Spain’s controlled anarchy

Life expectancy in Spain is 83 years – amongst the highest in the world. Deep, trusting relationships with family and friends surely contribute to this longevity. Orwell emphasised the ‘essential decency’ of the Spanish people, ‘above all, their straightforwardness and generosity. A Spaniard’s generosity, in the ordinary sense of the word, is at times almost embarrassing … And beyond this, there is generosity in a deeper sense, a real largeness of spirit, which I have met with again and again in the most unpromising circumstances.’

Bakunin, the nineteenth-century revolutionary Russian anarchist, noting the Spanish people’s kindly and generous feelings for those near them and their instinctive talent for co-operation, reasoned that they were particularly well-suited to an anarchist commune. Sure enough, anarchism flourished in Spain until Franco snuffed it out. And today surveys confirm that Spaniards have little time for abstractions like ‘government’ and ‘society’ and a great deal for their friends, neighbours, and, above all, their families.