V for Revolution

Yesterday the Catalan National Assembly decided, among many other things, that on Catalonia's next National Day (September 11, 2014), a giant letter V will be formed in the streets of the city of Barcelona. More than a million people will be needed to fill the segments of Diagonal and Gran Via avenues. These two boulevards, when seen from the sky, will form a massive letter V. The Assembly chose the letter V for Via (Way, as in Catalan Way), Voluntat (Will), Votar (Vote), and Victòria (Victory). That all seems great to me, but I'd like to humbly add a little more variety to the list: V for Verdaguer (Catalan poet), Vespre (Evening), Vagina, Verga (cock), Vodka, and Revolution, yes, V for ReVolution. Because, I'd say, if there's any word that describes the process we're going through, it's Revolution. Much more than Way, Will, Vote or Victory. The more I read about Revolution, the more similarities I see. I recommend, for example, the short, lovely "Theory of Revolution" (pdf), written in 1969 by the American sociologist James C. Davies. It's fourteen pages that theorize on the origins of the American, French, Russian, and other revolutions. Fourteen pages in which everything I see is about us.

"Revolutions are most likely to occur when a prolonged period of objective economic and social development is followed by a short period of sharp reversal. People then subjectively fear that ground gained with great efort will be quite lost; their mood becomes revolutionary," writes Davies. That is, there's nothing like touching the honey with your fingers and then having your knuckles rapped, to make you think about starting a revolution. We need something to move toward. It's not when we've hit bottom that we revolt. On the bottom, we're lucky to survive. It's when we've experienced happiness for a moment and then had it taken away that we react. That's what Davies says happened in the Russian Revolution, the American Revolution, and the French Revolution, among others.

In America, the revolution was born after a period of progressive economic growth and political economy that engendered rising expectations. The people could see their future. Their life was sweet. And a second later, England clipped their wings, putting the brakes on the growth they were experiencing. The people rose up. In Russian, they believed that the Czar's reforms were overcoming feudalism. For a moment, they had high hopes, and when frustrated, the people revolted. Davies says the same thing happened in France. The civil rights movement in the United States in the sixties took place in growing, open cities where blacks saw their hopes continually frustrated. The most revolutionary cities were not the ones where blacks were the least well off but rather where hopes of improvement were highest. Hopes that when unfulfilled provoked a revolt.

This idea contradicts the common theory that says that when poverty and injustice surpass certain limits, the people rise up. That revolution is born of absolute misery, total injustice. The worse off we are, the better for the revolution. That will mean we're at the boiling point. According to Davies, when people have hit bottom, when they're really sunk, they spend all their effort on survival. Not rising up. Total submission, like the Jews in the concentration camps. Hanging on, and that's it. Revolution requires good times, abruptly interrupted.

And what is the Catalan independence process if not the result of years of plenty which have then been dashed to the ground? The Catalans did not revolt under Franco. They held on and stayed tight. The independence process comes after thirty years of democracy. The unstoppable advance was frustrated by the ruling on the Statute of Autonomy in 2010. Once you have tasted the honey, they take it away. And you even lose ground. Catalan language, you say? Wert law. Welfare state? 25% unemployment. Disaster. You thought things were going ok, and they're not. The difference between what you expect and what you get sparks the revolution. You improve, even if just a bit, you are hopeful, and when reality doesn't match your expectations, you rise up. And how. It happened in Russia, America, and France. Before the revolution, there are years of improvements. I'd say that's what's happened in Catalonia after Franco. That's why I won't be the least surprised to see a V for revolution forming on the Diagonal.

Don't let the word scare you. Revolution. I think we should use it more because it sure feels like we're following the pattern to the letter. Now that we've tasted the honey, we're not going to give it up.

andreu.barnils@partal.cat

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It's when we've experienced happiness for a moment and then had it taken away that we react.