JAEN DIARY | Saturday, July 27, 2019
Article by José María Suárez Gallego
Not so long ago we imagined that the first years of the 21st century would bring us an idyllic society of leisure in which by working little—because the work would be done by robots—we would have a lot of free time for leisure, having sufficient purchasing power to do so. to pay for our daily living, and the entertainment expenses of doing the things we liked the most.
The fact is that the snows of time have already silvered my temples, and my mustache has lost its blackness, but not its rebellion, and every morning in front of the mirror I remember with greater assiduity some verses by the famous Andalusian Caballero Bonald: “We are the time that we have left”, which leads me to live as if there were no tomorrow. Of the idyllic society of leisure that arose from a supposed working day of fewer hours and more pay that we dreamed of in those times when Neil Armstrong first set foot on the Moon, five decades ago, today there is very little left. Machines and computers are not installed in companies so that workers work less, as we were led to believe then, but so that fewer workers work, and those who do do so do so for less money, and in a world It is not believed that fifty years ago humans stepped on the Moon.
Every day we wake up with the emotional hangover of having lived the previous day with the feeling of being less “citizens” and more “consumers”, knowing that what is expected of us is not to contravene the general budgets of the state, being more profitable, more docile and less demanding, against which I have no other moral defense than to intimately claim my right to laziness, as Pablo Lafargue, Marx's son-in-law, did in a fierce criticism of a capitalist and Kafkaesque society that to perpetuate itself needs the engine of “that's what it is” imposed on consumers, as opposed to the “that's precisely not what we want” that we demand as citizens. Based on this, more and more training is required of those who aspire to a job in order to earn less and work more in a dehumanized society, where moments of leisure are dedicated, above all, to calculating the outstanding debt of our mortgage.
A few days ago, talking about these topics with my fellow member Caliche, he asked me if—if possible—I would be willing to be born again and live life with the experience of having done it once. I told him no. That I would never give up my childhood birthdays celebrated with a homemade cake of Maria cookies soaked in syrup and covered with chocolate and coconut, and made with great love by my grandmother Encarna. I would never expose myself, as an incipient current consumer, to the danger of celebrating something in the impersonal heartbreak of franchises such as a Telepizza or a McDonald's, unless as a free citizen they would let me hang a little sign: “Love your job, but don't fall in love with it.” of your company, because you never know when it will stop loving you”, or: “Love your retirement, but never fall in love with it, because you never know when you will stop loving it.”
Next Sunday at six in the morning I will attend a peculiar concert at the Renaissance castle of Sabiote. My good friend, whom I love like a brother, Jesús Paulano, has summoned me to see the sunrise live and direct to the sounds of Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 “Coral” by Ludwig van Beethoven performed by the Partiture Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Juan Paulo Gómez. In addition, Natalia Serrano (soprano), Anna Gomà (mezzo), Ángel Luis Molina (tenor), David Gascón (baritone), the Coro Ciudad de Jaén and the Partiture Chorus will contribute their voices. This concert will give life to a new solidarity project under the name “Sabiote en alma” that spreads the values that music as energy has to mobilize positive emotions and improve communication between people. Renaissance, sunrise on the sea of olive trees, ode to joy, Beethoven... Wonderfully crazy to feel alive with all these motifs!