I just wanted to say a few facts to try to fight relentless nationalist propaganda.

First, the castle you speak about was built because Catalonia sided with the house of austrians against the house of borbons in a spanish civil war of sucesion that the borbons won. It wasn´t a punishment of Spain versus Catalonia, but a punishment of a King against a people that had supported the enemy candidate to the throne of Spain. Yet, people in Catalonia have been educated in a nationalist version of History for 30 years. And, yes, people can be brainwashed.

Second, many children of inmigrants from other parts of Spain end up being nationalist in order to being accepted. They are called “charnegos” and made fun of if they don´t adapt. In school they are taught everything in catalonian, whereas spanish is just used in the class of spanish, just as a foreign language would. They are taught a distorted version of History in which Spain is a foreign invading country. People from other parts of Spain can not aply for civil servants in Catalonia unless they speak catalonian, wich in practice has closed the entrance and created a nationalist microcosmos, specially in education. Many children are shamed to have been born of “inferior” spanish parents and try to overcompensate by becoming nationalist.

All the regional tvs and newspapers depend on regional subsidies and favours to survive, and therefore adapt to what nationalist politicians want. There is a huge corruption system in wich nationalist politicians decide which business works and wich does not. Theirs is the power. If you feel so inclined you can google Jordi Pujol, who was the president of Catalonia for many years and got inmensaly rich by comisions paid ilegally to him by any business that wanted to work in Catalonia. Obviously, besides paying that comisié³n, the business had to be nationalist friendly or it would not get the administartive permisions to opérate. etc etc.

There would be much more, but I don´t want to bore you. I will just add one more thing. You said that everything is written in both languages. But the reason is that all the public services are controlled for nationalists. And the private business have to write it all in catalonian or they have to pay fines. Yes, that right. There is a part of Spain in wich if you write anything in your private business in spanish only, you are fined. Sounds totalitarian, doesn´t it? That´s catalonian nationalism in a nutshell. Obviously the aim of that law is that visitors to Catalonia get the feeling that catalonian language is just as spread and used as spanish. Sadly it works.

If you want me to I can give you links to prove everything I have said.

Regards.

If independence wins, pretty soon the highland Scots will be demanding independence from the lowland Scots, and then the eastern highland Scots will be demanding independence from the western highland Scots, and so forth and so on, until they reach the pinnacle of tribal societies:

“Me against my brother; me and my brother against my cousin; me, my brother and my cousin against the rest of our clan; our clan against the rest of our tribe; our tribe against the world.”

Of course a tyranny of a minority is worse than a tyranny of the majority. The US Constitution has safeguards however to prevent both from occurring. The reason you hear so much about the tyranny of the majority is that the left (a minority) has engaged in a long train of deceitful offenses to create a duped majority, which acts as political leverage through voting to empower the left to undermine the constitution with appointments of activist leftist judges and congressional democrats, acting to subvert constitutional safeguards.

“I ask again, why is the unity of a United Kingdom good for England and the money machine that is the City of London?” Don Carlos

The short answer is the revenue from Scottish north sea oil fields and the retention of veto power in the UN security council.

LondonTrader at 4:00 pm,

I’m not hoping for a yes vote nor do I wish the Scots ill but they will certainly deserve what they get if they vote yes. Actions have consequences and votes are voluntary. Just as the American people who voted for Obama deserve what they get.

“It seems to me that it is quite fashionable amongst some people in USA to support self-determination for other people in other places, but the one time the union of the USA was in danger, a civil war was faught. Nevermind state sovereignity, nevermind what southern citizens had decided democratically. And now, correct me if I´m wrong, it is the law of the united states that the union is eternal and unbreakable. It would be a real courtesy if you accepted the same principle for other states in this world.” MF

If that were an accurate synopsis of the issues regarding the southern states seceding we might agree but since it’s not… state sovereignty does not grant the right to unilateral secession. The north voted not to break the contract between the states and the south had less votes than the north. Actually, many of us, in principle do accept the same principle as we advocate for other nations. If the populations of our red and blue states voted to separate, they would have the right to do so but as in Scotland it must be voted upon. Since no Constitutional mechanism for such a vote exists it would have to be done through the amendment process; either a constitutional convention or 3/4 of Congress and the State legislatures.

Well, since non-Scots who merely reside in the country are able to vote, maybe it really is 110% of Scots 🙂 .