Catastrophe. Oh! And a Job!
One by one, things that make me comfortable fall away. My steady job; familiar food; air conditioning; the hot water in my apartment; my stove; my oven; my heater; seeing my friends; grocery stores that are open on Sundays.
This week: political rights.
As you guys probably are aware, this week swept the Catalan political system: the Catalan Indepentista party has been planning to vote in a referendum so that it can declare independence from Spain. But when the vote was scheduled to happen on Sunday, catastrophe.
To really understand the situation we have to know a little bit about the political history of Spain. After World War II, Spain was quietly left under a fascist dictatorship until 1975, when Franco died. Many middle-aged Spaniards can still remember what it is like to live in a place where people just disappear. To be left in an unmarked grave somewhere.
Catalonia suffered terribly under Franco’s regime, and even after Franco’s son began the transition to democracy immediately following Franco’s death, there’s still a lot of bad blood between Spaniards from Madrid and Barcelonans.
If you think racism is a problem in America, you need to see how Barcelonans treat Madrilenos and hear how Madrilenos talk about Barcelonans. That is racism. They hate each other.
Anyway, on Sunday I had already been receiving messages and instructions from friends in America and locals around the city. It was common knowledge that boats of military police from Madrid were waiting off the coast, and that if (when) they came into the city their point of entry would be about two blocks from my apartment building. So on Sunday I stayed home.
Little blog of mine, when the Catalans tried to have their unconstitutional, illegal vote, the Madrid police came in and beat the sh%t out of them. My opinion on the vote was suddenly irrelevant: I realized that the rights I take for granted, peaceful assembly, free speech, due process of law, a speedy and public trial, are not enshrined here like they are in America.
I studied economics at Hillsdale College, but even though I’ve walked around for the last five years or so holding the mental banners of, “taxation is theft” and “the law is force” and “restrain the coercive power of the state”, as of today I have a perspective on those ideas that’s real in a way I never before understood.
What I’ve always been told, that I can’t make my government my god and expect it to care for me, is totally true. What Bastiat said is right: government is force. It’s just coercion, and when it’s unbridled, it is an ugly and dangerous thing.
Thank God the Word says that Jesus is coming back! And then it will all be set right. I’m so thankful for that. In the meantime, I trust God to protect me. And I am safe, little blog. I praise God for it.
And I got a job yesterday!
The details of my job are still being worked out a little bit, but basically I’m starting as a tour guide for a local company next week. My new boss seems excellent and I am already spending pleasurable hours in the library planning my tour of the Barri Gotic.
Also, this guy comes in two and a half weeks: