š° Spain must avoid polarising conflict escalation in Catalonia
(29/08/2018) The creation of āthe otherā is one step, his dehumanisation (vermin) or the creation of the emotion of disgust (excrement, etc.), are others.
(Original published: 29/08/2018)
Something wasnāt quite right while reading Cayetana Ćlvarez de Toledoās otherwise magnificent column in El Mundo the other day about the little yellow separatist ribbons in Catalonia. She recommended Rivera, Arrimadas, Casado and Albiol go out and remove them: "they have nothing more important or more urgent to do than to lead, in person, on the ground, feet in the street, with their hands full, faces uncovered, the removal of yellow ribbons from public spaces in Catalonia. They should even do it together".
Now this is a very understandable reaction after all we have seen given that the separatist situation, far from being solved by the new socialist government, is in danger or reoccuring, or worse. The question is not whether Spain must wināthe separatist proposal remains absolutely unrealistic and the Constitution still does not allow for secessionābut rather how the problem is solved, and what systemic implications and consequences one option or another has. If we think about how a modern country should work and how it is currently working in Catalonia, we will begin to see some answers, or at least some other options.
We are seeing and reading more and more stories about the ribbons, the situation is heating up, there is a feeling something must be done, or that an answer is needed, or that this cannot be allowed to continue a minute longer. Neighbours are taking to the streets, putting up or taking down the ribbons, and there has been this incident with the assault on the lady in Barcelonaāactual physical violence; the prosecutor's office, the Catalan Police and the National Police are all getting involved; Mr. Torra weighed in from Belgium, and Mr. Sanchez from Chile; columns are being written, videos shared and citizens encouraged.
The language some are starting to useāfrom the "vermin" of the mayor of Ametlla de Mar to the column in CrĆ³nica Global with its separatist excrement metaphor ("the war of the ribbons")ādoes not help, and not just because I say so, but because that type of language and thought in particular have been studied very closely in relation to conflict.
The creation of āthe otherā is one step, his dehumanisation (vermin) or the creation of the emotion of disgust (excrement, etc.), are others. People who study genocide are clear about them, and they include classification, symbolisation, discrimination, dehumanisation and polarisation. In the 1930s, Nazi propaganda labelled the Jews rats and in the 1990s, Radio Mille Collines described Tutsis as cockroaches.
In addition to what we know about the steps towards genocide, we also have theories about conflict escalation more generally. Friedrich Glasl's model, for example, describes nine steps in three stages (win-win, win-lose, lose-lose). I would say that in Catalonia, almost a year after the beginning of the separatist crisis, Spain is bordering on a 7, on the brink of entering a space where everybody will lose.
Then we can read Jonathan Haidt's magnificent book and theories, The Righteous Mind, which I discovered last year thinking about all of this, and which Cayetana does well to comment on in her El Mundo column. Haidt describes the process of creating groups, moral tribes, with distinctive moralities, and how they think and react to situations that call into question values āāsuch as authority, justice, loyalty or purity, concepts that are obviously applicable to the separatist situation.
From these thoughts came the editorial last year in The Spain Report about the shameful nature of the separatist show on August 26, at what was supposed to be a gathering in support of the terror victims from attacks that had occurred just days earlier. It was immediately clear there was a very serious problem. Catalan separatists couldnāt keep quiet even for an hour in memory of the victims.
If we throw in what I called "micromoralities", created on or enhanced by Facebook or WhatsApp, we uncover a small theory about the escalation of these conflictsāapparently out of nowhereāwith each group believing it is right. From the WhatsApp messages and enraged slogans to actual fisticuffs, which is what just happened with the yellow ribbons in Barcelona.
This morning, we saw the images of last night's yellow-ribbon taker-downers, dressed not in balaclavas or V for Vendetta faces but in white anti-Ebola suits and masks. We can deduce the meaning of those outfits was based not on hiding participantsā identities or revolution but on hygiene and biological protection against dirty separatist ribbons that cause a reaction of disgust and that therefore have to be cleansed.
The danger in Spain in 2018 is obviously not genocide or the "Balkanization" of the country as some wrote years ago, but perhaps the "Northern-Irelandisation" of Catalonia, a situation much worse than the current one, with some level X of unacceptable violence.
A conflict gets worse when it escalates, if one side sees the other's stake and raises it some more, if the bull charges at the red rag dangled before its eyes. The vicious circle begins, or continues. That is where we are at with yellow ribbons in Catalonia, and citizens logically feel something must be done, that it cannot be allowed to go on. Where is their government?
Who has ultimate responsibility in a modern country for avoiding the jungle, for avoiding situations of physical conflict between citizens? The state, because the state has a monopoly on the legal use of violence and physical force, to the benefit of all.
First we will have to see what the law says. If, as the Director of Public Prosecutions said the other day, both putting out and removing the ribbons is currently legal, but neighbors are coming to blows in the streets over it, Spain has a legislative problem.
If it is decided that the ribbons (or other conflictive partisan symbols) must be removed from public spaces, it should be local bin men or the police themselves who go out and remove them all. If separatist town halls and police oppose such a measure, Spain will have another institutional problem.
Catalonia, all of Catalonia, is still part of Spain, and so ultimate responsibility lies with the government of the nation, which is now in the hands of Pedro SƔnchez and the PSOE, but the survival of that government depends on the support of Catalan separatists in Congress.
The government and the state have much more real power than the separatists, with the full legitimacy of the law and the Constitution to hand, so should be able to offer a more adult and constructive solution to all Spaniards, including separatist citizens.
That solution and institutional responsibility on the part of Mr. SĆ”nchezās governmentāwhich depends for its survival on the votes of Esquerra, PdeCat (and the Basque nationalists), are currently missing, so once again non-separatist Spanish citizens in Catalonia are defenseless.
In that context, and with the contributions of the aforementioned theories, Albert Rivera and InĆ©s Arrimadas (or the PPās Casado and Albiol, who might not now be able to resist the temptation) removing ribbons is the bull charging at the red rag, the seeing and raising of the separatist stakes, the escalation of the conflict. They will doubtless hope to win a few more votes with the move, and it is an understandable one given the wider context, but it is not statesmanlike, as they say, and Ciudadanos aspires to govern and improve Spain. Political leaders, and the Prime Minister first of all, should be much more responsible; there is a lot at stake.
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