I dessa dagar där fascism pyr i underjordens syrefattiga miljöer saknar man professorer som vågar ta upp kampen mot dessa ideologier. Fascism har orsakar Europa enorm skada, men kommunism är inte svaret. Svaret ligger i tron och de intellectuella, politiker och folket som står nära den. Låt mig introducera er till en historisk stund vi som är mot fascism måste bedyra. Baskiske filosofen läxar of spanska fascister som hyllar döden, hatar minoriteter och hotar professorer. För det kan också hända i Sverige när fascisterna får mer luft under vingarna.
Filmografisk rekreation av händelsen (While at War, 2019). Om ni inte vill klicka i länken kan ni läsa här under.
Vad tycker ni om talet? Vilka svenska professorer idag skulle våga stå upp mot fascister så?
Filmografisk rekreation av händelsen (While at War, 2019). Om ni inte vill klicka i länken kan ni läsa här under.
His black eye-patch, his one arm, his mutilated fingers made him a hero of the moment; and, in the chair, there was Unamuno, rector of the university. The meeting occurred within a hundred yards of Franco’s headquarters, recently established in the bishop’s palace in Salamanca, on the prelate’s invitation.Talet är återgiven i Hugh Thomas bok The Spanish Civil War (1961).
After the opening formalities, there were speeches by the Dominican Father Vicente Beltrán de Heredia, and the monarchist writer José María Pemán. Both delivered hot-tempered speeches. So did Professor Francisco Maldonado, who made a violent attack on Catalan and Basque nationalism, describing them as ‘cancers in the body of the nation’. Fascism, Spain’s ‘health-giver’, would know how to exterminate both, ‘cutting into the live healthy flesh like a resolute surgeon free from false sentimentality’. A man at the back of the hall cried the Foreign Legion’s motto: ‘¡Viva la Muerte!’ (Long live death!). Millán Astray then gave the now usual rabble-rousing slogans: ‘Spain!’ he cried. Automatically, a number of people shouted ‘One!’ ‘Spain!’ shouted Millán Astray again. ‘Great!’ replied the audience. To Millán Astray’s final cry of ‘Spain!’ his bodyguard gave the answer ‘Free!’ Several falangists, in their blue shirts, gave a fascist salute to the sepia photograph of Franco which hung on the wall over the dais. All the eyes were turned to Unamuno, who it was known disliked Millán Astray and who rose to close the meeting and said:..
..Just now [Unamuno went on] I heard a necrophilistic and senseless cry: ‘Long live death’. And I, who have spent my life shaping paradoxes which have aroused the uncomprehending anger of others, I must tell you, as an expert authority, that this outlandish paradox is repellent to me. General Millán Astray is a cripple. Let it be said without any slighting undertone. He is a war invalid. So was Cervantes. Unfortunately there are all too many cripples in Spain just now. And soon there will be even more of them, if God does not come to our aid. It pains me to think that General Millán Astray should dictate the pattern of mass psychology. A cripple who lacks the spiritual greatness of a Cervantes is wont to seek ominous relief in causing mutilation around him.
At this, Millán Astray was unable to restrain himself any longer. ‘Death to Intellectuals!’ ‘¡Mueran los intelectuales!’ he shouted. ‘Long live death.’ But Unamuno went on:
This is the temple of the intellect. And I am its high priest. It is you who profane its sacred precincts. You will win, because you have more than enough brute force. But you will not convince. For to convince, you need to persuade. And in order to persuade you would need what you lack: reason and right in the struggle. I consider it futile to exhort you to think of Spain. I have done.
Vad tycker ni om talet? Vilka svenska professorer idag skulle våga stå upp mot fascister så?