The conspiracy of the irresponsible

Original language: Catalan
Original title: The confabulation of the irresponsible
Translation: the author himself.
Year of publication: 2017
Valuation: highly recommended

It is difficult to write a review about a book like this when even the moment of writing it can reveal the ideological intertwinings, even the mere evaluation can be interpreted, apart from the strictly literary, as a clear position on one side or the other and induce the reader to think “bah, what is this going to say?” And the warm-up of the two antagonistic sides generated by the conflict is already a clear confirmation that the title is a success. It seems that there is a conspiracy on two sides that dipped its toes in establishing a division and making it a kind of irresolvable and inalienable dilemma. It was necessary to position oneself and the position had to be clear because even the ambiguity was an indication that exposed whoever it was to attacks. could hold.

Context: Spain vs Catalonia in the first two decades of the millennium. Aware as I am that the mere subject (Spain vs Catalonia, the mere choice of the spelling “ny” instead of “ñ”) can already excite the exalted. A political conflict in a small territory in the south of Europe, populated by barely eight million inhabitants, which becomes, to the surprise of many, a kind of paradigmatic example, on the one hand, of the exercise of fundamental individual rights, on the other. another, of unjustifiable involution against an immovable legal order. Another context: the 2007-2008 crisis that causes many politicians to rack their brains justifying restrictive measures and look for crutches to excuse themselves if they are excessive or ineffective.

Jordi Amat simply states facts, he does so sequentially, methodically and coldly, and lists the successive steps of the disagreement. One may decide whether the magnitude of these events justifies their impact, but – once again the title – the truth is that the rulers of both sides are shifting the conflict towards confrontation, two words that are close in the dictionary and surely etymologically linked. Since the percentages on both sides are similar, playing with that narrow margin is extremely stimulating; the stubborn ones on either side do not have to be seduced with anything. Apart from the exciting development of events, for those of us who have experienced the topic first-hand, those helicopters flying over Barcelona in the last week of September 2017 are an indelible memory, Amat’s merit is to complete these hundred pages (which he does not hesitate to qualify, in the first sentence of the book, as a “pamphlet”) without one being able to politically place it clearly on one side. And that is what it should be about: maintaining unwavering objectivity and presenting the facts according to what has been derived from them. Irresponsible on both sides, both sides holding their own speculations and interpretations in a dogmatic and interested way, taking advantage of the inflammation.

The thing is not over: I just hope that Amat is encouraged to give a similar account of everything that happened afterwards: trials, convictions, escapes or exiles or whatever the hell everyone calls them, reactions, post-crisis political map, pardons, amnesties. It will be, as always, stimulating to read.