The ARA survey: Is Clint Eastwood 'woke'?

This past weekend I re-watched Gran Torino, one of the best films directed by Clint Eastwood (and that's saying a lot, given that he's one of the best directors in Hollywood for the last fifty years). It coincided with the publication of the YouGov poll for this newspaper, with the data that 66% of Catalans, an incontestable majority, are in favour of restricting immigrants' access to the country. This same majority, at the same time, is in favour of guaranteeing equal rights for all residents. However, 30% declare themselves in favour of applying the national priority defended by Vox and Aliança Catalana (and which the Popular Party has embraced).Released in 2008, Eastwood's film openly addresses immigration, and is a hymn to the diversity and social cohesion of a country (the USA, but it could be Catalonia, it could be the Catalan Countries) historically formed by immigrants. That it is a hymn, however, does not mean it is accommodating or self-righteous: it shows how black people have prejudices against Asians, Asians against white people, Italians against Chinese people, Chinese people against Hispanics, Poles against Irish people. It portrays white supremacy over everyone else, as well as the resentment and xenophobia that minorities profess towards white people, etc. There is violence, weapons (we are in the USA), linguistic, cultural and religious conflicts, and American flags made dusty on the porches of rundown houses in degraded neighborhoods. But Eastwood clearly sides with people's capacity to welcome and coexist. It is a capacity based on tolerance, empathy and intelligence, qualities that define us as human beings before as patriots.

Eastwood has never hidden his conservative thinking and his Republican vote, but it is quite possible that many of his ideological companions would today call Gran Torinowoke and cheesy, as well as a dangerous example of weak and unpatriotic thinking. From what is reflected in this newspaper's survey, a majority of Catalan voters, or at least a very high percentage, would also say so. What this majority opinion reflects is not simple Catalan trumpism (that trumpism of Mr. Esteve who from time to time gifts us, like his referent, moments of unintentional comedy). It is also the result of a nationalist and supposedly patriotic withdrawal in which a good part of public opinion has succumbed to the discourse of fear, and speaks of Catalonia as a nation, a culture, a language, threatened, on the verge of disappearing. This is said and repeated, with whines of all styles, day in and day out. And as always happens in a context of fear of one's own disappearance, the one who comes from outside, the immigrant, is the first to be pointed out as guilty. We have succumbed to what Kundera called the provincialism of small nations: it means that dark times are approaching, and that if closure, suspicion and hatred have become majorities, it is more necessary than ever to confront them: they will cease to be so again.