Catalunya Serà lliure!
Secession is a dirty word in the Lincoln-worshipping ultra-nationalistic United States, where both left and right worship at the altar of the centralized state. To support secession in any way, shape, or form is to be labeled “neo-Confederate” by our logic-challenged pundits, who eagerly swoop down on anyone who challenges Washington’s supremacy. These geniuses forget that the American Revolution was an act of secession, in which the colonists separated themselves from a tyrannical monarchy that sought to tax and regulate them without their consent.
In the rest of the world, however, localism is on the rise as people rebel against the edicts of distant bureaucrats and reassert their language, their traditions, and their sense of place. Throughout Europe, especially, these rebellions are gaining strength, from Scotland to Wallonia to eastern Ukraine – and now to Catalonia, which is voting in what has become a referendum on the national question. The Catalan parliament voted to schedule a referendum on independence, but this was blocked by the central authorities in Madrid, who declared it “illegal.” So a snap election was called and if, as expected, pro-independence parties gain a majority in the Catalan parliament, the process 94% of GDP. Catalonia’s share is one third of the total, and the Catalan threat to repudiate their portion is more than equal to the huffing and puffing of the would-be Spanish conquistadores.
In spite of the artificial supra-nationalism imposed from the top down by the bureaucrats of Brussels, the trend is away from the centralism of the EU and in favor of the authentic nationalisms rooted in history and based on language, tradition, and localism. This frightens the European Union and its socialist supporters, because they fear the break up of their fragile union, which is teetering on the brink of economic chaos and increasingly challenged by populist revolts. And they have good reason for their fear, for the “European idea” is a sterile abstraction imposed from above by pointy-headed intellectuals – and most especially by Keynesian economists, who stupidly believe, in spite of the mounting evidence, that a European central bank is the answer to the continent’s economic problems. The rise of dissident nationalisms threatens their collectivist dream.
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