argia.eus
INPRIMATU
Positions and behaviors on the Basque Country
Joseba Barriola 2020ko abenduaren 01

1.- I see two main positions on Euskera (and linguistic diversity): a position that deplores linguistic diversity (glottophagic) and considers linguistic plurality stimulating (which has the ability to speak as treasure).

All forms of imperialism of the past centuries (conquest, colonization, imperialism, capitalist globalization…) have been glotophical. Today, together with the sixth destruction of biological life (including human life), we are experiencing the destruction of the first human languages. Both, the destruction of biological life and spiritual life, go hand in hand and the genocidal and eco-cide monster (capitalist, patriarchal, racist and exploitative of the earth) is the current source of this venom.

Poison has taken root in many people of humanity, most of the time, even ourselves. What we need is to detect it and treat the antidotes (life with dignity, life with dignity that is worth living) in all languages, with great need: from the small to the immense, to the immense and the regeneration of the planet.

"Facing the Basque Country, and facing linguistic diversity, the two positions that exist in the background: the glotphagic (the author of linguistic diversity) and the one that works the life of languages"

The history of the Tower of Babel has been poorly explained. This story is understood as follows: the human being is great and powerful, can transcend all limits (he is able to build a tower that goes to heaven) by using a single language and linguistic plurality was the punishment against that will. There is another explanation I heard from a friend, and it is: linguistic plurality is what was crazy, the component or medicine that humanity wanted to be outside its borders (today humanity is breaking all the limits of life...). And this is, in my view, the stimulating explanation of the Tower of Babel. Linguistic diversity is a heritage, a treasure, such as biological diversity, essential to the health of our minds.

These are the two positions that exist against the Basque language and against linguistic diversity: the glotophagic (the author of linguistic diversity) and the one that works the life of languages by learning and practicing the language of life.

2.- In the Politics of the Basque Country I differentiate four main behaviors:

(a) The conduct of those who regard it as a relic.

(b) The conduct of those who consider the tolerated obstacle.

(c) The conduct of those who have the status of goods for the power market.

(d) The conduct of the will of life which seeks to find direction.

I'm going to explain one by one the core of those four political forms. When I say politics, I do not mean political parties. I refer to Polisa, to the Community, to the way I settle at local, national and international level, as a way of life. Thus, in a political party there may be people with different political behaviors or with significant nuances. But by adopting or rejecting a linguistic Constitution, the central direction of a language policy is marked (see what the Spanish and French Constitution says, or the European Union’s most important vision and language standard on the languages of those territories).

They're considered relics. For them the Basque is a relic. Footprint and memory of the passage of time. Not prepared for the current, nor useful lifestyle, an obstacle to the spread of civilization (Spanish, French and Western). It is a boring and disgusting symphony of some exalted Basques to try to revive this relic that calls into question the Spanish or French national unity. Those who want to leave here forever the bodies thrown in the corners after the 36th war want to see the Basque buried. They will tell you that at the height of the Basque Country (for example, in the conquest of America) the Basques arrived with the Spaniards and the French at the top of civilization… leaving aside the Basque. In fact, in Spain this practice (which attracted the death of many languages of Abya Yala and caused the decline of the Basque Country) is linked to the conquest of America, the expulsion of Arabs and Jews, the Austrians and the Bourbons and Franco

"The accumulation of capital and the power of the State are the essence of life, and the Basque is the commodity to develop in the market and to remain in power. In this way of acting, the Basque is recognized as the present"

with apology. An extreme tendency is to ban entirely speaking in Basque. And in France the same practice (which attracted the death of many languages from Africa and Asia and America) is linked to the apology of the French empire and the Francophonie, as well as with the Termidorra of the Revolution (which began with the contempt and denial of languages as rude as the Basque Country) and with the I and II. With the hypocritical apology of the World Wars (the first against the Russian Revolution, the exclusion of the Partisans after the second), with the apology of the massacres in Vietnam and Algeria.

There are also those who regard Euskera as a sacred relic. Many experts see Euskera as an interesting, special, unique language in the world, as fossils are interesting, but useless to live today. The sacred Basque for the museum. But now ... Don't say nonsense, please! In Basque, you can't talk about nuclear physics or Heideger's. As it is sacred, do not touch the Basque, leave it as a fossil for the experts in linguistics and anthropology (and not the committed ones).

Those who are harassed with tolerated discomfort. They're not very far from the previous ones, but they're different. The truth is that for them the Basque Country is annoying. Are we not all Spanish, French, and do we not understand each other? With the existing economic needs, with the injustices that exist in the world, with wars, with pandemics, with the severe economic competition that there is, with the fall of profits, with unemployment, with the need for defense, with the reasons to boost renewables, with the false argument of internationalism… all the arguments, any argument, on the left and right, will conclude by saying that the revitalization of the Basque country is an obstacle to being able to do more things. They'll say, first life and then languages. But that’s “that first life in Spanish/French.” For them, language, real language, is the language of power (even if power is glotophatic! ). They say it is a hindrance, but since we are in democracy, we must give a place to the movement of the will to live (they have the right and cannot deny it! ). ), although regretting the exclusivism, ethnicism and the imposition of Basque will. Ah! Cosmopolitan blind people! “Think of the thief (glotophagikoa) who are all of your condition.”

Those in which Euskera is considered a commodity. For them, the market, that is, the accumulation of capital and the power of the State are the essence of life, and the Basque Country is the commodity to develop in the market and to remain in power. In this way, the current situation of the Basque Country is accepted. It is modernised and adaptation can be improved. (social control of digitalisation, ethnic tourism, European green capitalism, robbery of refugees... if it is useful, let us do it in Basque). It can be an instrument of capitalist, patriarchal and ecocide development. A tool that can be used to the extent that it is useful for winning niches in the market and getting some votes in politics. Always keeping performance and power in the middle. The Basque Country, with life or death, as an instrument for benefit and power, suffices to give a few handouts. That is their main contribution: to touch below the minimum that a language needs to live and to wear the Vasquism txapela at a very affordable price. (I don't know why I remember Euskaraldia)

The behavior of the will of life that tries to find direction. This topic deserves another article -- and it will come.