The summer of fires
It seems as if nature, irritated by humanity's insensitivity in caring for the place where their experience is made flesh, had raised the degree of difficulty in inhabiting it. And wanted to put us up against the wall. In reality, nature has been mutating with all its might since always, but in recent times it has received the impact of accelerated human aggressiveness that has contributed to making it more hostile to us. And man's hand has a lot to do with catastrophes, for example in the extension and destruction of forests or in the permanent generation of energy that causes natural mutations, starting with the climate.
The Earth is our destiny, but its course is marked by our footprint. Since the Industrial Revolution, our technologies have made holes, but with the leap to nuclear energy everything becomes complicated. We are equipping ourselves with instruments of mass destruction, which affect our destiny, at the same time that unusual power gaps are occurring. And the societies that resisted the totalitarian wave of fascism and communism are now showing alarming signs of authoritarian regression. Democracy is in danger.
This explosion of fire has coincided with the moment when a character like Trump has daily exposure on the world stage. Never before has an icon of indecency risen so high in American democracy, exhibiting the most absolute disregard for values and reference institutions. A character who is not guided by knowledge and agreed-upon norms, but who considers his word to be the last word, that he is above institutions and no one has the right to question his policy, and who seeks – and often achieves – the submission of the judiciary. Like fires with the wind, his delusions jump from one side to another amidst manifest contradictions and falsehoods. A symbol of self-serving misgovernance and contempt for all those who do not laugh at his jokes, he has disturbing effects on American society. In the words of Joseph Stiglitz: “Trump’s entry was of poor quality and his exit will be too”.
Reality is overwhelming democratic institutions. Teresa Ribera says: “Europe is not prepared for the consequences of climate change”. We only have to see how we have left the forest when nature was available, at our disposal, without limits. There is a reality of abuse of nature that we have not wanted to believe. Money has speculated with impunity with the great economic and technological mutations of the 20th century, and we are where we are. The human hand has come to believe that everything was possible, and the flames are making us wake up from the fantasy. History has been marked by terrible wars and forms of totalitarianism with no respect for humans in the name of God or revolutionary redemption. The fires of today are a warning. Will they serve to regain awareness of limits, or, on the contrary, will "anything goes" be accelerated?
In any case, the tens of thousands of people confined or removed from their homes, the fire a few kilometers from Bordeaux, or the darkness and ash falling on Madrid are signs that do not allow us to look away. We cannot allow characters like Trump, who with his delusions lead us to the abyss, to set the pace.
The denialism that Trump has championed is the capitulation of humanity. Why are some of the highest technological and financial powers betting on it? I would like José María Maravall to be right when he says that "Trump's fall will be quite spectacular." It would mean that we are not entirely lost.