I. One of the most striking news stories in the Balearics in 2025 was the delayed publication of the survey on residents’ perception of tourism, a document that had apparently gone missing in some office for months and had to be rescued by the Fòrum de la Societat Civil for us to learn what everyone knew, even if some denied it: the majority of residents believe tourism must be limited in order to recover quality of life. An incontrovertible fact. Loss of identity, cultural homogenisation, gentrification, unbearable traffic jams… These are lifestyle changes that are increasingly hard to cope with. Researcher Marco d’Eramo, in his book The World as a Selfie, warns: “As long as the flow of visitors does not exceed a certain threshold, tourists enjoy services designed for residents. Once that threshold is crossed, residents are forced to rely on services designed for tourists”. He adds: “Modern tourism carries within itself the seed of its own destruction, as the mere presence of the tourist corrupts the idea of experiencing an authentic and different culture”. A highly recommended read.
II. War drums are sounding, and some countries are bringing back the military draft of the last century. Politicians seem to lose their minds. Can anyone imagine their child today leaving home with a duffel bag and a rifle slung over their shoulder, boarding a ship to defend Madrid, Kyiv, or Calatayud, to name a few? Terrifying. Since the media remain a reasonably accurate barometer of social pressure, I turned to AI to examine what front pages looked like during the two pre-war periods, from 1900 to 1914 and from 1930 to 1939. What were they talking about? More or less the same things they talk about now. Although not definitive evidence, the themes that emerge are familiar: the resurgence of old border tensions, general rearmament, territorial claims, diplomatic crises, political polarisation, amplification of ideological divisions, loss of independence and objectivity in the press, sensationalism and populism…
In the end, the great difference between that past and the present lies in two fundamental aspects, both tied to technological advances. One is that information and disinformation now travel at the speed of light. In the past, casualties were counted after days, months, or even years; since the Gulf War, death is broadcast live. But neither everything we see is real nor everything that is said. The other key difference is the enormous increase in the planet’s destructive power with the proliferation of nuclear buttons.
Sadly, after all this, we return to the beginning: humanity is moderated only by the threat of mutually assured destruction, a doctrine born in the 1960s, during the blood-soaked twentieth century, under Robert McNamara in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. And so we will continue until some fool makes a mistake, presses the button, and triggers the reaction of the rest of the fools.
III. I am a strong defender of public media as a necessary high-quality alternative to the extreme commercialisation and trivialisation of private media. But they run the risk of becoming the opposite of what they should be, such as what is happening now at TVE, with those dreary, unabashedly partisan programmes that often flank the midday news. And the example of Aznar’s former strategist Miguel Ángel Rodríguez (MAR), often cited as a counterpart from the other side, is no excuse for balance. Knowing that someone worse may exist does not grant legitimacy.
It pains me to see my essential profession wandering aimlessly like a headless chicken, without references, frustrated, and therefore more prone to losing its way. We journalists have a code of ethics which, although sadly rarely consulted, some of us still turned to when in doubt about a story. Some of us still do. The well-known phrase “when in doubt, journalism” is a warning mechanism of this profession, a safeguard that works, offering reassurance to ourselves and, above all, to society.
IV. Major international corporations and some governments have intensified pressure on what many of us considered sacred natural altars, untouchable but coveted: the deep-sea abyssal plains and the polar regions, apparently rich in resources yet unknown to ordinary citizens. The mere thought of them being exploited sets off alarm bells. As with the universe—the most unreachable of all because it is infinite—I am convinced that even if humans have not yet reached these places, at least officially, they are surely already filled with our waste and our failings.
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