Antoni Puigverd 19/05/2021
Image: Llibert Teixidó
A stoic cycle?
Never before has an agreement attracted so little enthusiasm. The pact between Jordi Sànchez and Pere Aragonès does not excite even the supporters of independence, who have welcomed it with resignation (but also with the relief of having avoided other elections). The Catalans opposed to the independence movement have faced the news of the Government’s pact like that gourmet who, forced to diet, finds himself before a new ration of boiled fish. The pact has not deluded those who, above the factions, dream of getting out of the labyrinth in which we are stuck. The latter have embraced the pact with patient stoicism. They know that even the most passionate pro-independence fighters have a horror of the abyss. But they also know that the abyss is a great seducer of Catalans.
In short: the pact that will make possible the investiture of Aragonès does not arouse passions, but resignations of varying degrees. It is a pact that was born lukewarm and was received lukewarm. It contains none of the ingredients that make political illusion possible. But it is worth underlining that said lukewarmness does not invite us to imagine new dramas for the list of misfortunes that Catalonia collects.
To overcome the cycle of fantasy, it was essential to cross the bridge of resignation
To overcome the cycle of illusions and fantasies (utopian for some, dystopian for others), it was essential to cross the bridge of lukewarmness, resignation and stoicism. Fantasy acts in politics like cocaine. It transmits an extraordinary mental and vital energy. Now: cocaine and political fantasy are artifices: sooner or later, waking up is inevitable: reality is still there. As it was, or worse. A stark economic and social reality has been knocking at the door for months. Catalonia will face it with a depressed mood, divided, with politicians in jail, with a reinforced and punitive Spanish right, with an economic structure battered by politics and aggravated by the Covid. A part of the elites has left or the company has been sold. The 5G revolution begins. A huge number of young people do not know what to do or what they will do.
Is it possible to face this reality with resigned lukewarmness? Who knows?. But the best way to advance amid the ruins is to accept them. Junts and the irredentist faction of ERC may land around a pragmatic Aragones. Perhaps the opposition chief, Salvador Illa, who pledges loyalty to overcome the Covid and to promote economic recovery, will help them.
Perhaps without so much noise it will be possible to find outlets for prisoners and escaped. Warmth is a sign of maturity. It implies the triumph of self-control over the cocaine of illusion. Overcoming the tendency to nihilism of those who have lost sleep and the masturbatory melancholy of those who do not know how to free themselves from fantasy, the lukewarm accepts the ugliness of reality. To cope with problems, it is not passion that is needed, but clarity of mind. We are in discount time. As soon as we neglect ourselves, we will be an economic cemetery and a cultural nostalgia.
https://www.lavanguardia.com/politica/20210519/7464746/ciclo-estoico.html
Add comment