Politically Confused in Madrid

The pro-Palestinian protest in Madrid is tiny and not in the least obnoxious, so I don’t mind it:

If you don’t see the protest, that’s the whole point.

This, however, is as funny in Spain as it is everywhere else:

The slogan on the right says “worker solidarity”, which makes the whole installation as postmodern as can be.

7 thoughts on “Politically Confused in Madrid

  1. Notice the contradiction on the balcony: there is no national flag of Spain, since Solidaridad Obrera is an anarchist labor union which is against ALL states and nations (“Workers of the world, unite!) but Palestine, which somehow escapes all other ideological strictures.

    [If anyone is interested in understanding the anthropological and mental set-up underlying the Pro-Pal movement, please read anything by René Girard.]

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          1. Perhaps. Or they’ll be classic zealot converts, just as irrationally devoted to the new thing as they were to the previous cause. Trying to avoid God leaves a helluva vacuum. Self-righteous religious fervor and degrading hedonism are just two sides of that same trying-to-fill-the-void coin.

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          2. Rich Saudi kids drive over the King Fahd Causeway so they can drink overpriced booze with their friends in Bahrain.

            Chat with one, you’ve chatted with them all, rich kids are just United Colours of Benetton but with deeper wallets.

            The real treat was a fantastic burger joint, but you had to make the trip the other way into al-Khobar.

            I’d take a McArabia over a crap American beer, BTW. 🙂

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  2. We went to our city’s pride parade recently and there was a Queers for Palastine group in the parade. It was such a huge disconnect from the rest of the event. It’s a small city and at least 80% of our pride parade is groups from the local churches that are welcome people from LGBTQ communities and the LGBTQ worker groups from major employers. The pride parade here is not racy like big city pride events and the atmosphere is very relaxed and friendly, people walk by waving and throwing candy into the crowds. It was really odd to have this extremely vocal angry-chanting group in the middle of it. Someone also decided it was a good idea to put the Queers for Palastine directly in front of the group from the local synagogue. I don’t know what they were expecting from that.

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