many of those young people who “miss Franco” actually believe that, and how many are going by the mantra of “do whatever will piss off your parents/those in charge”, though?
Many young people, under Franco, said that they were communist, anti-fascist, etc. I know more than a few that said that and that, nowadays, are hard right-wingers.
Recently I saw a TV documentary made by a refugee schoolteacher from Russia, using clips of school life (his job involved documenting school life) to demonstrate the embedded nationalistic propaganda. In one he asked the school’s history teacher which historical personalities he’d like to invite to dinner. The answer was:
I wouldn’t be surprised if the same thing is happening in Portugal. Salazar was a despot who ruled Portugal for 36 years, treating his subjects like children who didn’t know what was good for them. Portugal spent years catching up to the rest of Europe after the coup in 1976. I’m sure that - the Portuguese being how they are - there is misguided nostalgia for the dictator, especially among those who didn’t have to live through it.
