Jaume Vicens Vives wrote in his Notícia de Catalunya that Catalans often allow themselves to be carried away by passion, without weighing the realities or measuring their consequences: “Then our sense of irony fails and we go out into the streets devoured by an excess of sentimental pressure.” I believe that the recent history of Catalonia is proof of the wisdom of one of the great classics of contemporary Catalan thought.
But reason should always prevail over emotions and reality over dreams. However, Catalanism in all its versions – from the most moderate to the most radical – would have to be aware that it is facing a historic opportunity to lay the foundations to make up for lost time and overcome disagreements. Pedro Sánchez was yesterday on El món to RAC1 and told Jordi Basté that it is time to make a collective effort of pragmatism to bring Catalonia up to date and to reinforce its self-government. The President of the Government is convinced that between the referendum requested by a sector of the independence movement and the immobility proposed by the right, there is a wide avenue to travel down, including a fiscal pact.
And the fallacious argument that they are past screens is not valid, among other reasons because the current screen is black. And the future is beginning to become unclear. Jaume Giró, former Economy Minister of JxCat, declared a few days ago on channel 3/24 that Catalonia’s most urgent need is to overcome the endemic underfinancing that it is dragging on and that is weakening all of its fundamental pillars. George Bernard Shaw expressed it a century ago: What intelligent man, if given the choice between living without roses or without collards, would not rush to secure the collards?
Pragmatism is not a way to compromise before the most powerful, but rather it constitutes an entire political philosophy, which began at the end of the 19th century in the United States. Bet on empiricism over idealism, reject dogmatism and proclaim that the truth is what is best for our lives. The independence movement should have no doubt that now it is time to go for collard greens.