The concept of "hidalgos"

Yesterday my wife and I walked through a beautiful forest near Madrid with our friends Peter and Mary. My friend confessed that, due to the crisis, his workload has dramatically diminished. So he surfs through the Web during work-time.  Unfortunately, his Company provides a limited number of credits for internet access, but luckily some official sites are available through the Intranet. The web page of the Spanish Language Academy is one of them... and he has discovered an incredible treasure therein: a plethora of glistening jewels, the speeches pronounced by the members of the academy at the time of their entrance in the institution. He recommened to me the one by Luis María Ansón, who is a well known Spanish journalist. A "right-wing" journalist was the label that my mind had associated to him, because I am sort of left wing... But no, no, no label should accompany such man, what a stupid mistake that would be! What a wonderful, enthralling speech he pronounced and can be tasted here!

Anyhow, this is not the subject of this post. The subject is how some people, by not working, work much more than others, for what really matters, which is not so much living surrounded by an abundance of consumer goods but by the abundance of goods. Yes, I want to feel good, whatever that means. Certainly, the fantastic meal in a Galizian restaurant that we had afterwards made me feel well. But walking uncomfortably under the rain and hearing wise words about love and death also gave me pleasure, a still pleasure, which is probably more profound and more lasting.

Another friend of mine was fired a few years ago. He exhausted the unemployment allowance and now lives on a meagre monthly amount, probably scratched out of scarce savings and family contributions. He actively seeks a new job, to no avail so far, although he is an intelligent and well educated person, to the point  that it is also a great pleasure for me to talk with him. He would probably prefer another life and would not like what I am going to say now, but I do think it and can share it with nobody in this public but clandestine blog, which nobody reads: his current existence has an aesthetic appeal. Ortega y Gasset coined the concept of this type of person, by recovering the figure of the Spanish "hidalgo", like Don Quixote: a poor noble man, somoene with as high self-dignity as low income, who manages to survive out of thin air, by reducing the workings of its body and hence his or her energy expenditure to the minimum...

Yesterday we also talked during the meal about something similar: a scientific TV program that narrated the story of a French speleologist, who survived in a dark cave without any food and almost without water for 35 days. That was possible because the human brain knows how to, under exceptional circumstances, ralentize bodily activity so as minimize its needs and feed upon superfluous fat and muscle, following a wise hierachy of priorities... Thus when the guy was rescued, his body had paid the bill but his brain was intact and in excellent health.

A naughty mind would on this basis take advantage to criticize the Spanish way, resorting to the topics that accuse us of much siesta and fiesta and little work. That would be most unfair. If my friends are little productive for the market, I am also a Spaniard and I more than compensate for both of them, with my compulsory work activity. This is not about nationalities, it is a universal topic. The Spanish hidalgo may exemplify my point very well, but there are instances of this everywhere, ranging from the Indian yogi to the English gentlemanly scientist, ala Dr Livingstone. In this time of crisis, where the market strives to rule us as a merciless dictator, there may also be advantages: we may have more lucidity than in the epoch of bonnaza and be able to appreciate those apparently non-tangible goods which make us feel tangibly good.