Monday, January 18, 2021

Iron surgeon

Nick.Knaebel:


The '''iron surgeon''' was a term coined by [[Spain|Spanish]] author and [[Regenerationism|regenerationist]] politician [[Joaquín Costa]] after the [[Spanish–American War|Crisis of '98]]. It referred to a hypothetical figure that would cure Spain's political maladies.

Costa first proposed the iron surgeon in his [[1902]] work ''Oligarchy and Caciquismo as the Current Form of Government in Spain: Urgency and Means of Changing It'':<blockquote>This surgical policy, I repeat, must be the personal charge of an iron surgeon, who knows the anatomy of Spain well and feels an infinite compassion for it...</blockquote>This figure, a type of [[Benevolent dictatorship|benevolent dictator]] with fundamentally spiritual qualities, would be charged with enacting policies to eliminate [[Cacique#Caciquismo and Caudillismo|caciquismo]] at the margins of [[Cortes Generales|Parliament]] in order to improve the country.<ref></ref>

The iron surgeon could be understood as a Spanish version of the [[Friedrich Nietzsche|Nitzschean]] [[Übermensch|ubermensche]], and was a product of Costa's disenfranchisement with the political system of the [[Restoration (Spain)|Restoration]] and his progressive political radicalization. Costa defended himself from criticism, insisting that the surgeon did not necessarily have to be identified with a dictator. [[Enrique Tierno Galván]] identified Costa's ideas as [[Proto-fascism|proto-fascist]], although [[Sebastian Balfour]] argued that they aligned more with 19<sup>th</sup> century [[Praetorianism|praetorian]] [[liberalism]] than with 20<sup>th</sup> century [[totalitarianism]].<ref></ref>

Costa's ideas were a recurring theme in the writings of [[Miguel Primo de Rivera]], who saw himself as the iron surgeon and incorporated himself into the regenerationist discourse of the [[Francoist Spain|dictatorship's]] Military Directorate.<ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref>

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Spanish nationalism]]
[[Category:Politics of Spain]]
[[Category:Political terminology]]


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