"They're all the same," my grandfather, who had lived through the war, used to say. He died, and my mother also used to say that they were all the same. She died too, and then, the other day, I found myself saying in a conversation: "They're all the same." Lately, the phrase has spread from politics to literary discussions; it floods the streets and shops. "They're all the same" applies equally to public and private spheres. "They're all the same" is a sign of fatalism and a chain of events.
Coinciding with the period for collecting the Catalan CO₂ tax, news has been published that the Catalan government is resuming efforts to extend the Maresme motorway to Lloret. According to Manel Nadal, 72, a biologist by training and the Secretary of Mobility and Infrastructure for the Department of Territory, Housing, and Ecological Transition, "trains, trams, and buses are not enough; we must continue to invest in a high-capacity road."
The news has gone largely unnoticed because this kind of damage doesn't seek attention. Perhaps the third time's the charm. The highway project in Lloret is over thirty years old, and the courts have already suspended it a couple of times for environmental reasons. The last time was three years ago because it didn't comply with the 2017 climate change law, passed just before the referendum. But the destruction of forests would only be the immediate effect. The deeper, and intended, effect is to further over-tourism. The highway isn't just in Lloret; it's part of the "Lloretization" of the entire country.
The Isla government will persist with the same enthusiasm as the Mas government did. There will be no difference. Projects like the airport expansion or the demolition of the Catalan language have political consensus. Then you hear the phrase, "They're all the same."
The problem with equality is that, first, you have to impose it: human nature is as rich and varied as those forests they want to pave over again. The second problem is that it's only possible to level down. Leveling down is immoral, because if we're all the same, no one is to blame. If we're all the same, it ends up as if we don't exist.
For a while, a slogan was heard that championed difference, that is, freedom. "If they take one away," the slogan went, "we'll put another in his place." It was a simple formula, and it lasted as long as it lasted. It's quite natural for politicians to adapt to the system, until they all level the playing field, as I say, by lowering standards. But reality bursts through the doors and emerges one way or another, with more violence the more it's been suppressed, and everyone knows that it's as a result of this violence that new and extremist parties appear.
