El País

by Eyck Freymann


I have long been fascinated by what nations' media reveal about their character. Last week I discussed the media in India, Pakistan, and China - and how they discuss their conflicts. Back in December I wrote about the Times of India's nationalistic trend after the Mumbai attacks, which continues to this day. In October I wrote a piece about why I read Al Jazeera, and the differences in content between it and Jerusalem Post.

Today, I thought it would be interesting to discuss El País, a Madrid, Spain-based daily. I read only the editorials (I don't read Spanish quite as fast as I read English, although I am proficient) but from these alone I see that the cultural psychology of Spain differs enormously from ours in America. As an example, I cite a recent editorial by Gianni Vattimo, an Italian politician entitled "¿Es la religión enemiga de la civilización?" 

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Here is an excerpt from the beginning:

Todos recordamos seguramente la famosa frase de Nietzsche sobre la muerte de Dios. Y también su cláusula: Dios seguirá proyectando su sombra en nuestro mundo durante mucho tiempo. ¿Qué pasaría si aplicáramos la frase de Nietzsche también, y sobre todo, a las religiones? En muchos sentidos, es verdad que, en gran parte del mundo contemporáneo, la religión como tal está muerta, pero todavía proyecta sus sombras en numerosos aspectos de nuestra vida privada y colectiva. Por cierto, dejemos claro que el Dios cuya muerte anunció Nietzsche no es necesariamente el Dios en el que muchos de nosotros seguimos creyendo; yo me considero cristiano, pero estoy seguro de que el Dios que estaba muerto en Nietzsche no era el Dios de Jesús.

 My translation:

Surely we all remember the famous phrase of Nietzsche about the death of God. And also his clause (line) "God will continue protecting his shadow in our world for a long time." What would happen if we applied Nietzsche's phrase (meaning "idea") to religion? In many ways, it is true that, in a large part of the modern world, religion as such is dead, but still protects its shadow (vestiges still remain) in many aspects of our public and private lives. Certainly, we aren't certain that the God whose death Nietzche predicted is necessarily the God in which much of the world continues believing; I consider myself a Christian, but I am sure that the God who was dead in [the writing of] Nietzche was not Jesus.

This is a worthwhile debate in its own right (I prefer not to go into a discussion of religion, considering that it will only inflame passions and lead to unproductive argument). But what is curious to me is that this was even published. In the United States, journalism has developed very differently.

Spain is a religiously heterogeneous nation, and is beyond doubt more secular in every way than the United States. The media in America do not touch religion, perhaps because of a desire not to offend. But politicans seem to relish invoking religion at every opportunity, finishing every speech with a "may God bless America" and referring to our rights as "God-given"...

In Spain (other European countries, though they may share much of Spain's secularism, are very different in character and should be discussed separately), religion is viewed not as something which cannot be questioned or analyzed, as it is in the US. Quite the contrary - this editorial shows that religion is primarily an academic topic. What does this suggest about the nation from which it comes? I am inclined to understand it not as an issue of depth of faith (the author makes it clear that he is a believer) but rather one of national character, especially when we consider that similarly significant issues - such as race, class, and gender relations - are likewise not discussed by the American media.

In the end, El País' editorials - this is only one of many similar in tone - exude an air of openness, a desire to confront culturally divisive issues and derive common ground. This is more than liberalism, socialism, or whatever tag Americans may apply to the Spanish. This past presidential campaign was historic not only because of the outcome, but because Americans for the first time stopped hiding behind the law and actually began to confront the issue of race inequality. When faced with an undeniable choice in the election, those who denied the significance of race as an issue soon faded into the background. Although many of our nation's racial wounds have yet to heal, the campaign ultimately linked together the white and black communities under a common purpose.

If America wants to emerge the leader of the global community, we are going to have to endure similar culture shock, forcing ourselves to come to terms with the different attitudes and national characters of the world. The age of isolationism, the age of dogmatic disapproval of all things Russian, or European, or Jewish, or Muslim - is in its twilight.