No "Podemos"

Spain, as other southern Mediterranean countries, is in a distressing quagmire where its young people are on life support and with no nourishment with which to enrich their souls.  It is a country ripe for an intelligent revolution lead by it’s well educated university students and recent graduates and so upon hearing of a self started political movement called “Podemos”, which translates to “We Can!”, I was optimistic that my mother country may be exploring a way out of the doldrums.  But a quick study reveals a movement morphing into the usual Latin authoritarian answer with Pablo Iglesias, its provisional leader, declaring he is of the left, but more radical than the Socialists. Apparently he considers Hugo Chavez of Venezuela a personality cult worth emulating.

A radical movement for Spain would be one that directed its energies to promote the individual rather than the collective.  Doubling down on the collective is not a way to liberate the country’s intelligent youth.  Authoritarian directives from above render those below to the status of farm animals with their physical needs taken care of but without the slaughterhouse to provide meat on the table as an expression of some meaning for a desultory life.  Why is there not a Libertarian party in Spain to counter authoritarians?  Well, there is and its called exactly that “Partido Libertario” modeled after the British Liberal Party.  It appears to have come out rather recently with a manifesto, professionally produced commercial, web page and the usual social media links. It has no traction in Spain where as our Libertarian Party’s meager one percent showing is nothing compared to a great ideological influence promoted by The Cato Institute think tank and our Anglo Common Law heritage. Unfortunately the other side are cultures with a strong Roman Empire heritage and the autocratic code of the Caesars through that of Napoleon hampering the cultivation of the individual. The P-LIB in Spain appears to have run out of fuel for the debate as witnessed by great initial activity and then nothing posted on Youtube for over a year. Sad, but not unexpected.

During this investigation I found a Liberal International organization headquartered in Rotterdam, Holland. I had no idea that Libertarians were organized throughout the world. It seems contrary to our local non world order perspective, though a great educating influence.