A statement by Arturo Pérez-Reverte about young people have caused a stir in social networks in recent days. In the viral video there is a fragment of an interview where the writer states: “We are raising young generations, now, at this moment, that are not prepared for when the Titanic iceberg comes.”
The viral video includes images of young Valencians helping to repair the damage caused by the recent DANA in the Valencian Communityafter the overflowing of rivers and heavy rains. The combination of Perez Reverte’s message and the videos of the young people at work has given rise to strong criticism in networks, accusing the author of generalizing and underestimating the new generations.
However, this is misleading. The writer clarified in the broadcast of El Hormiguero last November 4 that his words have been taken out of context to viralize them in the context of the DANA. As he explained, this sentence was part of a broader reflection on new technologies.
Pérez Reverte’s controversial video.
To check the veracity of the viralized message, INFOVERITAS has gone to the original interview in which Pérez Reverte expressed the controversial words. In a simple search on YouTube with the words “young people”, “Titanic”, “El Hormiguero” and “Pérez Reverte”. we located the original reproduction.
At this excerpt from the interviewpublished on October 26, 2022, shows from minute 2.14 that the writer was referring to the challenges of education in preparing young people for the future, was not a direct criticism of their ability or willingness during the Valencia DANA. In fact, the statements were made, as the date of the interview shows, before the floods that devastated the Valencian Community and other Spanish regions.
Specifically, Pérez Reverte says the following: “We are raising generations of young people now, at this moment, that are not prepared for when the iceberg of the Titanic comes. We have been raised, I am as guilty as you and all of us, hyper-protected, thinking that the world is solved by doing so (…) It is a mistake, because we have taken away their defensive mechanisms. Violence is bad, good is bad depends less as you have to defend yourself, then it is good (…) We are raising kids too comfortably installed in an unreal world”.
Pérez Reverte’s words taken out of context
However, the author himself has clarified these declarations in a recent interview on November 4 on the same program. The presenter, Pablo Motosbegins his speech by saying: “These days I have seen how thousands of young people have walked miles to help devastated villages, in fact, in many places it has been the only help and one of your interventions has gone viral on El Hormiguero in which you say that we are educating a generation of young people who are not prepared for when the Titanic arrives”. “I was talking about something else,” Pérez Reverte responds.. “I was talking about technology, the telephone, that kind of thing…”.
He has also indicated in that interview about young people that, “we have not prepared them for the crude and harsh reality when it hits, however, this has shown one thing (…) and that is that they do not need to be prepared, they have within them generosity, solidarity, courage and bravery (…) and nobody has taught them that”.
INFOVERITAS verifies that…
The video in which Arturo Pérez Reverte says: “We are raising young generations, now, at this moment, who are not prepared for when the Titanic iceberg comes.” is taken out of context to associate it with the young volunteers who have helped in the DANA. In the original interview, recorded two years ago, Pérez Reverte referred to the challenges of education in technologies.