If Catalonia Fails, We All Fail

While I’ve touched on the Catalan independence movement in several recent posts, I want to make one thing clear from the start. I don’t have a strong opinion on whether or not independence is the right move for the region and its people. It would be completely inappropriate for me, a U.S. citizen living in Colorado, to lecture people 5,000 miles away on how they should organize their political lives.

While I don’t have an opinion on how Catalans should vote, I unwaveringly support their right to decide the issue for themselves. When it comes to the issue of voting and referendums, we’ve entered a topic far bigger than Catalonia, Spain, or even Europe itself. When it comes to the issue of political self-determination, we’re talking about an essential human right which should be seen as inherent to all of us, everywhere.

The Catalan push for a right for vote on independence should be seen as part of a much larger push toward greater self-determination that humans will demand in increasingly large numbers in the years ahead. The time is ripe for us as a species to insist on a transition toward a more voluntary, sane, peaceful and decentralized process of political organization. This is an idea whose time has come, and I thank the Catalan people from the bottom of my heart for brining it to the fore, and also for conducting themselves in such a noble, courageous and thoughtful manner. You are leading the way for the rest of us.

The key reason Madrid is wrong on this issue relates to its insistence that Spain must sustain itself in its current form forever. Since Spain is a manmade political creation, this is the modern equivalent of claiming a “divine right of kings,” but rather than bestowing this archaic conception on individual rulers, it’s bestowed upon a nation-state. This is not just an absurd position, it’s patently anti-human. As I discussed in the post, It’s Time to Question the Modern Nation-State Model of Governance:

As things stand today, humans essentially have two choices when it comes to political life. We either accept the nation-state we’re born into and play the game to the best of our advantage, or we try to become citizens of another country with values that more align with our own. The only way to really shatter existing political power structures and form new ones is through violent revolution or war, which is an insane way of reorganizing matters of human governance. One of Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s key arguments in casting the Catalan referendum as illegal is that Spain is an indivisible nation under the 1978 constitution. Let’s think about what this means in practice.

Anyone who’s spent any time in Spain understands how culturally and linguistically distinct many of the regions are when compared to Madrid. These are differences that go back centuries and can’t be brushed off by a constitution created a few decades ago. The idea that these various regions must be part of a centralized Spain even if the people within the regions want political autonomy is ethically preposterous, as well as authoritarian and evil in every sense of the word. If done properly, human governance should always be a voluntary arrangement. If an overwhelming majority of culturally distinct people within any nation-state decide the super state is no longer working for them, they should have every right to leave. Anything else is bondage.

If humans are going to evolve into better forms of political organization rooted in voluntary associations, we must first reject the clear authoritarian nature of our current political environments. All of us are randomly born into nation-states which we never chose in the first place and told to accept them as eternal structures. The people of Catalonia have realized the absurdity of this and are taking a brave stand on the issue. Anyone who genuinely believes in human rights must stand with the people of Catalonia and support their right to a referendum should they choose to have one.

With political philosophy out of the way, I want to move on to a discussion of strategy and why I think those leading the push for Catalan independence have played their hand brilliantly thus far.

First, leadership’s emphasis on a peaceful movement in the face of thuggish violence and aggression by the Spanish state is of the utmost importance. For an independence movement to succeed and create a better, more free society afterwards, things must be done in a conscious way. As I’ve said many times before, ends never justify the means. The means are everything. Moreover, by exposing the opposition as goons, you foster increased solidarity amongst your neighbors who may have been on the fence when it comes to independence. You also create passionate allies across the world. The Catalan people have succeeded remarkably on all these fronts.

Immediately following the October 1st referendum, I was concerned that Catalan President Carles Puigdemont would make a mistake by prematurely declaring independence. This would’ve been a huge error since while 90% voted for independence, only 40% or so voted. While such a lopsided result certainly makes the case that Catalans deserve a vote for self-determination, it’s not a clear mandate given the low turnout. If the people of Catalonia want to succeed in their push, Madrid must be seen as the unreasonable — and very public — aggressor in virtually every move on the chessboard. By not prematurely declaring independence Catalonia pushed the move back into Madrid’s court, which is wise since the government there has a habit of making really stupid decisions.

Unsurprisingly, it didn’t take long for Spain to make yet another blunder with yesterday’s imprisonment without bail of two of Catalonia’s independence leaders.

Reuters reported:

Spain’s biggest political crisis in decades worsened on Monday night when Madrid’s High Court jailed the heads of Catalonia’s two main separatist groups pending an investigation for alleged sedition.

The Catalan government accused Madrid of taking “political prisoners” and one of the groups has called for peaceful demonstrations around Catalonia on Tuesday, with the biggest expected to begin in Barcelona in the evening.

Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont, in a tweet following the detentions, said: “Sadly, we have political prisoners again.”

The phrase was an allusion to the military dictatorship under Francisco Franco, when Catalan culture and language were systematically suppressed. It carries an emotional resonance given fascism is still a living memory for many Spaniards.

Knowing that jail was a possibility, Omnium chief Jordi Cuixart had prerecorded a video message. It’s short, powerful and inspiring.

If you think you’ve seen enough, brace yourselves because it may get far more chaotic in the days ahead. If Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy goes through with his threat to invoke Article 155 on Thursday should Catalonia refuse to clarify its position on independence (it won’t), it’ll be the equivalent of a political nuclear bomb going off in Europe.

From the AP:

Spain’s deputy prime minister says that Catalonia’s leader didn’t give an adequate response in his letter about the region’s independence and has until Thursday to comply with the country’s laws.

Carles Puigdemont’s letter, issued two hours before a Monday deadline, didn’t clarify whether he in fact declared Catalonia’s independence from Spain. He called for talks with Spain’s government.

Spain’s central government wanted a simple “yes” or “no” answer from Puigdemont, something that Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said that he didn’t provide.

Saenz de Santamaria said in an address to reporters that “it wasn’t very difficult to say yes or no. That was the question that was asked and the response shouldn’t be complicated.”

She said he has until Thursday morning to fall in line, or faces the possibility of Spain activating Article 155 of the Constitution which would allow the central government to take over parts of Catalonia’s self-governance.

Should the Spanish government activate Article 155, it’ll mark the culmination of a perfectly played independence movement by the Catalans. This isn’t to say that the road to independence, or more autonomy, will be smooth or easy from that point forward, but it will create a sense of increased solidarity amongst the Catalan people that wasn’t as widespread before October 1st. Many of those who opposed independence before, or were on the fence, will come around to standing with their friends and neighbors in the face of unacceptable aggression from Madrid. The road may be a long one, but invoking Article 155 will mark the beginning of the end for Madrid.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, the issue of political self-determination is much bigger than Catalonia and Madrid. The Catalan struggle represents just one battle in an overall human push for freedom and voluntary associations. It’s a fight in a much larger war that absolutely must be won for liberty and progress to blossom on this planet. A battle between decentralization, freedom and voluntary action, against centralization, authoritarianism and coercion.

You know where I stand.

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In Liberty,
Michael Krieger

 

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23 thoughts on “If Catalonia Fails, We All Fail”

  1. Great article. I agree with your strategy, intepretations, and prediction, in reference to Catalonia specifically. Quite the Chess game while Spain is playing Checkers.

    I’m still unsure of how the background arguement (“When it comes to the issue of political self-determination, we’re talking about an essential human right.”) would or shoudl play out. Extending this, this means that any state should be allowed to leave the USA – and any city or county should be allowed to leave any state. However, it seems that the central gov’t (be it the federal or the states) should also have some say, as they have invested in the local entitity. Also, people are (usually) allowed to leave the political subdivision if they don’t like it – I think that is the essential human right, as opposed to the right to separate from the larger entity.

    I have also brought up the complexity of the actaul separation process. I honestly don’t think that most people grasp this complexity and the 2nd and 3rd order effects. Given how easily peopel are swayed in electing our political leaders, it seems that it would be quite easy to get people to vote against their own self interest. For example, one benefit of a strong central governement is the potential to counter multi-national corporations or other large entities. Of course, those same entities can also subvert the govt to entrench their own power…

    Reply
  2. From Zero Hedge “If the government can arbitrarily make special rules for segments of society, then there is no objective rule of law.” Somewhere this is in the mix. Perhaps the Catalonians need the ACLU to step in.

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  3. You, like all of us, are searching for ‘a better way’ because we sense our present form of government is crashing from being an Oligarchy. In my new website–Intel-Daily.com–I have proposed an ,already proven, form of government which could save us at this critical moment. Important.
    It is titled AUTHORITY. Read it. Intel-Daily.com

    Reply
  4. If you are going to advertise your website on someone else’s website, you should at least give more background and info on how it relates, rather than a cliff-hanger post. In its current form, your post doesn’t address the topic at hand nor any of the comments, and if I were Michael I woudl delete it.

    Reply
    • Yeah, I’ve been watching these posts. Every once in a while it’s ok, especially if as you say, there’s some meat to the bones. That said, if this becomes a constant thing, advertising an outside website on every post, I will consider taking action.

  5. Hi, Michael indeed I agree with you that your 5000 mile distance to the country and lack of knowledge of the history of the region does not give you the best footing to give a lecture on this. I am a libertarian, and if we are going to defend the libertarian cause in Catalonia it should be on the side of the 57% of Catalans who don´t want to be imposed a new Catalan nation-state (those entities you mention as outdated) by an extremist minority. You lose credibility by saying that Spain – a very solid democracy in Europe with a history for respect for rule of rule – is oppressing the CAtalan people, this is indeed a simplistic view which is what a small % of Catalans want the world to feel. The Government is not insisting that it “should continue in tis current form forever”, the government last week together with the main opposition party said they were open to a reform of the constitution. Re your statement that Spain is a man made creation I agree, just like any country or religious group or interest group of this world!! the US is also a man made creation, the Catholic church, the mormons, the Manchester united fans….all human groups are man made creations, brought together by values and beliefs and emotions in some cases….s to its insistence that Spain must sustain itself in its current form forever. Since Spain is a manmade political creation. There are ways to channel the differences of opinions, the main ones being elections and a Parliament which functions pretty well in Spain as we don´t have just 2 political parties but more than 10 with a representation at the Parliament. There are countless ways to debate, what the Government of Catalonia did – with the majority of its population not backing it – is go agains the law and take the law in their own hands, and you´ll agree with me that when this happens the rules of the game are broken and democracy is at stake. If we don´t uphold the law and the rule of law now, when should we, at our convenience? What can prevent me from highlighting my libertarian nature so I don´t pay taxes, stop following police orders, and go my own way? We´d have a complete anarchy which is actually the DNA of the Catalan Government, as you know the agenda has been imposed by the CUP political party, whose votes the Catalan Government needed to get their guy elected, and to hold a slim majority in the regional parliament. They are no libertarians. They do no respect any laws. They want anarchy, want no euro, want to rules, and want to rely on local assemblies to manage power. They systematically exert pressure on anyone thinking differently, this includes amassing hundreds if people at the doors of Government offices to push their Agenda with no exception or discussion wahtsoever. The same goes with the ANC and Omnium, two independent organizations that publicly say they want people to demonstrate peacefully, but leaked documents disclose their strategy is a complete paralysis of the region by creating roadblocks, demonstrations, not paying taxes and so forth, so that Spain will have to accept independence as “de facto”. Where is the libertarian soul on this? They remind me more of the brown shirted youths of the SS and the hitler junge in the Germany of the 1930´s, closing down the shops that want to open when they say they should close on a given day and making lists of “good vs bad catalans” and “good vs bad catalan companies”. Mr Cuixart whose video you include is in jail for organizing a massive demostration in front of a Government bilg in Barcelona; in that demonstration Mr Cuixart told the crowd not to move from the door of the blg for all the night, the crowd at the same time destroyed 2 police cars parked at the door. The Government officials inside the building were only able to leave the building 15 hours later,. Does this situation ring a bell with the US EMbassy situation in IRan in 1980? Where is the pacifism in this? I urge you to take a much closer look at the methods, results, and intransigent philosophy of these organizations before losing credibility by giving praising them as Liberty Blitzkrieg does now. Many thanks and best rgds

    Reply
    • Miguel, thanks for taking the time to respond to the post, but unfortunately you seemed to miss the major point I was trying to get across. As such, let me set a few things straight in case I wasn’t clear enough.

      1) I am not a libertarian, nor do I claim to be one. I have made this clear on numerous occasions, in numerous posts, but people still like to label me. As I wrote last year about myself:

      I am not a Democrat or a Republican. I do not consider myself a libertarian, progressive, socialist, anarchist, conservative, neoconservative or neoliberal. I’m just a 38 year old guy trying to figure it all out. Naturally, this doesn’t imply that there aren’t things which I hold dear. I have a strong belief system based on key principles. It’s just that I don’t think it makes sense for me to self-label and become part of a tribe. The moment you self-label, is the moment you stop thinking for yourself. It’s also the moment you stop listening. When you think you have all the answers, anyone who doesn’t think exactly as you do on all topics is either stupid or “paid opposition.” I don’t subscribe to this way of thinking.

      2) With that out of the way, if you are a regular reader of the site you will know what many of my key principles are. From the very beginning of my writings I have stated that I think the way the world is structured is in many ways oppressive and archaic and we need paradigm level change. Full stop. One of these areas relates to how we organize politically, which I have been increasingly focused on especially since the advent of Bitcoin.

      3) I have encouraged peaceful, conscious and intelligent resistance in the face of authoritarianism and oppression. Part of this relates to civil disobedience which has a long history in the U.S. from the Boston Tea Party, to Henry David Thoreau and Martin Luther King Jr. This has to do with brave individuals being willing to break unjust laws and suffer the consequences of them in order to push forward change. In many cases the people doing this are beaten up by the authorities, arrested or worse. It takes discipline and sacrifice. This is what I, and most of the world saw the Catalan people do on October 1st. It was the most brilliant example of peaceful mass civil disobedience I can remember in my lifetime.

      4) You mention that a couple of cop cars were destroyed. Really? Is that all you’ve got. It’s actually incredible that this is the extent of the violence you can point to, and it wasn’t even against another human, but against property. I’m not a proponent of destroying property, but everyone can see there’s a difference.

      5) The point of my article was to make a broader point of political philosophy that we need to rethink the nature of the nation-state altogether, and we should all attempt to move toward voluntary political associations and encourage self-determination. This won’t be easy or clean, but it is ethical, just and necessary in order to advance as a species.

      6) The only people who should have a say in whether Catalonia stays or becomes independent are the Catalans. If they don’t wish to leave as you claim, that’s fine, I don’t care whether they do or don’t, I care that they have a choice. Madrid should not stand in the way of a referendum at the very least. The Constitution of Spain gives people no exit avenue. This is not acceptable. So the Catalan people are engaged in civil disobedience against what they believe is an unfair constitution. This is also partly how civil rights were won in America, and is a way for a minority people to demand rights that the majority refuses to give them.

      7) As far as the U.S., absolutely there should be a way for states to leave. I believe in political self-determination for all peoples everywhere. Spain just happens to be ground zero for a far greater battle, but the principles I outlined in my piece can and should be applied all over the word. I agree that the Catholic Church, Mormonism and Manchester United are manmade. One can also easily leave any of these groups should one choose to do so. Similarly, there must be a clear way to leave Spain.

  6. The current tile is misleading, in the sense that you are transmitting the idea that liberty is at stake in Catalonia. It is but the opposite way you depict it. Democreacy and freedom are at stake if we let the more violent minority and the ones who don´t respect the rules get away with their will. History of full of cases, the Nazi party got to power with barely more than 30% of the votes after political maneuvers, but only after the Beerputsch with the strategy of making more noise than anyone, paralyzing the cities at will and showing strenght to make lasting impressions to bystanders. So in my view a better title for this article would have been: “the failure of the current way that some catalans are doing things should remind us there are proper ways to bring forth the changes that we all want in our societies, including a more fair tax system, a more decentralized political system, and a more participative democreacy”. DON´T GET FOOLED BY THE SHINE, MICHAEL, YOU KNOW BETTER. Many thks and best rgds

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  7. I think what grates is that the Independistas don’t seem to be any different underneath to the incumbents of the centralised system they are trying to depose. By that I mean that the Catalan leadership aren’t advocating some sort of new fangled Star Trek society, they basically want to be in charge of an economic powerhouse, with a bigger slice of “their” pie and an unbridled hold on their peeps. Pretty much like the Brexit proponents.

    Ideally the leadership on both sides reel their necks in and strike a deal that respects all parties ie a democratic vote where ideally the whole of Spain gets a say in Catalan independence, because many Catalans don’t live in Catalonia and many non Catalan Spanish do. And again, learning from Brexit, EVERYONE in Spain needs to understand what is really at stake if Catalonia goes its own way.

    Peace!

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  8. Thanks for your clarifications, Michael, I truly appreciate them and I feel your readers will do as well. Just a few comments /misconceptions you might have on Spain, that don´t make it a valid/good example of the excellent points you raise on the need for the world to challenge systems in order to aspire to a better Governance system:

    1. I also encourage “peacuful and intelligent” resistance in the face of oppression, but I honestly think, and so does 99,9% of the world and international organizations, and every day walking citizens, that Spain does not represent “authoritarianism and oppression” as you say. Spain is one of the most open and more free societies of the world, as you´ll see in global rankings and according to surveys made with the local population. Spaniards (including Catalans!) are truly happy people, who value the freedom they have in every respect of life, whether its speech, religion, political view and sexual orientation. Spain is also a good example of integration, 10% of our population is from a foreign origin, mostly Latin America, Eastern Europe and Africa. There is freedom of speech, as even of language, we are so open that we even allow political parties and newspapers that openly favor and campaign the breakup of Spain, the breakup of the system itself from which they feed. This is not the case with 95% of the countries of the world.

    2. The Oct 1st intervention by the Spanish Police was a mistake by the Spanish Government, but the stage had been carefully set by the Catalan Government for things to happen exactly this way for the world to see how “they were oppressed”. It seems they succeeded with you. Not many others see the “oppression”. But as I was telling you, you have to see through this and get to the bottom. that day was not about police beating people and preventing them from voting, it was about a trap set by the Catalan police, who had assured tey would close the voting stations, only to call in the Spanish police to do the dirty job they didn´t want to do, and the Spanish Government badly failing to see this was just as stage for press photographers to show the world “democracy against oppression”. That day was about two Governments – one regional, the other one national – playing their cards with the people beng used as cards. As mentioned, the issue in Catalonia is not democracy against oppression, Michael, but about “43% of Catalans who want to leave and 57% of Catalans that don´t want to leave”. The other big issue is what comes first the Law or the people.

    2. If Catalans want to leave (which is not true, only 43% voted for independence, and even the vote is not recognized as it was not audited ny anyone; check taht out through the internet or your sources), which is right now perfectly possible with the current Constitution. There are two ways to do this; a) Covince the rest of Spain, as all of Spain votes (“sovereignty of Spain remains with alll the Spanish Population” says article 1) or b) They can ally with other political parties at Parliament to change the Constitution and improve it and allow for other types of exits and hopefully improve many other articles. This is perfectly possible, The Constitution can be changed, in fact there is an article within its main body that allows just that and explains how to do it, In Parliament. BTW, The Spanish Government and the main opposition party are open to discussing changing it to adapt it to recent times. But hey, its easier to go to the streets and say I am oppressed than to go through a lenghty debate (which will take many years) to change my life paradigm, right? The end justifies the means, perhaps, Michael? If I don´t like a rule instead of changing it it´s just easier to bypass it. Martin Luther King led a movement which eventually led to a change in the segregation laws, and that´s precisely my point, if you want change, let´s agree on changing the laws and the rules of the games, you can´t act one way as if you were alone in the universe, as if you owned the truth.

    3. Perhaps this direspect for the law in place has contributed to no one in the world support the current independence movement, except Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela, who has called Jordi Cuixart a “political prisoner”. I am not sure I´d want to be on a movement that has the support of Mr. Maduro, known for his pacifism, democratic stance and respect for the law.

    4. I agree with you we are moving towards a decentralized world, and supra national bodies will have to adapt and get better at voicing the opinion of the street and also become better at solving our many problems, But we should try do this in an organized fashion, even after recognizing that history is full of disorganized instances. We are getting to a new paradigm and we´ll get there, but the “How” is equally as important as the “Why” and as the “Where To”, as the “How” really tells everything about what we´ve learned as humans (if the how didn´t matter, we´d just grab swords and behead everyone not thinking like us like it´s been done for so many centuries)

    Many thanks,

    Reply
    • Miguel, thanks for that. This will be my last response as I think we have both laid out our view respectfully and clearly. We won’t come to an agreement on the specifics of this, but that’s ok. This is a good example of how people can politely disagree.

      1) I agree with much of what you said about Spain. I lived there for 4 months (in Madrid) many years ago and traveled extensively around the country. I love the place. Also, my maternal grandfather is from Andalusia.

      2) This is an interesting point that you bring up and I do think the Spanish Constitution should be changed. That said, you have to understand that the civil rights laws wouldn’t have been changed in the U.S. if not for the civil disobedience of breaking laws and putting themselves at risk in order to get public attention, build consensus, which then forced politicians to act. Politicians are basically moral cowards and don’t make any big changes to help the public unless forced to by public pressure. That said, I don’t think it’s fair to compare the plight of black people in the U.S. in the mid-20th century to Catalans in Spain. These things seem to be in different categories. That said, I’ve read that the Catalans have tried to talk with Rajoy about more autonomy for years, but he has not been forthcoming.

      3) Of course no governments will support the Catalan people, they are afraid they are next! That is merely about how power works and centralized power structures don’t want to encourage decentralization, which threatens their power.

      4) I am not talking about grabbing swords, nor did I ever do that. I am in favor of peaceful civil disobedience when faced with authority structures which refuse to change and listen to public opinion.

    • “If Catalans want to leave (which is not true, only 43% voted for independence, and even the vote is not recognized as it was not audited ny anyone; check taht out through the internet or your sources), which is right now perfectly possible with the current Constitution. There are two ways to do this; a) Covince the rest of Spain, as all of Spain votes (“sovereignty of Spain remains with alll the Spanish Population” says article 1) or b) They can ally with other political parties at Parliament to change the Constitution and improve it and allow for other types of exits and hopefully improve many other articles. This is perfectly possible,”

      Miguel, that is a very disingenuous statement because you know that there is no way that neither a) or b) will ever happen. Therefore it clearly speaks to the primary point Michael is making in this post regarding the “divine right of kings”.

      As an aside, I can’t help but draw a historical parallel between this and the Civil War in the US. The Confederation of States versus The Union.

      The primary cause of that war was the Union’s refusal to allow the Confederate States to vote to peacefully secede from the Union. However, it never ceases to amaze me that the vast majority of US citizens believe that slavery was the cause, because that is what they were taught in school.

      As always, the real reason that the Confederates wanted to leave the Union, and the Union wanted the Confederates to remain, was money, not slavery. The 800 pound proof Gorilla in that room is the fact that there were slaves in the Union States as well the Confederate States.

  9. Interesting article.
    Though I don’t fully understand why while agreeing that concepts of statehood or kingdom are imaginary, you don’t apply the same logic to the other manmade creation: the human rights?

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  10. Not much thought went into this article. Catalonians have the right to decide for themselves if they want to leave???? Moronic.
    What about the Catalonians that do not vote to leave? Maybe they are happy blliving in Catalonia but are loyal to Spain. So the votes for leaving will allow them to lose their country and citizenship?
    How is that fair to them? What about their rights? Why should one minority of an existing country supercede their rights as a citizen?
    Why should the whole country not be allowed to decide if they want their country to stay together?
    Why do only one group’s rights matter in this situation?
    Crazy.

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  11. According to your scheme, every constitution can be challenged at any time by anybody? If so, then California can easily referendum itself away from the Union….

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    • I think there should absolutely be a clear and transparent way for California or any other state to leave.
      I think there should have to be a pretty high threshold to do so, not simple 51% majority.
      Moving toward future models of more decentralized political governance won’t be easy to accomplish, but my bigger point is political associations should be far more fluid than they are today, and I want thoughtful people to start thinking about it and discussing it.

  12. Hate to be sniffy, but you have to have common rules. Or the rule of law. Otherwise you got chaos, think Soreass.

    OK the Spanish constitution is a francoist construct. But the Catalan govts law on the referrendum and the transitions law went against its own Estatut, needing a two thirds majority to pass, not half the MPs +1. Also the new law had to be presented 48 hours before debate, not as a last minute measure with only 10 minutes given to each party to argue against. Clearly against good parliamentary procedre in any advanced society.

    And if you think you can trash 4 (not 2) police vehicles without a bit of agro from the coppers, I wish you great luck in trying that in the streets of New York, London or Paris.

    PS. And if you all still fall for that oppression lark, you should catch an eyefull of the cars we drive here: half of them kraut cars, volvos or lexus, and most under three years old. Give me a ’57 chevy any day.

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    • PPS: and that half the MPs +1 only represented less than 48% of the vote for the parliamentary chamber elected in the fall of 2015.

  13. Watching how Soros stands behind that movement and how corrupt western presstitutes in concert with NATO praise and hype them – I have my doubts that real Catalania would be much better than real (not imaginary and promised) Kosovo is.

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  14. I think it is useful when thinking this through to cut to the heart of the issue. Society, and how society is organised flows from individual sovereign human beings, and from there out into social structure and arrangements. Relatively few sovereign individuals then take power at critical positions in these social arrangements. Power corrupts, particularly the immature. Unfortunately the immature are attracted to power. The implication is that our individual rights and sovereignty are best protected in smaller social structures rather than the megastructures that now exist that have largely been shaped historically and contemporaneously by psychopaths and sociopaths. The solution is urgent devolution of power, globally. Anything else, now, with the lethal toys our leading psychopaths can play with, will be the end of us, and any worthwhile future for our children. Now is the time to step up. Great work Michael.

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  15. Hi, thank you. I live just outside of Barcelona, and you sum up how I feel about the situation.
    I’m Australian and have often felt dumbfounded by the authoritarian arrogance of the government and it’s disregard for ‘the people’. Now it’s hit a personal nerve for me. The right to speak, to be heard. Thanks again.

    Reply
    • I’m Spaniard now living in the US. Spaniards never had even the tiniest consideration for the law. Every 70 years the constitution is overturned and chaos ensued. This time won’t be any different

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