Jaume Vicens Vives wrote in Notícia de Catalunya that, often, we Catalans let ourselves be carried away by passion, without weighing the realities or measuring the consequences: "Then the sense of irony fails us and we go out into the streets consumed by excess of sentimental pressure". I think that the recent history of Catalonia is the new 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 – should be aware that it has a historic opportunity to lay the foundations to make up for lost time and overcome recent disagreements. Pedro Sánchez was on El món on RAC1 yesterday and told Jordi Basté that it is time to make a collective effort of pragmatism to bring Catalonia up to date and to strengthen self-government. The President of the Spanish Government is convinced that between the referendum demanded by a sector of independence and the immobilism proposed by the right, there is a wide avenue to travel through, 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 starting to become unclear. Jaume Giró, former economic advisor of JxCat, declared a few days ago on channel 3/24 that Catalonia's most urgent need is to overcome the endemic underfinancing that is dragging along and that is weakening all its fundamental pillars. George Bernard Shaw expressed it a century ago: What intelligent man, if given the choice between living without roses or without cabbages, would not rush to secure the cabbages?
Pragmatism is not a way of compromising with the most powerful, but constitutes a whole political philosophy, which began at the end of the 19th century in the United States. He advocates empiricism over idealism, rejects dogmatism and proclaims that the truth is what suits our lives. Independence should have no doubt that it is now time to be on the sidelines.
