Soul, people, country
Centre d'Estudis Jordi Pujol
Article / June 13, 2006
In the editorial of March 14 we spoke about how after the Second World War Germany, especially through Habermas, created the idea of constitutional patriotism, according to which patriotism, as well as the idea and the experience of the country had to be founded solely on the Constitution.
At present some people say that only legal contracts bind people. That history and memory, or landscape and emotions, or experiences and the sense of community that gives rise to a language and customs, or shared affections and values; that none of this counts. This is false. These people are taxidermists of life, for them life merely consists of a series of chemical reactions.
These people maintain that the sentiment of a people and the sense of Homeland have no raison d'etre. This is what they say. But they do not speak the truth. Perhaps one or two select, very elitist, spirits, who think they know a lot, have come to this conclusion. But things are not like this. Real people are made of flesh and bone. Men and women have feelings. We feel the need to love. And to be loved. And to communicate with others. And to have a feeling of well-being, to feel at ease with one another.
Last Sunday President Pujol ascended Tagamanent. A particularly symbolic place for him. However, everyone has his or her Tagamanent. A friend of his from Bell-lloc, ten kilometres from Lleida, as a youth walked to Lleida because he heard that someone had clandestinely raised a Catalan flag in Seu Vella. That flag had a profound effect on him. Throughout his entire life. This can happen with this or slogans painted on the walls. Or songs (the Santa Espina). Or poems. Or stories told by the parents, aunts and uncles or the grandparents about the mythical President Macià, or the Statute of Núria. Or the persecution during the 40s. Or the sense of defeat. Or the pain of defeat
All this forms part of sentiment. This is good and necessary, and is also effective in building a country.
