English is the language with the most versatile abbreviations and acronyms. Expressions like OMG (Oh My God!) and LOL ("Laughing out loud"," a mixture of laughter and astonishment, has found a place among young people, and not so young people, in digital conversations. Many phenomena named in the English-speaking world are called by those names, waiting to find a catchy equivalent in their own language. This is the case with SLAPPs (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Opposition), which aim to name the legal actions that seek to silence critical voices through costly processes. slap means slapThis is an ingenious representation of what these lawsuits entail: a slap in the face for those who challenge the powerful by exposing their shortcomings. Or rather, a good blow, because its main element is the economic gap between the plaintiff and the defendant.

Political calculations are beyond me. They remind me of those endless gaming sessions—to work off the Christmas sweets—where we alternate between role-playing games, poker, and Party & Co. But making laws isn't a casual pastime.

In the name of raison d'état, as a sacred principle, rights are violated and freedoms are seized that, under normal circumstances, no one would dare deny. Law enforcement officers and secret agents of fiction, like Harry the Brute or James Bond, displayed unorthodox methods to confront criminal scum. Each in their own style, from brutal violence to glamorous service to Her Majesty. But the "licence to kill" of flesh-and-blood personnel, from the CIA to the GAL, was secretly exercised through the maneuvers of the deep state, without legal coverage.

Paths are nature. Traces in the territory that connect cardinal points, overcoming geographical features. They are, at the same time, culture. For an immense poetic spirit, like Walt Whitman's, "free of all limits and all imaginary lines," each path becomes a great gulp of space to breathe. "On foot and with a light heart I go along the road. / Healthy, free, the world before me. / The long dirt road will lead me wherever I will."

The truth that has been suffered admits many labels. Judicial truth is that which emerges from a judgment in a trial, as a logical consequence of the evidence presented. It is understood that it will not always coincide with the so-called material truth, what really happened and what is not easy to ascertain. For this view, which does not come from philosophy but from law, what cannot be proven should not be taken into account, especially when sentencing. There is a long-standing struggle between the truth that is demonstrated and that which is proclaimed. Our term TRUE derives from Latin truths, which in turn comes from verus—the root is present in verisimilar, verifiable, true, assert...— and refers us to the idea of firmness. But for the Greeks, it has to do with forgetting. TRUE It would be what does not remain hidden, but is revealed and can, in some way, be remembered and evoked.

The Catholic Church dominates the scene like no one else. It's fascinating how it has appropriated pagan festivals, linked to the natural cycle of life. In the case of the solstices, moments of maximum solar decline, with varying success. While the winter solstice—commemorated in the Roman Saturnalia with great feasts and gifts—has been displaced by the Christian Christmas, the summer solstice is one of the few soirees that has resisted it. Since ancient Persia, fire has been given ritual value and the earth is honored in gratitude for prosperity.

The influencers, rather than advertising a product, they project aspirations: from orthodontics to stiletto, of the Neolith in the infinity pool, of the clean look from Monday to Friday boho. The relief of socialities Exquisite women like Isabel Presyler have been taken over by snobs of all kinds; devoted ultras like Tamara Falcó, easygoing ones like Dulceida, newcomers like Georgina Rodríguez... Those born in the independent republic of IKEA are as quick to record videos on the couch with a soft blanket as they are to CrossFit with a sweaty towel. Naturally, no one buys certain montages, but the combination of annoyance and fascination they provoke is addictive. La Ballerina Farm, a parody of a farmer married to an airline heir, has no idea of the difficulties of a livestock farm beyond getting her boots dirty with manure. In the bucolic images of her making mustard or spinning mozzarella with one of her eight children, there are no maids or nannies. There is nothing natural about that house, except the well-washed wood. country chic. Delphine de Vigan recreates, in Children are kings, the dark corner of families who live in a shop window.

There are always those who don't flinch and raise their voice in the face of injustice or abuse, without prior cost-benefit calculations. The person of a piece of clothing who simply does the right thing. However, in most humans, the faint-hearted coexists with the potential hero. Who hasn't alternated episodes of cowardice or passivity with bursts of intrepidity or daring? We can blame it on character, upbringing, or the moment in life. Or, in part, we can turn to context. Social psychology speaks of a bystander effect Because when many people witness an attack, the victim is less likely to receive help. Contrary to expectations, the group doesn't have a multiplying effect but rather a diffusing effect on individual responsibility. One for another, the house must be swept. The dramatic case of Kitty Genovese—a New York teenager who was murdered in the street, in front of thirty-seven witnesses, without anyone intervening—illustrates this phenomenon very well.