Neo-Rancios. On the dangers of nostalgia

Idioma original: español
Year of publication: 2022
Valuation:generally recommended (essential for those with similar interests)

Well, yes, I can confirm that the symbol seen behind the title in a somewhat constructivist style is that of the Falange. I clarify, although it is not relevant, that if I use the capital letter for the word Falange it is to resolve an ambiguity and not because I have the slightest respect for the rabble that has been part of it at some point. A clarification that may or may not be relevant for an eventual ideological positioning, although I am going to subscribe to that maxim that Goebbels helped to clarify when he said about the word culture and his gun belt. As for his critical position and his bitterness in enriching the opinions of those who frequent him, culture club It is a rather left-wing world. And the word nostalgia, In this context, it carries certain negative connotations.

I recently mentioned Begoña Gómez Urzaiz. The Barcelona journalist, whose eclectic weekly section in the supplement Cultures I highly recommend reading, she is the coordinator of this Neo-rancids, a dozen articles that provide different approaches to rebel against this neo-con wave (nuance: it is published in a world before the Ukrainian War) based on the almost permanent claim of a better past and which has a root start of the success and impact of a certain book, which Santi accurately reviewed at the time. Feria, by Ana Iris Simón, is referenced with some frequency in these ten articles, which earns it, deservedly or not, the status of antagonist of this collection. Here it deals with a bit of everything and the optics are somewhat generational. If there is something I would criticize this book for, which I recommend without palliatives, although its butsis that the selection is too cohesive and in this you have to be careful: you can go from informing to dogmatizing and from spreading to rising to the pulpit and launching tirades. In fact, among these ten collaborators there is even an elected parliamentarian, and that is, at the same time as taking a position, a risk. These ten texts not only include cultural references and mentions of articles, Tweets, they are also peppered with situations from the past that are denounced and serious warnings about the risks involved in extrapolating the longing for other times to too many areas.

There are articles on the issues that we can all think of: racism, immigration, the housing problem, the integration of groups with sexual options other than binary. I must admit that the inclusive language still throws me off a little. Although a more global, less localist perspective would give it a broader scope. And I would have appreciated some greater risk in the choice of tone. In this sense we have been left a little halfway, and some ideological counterweight would have been good, even if it were to mitigate a somewhat overwhelming feeling of cohesion, for my taste it takes away some credibility from the whole that this collection, with a very brilliant start, ends up being able to be defined by an expression similar to Ten left-wing intellectuals between the ages of 30 and 45 are happy to rail against the biased vindication of the past. Even if it is just a matter of strategic sympathy, such headlines should be avoided.