Ethical Philosophy. Thinking Clearly in a World of Nonsense. Topic for September 28, 2014 (last revised September 21, 2014) Too Much Freedom?

Transcription

1 Ethical Philosophy Thinking Clearly in a World of Nonsense Topic for September 28, 2014 (last revised September 21, 2014) Too Much Freedom? The Spanish Civil War What happens when people have too many choices? Youtube Documentary: Summary When you live in a functioning society, you take it for granted. You simply cannot see what makes it work. So let s see what does NOT work. Let s look at a society that ran off its national, political and moral rails. Spain in the 1930 s! In 31, the king quit and all Spain went insane. The people formed a republic, then political parties; then they began murdering each other. Execution squads, rogue police, soldiers and anonymous hit men roamed the country shooting people. Spaniards managed to murder more than ½ million (2 %) of themselves. What had been a stable society; turned into a political / moral train wreck. Today s Spain is a peaceful democracy. It is now what it tried to become 70 years ago. So how did that happen? 1

2 Existing Social Conditions BEFORE the king left town 1. A hereditary monarchy (King Alfonso XIII) headed an 2. oppressive military dictatorship ruling over 25 million people, mostly 3. impoverished rural peasants working on farms which they did not own. 4. The land belonged to wealthy landowners who used their labor for profit and then 5. starved the workers, who were illiterate and very conservative Roman Catholics. 6. The Church sided with the wealthy and opposed any change of any kind. 7. Peasant farm workers needed land so they could feed themselves, 8. urban factory workers needed higher wages, better working conditions, etc. and 9. white collars wanted a republic, civil rights, free speech, no censorship, etc. 10. Separatist movements in Catalonia and the Basque country wanted to secede. 11. In some areas the peasants were deeply religious and conservative while in other 12. areas they were liberals, socialists, communists, anarchists, etc. 13. The elite (landowners, factory owners, the Church, nobles) ran and had everything 14. while the conservative military was loyal to its idea of a traditional fatherland. What Happened - The Short Version Spain was backwards in The king quit and a democratic republic was formed. Political parties (anarchists, communists, fascists, sessionists, liberals, monarchists, Catholics) fought each other with votes in parliament and finally with guns in the streets. Each became so frustrated that it abandoned democracy as unworkable. To save Catholic civilization (his view) Army General Francisco Franco led a military coup which turned into a civil war. Civilians murdered their neighbors over political philosophies and finally just political labels. Franco bombed Madrid into rubble, won the war and ruled as the last fascist. Concentration camps, firing squads and all, there was peace in Spain for 37 years. With no vision than tradition, Franco only wanted a hereditary Catholic monarchy. He arranged for Juan Carlos (Alfonso s grandson) to become king upon his death. But by then (1975,) nobody wanted that, not even Juan Carlos. He quickly proposed reforms to dismantle Franco s fascist police state and make Spain a 20 th Century European democracy. Go figure! 2

3 What was that really all about? Smugly entitled wealth vs. angry hunger? Utopian ideologies that must be tested? Too quickly released repressed anger / fear (social change too quick) Too high expectations in conflicting segments of society. Foreign meddling? The unavoidable necessity of human sacrifice? TRMC-ICNBMC? The only hope is for old people to die and take their darkness with them? What Happened The Long Version for those who want more details. If you want more details about the Spanish Civil War, see below. I had to make a Glossary to keep track of the major players. Even George Orwell admitted (in Homage To Caledonia) that there were so many factions, initials, flags, parties, militias, ideologies and slogans that he couldn t figure out who was who. Glossary of Names / Political Actors On The Political Left The Republic the constitutional democracy formed after King Alfonso left Republicans people who supported the above 1 Socialists advocated socialism but ultimately supported the Republic Communists advocated communism but ultimately supported the Republic Anarchists strict no-government types who somewhat supported the Republic Popular Front coalition of left wing parties which ultimately supported the Republic Catalonian Revolutionaries the anarchist social takeover of Catalonia On The Political Right Revolutionaries supporters of General Franco also called Nationalists Nationalists Franco s military and its allies sometimes called Revolutionaries Franco Army general who became the leader of the coup and later dictator Carlists medieval Catholic monarchists who supported Franco s Revolution Falange Spain s own fascist s party which supported Franco s Revolution 1 A constitutional republic (parliament elected by the people, civil rights, no press censorship etc.) 3

4 Step 1 Spain s ruling elite (landowners, factory owners, the Church, army, nobility, etc.) lost faith in the king s ability to protect it from change, the 20 th Century, the people, etc. So, in 1931, King Alfonso quit. He just got on a boat and left. Step 2 Middle class urbanites formed a republic they called the beautiful girl, and held elections. They intended to modernize the country and help people, not just the wealthy. The new Republic promised (A) land ownership for the peasants so they could eat, (B) public education, health care, etc. (C) home rule for the separatists and the (D) removal of the Church s control over the minds of the masses. (It built 10,000 schools and really did a lot of good work.) Step 3 The poor became hopeful and the rich became frightened. Terror stuck each privileged group as each in turn began to realize that change would harm its wealth, status or privileges. Step 4 Urban mobs attacked Catholic churches. They burned the buildings and killed 6,000 priests and nuns. Not denying the mob s grievances or goals, the Republican government did nothing. Many conservative rural folk were horrified, along with the landowners, military and of course, the Pope. Step 5 Spain divided itself into political parties based on popular ideologies. Liberals wanted a secular government of elected members of a parliament, just what the Republic was trying to be. Communists wanted a government run by workers committees which owned everything. Socialists wanted the same but government ownership of only land and factories. Anarchists wanted no-government-at-all 2. Fascists wanted an authoritarian, non-democratic, militarized, nationalistic government in partnership with big business. The Carlists wanted an autocratic king and church holding a medieval world view. The military wanted a traditional Spain that was a world power and again called great. Catalonia and the Basque country had their own cultures, histories and languages so just wanted independence. Step 6 Elections jerked the parliament / government left and right, each cycle becoming more extreme. Each party became more extreme in its ideological purity. They compromised less as they stood more on their principals 3. Finally the political middle was almost gone. 4 2 They believed that when rulers are removed, the people will spontaneously govern themselves. 3 My favorite was when the anarchists, being opposed to all governments everywhere, had to join forces with the Republicans. 4 Like the American Republican Party today? 4

5 Step 7 Each group, disappointed in not getting what it wanted, stopped supporting the government. Finally several groups decided that their only solution was a violent overthrow of the Republican government. Step 8 - Fearing a military coup in all that chaos, the Republican government sent its most unreliable generals abroad. General Franco was reassigned to the Canary Islands. (He had lead and was popular with, Spain s best military units, the Moroccans and Foreign Legend.) Step 9 - The leftists feared a right-wing army coup and wanted the government to arm the people. (Any government has no power to resist a revolution when its own army is staging that revolution.) The government, believing the generals would not revolt and fearing an armed populace, refused to arm the people. Step 10 At each step, some group lost confidence in the government. The peasants who needed land reform to eat; were not getting it because the owners refused. The Catalonians and Basques weren t getting home rule. Catholics were horrified at the burning of convents. Socialists were not getting government by workers. Everybody was loosing hope and faith in government (just like in America today.) Step 11 The intense, bespeckled General Emilio Mola finally organized the coup. On July 17, 1936, the Moroccan army started by rebelling in North Africa. The German (Junker) Air Force airlifted it to Southern Spain. Franco snuck into Southern Spain, took charge and marched northward. This unleashed left wing rage. Demonizing and name-calling took over. To the right, everyone on the left was a communist atheist who must be shot. To the left, everyone on the right was a fascist who must be shot. Spontaneous massacres began. Step 12. Leftists stole guns from an arsenal, armed the people who then fought Franco to a stand-still. Civilians on both sides flocked to the armies. Step 13 The Republican Government asked England and France for aid, but fearing a world war, they refused. Germany and Italy jumped right in on Franco s side 5. The USSR jumped in on the Republic s side by sending military aid 6. 5 Franco wasn t really ever a fascist. He was really a Catholic monarchist who finally made himself the unofficial king of Spain. Upon his death, he handed the government over to a new king, King Juan Carlos in hopes that the Catholic Monarchy would continue. However, those days in Europe were long gone. Spain peacefully turned itself into a democracy. 6 Stalin didn t care about Spain, its people or communism. He just wanted another communist state in Western Europe. He was expecting a world war with the fascist s of Italy and Germany. 5

6 Step 14 - The coup failed and turned into a civil war because half of the Army stayed loyal to the government. Very quickly, large geographical parts of Spain remained loyal while other parts joined Franco and his Revolution. Step 15 The whole world got involved. All this captured popular worldwide imagination. The idealistic young on both sides flocked to do their parts. The International Brigade, with 4,000 volunteers from around the world, fought for freedom, democracy, human rights, women s liberation, all that is good; against brutal fascism. Franco s side fought for God and against evil and communist. The Nazi s fought to put another fascist state on France s borders. Hitler tried out his new weapons on the Spanish. Foreigners often got confused and joined the wrong side 7. Everyone projected his own personal version of reality onto the Spanish Civil War, but the Spaniards knew the truth. It was really a personal, Spanish thing 8. Is this a private fight or can anyone join in? All this reminds us of that old joke about the Irishman who goes into an Irish bar and finds a massive fist fight. Before joining the struggle, he politely asks the waitress, Is this a private fight or can anyone join in? Apparently anyone could and did join in the Spanish brawl. Talk About Being Mad at Your Grade School Nun! There was so much anger at the Catholic Church, that mobs burned down thousands of churches and convents. Not only did they kill priests and nuns, they disinterred dead nuns from their coffins and stood them on street corners to be abused. Now that is anger! 7 The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is a wonderful movie about these times and the modern women who filled them. 8 Exactly what they meant by that is unclear to me. I m guessing that it was an internal Spanish family squabble. There were centuries old grudges that could only be dissolved in blood. Only through dying could some people end their enmity. 6

7 Women Really Got Into It and Made It Sexy Many younger women really got into the Republican movement. For the first time in history, they had full citizenship. They could vote, hold office, join the army, get legal birth control and take lovers. There was so much sleeping around in Catalonia, that they invented the official Anarchist Marriage which could be revoked on demand. In this way, the young women s parents would be assured that their daughters were married, even if for only one night. Many older women rushed to the polls to vote against the very government that had liberated them. For the first time in Spain s history, women could vote and many of them voted against the right to vote 9. Either way, women became famous icons for the war. They were shown training, marching, proudly defending barricades and firing rifles. Modern, liberated women made the Spanish Civil War a chic, sexy, 3 year romp for the popular imagination. was Madrid s slogan. No Pasaran 9 It sounds exactly like our own bizarre Phyllis Schlafly. I assume (but have not read) that they felt more secure under the theory that as women, they have a privileged status and were protected by men. I assume that then as now, that theory was more popular with well-off married women. Single women knew more about the reality of that privileged status. 7

8 Artists Made It Artistic and Musial One of Picasso s most famous works is that of the bombing of Gernica, a small city in the Basque Country. The Nazi air force practiced dive-bombing and scraping fleeing civilians. Poster art caught on and visual artists were kept busy making visual propaganda. Popular songs and ballads were composed to support the Republican cause. Novelists Made It Romantic Ernst Hemmingway smoked cigarettes, drank cognac and wrote A Farewell to Arms. George Orwell was actually in an army, Catalonia s. What he learned about war and all governments; spawned Animal Farm and His Homage to Catalonia is one of the best non-fiction books ever written. To educated people, just the phrase The Spanish Civil War makes them feel something; nostalgic, romantic, tragic, noble, democratic, idealistic, youthfully naive and completely ready for death in the afternoon. 8

9 Speaking of Death Everybody wanted to kill somebody, over politics. So they did! Both officially with firing squads and secretly with private murder, Spaniards went at it. Republicans killed people and Nationalists killed people. Sometimes they killed each other but often just at random 10. Spaniards bombed their own cities and managed to murder 2 % of themselves. It was much like a national suicide. Landless Peasant Farm Laborers Over ¾ of a million laborers were always on the edge of hunger. Many had never had a bite of meat in their lives. What did they have to loose? In one areas they took over thousands of farms and killed the owners. The Spanish Catholic Church - It sided with Franco. There is no room any longer for any doubts as to the issue at stake in the Spanish conflict... It is a question of whether Spain will remain as she has been so long, a Christian and Catholic land, or a Bolshevist and anti-god one. Cardinal Joseph MacRory Well, what can you say? Fascists were quick to help Franco, he had every advantage. He had the rich agricultural areas, the most faithful Catholic peasants and help from Germany and Italy. How does that work? How do the bad guys always seem to get the most help? According to a lawyer who saw both 11 sides, Republican atrocities were spontaneous mob hysteria. Nationalist atrocities however, were organized, planned, governmental programs that went on decades after the war. Private revenge and debt revocation by murder also became popular. To Franco and his Nationalists, all people against him were reds and had to be shot. This forced people to choose sides and always, tried to choose the safest side. But the war made that uncertain and often fatal. A priest was asked about the morality of shooting leftists, he replied, they deserved it. 10 If you lived in a Republican village, you were caught up in mass executions. 11 He deserted the Republic and joined the Nationalists. 9

10 As the Nationalist army moved north and entered villages, civilians were shot. Even non-political folk who had done nothing more than vote, were executed. Are you a law abiding citizen of the legitimate government? If Yes, you got shot! Iconic Photographs of an Iconic War This unidentified beauty was photographed on the top of a hotel in Barcelona. She was a 17 years old, a member of the Unified Socialist Youth Party of Catalonia and later identified as Marina Ginesta. Widely considered a masterpiece of reportage, the picture was taken on July by the photojournalist Juan Guzmán. In it, the striking Ginestà looks sideways directly into the lens with a wry smile, belying the dramatic events playing out in the city beneath her. A rifle is casually slung over her shoulder, the sleeves of her uniform rolled up in the summer sun, while the wind whips strands of hair over her fine cheekbones. 12 She survived the war and died at the age of 94. It's the iconic photo that captures the essence of the Spanish Civil War: a soldier falling to his death, arms splayed out behind him, gun still in hand, after being shot on a grassy hill. 13 It was taken by Robert Capa in As reported, the soldier was a militiaman fighting Franco. It made Capra s career as a famous photojournalist. Today that photo is thought to be a phony, staged by Capa. His motto was if your photo isn t good enough, you re not close enough. He died from stepping on a landmine in In the single most famous image from W. Eugene Smith's magisterial photo essay, "Spanish Village," the faces of three members of dictator Francisco Franco's feared Guardia Civil evince the arrogance often assumed by small men granted great power over others The Telegraph, September 8, Mail Online, September 8, 2014, see 14 Time Topics, Originally published in the April 9, 1951, issue of LIFE see 10

11 Familiar or not, this pic is amazing. The poor old girl seen at right, had been reduced by death and time to dried bones. Look at her right arm. Still, someone went to the effort to lean her up against a wall for passersby s to do what? It boggles the mind, on many levels. In the final analysis, the Republic lost to Franco on the battle field. Franco had a professional army and close cooperation from right wing parties, Hitler and Mussolini. The Republic however, was only loosely supported by the untrained militias of ideological purists. They didn t cooperate very well and clearly needed more training. Entertaining Education: There Be Dragons is an interesting Spanish film about real people. Two childhood friends grew up in that era. One became a communist and the other a priest. The first fought Franco; the other founded the most conservative Catholic sect in history, Opus Dei. Our Justice Antonin Scalia is a member of that enlightened organization. Also don t miss the Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Ahhh, the origins of the modern feminism! And follow the short career of Mary Macgregor. Also catch Pan s Labyrinth. This recent Spanish film, about a little girl s imaginary escape from the horrors of that war or something. For me, this pretty much sums up the Spanish Civil War. 11

12 How does this work? Why do societies so often fight horrible wars just to end up becoming the very thing they wanted to become to start with or tried not to become at all? America does it all the time. After five years of bombing, Nixon ended up with the same deal the North Vietnamese had offered Johnson. After the war, Vietnam got the same deal it would have had if the U.S. had not intervened. (Except by then it was tethered to communism, the very thing the US claimed it was fighting. Whatever it called itself then, now it has a stock market and sells us coffee. After 10 years of war in the Mid-East, there is more terrorism now than ever. WTF? America is broke, my kid can t afford college and I dive under table whenever there s a loud noise. Why? 15 ) What do you think? Sincerely, Sebasitan Twit, September, 2014 We expect a report. Later Reflections This painting captures how many people feel about The Spanish Civil War. (Not today, most people today don t know squat about anything but the Kardashian sisters.) It s a melancholy longing for something beautiful but lost. Something priceless and pure that was wrecked by stupid human madness. Anybody relate to that? The Hapsburg family had ruled much of Europe through entwining marriages for 800 years. All that inbreeding left them with some peculiar facial features. Alfonso looked a little odd, I wonder if he got some of that famous Hapsburg chin. 15 Fortunately, it is all perfectly explained in TRMC-ICNBMC, the August 3, 2014 meeting. 12

13 Retrospective on Franco Franco was apparently a traditionalist and nothing more than a traditionalist. Over the next three decades he gathered total control of every aspect of Spain, but did nothing with it. He had no plans or goals beyond just Spain being a traditional Catholic monarchy. He offered a titular crown to Alfonso s son, who refused it because he believed in democracy. Franco ruled as a military dictator, but didn t care about Fascism, he had refused to help Hitler in WWII. Finally after his death, the crown went to Alfonso s grandson, who declared a republic. There they were, right back where they started in 1931, 47 years earlier. During his dictatorship, Franco ran Nazi style concentration camps; imprisoning tens of thousands and shooting many more. Finally the old generations died out and their grudges apparently with them. Franco then destroyed the camps and kept them secret. He also built a huge memorial to the Nationalist war dead and completely ignored the Republicans. His propaganda machine just went on and on and on. After the war, Franco secretly wrote a screenplay that they made into a film. Like his own family, there were two brothers. One wanted to modernize Spain through political change, while the other wanted to preserve her traditional ways. Franco turned out to be very effectively at war and dictatorship, but had no ideas beyond, keeping everything the same. Of course, The Real Moral Code, is always at play. It is wonderfully demonstrated in this BBC documentary 16. In the last segment, a well-to-do urban Franco supporter told about her experiences. She said that she always focused on the important things in life; the family, the Church, etc. She smiled and smiled and talked about how being Christian was her highest goal. But after Franco, her children asked how she could have supported such a mass murderer. She simply replied that I didn t know. I guess we can t judge each other. Then she looked directly at the camera and smiled. ICNBMC

14 Spain was a lot like Baghdad after the U.S. invasion. Every morning there were dead bodies all over the streets. No one knew who killed them or why. (This reporter suspects that there will always be violent grudges lingering between indiv-iduals and groups. When war, riots, etc, cause law and order to slip, the opportunity is there for revenge taking. But that is just one part of the inevitable troubles that come with war. That is why the U.S. forced the Nuremberg Trials and then demanded that they define War Crimes like the invasion of Iraq. I m just saying as a passing note. 14