aloof

I found myself delighted this week when I came across the book by Erik von Kuhenelt-Leddihn (EvKL), Liberty or Equality, specially chapter 5 (see below). First, because most of the arguments in the book are broadly coincident with my present thinking on the subject. Second, because EvKL is one of those authors who can capture in a single catch-phrase ideas, sentiments and feelings that others would take pages to express (*).

I have already mentioned one of such catch-frases: the Church seems at times to look on men as being stupid rather than wicked. I must admit that I am not sure this is a permanent attitude in the culture of the Church. What I am sure is that it is a permanent feature of the peoples who have been subject to its cultural influence because I can see it in everyday life.

In a different passage EvKL refers to one other cultural feature of Catholic peoples, namely, that they often seem aloof and tend to remain aloof for extended periods of time. Reality is changing under their eyes, often not for the better. And yet they seem not to care for reality and instead appear to have their minds concentrated on some distant, irrelevant subject. In Portuguese these cultural attitude is described by the phrase "Eles parecem estar a assobiar para o lado" or, in a more emphatic way: "Eles parecem ter metido a cabeça na areia".

This has been happening in Portugal with regard to the economy. Today, newspaper Público reports: "Economia parece ter abrandado no início de 2008" . It is well known that growth in the Portuguese economy has been subdued for the last several years at the same time that unemployment has been increasing steadily and the prices of food are skyrocketing. It seems now clear, according to Público, that this year things will be even worse - actually everybody seems to feel it - and I believe that over the next five years or so the situation might get dramatic.

Yet, nobody seems to care. The Government keeps talking about the deficit, as if nothing else matters at the same time that the opposition seems too much busy with itself to care for anything else. And the people, as usual, are entertained with soccer, this time with the added excitement brought about by Apito Final and Apito Dourado.

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(*) To the best of my knowledge the book was first mentioned by André Azevedo Alves in O Insurgente and then quoted in this blog by CN.