Juan Goytisolo | Radio Liberty | Reading

our most noble byword: progress: colonizing the distant future by subjecting it to rigorous programming: thereby sacrificing a natural propensity for indolence and game-playing: ridding ourselves, one after the other, of our atavistic customs: gradually bringing human aspirations into conformity with the enlightened imperatives of production

creating among the citizenry a solid consumer mentality: the constant invention of new necessities whose proper satisfaction obliges the individual to strive continually to improve and surpass himself:

adapting technology to man, and conversely, man to technology: fostering the symbiosis of both: devoting the totality of our physical and moral resources to the attainment of the proposed objective: our firm resolve to reach the goal we have set ourselves excludes any and every sort of concession and hence we warn our enemies and detractors: we stand ready to employ every possible means to maintain the level of consumption of the people: and should it prove necessary, to sacrifice the people themselves: this is a philosophical principle that we shall never compromise

an exciting prospect: the adaptation of the individual, step by step, to his habitat, the gradual mutation of the organism in response to new technical and environmental conditions: just as subterranean species can dispense with the sense of sight since it has become a superfluous luxury to them or as the transition from the quadruped to the biped has taken the form of a remarkable reduction and refinement of his manual extremities, so the revolution that we are undertaking will eventually produce a fabulous specimen of the new man, a distinct type of human being: the progressive atrophy of those organs that through lack of use, or to be more precise, lack of employment, become pointless and bothersome: why continue, for instance, to have extra-long and extra-strong legs if the function for which they were created is now quite superfluous?: the more and more extensive use of the private passenger car, by upsetting all our preconceived ideas about motion, has relegated our age-old skills at walking to the junk heap: hence our bold, provocative predictions: the man of tomorrow will have members perfectly adapted to the structure of the motor vehicle that he owns: forearms ideally suited to the diameter of the wheel, tibias of precisely the right length to reach the clutch pedal, brake, and accelerator: a total harmony between nature and industry: the perfect conformity of the laws of evolution of homo sapiens and the norms of production of the planning center

instilling a sense of responsibility in the minds of our citizens: helping them to see clearly within themselves: smoothing the arduous path that leads to the future by doing away with any and every obstacle standing in the way of the development and flowering of their personality: turning each individual into a total, absolute consumer who leaves in our hands not only the organization of his professional life but also the satisfaction of his every whim in the most

private and intimate sphere of his existence: from the choice of wearing apparel, hair style, lighter, car, vacation trips, favorite sports, et cetera to the careful selection of his spouse and the meticulously planned parenthood of his offspring, always taking into account, of course, the particular nature of his desires and aspirations unaffected, spontaneous, self-assured, modern man lives his life without fundamentally altering his manner of being: his well-developed sense of identity is reflected in the consistency of his style: that personalized style that is all his own, the tailor-made measure of the man himself, is the one that we offer you, having coordinated for you a series of combinations that may often appear to be bold and daring, but are unfailingly compatible: from underwear to sweaters, from mufflers to double-breasted jackets, from trousers to hats, everything will go together beautifully: a simple happenstance?: not at all!: our secret lies in recognizing your uniqueness, since we know from experience that the ego of every man differs from that of every other: it is precisely this difference, oftentimes hidden, unavowable, that we carefully cultivate: do you dream, for example, of crawling naked over a rough brick floor in obedience to the whistle of an enigmatic blonde disguised as a railway stationmaster?: do you yearn to have a folding umbrella shoved up your ass, where it will open out like an ordinary umbrella?: you will be shown the means to make these fantasies and many others a concrete reality the moment you contact us: don't be satisfied any longer with the shoddy workmanship of the individual amateur handyman with an outmoded craft-mentality!: the world is changing, customs and habits vary nowadays, tastes are evolving: in our day and age a new concept of life has taken over, with a quite different scale of values: to become your real, total self call upon our services!: we will immediately point out to you your most distinctive individual trait

the most solid asset, the most dependable value: your youth ideas associated with it: health, spontaneity, elegance, slenderness, boundless energy, self-confidence, sporti-ness, English tailoring, credit cards, parties, jet travel, scotch on the rocks, a redheaded mistress, a fast convertible: therefore: the need to defend it from the ravages of time: to cling discreetly but doggedly to your ephemeral graces: why look your age when the very concept of age is misleading and ambiguous?: why keep your sparse gray hair, your decayed teeth, your wrinkled and sickly looking skin if you have

within your reach the stimulating possibility of replacing them with a subtle and circumspect artificial natural look?: the era of the toupee, plastic surgery, false teeth and all the ridicule that they bring in their wake has fortunately given way to better things: what we offer you today is the replacement of your epidermis, hair follicles, incisors, eyeteeth, molars unnaturally worn away by the inevitable tensions of modern society with new elements that will be harmoniously combined to form a completely overhauled, seductive image of your physical organism: we will enable you to laugh, run, have sex, show yourself in public without complexes, reconciling the picture of yourself as a person that you present to others and the one that you yourself cherish in your heart of "hearts: but we need your collaboration in order to do so: make up your mind to be really and truly young!: don't allow circumstances, fatigue, your unfortunate pessimistic turn of mind to decide for you!: just remember: delegating your power of decision to us will always be the safest and surest way of deciding for yourself

our two diametrically opposed poles: consumption versus production: the suppression of intermediate states, the elimination of those slack periods in which citizens do not consume what they have produced and do not produce what they will later consume: hence the need to lay down strict rules and regulations for the use of leisure time, to channel the desires and aspirations of the individual by sensitizing him to the magnetic field of our social philosophy: to associate for example the idea of repose with that of soft mattresses and sleeping pills, that of wandering footloose and fancy-free with the vast gamut of possibilities of escaping it all worked out by various advertising agencies: better still: to aim at the perfect simultaneity of the two poles: the creation of a paradigm of the productive consumer and vice versa by provoking a deliberate split in his psychic and vital mechanisms and functions: the possibility of eating, drinking, driving, diverting himself without thereby abandoning his fundamental status as a link in the tremendous chain of progress: the intoxicating prospect of prolonging during sleep his duties and responsibilities carried out during work hours: a qualitative, dialectical leap with incalculable consequences: the prideful adoption on the part of the individual of a superior and nobler model of humanity an evident fact: with each passing day the social gains of our era are becoming more onerous for the purse of the taxpayer overwhelmed by the heavy burden that he is forced to bear in these difficult times of crisis: does this mean that we must throw overboard what unquestionably constitutes a giant step toward the security and progress of all mankind?: can we reverse our course without openly rejecting our dogmas and giving up our optimistic beliefs in the ever-onward march of history?: the answer is obviously in the negative and any decision leading in that direction would violate our principles of free play and individual responsibility: we consider it indispensable, on the contrary, to take the bull by the horns and confront the dilemma with boldness and imagination: our proposal?: very simple: a spectacular reduction of the budget of the Welfare State by means of a superior form of consciousness-raising: instilling in pensioners, the sick, the disabled, and in all those persons in general who go to make up what the communications media euphemistically refer to as senior citizens, a clear and objective view of their miserable status as parasites: useless individuals who do not produce what they consume and who, by all the rules of elementary logic, ought to abstain from consuming: setting up radio and television courses on the subject and conditioning them gently but firmly to accept the only rational solution: their voluntary disappearance for dignity's sake: we therefore advise our viewers and radio listeners: remove yourselves from our sight when the time comes!: don't subject your loved ones unnecessarily to the detestable image of your physical and mental deterioration!: we will help you make the transition to a state of eternal repose: the expenses of the operation will naturally be borne by the public treasury and we will be honored to offer you and your family, as a bonus, a splendid, unforgettable funeral

disadvantages of the system: lack of time, the pressures of daily living: the necessity of sacrificing not only one's leisure hours, full of programmed pastimes, but also those habits and customs which, through repetition, frequently take on among those who observe them the solemn force of a ritual: the widespread belief, for instance, that it is one's duty to make love in order to ensure the perpetuation of the species: an extremely complicated ceremony, the absurd repetition of which throughout married life not only becomes a bore for the conjugal partners but also involves, from the standpoint of the community, an incalculable loss of work time!: getting undressed,

fondling each other, lying together et cetera: despite the fact that other much more convenient and efficient means exist to make certain that the woman who desires a child will have an immediate, hygienic, subtle, almost ethereal pregnancy: all she need do is call upon our insemination bank, branch offices of which have been set up even in the most remote provinces: if, for whatever reason, your husband and yourself find yourselves thousands of miles apart and the situation gives every appearance of continuing for some time: if your spouse, madame, is sterile or the two of you do not have the time for trifling, or if, in a word, you find the act of procreating tedious, we offer you a solution: visit us!: the operation is performed with surprising swiftness, in absolutely aseptic and perfectly hygienic conditions: the bank protects the anonymity of the donors, but it makes a thorough study of both their personal and family traits in order to guarantee the impeccable quality of our product: for this reason, we offer a monetary incentive to males possessing a superior pedigree: their ejaculations are kept in plastic tubes at precisely the proper temperature, thus ensuring that you will not be confronted with the hideous surprise of having given birth to a half-breed child, the sad fruit of a hybrid, impure gene: our endeavor has been crowned with a success that we ourselves find truly amazing, and today the vast majority of mothers make use of our services instead of exposing themselves to the difficulties and dangers of a bothersome and pointless act of copulation

according to data gathered by our sociologists and city planners, a mysterious but demonstrable correlation exists between suicide and street violence: a dramatic increase in the latter will be accompanied by an equally spectacular decrease in the number of persons who successfully attempt to end their own lives: conversely, the greater the number of suicides, the fewer criminal assaults, murders, and other bloody misdeeds will be reported in the pages of our sensationalist press: a subtle connection which, like the law of hydraulic equilibrium, keeps the total number of victims at a constant, practically invariable level a discovery of capital importance, from which our democratically elected municipal authorities are attempting, as is only logical, to extract the maximum possible benefit: for if the press and opposition groups might perhaps rightfully tax them with responsibility for the shocking crime rate, deeds of violence, muggings, holdups and the like that in societies less cautious than ours continually threaten citizens' lives, who would ever dream of holding them responsible for what are beyond question pure and simple suicides?: hence, properly advised by a team of psychologists and public relations experts, we have launched a discreet and effective campaign to promote among the masses the idea of the nobility and dignity of the act whereby a person takes it upon himself, of his own free will, to end his days: from the projection of films and spot commercials in which voluntary death is depicted in kindly, almost cheery tones to omnipresent, downright obsessive advertisements for powerful sedatives and sleeping pills that are easy and painless to use: not to mention the establishment of an SOS telephone service for misfits, alcoholics, people who are severely depressed: a prerecorded message in a warm, persuasive female voice: simple bits of advice repeated at regular intervals in different languages: don't prolong your suffering needlessly!: don't allow yourself to become a burden on your family and friends!: resolve to put an end to your unbearable loneliness!: break once and for all the vicious circle of your anxiety!: your disappearance from this world need not necessarily be as unpleasant as you may think!: with a little imagination on your part it can even be delightful!: followed immediately by a complete list of drugs available without a prescription in our principal department stores and pharmacies: fraternally advising those who call in as to the proper way of taking them: one, two, three dozen pills in a glass of plain tap water, adding a few drops of whiskey to make sure it tastes better: or for lofty and pure souls, incurable romantics, a bubbling glass of champagne and selections from Wagner, Chopin, and Rachmaninoff as background music: and finally, convincing those who are still hesitating by reading them specially chosen passages from Seneca or some other glorious paradigm: the epidemic of voluntary deaths that has struck the city recently has swept away all trace of violence from our horizon and put a damper on the campaign on the part of vicious malcontents and dissenters enternally opposed to the energetic and ingenious policies pursued by our provident municipal management

Translated by Helen Lane