The growing awareness of human dignity is the repugnance of unworthy acts, philosopher Javier Gomá often explains. So this expanded dignity is the reason why we so often feel outraged in our own flesh and in others. As long as we know how to tame our scandal so that it does not lead us to cynicism, which is the surrender of intelligence and will, this rejection of everything bad that happens is good news, because it speaks of how much our dignity and dignity matter to us today. of everyone.
From there come the disputes that have been surrounding the Eurovision Song Contest these days and the popular opposition and criticism to which the organizers have been subjected, while certain lobbies exerted their pressure in the opposite direction. But in 2024, as we already said months ago, no cause can support the images of dead children.
This expanded dignity of modernity is not only reflected in the boycott of many spectators of the festival due to its total lack of commitment to the Palestinian genocide, and on its reverse, in that kind of Spanish reactionary neo-Zionism – who has seen you and who sees you – who left his quarters to vote many times for Israel.
Also, in another order of scale, it is expressed in the courtesy with which the RTVE announcers adjusted to the inclusive language when referring to the interpreters from Switzerland –Nemo– and Ireland –Bambie Thug–since both had declared themselves to be of non-binary gender. , representing two of the countries that took their participation most seriously and whose musical, thematic and formal audacity was rewarded by the juries and the public.
If Nemo presented a stupendous queer declaration in the form of an anthem, Bambie Thug gave himself over to a symphonic black mass, pentacle included, of a crazed gothicism in which Neil Gaiman and David Cronenberg crossed paths.
Extravagance is a luminous conquest of freedom – we continue stealing from Gomá’s notebook –, not only because of what it entails in the very free construction of identity (which is often more prison than horizon) but, much more importantly, because of what behaves on a whim, due to its absence of productive function.
When with a frown we point out the extravagant “what a need”, we are verbalizing to what extent it is important because it does not serve any useful purpose. This absence of function is civilization, since progress consists of considering the urgent as resolved – not dying and not being hungry or cold – to focus on what is important: morality, beauty, extravagance and what is pleasurable.
The archdeacon of mystery, Íker Jiménez, joked about Nemo’s non-binary condition and the use of inclusive language on RTVE. Low-intensity bullying courtesy of someone who may have been the odd one out in the class. And that is just the first paradox. The second is how easy it is to believe in ghosts and Martians and disbelieve what exists before you. Because they exist. And they win.
