Lucifer

Revisiting an old demon...

"At Home" ...

Can a blogger who has indulged in reporting about evening events and a party or two cross the red line of writing about his own “at homes”? For just the pure writing pleasure of reviving a three-dimensional play the prohibition stands.. But what if there was a serious point raised in between the pilau rice Uzbek-manner (“plof” as they say in Russia) and the pears cooked in Porto with vanilla ice-cream? Wouldn’t a serious blogger be too strict on himself if he would refrain from reporting to the wide right honourable reading world about it?

A bit of context first, then. The large dinner table is a perfect circle, conducive, as the host hopes (sometimes in vain), to widespread debate, thus avoiding the pitfalls of multiple simultaneous small one-to-one or one-to-two private conversations. Herr Ingenier was there, with his gentle manners and his gentle Garbo, carrying with utmost eccentric elegance the lights of Old German-ness. The HassebladPortraitist, who had spent part of her schooling youth in Barcelona, speaking therefore both Castilian and Catalan, was in belligerent political spirits. The Honourable Caliph of Moraleja, always ready for a fight, jumped on the occasion, despite the warning glances from his peace-keeping charming wife, the Gajhar Princess. The Transalpine Homologue somewhat subdued in the beginning of the discussion managed to score some points further on. Malinkarusskaya was naturally keeping an eye on the progress at table of plof consumption (of her cooking authorship) but she lend her acquiescence to her husband’s forays into recent Russian history.

What was the point of contention? - the Right Honourable Reader is entirely reasonable upon insisting on being answered. In Political Therapeutics should one wake up sleeping demons in order to conjure the past? Or should political corpses better be left untouched in societies’ cupboards?

Is the Transición in Spain, after the death of Franco, a necessary exercise of mass amnesia, for the better welfare and prospects of the democratic Spaniards, or has the Civil War still to be revisited at some point to better address grievances that long for their respective catharsis?

Herr Ingenier reminded the presents, including the bellicose defender of the amnesiac status quo that without contemplating the tragic and distasteful content of their historical cupboard the German post-war generations would not have been able to build an healthy democracy .

The Honorabile said much the same. This blogger of yours couldn’t resist his usual tirade about how the therapeutic grief-work of the Revolution remains to be made in Russia, with evident consequences for the solidity of the foundations of the democratic building in that country (for so long prone to bouts of enforced amnesia).

She would have none of it. The “deal” in the Transition period, leading to the Constitution, was that both Rojos and Nationalists would bury their accusations, their witnesses, their corpses and would not bring them to the light of political day again. And what some of the new big players of the power game were trying to do was tantamount to breaking that “deal”. All a bunch of tragic PandoraBox-openers, magic tricks apprentices of politics, salt-rubbers on Civil War wounds who might stir again hates and brother-against-brother fights.

What the Truth Commission did in South Africa cannot be valid for other political azimuths, one wonders? The HasselbladPortraitist might have a point in the "let’s forget it all and start a new" attitude when the economy is flourishing and the people never had it so good. But what if some particular constituency feels its idiosyncrasies were not properly addressed (specially since various “Nations”, “ Nationalities” and “Autonomies” have managed in the mean time to claim the right to indent the constitutional status quo of 1978). Would it not be better to speak out freely about the last years of the Republic and about some alternative non-Euclidian non-transitional-orthodox views of recent past?

Can one advocate active loudly revisionism of the post-Revolution times in Russia (for the sake of enlightening the crucial young generations who will decide what to do about the relationship between Russia and Europe) while prescribing a silent follow up of the gentlemen’s agreement of the post-Franquismo?

The need to bury one’s cupboard corpses properly was near consensual by the time the last laps of Chekhovian vodka and Malt-derived spirits had arrived.

With so much worrying about enlightening the youth, the masses and the politicians, the Honorabile Homologue recalled, with his customary elegant eloquence the etymology of the word “Lucifer”. The One that bears Light. Weak souls should abstain from dinning out...