Beyond the corrupt: what The Spider's Web reveals about us

We live surrounded by headlines, scandals, commissions of inquiry and resignations that simulate a fight against corruption. But we rarely dare to ask the most uncomfortable question:

"What if corruption were not a deviation from the system, but one of its most effective ways of functioning?"

The tale of good and evil is no longer true

Classical liberalism, born of the Enlightenment, defended individual freedom as a limit to the absolute power of the State and the Church. Later, economic liberalism also defended private property, the free market and non-intervention as guarantees of this freedom. But it was in the 1970s, after the oil crisis and the weakening of the Keynesian model, that this idea evolved into what we know today as neoliberalism: a system that makes competition the guiding principle of all social life, and which considers economic success as a moral indicator.

This historical shift -from autonomy to self-valuation for profitability- is key to understanding why corruption does not appear as an error, but as a logical adaptation.

To facilitate this transition, rather than fighting the system, this new individualism internalized it. It made personal success a moral judgment and turned cooperation into weakness. What was once an impulse for shared freedom is today disfigured into perpetual competition.

One might think that what the documentary shows is a British problem, a historical anomaly of its imperial legacy. But it is enough to look at the large capital flows, the free trade agreements, the financial centers in tax havens and the tax evasion practices of large multinationals to understand that this is not a problem exclusive to the United Kingdom: it is a global logic.

The offshore network has no flag. And although the documentary focuses on the British heritage, what it describes is an architecture of impunity replicated - and sustained - from Washington to Luxembourg, from Zurich to Panama.

Corruption: the symptom, not the disease

And how does all this affect the average citizen? Directly and on a daily basis.

Every euro that is diverted through tax engineering, every wealth hidden in an offshore structure, is money that does not go to public services, health, education, care. The average citizen does not evade taxes: he pays them. And he also pays for the effects of a growing inequality that feeds on this structural imbalance.

In Spain, for example, the recent investigation into "kickbacks" in public contracts has put the spotlight on several political intermediaries. But while those who were paid are on trial, the companies that offered the commissions are rarely singled out. Acciona - the alleged corruptor in this case - barely makes the headlines.

434 million awarded in public contracts to companies involved in the investigation. Under suspicion: 620,000 euros in alleged kickbacks.

The real cost is not in what is stolen. It is in what is normalized.

It is a global pattern: the spotlight is focused on the lesser executors, but not on the business structures that sustain the system. And the official discourse blames social spending or lack of productivity, when a large part of the problem is that those who have the most have found a way to protect themselves from collective commitment.

In a system based on competitiveness, accumulation and structural selfishness, corruption is not a flaw: it is an efficient shortcut.

It does not appear when someone deviates, but when someone plays the game better.

What is publicly penalized is privately rewarded with promotions, contracts, influence. What we call corruption when others do it, we call strategy when we do it ourselves.

And so, the system does not collapse: it is strengthened.

A society that has already made a pact with the system

It is particularly paradoxical to observe how sectors of the working or middle class adopt right-wing discourses that, in practice, reinforce the structures that oppress them. They are indignant about minimal social assistance, but not about the billions evaded by those at the top.

They speak of effort and merit on a board where privilege decides before the game begins.

This contradiction is not the result of stupidity, but of a carefully cultivated narrative: the dream of moving up, of one day being part of the winners. A narrative that makes aspirational that which marginalizes them. Defending the system in the hope that one day it will invite you to its table.

Most know, deep down, that the game is rigged. But they choose to play anyway. Not out of ignorance, but out of survival.

Thus, a functional double standard is installed:

  • In the discourse: ethics, legality, justice.
  • In practice: shortcuts, contacts, omissions.

As if hating the king were compatible with wanting to occupy his throne.

Have you ever felt that your honesty lets you off the hook? Have you ever had to justify decisions that you know favor the system you criticize? How many times have you heard someone say 'I would do it too if I could'?

That is where the collective begins to die. And the system is grateful for it: fragmented citizens, indignant but resigned, are much more manageable than a society articulated from coherence.

So... is there a way out?

Before addressing possible ways out, it is important to recognize an underlying nuance that is rarely mentioned:

The fierce individualism that dominates our times is not born out of nothing. It could be understood as a deformation of the natural impulse of autonomy, that which pushes the individual to survive, to develop, to find meaning. An impulse that, when healthy, goes from "I" to "we", because it understands that interdependence is not weakness, but strength.

The problem is that neoliberalism has emptied that path. It has maintained the "I", has erased the "we", and has put in its place a mirage: the illusion that to compete is to collaborate, that individual success is enough, that the collective is always a threat. And in this illusion, loneliness is presented as freedom, and disillusionment becomes the norm.

1. Recognize the system as it is, without self-deception.

Stop pretending. To stop playing at the theater of rotten apples. To understand that as long as we reward success unlinked to responsibility, corruption will be the norm.

2. Reappropriating language and ethics

It is not about returning to a religious morality, but about questioning the narratives that justify the unjustifiable. To say "this is not right" even if it is legal. To say "this is not fair" even if it is profitable.

3. Building new forms of social relationships

In small, out of the spotlight, there are already communities, networks, projects that do not operate according to the logic of the strongest. People who disobey without noise. Who build without asking permission. Who stop collaborating with what they know is broken.

It’s not about saving the world. It’s about stopping, each day, from reinforcing the one that’s devouring it.

A final invitation

The Spider’s Web offers no comfort. But it does offer clarity. And in times like these, seeing with lucidity is the first act of resistance.

🎬 URBAWAKE Recommendation: The Spider’s Web
A slow-paced, sober, and unembellished documentary. It goes deep, not dramatic. Watch it if you want to understand how power operates — without fiery soundbites or suspenseful music. It’s not perfect, but it is uncomfortable. And that makes it valuable.
If you still believe the corrupt are the exception, take a look. And if you no longer believe it, look anyway. Because as long as we keep talking about corruption as if it were an anomaly, we’ll remain trapped in the game.

And the problem isn’t just that the game is rigged — it’s that it was designed to work that way from the very beginning.

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