THE POLITICS OF FEAR

We are still in confinement/lockdown, but some of the measures have already been relaxed and over the next few weeks we will have a gradual opening towards "normality". 

Looking back, there are facets to be highlighted about how the COVID-19 situation has been dealt with in Spain and how the Spanish society has responded to it. Without a doubt, there are many aspects to be analysed in this question, but we will focus on: why have we, the majority of the Spanish society, complied with the indications of confinement in an uncritical manner? 

Firstly, it is true that Spain has been one of the countries that has suffered most, is suffering and will suffer the consequences of the pandemic. In the face of this, we have been imposed very hard and difficult lockdown measures, with severe restrictions on people's mobility and freedom for six long weeks; and two of them, under total confinement. 

It is strange that in some European countries certain types of confinement have been imposed on citizens, with hardly any opposition from society, nor has there been any behaviour that has been contrary to ignoring those measures, with very few exceptions in relation to the whole of society, which has respected them. 

How is it that we have accepted confinement with hardly any opposition? The Spanish Constitution fully supports and protects, as a fundamental right, the freedom of movement of persons (art.17 EC), among others; and now, through the mechanism -also recognized in the Constitution- of the State of Alarm, some measures have been adopted to suspend or restrict some of those rights (including, in many cases, the right to work); and the population has complied with them, without calling into question (its legitimacy) in view of the magnitude of the pandemic, the disease and its serious consequences. Let us think about the causes of such a prolonged submission in time:

- Human beings seek survival at all times; so if confinement gives us some guarantee that we will avoid and survive the disease, we stay at home until we have a sense or perception that it is "safe" to go out, or the state allows us to do so. This attitude can mean for society -as a whole- and for individuals -in particular- that the tension and the alert experienced, consider as acceptable the waiving of a certain of freedom or privacy, in exchange for security.

- Due to cultural factors, Spanish society is perhaps not used to its rulers appealing to a sense of responsibility -without the need for drastic impositions- to adapt their behaviour to the needs of the moment. It seems as if someone needs to impose what "must be done". In this sense, Nietzsche already proclaimed it, when he referred to the superman: "we are a flock of sheep that needs to follow some shepherds, saviors etc": it is the so-called paternalism of the State. This figure has been more or less accentuated in the countries most affected by the pandemic -the Spanish society has experienced this State paternalism to a greater extent-, compared to other countries with fewer infections, critical cases and, unfortunately, deaths. Perhaps the circumstances in which the pandemic has hit our country made it necessary, or perhaps it would have been convenient to leave part of the responsibility to society, starting from the fact that we are all individuals with an individual and collective consciousness. 

- Because of the imposition, in a way, of a quasi-police state and with certain features of militarization. We have been able to observe in the daily press conferences held by the Government to report on the evolution of the epidemic, the presence of Dr. Fernando Simón (Director of the Coordination Centre for Health Alerts and Emergencies of the Ministry of Health) and, at his side, permanently until a few days ago, the highest ranking commissioners of the Civil Guard and National Police, and also the Chief of the Defence Staff, duly uniformed. We have heard ad nauseam the use - and abuse - of war metaphors by those who have appeared before us, to refer to the measures that needed to be adopted or maintained before Covid-19, with the pretense of a Paulovian association of the situation we are suffering with that of a war. People's perception is that of a state of maximum alarm, with police and military features, which, perhaps subconsciously, facilitates the submissive acceptance of the - temporary - renunciation by citizens of fundamental rights, in exchange for security. 

The fact of imposing conduct, based on the legality of a State of Alarm, with the suspension of certain fundamental rights, has contributed to increase fear, as if citizens were not capable of facing the suggested and necessary measures, based on the full sense of responsibility and awareness of the common good.

We have two examples of this in Germany and Andorra: in both countries, confinement was more lax, but at the same time politicians, together with professionals, prioritized the instruments of pedagogy to make their respective populations aware of the negative consequences that not respecting the established measures of confinement - gentler than in Spain - would have for the country (without the need for a State of Alarm and without such negative repercussions for the economy, as has happened in our country).

APPRECIATION

In a way, in the face of this pandemic, of which there were no known precedents of such magnitude in recent times, there have been governments in our European environment that have reacted in a different way to preserve - above all - people's health, without the need to affect individual and collective freedoms so radically, and without undermining/challenging the economy to such an extent, in which millions of people in our country have suffered and may suffer in the immediate future the loss of jobs and the - even greater - impoverishment of the most disadvantaged sectors of our society. 

Furthermore, we must not lose sight of the fact that, following the decisions taken by the various countries to tackle the pandemic, there are, to a greater or lesser extent, serious dangers of a regression/retrogression of the democratic system - which is imperfect, in spite of everything - which has cost so much collective effort. There is no doubt that even today we must remain alert in order to preserve and improve the rights and freedoms that are the "raison d'être" of our society.