A 1978 classic of sci-fi horror cinema. The best version of the four film adaptations of Jack Finney’s novel written in 1955. The silent, progressive and unstoppable replacement of people by clones of the same appearance but without a trace of humanity in their character. The same but different. Part of the critics saw in the subtext of the film the resurgence of the communist threat and the substitution of some values ??for others in American society in an atmosphere that anticipated the victory of Donald Reagan in 1981.
In real life, the substantial mutations in societies are not led by aliens, but by flesh and blood people who defend marginal ideas until they cease to be so. In political theory this is called expanding the Overton window and it happens in two ways. Either because the politicians end up validating ideas and projects that are already common currency among citizens, or because they themselves assume the risk of putting an unpopular program into circulation, even causing scandal with the aim of convincing and normalizing the
In Catalonia, the major works to expand the Overton window were carried out in the early regional elections of 2012, when massism gave independence the endorsement that naturalized secession as a feasible project that deserved to occupy the center of political debate But simultaneously there was another enlargement of the window. The irruption of the CUP with three deputies in the Parliament also normalized the discourse of the extreme left and displaced, due to the need for its votes, the ideological axis of the Chamber, turning it into one of the most left-wing on the continent. Colau’s arrival at Barcelona City Council in 2015 consolidated the new window measures. In Spain, Overton’s remodeling works were developed in phases: Podemos to the generals of 2015 (with the prologue of the European of 2014) and with Vox in those of 2019. Behind each of these expansions, the normalization of debates, ideas and statements that until then were scorned as radical, dangerous or ridiculous. Or for all three things at once.
The measures of the Catalan Overton window – which are the problems and solutions that reach the category of reasonable and therefore debatable in the sphere of institutions – are again emerging as a backdrop to the elections of May 12. And we know that the claim of the PSC to reduce its size so that it stops talking about independence is unrealizable, whatever the results and the resulting governance formula, if there is one.
But there is a new project to expand the window of uncertain outcome that must be delivered to the margins of sovereignty. The building permit is requested by those who, like the CUP in 2012, do not yet have parliamentary representation: Aliança Catalana, the candidacy that will clone Éric Zemmour’s ideology in France, located to the right of Lepenism. Aliança Catalana is even more aggressive than Vox regarding the Bermuda triangle that forms its ideology: immigration, crime and the theory of the “great replacement” of its own culture through Islamization. Far right in vein, but sweetened with ratafia, shod with espadrilles and the head with a beretina.
If Aliança Catalana sits in Parliament, the effect could be similar to what the CUP caused in 2012. Drag, this time to the right, the sovereignist bloc, in particular Junts. And naturalization in the political debate of affirmations and solutions that until now were unimaginable in the secessionist playing field. Basically, the necessary answer on whether these hypothetical ultra deputies would also be counted to draw secessionist majorities or whether they would be applied, as is currently done with Vox, an ineffective and debatable sanitary cordon that passes, for example, not even invite them to the drought summits.
In May we will know the new measures of the Catalan Overton window. If it remains the same or if you see the expansion project to the right. We will see, in a film version, how the silent, progressive – and we will see if it is unstoppable – invasion of the ultracorps progresses in Catalonia. Is it true – beyond physics – that every action is followed by a reaction?
