Salvador Pániker

The Difficulty of Being Spanish

Original title:

La dificultad de ser español. Y otras contrariedades

About the book:

The Difficulty of Being Spanish

This book has emerged as an intellectual (and at times anecdotal) dietary, looking back over the processes of recent years. At times it deals with Spain, at others with the  wider cultural context of the world. And, as a backdrop, the more general topic of the crisis in society and the cultural crisis.

In connection with the cultural crisis there are chapters on schooling and pluralism; the configuration of a new paradigm. The remaining chapters deal with the crisis within society. What makes Spain the leit motiv in these pages is its historical difference. As we know: Spain skipped the 19th century (the industrial revolution, social movements...). Now there seems no way of catching up, in this sense. In fact, we in Spain came to democracy at a moment when the traditional concept of democracy was being subject to revision around the Western world. And that is why here in Spain we debate the issues of power and truth, terrorism, education, self-management, the ailing bourgeoisie the crisis in Keynesian economics, the crisis in Marxism, the desire to invent a direct form of democracy; in a word, the tensions to be expected in a plural and accelerated society. 

About the author:

Salvador Pániker is a philosopher, engineer, writer and publisher. Among his most recent works are Asimetrías (Asymmetries), Aproximación al origen (Approach to the origin) Primer testamento (First testament), Ensayos retroprogresivos (Retroprogressive essays), Segunda memoria (Second memory), Cuaderno amarillo (Yellow notebook) and Variaciones 95 (Variations 95).