It all began in France, in the Constituent Assembly of 1792. To the right of the presidency sat the Girondins, supporters of the maintenance of order and institutions. The left of the Chamber was occupied by the Jacobins, who advocated revolutionary radicalization. In the center was an undifferentiated group of assembly members, with poorly defined objectives. Since then, and to this day, any proposal on social issues has been labeled as right-wing or left-wing by analogy with those groups, an approach as limited as it is impoverishing.
During the 19th century this classification was more or less effective in explaining social reality, but it declined as the revolutionary mystique of the class struggle was exhausted. In 1989 the collapse of the Marxist systems that had begun years before culminated. The most immediate trigger was the failure of the economic model, that is why, after the initial bewilderment, Gramsci's idea of appropriating culture was taken up again. Universities, schools, international organizations, the media and other tribunes were occupied by the left.
Today, groups that recognize themselves as leftist, with no cultural, political or economic proposals to offer, have opted for a new model of social transformation: to take on all the struggles that arise and integrate them into a single discourse (Laclau). This amalgam includes the LGTBI movement, radical feminism, or queerThe dogma of climate change, indigenism, environmentalism, opposition to the culture of effort, to the right to property, to life, the revision of history, the resignification of language and the replacement of people's identity with equality. And whatever comes, this is an open process to which new causes are added every day. All these demands are presented as a block, in a complete package with pretensions of doctrine, which must be assumed in full under penalty of being considered denialist first, to be later cancelled (woke) as a person, toppled as a statue or his remains exhumed if he is deceased.
Any attempt to legally go against this state of affairs is considered to be judicial persecution, o lawfareThe term is fashionable in political parlance to define the alleged judicial persecution of the left by the powerful.
Curiously, this radicalism on social issues is complemented in the economic sphere by a savage global capitalismThe one presented in the much publicized Agenda 2030.
It is impossible to find the common thread of this jumble of ideas, sometimes contradictory, that accumulate without method. An unbearable chaos in which it is impossible to make logical decisions, but with a clear objective: to reorient the laws that supposedly determine History.
Here the brotherhoods have something to say. They are neither right-wing nor left-wing, but their Christian identity and their social profile oblige them to enter the debate, aware that this is not a dialectical struggle between Girondins and Jacobins, between right and left. The alternative presented by the brotherhoods is situated on a higher plane, it is a worldview based on European cultural roots, in which the Judeo-Christian tradition plays a fundamental role. Julián Marías explained that Christianity is primarily a religion, but also a vision of the world, a way of seeing, thinking, projecting and feeling reality and, ultimately, a way of life that is the foundation, to a large extent, of the intellectual, legal and social structures of Western civilization.
It is not a matter of encouraging the brotherhoods to present technical solutions to social problems, nor of encouraging partisan options; but of proclaiming moral principles, also those referring to the social order, as well as giving criteria on any matter insofar as the fundamental rights of the person demand it.
The life of the brotherhood, like that of people, is not exhausted by managing the present (brotherhoods, elections, premieres, itineraries...), it only makes sense in the future, a future that belongs to God, who is eternal, pure present, Lord of History. A History that is not governed by inexorable laws that must be redirected, as proposed by the left; but by the freedom of man, which leads the brotherhood to look at the world with the eyes of Christ, leading all human realities towards Him.
It is urgent for the brotherhoods to develop and apply the necessary intellectual tools to become deeply involved in giving meaning back to history, beyond Marxist proposals, if they do not want to end up being masters of glorious pasts, fleeting presents and uncertain futures.
D. in Business Administration. Director of the Instituto de Investigación Aplicada a la Pyme. Eldest Brother (2017-2020) of the Brotherhood of the Soledad de San Lorenzo, in Seville. He has published several books, monographs and articles on brotherhoods.
