Una enmienda a la totalidad

by Juan Manuel de Prada

En nuestra sociedad ha cundido un hondo malestar que adquiere manifestaciones en apariencia contrarias: hay quienes se revuelven contra los ataques a la institución familiar, contra la corrosiva “cultura de la muerte” o contra la ingeniería social que reconfigura la propia naturaleza humana; hay quienes claman contra la depravación del capitalismo global, que condena a la miseria y el desarraigo a las nuevas generaciones y desmantela las economías nacionales; hay quienes, en fin, se rebelan contra la desmembración de la patria o la inmigración descontrolada. Y, para combatir este malestar hondo que se manifiesta de diferentes formas, la gente se adhiere a tal o cual ideología, pensando que en los demagogos que las defienden encontrará la solución a sus cuitas. Pero tales soluciones serán parciales, fragmentarias, insatisfactorias… y, con frecuencia, sólo contribuirán a enconar más aún la calamidad que pretenden combatir. Pues para combatir las causas de este malestar hondo se requiere, frente a las visiones ideológicas sesgadas, una visión armónica que permita unificar en su significación profunda el conjunto de males de apariencia disímil que nos perturban. Y esa visión armónica sólo puede brindarla el pensamiento tradicional.

Para desprestigiar la tradición, la modernidad tiende a identificarla con formas de vida periclitadas. Pero el pensamiento tradicional no quiere revivir el pasado (tampoco, desde luego, anticipar un futuro utópico), sino revitalizar el presente, infundiéndole una savia que ya ha probado sus cualidades reconstituyentes. En esta “enmienda a la totalidad” proponemos a nuestros lectores un puñado de reflexiones políticas a la luz del pensamiento tradicional, única alternativa verdadera al zurriburri ideológico imperante.

436 pages, Paperback

First published November 15, 2021

About the author

Juan Manuel de Prada Blanco, escritor, crítico literario y articulista español.

Reviews

[Luis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una recopilación de artículos publicados por el autor en medios periodísticos, ordenados por temáticas afines tales como la política, el capitalismo o la diversidad sexual, es el contenido superficial de este libro. El profundo son reflexiones articuladas en torno al pensamiento tradicional, que bebe de la religión y de la filosofía clásica, constituyendo una herramienta de análisis paralela que permite analizar cualquier aspecto de la actualidad.

Es la primera vez que leo a fondo a Juan Manuel de Prada, siguiendo el formato en el que antes me había asomado a él, como es alguna columna aislada. Su léxico arcaico, sus referencias también antiguas y su crítica a la totalidad de las corrientes modernas no pueden ser ajenas a nadie que haya leído cualquier texto suyo. Hay que reconocer al autor, que allí donde no parece tener más que textos deslavazados, ha creado un auténtico sistema intelectual propio que destaca por ser original en un mundo en el que llevar la contraria es fácil, pero no tanto basarse argumentadamente en algo para llevarlo a cabo. Su crítica radical al capitalismo, al que considera culpable junto al liberalismo de todo cuanto acontece, resulta novedosa y hace que sus postulados se puedan compartir por una gran diversidad de personas de un lado a otro del espectro ideológico, aunque no le compremos el catálogo completo, como es mi caso. Pero no hay que compartir ideas para reconocer su originalidad.

La idea troncal es cuanto menos, algo sorprendente. Ahora bien, el formato de esta recopilación es áspero y prolongado, no recomendado para una lectura continuada. A muchos les puede aburrir el tono del autor, es comprensible. Algunos de los artículos, los menos, han sido ampliados un poco en longitud en la revisión, lo cual se agradece. No obstante, en el agrupamiento por temas se ve claramente que el autor se repite muchísimo en sus columnas semanales y se pueden anticipar sus palabras a raíz de los anteriores una vez se tiene la idea general.

[Jesús Torres · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me ha encantado. El autor demuestra en esta compilación su enorme erudición y la solidez y amplitud de sus referencias, así como lucidez al aplicar al panorama actual los valores que defiende.

Hay una cualidad que me parece muy destacable en un libro de este tipo: a diferencia de otras recopilaciones de artículos de opinión, no se hace pesado y creo que no dejará de ser actual, porque habla de conceptos universales no ligados al momento presente.

Su riqueza conceptual también ha permitido que los capítulos puedan organizarse temáticamente y a ratos parezca, sin serlo, un ensayo concebido así desde el inicio.

[Elena · Rating 5 out of 5]

De lo mejor que he leído en mi vida.
Si eres una persona que te sientes diferente a tus coetáneos de este momento, si crees que hay algo más y que no todo esto puede ser lo absoluto y lo cierto, si de verdad crees en la trascendencia o en la dignidad del hombre y de cada persona; con este libro advertirás en el fango que chapoteamos desde hace mucho y la inexistente mirada y, ni la fe hacia lo alto y hacia lo sagrado.
Todo lo que ha sido robado y quieren aun aniquilárnoslo, siendo todo ello lo que justamente nos convierte en auténticos hombres y en virtuosos seres humanos.
Me ha encantado.

[Fonch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ladies and gentlemen announced several news to Goodreads users. The first thing is that he was wrong, and that the Faculty of Medicine does not close for Easter this Friday, but tomorrow. I have already talked to my Boss to recover the days in the afternoon I had to go two days, but I have only been able to go one day so the week of April 18 I will have to go three days to work in the afternoon.

The second warning is that having one day less I will not be able to write the reviews I wanted to write, which in his case were "The Fist of God" by Frederick Forsyth, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... and "Kings of the Wyld" by Nicholas Eames https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3... . Anyway, these works will be postponed, because if I manage to write this review. I have already planned to write the balance sheet, which I had already spoken with my followers of Goodreads of the year 2021. The interesting thing is that in that balance he also talked about books that I would like to read this year, and the books to beat in this year 2022, which at the moment seems less interesting than the year 2021.
The third notice, although I have been postponing it, I have finally decided to pay half of the books I owe in the Tree of Letters. Among them I plan to take "Laurus" by Evgeny Vodolazkin https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... , "The Healer" by Tadeusz Mostowicz Dolega https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... among others. What else does it give, that pays them now, than in May? As at Easter I like to read some péplum maybe read Anaya's edition of Quo Vadis, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5... and maybe write a review of it. This beautiful novel in this case of the Polish Nobel Prize (in this case undoubtedly deserved).

Finally, it is convenient to talk about the book that I have before me I resisted writing the criticism, since it is a deep book, and extremely complex, and I am quite vague (it must be admitted), and to all this is added another factor, and that is that I turn everything around, and that is why my criticisms are so long. However. I was very clear that once I wrote this review I could write the balance of 2021. When I'm a little savvy I have to find an incentive to do something, and I must confess one thing to Goodreads users. I like to place bets. That is, playing, but not money, or things of value. There is a very nice passage on that subject when Ana de Mendoza talks to the bishop in the novel "The Last Crusader" by Louis de Wohl https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7... I have talked many times about this friend, but when we were very young my friend Kunniotani, and I risked our princesses, and our lives, and I was very close to winning. Thank God my father interrupted me, so they can see how much I like the excitement of the game. In this case I have decided to bet on whether I should be faithful to the woman I love, or look for another. If I manage to finish this criticism I will continue to love her, despite not being loved. It is an incentive, or a stimulus, to focus on this task.

The first thing that should be said to the user of Goodreads, is whether these essays by Juan Manuel de Prada are worthy of being read by him, or not. People will be able to deduce from the note, that I have put this book, that yes. It is a less pleasant subject, than other books of his such as "A Library in the Oasis" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5... or his more cinephile version "The treasures of the crypt" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3... . This book is more arid, because it collects more than his political thought, as the title implies rather collects his vision of the modern world. That is why it is interesting to compare it with "The Book of Black" by Papini https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... with a subtle difference, and that is that while the book of the Italian writer is written from a fictional point of view that of Don Juan Manuel de Prada (who by the way has won the Prize of the Junta de Castilla y León) is from non-fiction, and from an essayistic point of view. In fact, he collects most of his essays, which he has written in XL Semanal, or in the Spanish national newspaper ABC. In fact, there is one disadvantage, actually two, but I will already talk about the second disadvantage at the end of the article. The first is that, if you are like me one of the four women, who, in the words of Don Juan Manuel De Prada, still support you (to this we can say two amendments. The first is that I am not a woman, and the second is that I could not bear it enjoyed him.) I usually take it with a Neapolitan (a kind of chocolate bun, and a yogurt) while I read the XL Semanal. But what I'm going for is the book summarized by Homo Legens (magnificently, by the way) has a flaw, and that is that if you are a regular follower of Don Juan Manuel de Prada as humbly I am. You will have the problem that you have already read all the articles that are in this book. Although I have been baptized by the administrator of his Facebook page, as the memorioso, referring to a character of Jorge Luis Borges https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... (whom De Prada admires very much by the way). The truth is that there are always things that you forget, and since Don Juan Manuel de Prada is a great writer, it is always a pleasure to reread. Although this case should not be done in one sitting, and suddenly, as I have done, but little by little. Because at the end of the day, and at the end of what he talks about is the modern world that surrounds us that due to a series of attacks on Christianity has ended up abrogating the tradition that Don Juan Manuel de Prada defends, following the line of his friend Don Miguel Ayuso https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... or the Gambra https://www.goodreads.com/author/show....
The different articles that Don Juan Manuel de Prada has written for the XL Semanal, and the ABC have been compiled into different thematic units. I recommend first reading the prologue where he talks about a stolen identity, and encourages us to be Quixote, to recover it. It should be remembered that for Don Juan Manuel de Prada the knight of the sad figure is a transcript of Jesus Christ himself, so that book https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6... has a special meaning for him. It should be borne in mind that the prologue is greatly influenced by his teachers in this case Leonardo Castellani https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... since like the Argentine Jesuit Don Juan Manuel de Prada he is fighting against enemies from outside, and from within the Church. There will also be sopapos for the current Pope, as if he were Leon Bloy https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... , also has as a reference Don Miguel de Unamuno https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... . It should not be surprising that in his struggle against the matrix the first slap was taken by Jean Jacques Rosseau https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... one of the greatest fakers of our time, who in the social contract forces https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... to follow his ideological postulates, using violence if necessary. Of course many of the dystopias have a place in the article of Juan Manuel de Prada as 1984 of Orwell, and the brave new world of Aldous Huxley, however in the opinion of Don Juan Manuel de Prada we are closer to the nightmare of Huxley, than that of Orwell. One of his bedside books is "Democracy in America" by Alexis de Tocqueville https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4... https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5... https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... There is a very harsh critique of F.B. Skinner's behaviorism in "Walden II" https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5... There is a very good article about freedom according to the arrest of rapper Pablo Hasel in which this subject is criticized, and talks about how nihilistic freedom is, but we know why, and why to use it. He criticizes the fluctuating fashions that move around the currents of opinion following the pre-Socratic Heraclitus https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... On twitter there is a very harsh criticism against Donald Trump, who was supposed according to De Prada to stop the plutocracy embodied in Dorsey, Gates, and Soros, and in the end it looks like he squealed a lot, and he was canceled, demonstrating according to De Prada the real power these plutocrats have for De Prada you have to stop distilling anger, and bile in a few characters and take action. For example, in freedom I spoke how that same freedom that the bullfighters ask for is what has been used to end the national holiday. In liberalism, and socialism that marks the end of the first block De Prada says that contrary to what it may seem (here follows Dostoyevsky's Demons) https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5... says that contrary to what liberalism may seem (understand, and this is for the American public that liberalism is not the left, but the democratic capitalist thought that is born of Descartes, the Enlightenment, and the French Revolution) on the other hand socialism is what the English-speaking public takes for liberalism. Here he follows Donoso Cortés (about Donoso will take several quotes, such as thinking that everything is a theology, and that the lower the religious thermometer the greater the tyranny we suffer), https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... and for example the "Servile State" of Hilaire Belloc, which also speaks of the same origin https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... In the new man there is a critique of the democratic man that comes from the French Revolution Descartes is attacked for dissociating philosophy from religion, and turning it into an act of voluntarism. It is not a thought then I exist, but a exist then I think (I disagree here a little. Not why do I consider Descartes' thinking good, because unlike the other scoundrels that De Prada Descartes attacks, I don't think he was bad, but that he was unlucky enough to be an orthodox man, who interpreted a heterodox system, which has done a lot of damage. Read the chapter that Belloc dedicates in "Characters of the reformation" to Descartes, and pascal) https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5... https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3... https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... If there is a criticism of the revolutionary Carrier, who destroyed those who did not agree with the Revolution, and one of the pioneers of the School of Frankfurt as is Herbert Marcuse, and his mass man. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3... https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... In this essay there are criticisms of Comte https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3... https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... In this essay there are criticisms of Comte https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... and Ortega y Gasset, who although he has greatly influenced among a large part of the Spanish political scientists, in fact he was studied in Philosophy (another of the disasters of the party in power in Spain). I will point out what Castellani says about Ortega in the opinion of the Argentine Jesuit Ortega would be one of the least transcendental, and least religious writers he knows. Pure materialism. De Prada says inspired by Donoso that Democracy does not take into account intelligences, but wills, and that it is not a form of government, they are a religious creed. There is a review for Paolo Sartori the author of Homo Videns https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... In the end we would be victims of the plutocracy, and the power of money, and that like parrots we would be repeating proclamations, and slogans that are not ours, but of the Rockefeller Foundation. From Mrcuse to his one-dimensional man, he chooses another work of his Eros and civilization https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3... as a form of control of society. De Prada would call it the so-called rights of panties that would be the soma of the plutocracy to control the masses. There is a very harsh article against the left for being pro-drug. In fact, the left is called the poodle left, and accuses it of being responsible for society being dominated by plutocracy, and the power of money. From the right that preserves the errors of the left, and that instead of bordering the precipice what they do is to leave us in front of the abyss. De Montesquieu is very interesting what De Prada says, because he is a writer who is very quoted, but very little read, and De Prada's coup is brutal. He says that he is not a democrat, but a monarchist, and what he seeks is to counterbalance what democracy has been charged. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... Regarding democracy, the attack on Winston Churchill, when he censures him that democracy is based on corruption, and also attacks Huntingdon. https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... Another moral reference is the Colombian traditionalist writer Nicolás Gómez Dávila https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... The disinformation article is very interesting since it criticizes that the same ones who have been misinforming people have then been the first to put their hands to their heads for fake news, when they have used information misrepresented to their advantage. In his article Electoral Polls there is a brutal criticism of Walter Lippman who says that people are like a flock to be guided, Carl Gustav Jung, and Edward Bernays nephew of Sigmund Freud, for manipulating people. https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...

[Krysia Meráki Stories · Rating 3 out of 5]

Si os gustan las columnas de Juan Manuel de Prada, os encantará los temas que aborda.

Considero que no deja de ser un excelente libro para plantearse la actualidad. No obstante, peca de ser un libro que repite semejantes temas constantemente del medio al final del libro.

Comprendo que hay temas que van de la mano, pero puede ser pesado para un lector principiante en sus primeros libros.

Le quitaría dos estrellas por el hecho que creo que podía ser más corto, por la forma de la narrativa.

Por el contenido creo que no deja de ser un buen libro que refleja perfectamente sus columnas como en ABC y es interesante descubrir diferentes puntos de vista.

[Alberto de Albornoz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cuando se han destruido las familias y apartado a Dios de nuestras vidas, se empieza la verdadera dictadura; porque, quien tiene una visión trascendental, luchará por defender la verdad a toda costa, mientras que el que se ha acomodado en las migajas que le dan desde las nuevas élites de lo efímero se conformará con tan poco y será sumiso.

Recomendadísimo.

[Elio Orta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Profunda lectura sobre la vida y la muerte

Libro que te pone a reflexionar intensamente sobre nuestra existencia. Te preguntas ¿para qué? Me quedan tareas pendientes de esta lectura. Agradecido con José Manuel de Prada por inculcarnos el valor de luchar contracorriente.

[Juan Ruiz · Rating 5 out of 5]

excelente

[Xavi Valles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sensacional, da gusto leer a Juan Manuel de Prada y cuesta imaginar a una persona mas culta que él y que sepa argimentar mejor sus opiniones. Un hombre cimentado en la verdad que no tiene miedo de expresar su opinión, independientemente del vilipedio que le pueda conllevar. La mejor forma de describirlo es como el "Chesterton español"

[David Lorao · Rating 4 out of 5]

Juan Manuel de Prada es un escritor excepcional y su pensamiento, más necesario y contracultural que nunca. Se me ha hecho un poco pesado el reparto de artículos por tema, ya que uno siente que está dando vueltas sobre el mismo argumento una y otra vez hasta que hay un cambio de tercio. Por lo demás, todo perfecto.

[Numo · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.8

[cristian yañez duran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Libro claro y profundo. Para meditar. Esplendidamente bien escrito.
Un aporte cultural real.
Lectura inexcusable para toda persona digna de tal cualificación.

[Steven Neira · Rating 3 out of 5]

A partir de de cierto momento se vuelve cansino y redundante, posiblemente porque hace uso de los mismos adjetivos una y otra vez para describir ciertas realidades…

[MIGUEL GOMEZ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aunque no esté de acuerdo con todo lo que se dice en el libro y en el significado que atribuye en ocasiones a algunas palabras, creo que es un libro imprescindible para comprender la sociedad y el mundo de hoy. El autor demuestra grandes conocimientos y es valiente al denunciar la deriva de las sociedades occidentales.