Table of Contents Prologue ........................................................................................................ 11 Rapping on the Cast(i)le Gates: Nationalism and Culture-Planning in Contemporary Spain ......................... 15 If a Million People March for Catalan Independence in Barcelona, Do They Make Noise? ............................................................ 45 Washington Seeks Stability. It is Not Likely to Recognize a Catalan State ............................................... 49 The Essential Question of Our Time: Will We Live as Citizens, or Go Back to Being Subjects? .......................... 53 New National Structures Are Needed to Protect People Against Powerful Transnational Interests ..................................................... 59 Projecting Catalan Identity in the Contemporary World: A View From the Outside ............................................................................. 89 Waiting for Positive Signs from the Great Powers is to Ratify Their Power Over You ............................................................. 103 No Centralist Power Will Allow Anyone to Leave Without Exacting a Price ............................................................................ 105 Dignity is an Important Word ..................................................................... 109 Les Bases de Manresa: Where They Came From and Why They Are Important ..................................................................... 121 Media Control and Authoritarian Rhetoric: How Spain’s Corrupt People’s Party Continues to Rule ............................ 137 8 Thomas S. Harrington An Interview with Catalan Independence Leader Artur Mas ..................... 143 A Nation Too Liquid? ................................................................................ 153 As Long as the Front Against Negotiation Exists in Madrid, the Level of Alienation in Catalonia Will Grow ........................................ 155 Urgent: Forced Takeover of Catalan Government Institutions by Spanish Police ....................................................................................... 173 Catalonia: Spanish Centralism or the Self-Defeating Flubris of the Authoritarian Mind ........................................................................... 175 Largest Newspaper in Spain Blames Russia and Antiwar, com for Catalonia Pro-Independence News ........................... 181 In the Midst of a Coup, Catalans Keep On Keepin’ On ............................. 183 Last Sunday in Catalonia: Pirates 1, The Invincible Armada 0 .................. 187 The Disingenuousness of the “Procedural Irregularities” Case Against Catalan Independence ................................................................... 193 Mario Vargas Llosa is the Perfect Poster Boy for Spanish Unionism ................................................................................. 195 The Baseless Myth of the Poor, Propagandized Catalans .......................... 199 When Viewed in Comparative Terms, Catalonia’s Culture of Democracy is Truly Impressive .............................. 201 A Polemic with a Professor at the University of Connecticut .................... 209 The Major Question Here is the Role of Force in Elective Democracies in the 21st Century ............................................... 235 Catalonia and the Art of Differential Diagnosis 239 A Citizen’s Democracy in Authoritarian Times 9 An Extraordinary Moment for Democracy in Europe ................................ 247 Big Media on Last Thursday’s (December 21st) Vote in Catalonia: “Never Mind” ................................................................ 249 What Nerve! In Catalonia They Are Once Again Trying to Swear-In the Coalition that Won the Most Votes .................................. 257 Rajoy and Catalonia: The Fear Behind the Bully’s Rage ........................... 261 Professor Marlene Wind: Symbol of a Smug Denmark and a Power-Serving Academic Discipline ................................................ 263 Civil Disobedience: Myths and Realities ................................................... 269 Brand Name Progressives in the US ... and in Catalonia ........................... 271 When Spain Thought it Had Gained Promotion to the First Division of Lying States ........................................................... 275 The Establishment’s “Controversialization” of Quim Torra ...................... 279 Why Must Governments in Catalonia Please All When Those in Madrid Can Simply Enact Their Programs? ..................... 281 The Unionists in Catalonia Turn to the Latin American Coup Playbook ........................................................................................... 283.