The scorched earth
The "scorched earth" strategy is known as the set of actions on the terrain itself and the different types of resources that are found or produced there, so that these cannot be used, at least immediately, by the enemy and so that, in addition, their effects delay recovery because of the long time and great effort required to ensure that they are subsequently produced again in the same place in similar quantities.
A strategy popularly famous in the last two invasions of Russia (Napoleon and Hitler) and which has been used for centuries by military commanders or political leaders on their territory in the face of the impulsive and massive advance of an enemy, far superior in means and size, who is preparing to invade in order to conquer it.
The effects of this theory, while ultimately detrimental to the interests of those who employ it, are often beneficial in slowing down the initial impulses of any invasion; for, although the real dependence on the so-called "local exploitation" of the resources needed to feed the battle and the troops involved is diminishing due to improved technologies and the greater capacity of long-distance means of transport among other features, local resources are still necessary to avoid much of the long logistical queues and demands on resources that continuity in warfare entails.
Thus, once carried out as planned in the utmost detail, everything will be frankly difficult for the invader to execute in a territory where everything was devastated, communications and the means to be used will not work or will be severely damaged, food resources will be difficult or impossible to find and exploit, the civilian population will be highly hostile due to the famine and desperation that threatens them, some of the basic resources, which can still be found, will be very deteriorated and may even be poisoned.
Well, this strategy and theory is not only used in war; as is well known, the influence of military strategies in social life, business and leadership is frankly important and, in some cases, serves as an example and guide in these sectors. Therefore, this Machiavellian activity has not gone unnoticed by many politicians who think that, after their passage, enjoyment and enjoyment of the highest representations of any state and form of government, they do not care, and even, in certain cases, seek that when they disappear or are kicked out, "the universal deluge" will come.
And one may ask, what is in it for those who implement it, if the citizens see that, after their passage, the country is left in ruins? The answer is quite simple: in addition to gaining time for others to get on track or achieve the incipient recovery and return to normality, the hardships they will be forced to impose on the population - in order to survive and gradually improve the social, economic and political climate - will be so great that they will succeed in making the population despair, not invest the time necessary to see the fruits and begin to yearn for the perks that the previous tyrant had well managed to shower on the poorer factions or those who are easier to buy with a miserable plate of lentils.
The political version of scorched earth usually consists of the degradation of almost everything, principles and people both individually and collectively, starting with education; the suppression of moral values of a religious, ethical, social or family nature; promoting social differences in an apparent and patent way even though they are not true; knowing how to present the internal enemies of the country as groups or people necessary for coexistence, relations and the improvement of the political situation in general; criticising and trying to repeal everything previously done by the opposition, even though it was clearly very necessary and beneficial for internal relations and national progress.
It is also necessary to exalt as essential and fundamental the praise and defence to the hilt of frankly minority groups that represent trends, ideas or customs that are not very common, partisan, contrary and even pernicious in society in general; to hand out self-interested aid to the parties or regions that support them to stay in power, even at the cost of leaving other groups or regions at a clear disadvantage, which by fair justice or real value, deserve much more.
Without forgetting to spend money that we do not have without taking into account the debt, the deficit and the economic problems that such policies can cause us in the long run, and to top it all off, forgetting everything we promised, legislating at convenience and criticising others to end up ruling despotically like a vulgar tyrant, destroying democratic principles, although, when necessary, wrapping themselves in the national flag and promising equality.
As far as other fundamental factors are concerned, they usually leave none untouched or unprostituted. For these ruffians it is absolutely necessary for the separation of powers to disappear; they must legislate to the maximum by Decree, at their convenience and even at night; they must not forget to support the companies of friends, countries of their own stripe or even those who can contribute the most to their own coffers, it is a priority even at the expense of those who deserve it most and must be protected or saved and, finally, the Penal Code must be modified at convenience and penalties and debts must be condoned or pardoned; all this is in their DNA and must be applied without limit, above all, to those who facilitate their form and manner of governing.
Their creeping activity also involves sinking international prestige as a way of failing to meet the burdensome international obligations contracted by those who preceded them in office; They tend to live almost exclusively on propaganda, fallacy and falsehood as the means by which they best manage to unite efforts and try to convince their unlettered followers and finally, as a fundamental resource, they must seek the help or bought support of banks, big business and even the Church in exchange for "promises" on the horizon, when the resources for social or political entities that need them most, are not forthcoming or will never arrive.
All this and some other dirty things, drop by drop, as if it were a Chinese torture, are permeating the conscience of many citizens. Some are tired of protesting without any result, tired of being humiliated without anyone, apparently, coming to their defence and seeing that the profiteers are never brought to justice; those who form part of the masses of followers for convenience as an application of some gift, royalty or salary, plus those fully convinced by themselves; Finally, they all come together to form the pleiad of the silent, the silenced, the converted or those who have decided to throw in the towel, let themselves go, look the other way and live without further ado; which allows the tyrants to perpetuate themselves or, at least, to breathe in power for a while longer.
Reconstructing so much moral, ethical, political, economic and social damage is not easy; being forced to put an end to systematically and unfairly established perks is even more difficult; because in the long run, there will always be people who, when applying corrective measures, are harmed even if their real merits do not meet the minimum requirements that made them worthy of such support, contrary to what is valued in a society that pretends to be fair and just with the needy and vigilant or demanding with those who live off mamandurria, favours and social injustice.
These are governments that, as a general rule, tend to end up with an economy that has been wrecked both internally and externally by a huge deficit, with a disproportionate amount of junk debt that no one will want to buy, especially when the international support measures, at a bargain price, come to an end and the demands that require a great deal of sacrifice and strict seriousness return. This is not a pleasant situation, because the greater the economic disaster inflicted, the more corrective measures will be imposed from outside; measures that, even if they do not want to be accepted, everyone will have to swallow.
We have had many examples of this way of governing throughout history, they are still happening today and, unfortunately, although we resist them, they are also yet to come. They have been, are and will be governments that disregard the value of the lives of those they govern, they shit on moral and ethical values and principles, they do not care about abusing their prerogatives or making them bigger, and they are a terrible example, a shamelessness and a blight on society.
Spain, as one of the oldest countries in recent and current history in the world, was hardly going to escape this scourge that corrodes and eats away at the entire political and social spectrum; we have even been exporters of this way of governing, of this bad example and of how to destroy deep-rooted values, our own and natural wealth, as well as the true value of what is ours in physical and moral aspects.
Certainly, and to our misfortune, today we are going through one of the worst periods in its history in which all of the above is true, raised to the nth degree; our government is leaving the once rich and prosperous homeland as a barren, scorched, empty and devastated land in which few, very few values, and with much effort, can be saved.
This is not a task of the last few years, not at all; It is the result of a plan drawn up with malice aforethought and full of malice by certain, many or too many characters, who, covered in various guises, understood that after almost forty years of dictatorship, the arrival of an incipient, timid and very hesitant democracy, would give way to the possibility of gradually growing, attacking its most stony pillars, which over time have been swept away and destroyed, leaving them to crumble to the ground or without effect as they have nothing to support them.
We are a country full of indoctrinated people, of people incapable of reacting to anything that is unjust, sectarian or mendacious, and we only show a certain patriotic pride at certain "heroic" matches of the national football team; a team, by the way, that many despise and even prohibit from being seen publicly in the streets and squares of certain cities among the most important in our national geography.
We have become a pioneering and leading country in accepting and enacting implausible laws that matter to almost no one, that are not needed and do not excite greatly because of their sectarianism and partiality, except for those who prohibit the use of Castilian to teach in our classrooms or to use it when speaking or labelling; those who deny the fact that justice is impartial and those who introduce abortion, the execrable transsexual law or euthanasia as rights at any age and which no one should renounce despite the fact that they affect only a few and have little or no scientific basis, are highly revanchist, sectarian and of rather banal interest or efficacy.
The most shameful and very topical facts are that they do not care and lower their heads when the pardoned are ignored, isolated and even outraged by His Majesty the King (head of state), on the same day and in the same city as those who tried to carry out a coup d'état which the government wants us all to forget. When the coup plotters, despite being disqualified, exercise their positions in official headquarters or when the president of the government meets with the president of the general government to hear to his face that they only aspire to a general amnesty and the splitting of Spain by means of a referendum that is only Catalan. Now, after so many blind missteps, it seems that the government wants, once again, to play the constitutionalist role, but I am sure that this is not true. For this trip there was no need for so much baggage and even less need to continue rummaging through the courts of justice, as now the court of accounts, to forgive them the millions of euros that they have defrauded tutti plen at the expense of the national treasury.
The popular saying goes that everyone gets what they deserve, and I believe that this statement is true; although we claim that we have been indoctrinated little by little, we ordinary Spaniards and their successive governments have been silent witnesses and even conscious and guilty promoters of these harmful and poisoned changes with which we have turned Spain into a scorched earth that is very difficult or impossible to recover from.