Author: Pedro J. de la Peña
Title: We Need a New Generation of ’98
Year: 2012
Country: Spain
Pedro J. de la Peña is one of those vestiges of the past (that’s my polite way of saying “weird old farts”) who believe the tired old canard of how Spain entered into a tragic period of decline at the end of the glorious XVIIth century and has been declining since then. He’s also into the whole song and dance about the “red hordes” that burned churches and provoked the long-suffering Franco into taking in hand the horrible Second Republic.
Peña is a professor of literature in Spain, by the way. In case you were wondering why I always say that it’s useless to try to go study literature in Spain.
Mind you, even somebody who’s your ideological opposite can offer useful insights. For instance, Peña points out that ties and business suits still serve as markers of social class but in the opposite way to how they were used in the past. Today, people who go to work dressed any way they like are the privileged ones. And ties are reserved for low-paid bank tellers. This is very true. N.’s first crappy internships required a suit and a tie. And his current well-paid full-time job gives him the right to wear whatever he likes. This is a result of our efforts to fake that we live in classless societies.
Yes, it’s not much of an insight but since I have to read this kind of thing for work, I have to squeeze every ounce of reasonableness from it.
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