Like dogs

Perhaps the only thing we can say about the phenomenon therian It's a phenomenon. That people go out dressed as animals, that they identify with them to the point of confusing their personality with that of a beast, or that they go around on all fours making animalistic noises, is no small matter. But that it's being discussed all over the world as if it were something to be concerned about, or a danger, or a sign of collective madness, or yet another piece of evidence that we live in 'the decline of the West,' is even more revealing.

Because if the current trend of these gatherings of animal transformation enthusiasts makes one thing clear, it's that there are more people taking photos of them or mocking them than there are followers of Gregor Samsa. This Kafkaesque character woke up one morning transformed into a beetle, but it seems there are some people, very few, who would like the same thing, but as a horse, a cat, a dog, or a tiger. The classical cynicism of Diogenes prescribed precisely that: 'Be like dogs.' And that's where the word 'cynic' comes from; according to this old philosophy, naturalness was championed, the absence of shame, liberation from social conventions, but also the ability to eat anything, and the desire to remain alert—barking—to true virtue. And perhaps this isn't the message these small groups want to convey. therians?

Anyone who's ever been a child has fantasized about being a cat, leaping and bounding across rooftops, or a dog, spending all day lying down. In political fantasies, animals have also taken the place once held by the noble savage: the incorruptible being, untainted by the perversions that society instills in us all. We no longer want to redeem the proletariat, but the beasts. And I'm sure that just as the children of the middle classes—or certain bourgeoisies—used to dress up as workers, now they want to resemble a gray wolf or a genet, donning a mask and a faux-fur coat.

In Barcelona the other day, more than 3,000 people gathered just to see a dozen of these costumed characters. Those on the right want to link all of this to culture. wokeIt's as if we were also demanding legal recognition for changing species, just as we've previously granted it for changing gender. There are reserves of hatred that have been poured out abundantly upon these bestialized people, as if they were deserters from a humanity we want to defend from these outlandish characters, just as certain supposed heterosexuals feel that homosexuals endanger the species. But none of that is dangerous, or not for the reasons it seems. And at the same time, imagine if one of your children preferred to be a pony rather than your child.

We can interpret it in different ways, although the easiest is the most obvious: some people are tired of being human, because living on this planet as a human being comes at a higher cost each day in dignity, and in euros. therians They hold up a mirror to us, even if it can only be held up by their stupidity.