The picaresque phenomenon: "Let's see if it works..."

In the text that accompanies our intercultural seminar (Espana, ombligo del mundo by Rosa Maria Artal), the author addresses an important thread in the tapestry of Spanish culture. This attribute of many Spanish individuals and a significant portion of Spanish society is derived from the picaro archetype of the picaresque novel in Spain. He is known as a roguish main character who, within a corrupt society, lives by his wits in order to survive. However, to do so, the "hero" lies, cheats, steals, and generally gets away with whatever he can while avoiding honorable work.

Lazarillo de Tormes, the first true picaresque novel in Spain

This theme is particularly fascinating to me, because as Artal points out, la picaresca exists on every plane of Spanish society - from its children, the majority of which would rather claim unemployment benefit than have an actual job; to its politicians (although name a country which lacks corruption on a political level...). Although a portion of this conduct can be simply be chalked up to human behavior, the extent to which many Spaniards appear to carry out this trickery is worrisome to me. Maybe I'm overreacting, but I don't believe that raising kids to believe that it's all right to "get away with" everything they possibly can without applying effort is good for Spain's future.

Over at the Puerta del Sol blog, Jonathan Holland writes that la picaresca is "more often used in self-defence against bureaucratic excess" - which is understandable. Nevertheless, he then cites a study conducted by ABC in which 36.9% of university students claimed that copying in an exam is justified. I realize that coming from the United States, land of the rags-to-riches, everyone-can-succeed-with-hard-work myth makes me biased. Yet surveys such as these, for me, point to a defect in Spanish society that is only going to get worse if Spaniards do not become more "ashamed" than "proud" of this particular trait, to relate to Holland's observations. If the underhanded actions which characterize industries such as construction (to which Artal devotes much of her third chapter) continue, I hypothesize that the country will dig itself a bigger and bigger moral and economic hole that it may not be able to escape.