Is Savater Deranged?

I'm thinking that the answer is yes.

He just doesn't know what to say anymore, he is like a rabid lap dog barking at the moon.

Here is his last "piece":

The wolf at the door.

El Pais Spain FERNANDO SAVATER

In our rosy context of "great expectations" and general niceness, would it be acceptable to sound a little note of alarm - a suggestion that the wolf is, if not right at the door, then at least in the neighborhood? I think the alarm was sounded on Saturday by the people who attacked the Defense Minister José Bono and the Euro-parliamentarian Rosa Díez in the demonstration in Madrid convoked by the Association for Victims of Terrorism.

Clearly the rage of this more or less numerous group expressed no righteous ire, but only the frustration of the right wing, lately dislodged from power, and always ready to abuse and pervert the channels of democratic expression in the name of the supposed urgencies of the outraged nation. This abuse was even more inadmissible when directed against leaders of the Socialist Party, which has always maintained a clear, firm line against terrorism.

Unfortunately this is no isolated incident. Some members of the anti-ETA group ¡Basta Ya! already experienced similar violence, in a demonstration in Bilbao against ETA. Similar violence happened in the days just after the March 11 Islamist attacks. In all these cases there were intransigent opportunists who deflected the protest away from the real criminals in the direction of sectarian feuding between parties, using entirely unacceptable, undemocratic means.

We can only condemn what happened on Saturday. But we need to examine the misunderstandings which may have served as an excuse for it. Some extremist elements may have been involved, addicted to aggression. But they were, I think, a minority, and we must ask how they were able to gather the critical mass evident that day. How have we arrived at a situation in which many victims of terrorism, and those who are worried about it, and about the separatist movements that really or supposedly threaten our democratic system, can come to see, in the government and in the Socialist party, an insensitivity to the question or an inclination to exploit and manipulate it? The obvious sympathies of many for the conservative Popular Party (PP) does not suffice to explain the exasperated hostility with which many of these people seem to regard the representatives of the center-left in the present government, in the media, or in the cinema industry.

Consider, for example, the case of someone in San Sebastián last week, someone who has personally suffered the effects of terrorist intimidation and who seeks protection under the umbrella of the democratic, constitutional political parties. On the eve of the day of the city's patron saint, he sees how a public award is given to the famous cook Berasategui, recently accused of giving funds to ETA. The lehendakari, present in person, commiserates about how ill at ease he must have felt on being questioned by the judge. Our spectator just sighs in resignation, and that night, stays home and watches the celebrations on TV, not caring to share the town's Constitution Square with people brandishing placards in favor of ETA, or of the multiple killer De Juana Chaos, who, it seems, is suffering acutely because they will not let him out of jail to kill again. Our friend knows it is useless to protest, and better just to look the other way.

On Saturday morning he attends a meeting in the Kursaal, in memory of Gregorio Ordoñez, murdered by ETA 10 years ago. The hard core of pro-Spanish constitutional people in the city are here. Most of the speakers are of the PP, a party to which Ordoñez also belonged, though friendly mention of the PSOE, it being a constitutional ally, is made in all the speeches. But few local leaders of the PSOE are there. The major figures, Odón Elorza, Paulino Luesma, Patxi López, Egiguren, all are absent. Many among the public in the hall are Socialist voters - but the people they vote for are somewhere else. With a certain feeling of abandonment, our Basque man goes away, to the cinema, to clear his head. In the one nearest his home there is a film featuring a young leftist actor who, in a recent visit to the Basque Country, remarked how intolerable the behavior of the PP and the PSOE was in the anti-terrorist struggle, with the outlawing of Batasuna, the closure of the pro-independence newspaper Egunkaria, etc. Though the general tone of his remarks suggested an intelligence deserving of pity, our Basque has taken a dislike to him, and does not care to see the film. He prefers to go home and watch TV, where he sees the demonstration in Madrid and the aggression against Bono.

Then Llamazares appears on the screen, saying that the victims have been "manipulated" by the right during two legislatures. And our Basque zaps to another channel, because he cannot be asked to watch that.

http://www.elpais.es© 2005 El Pais

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After all those words, what exactly did he say?

Poor thing, I pity him.

.... ... .