Pero él es diferente
a system built on faith is nothing more than an excuse we use to avoid our responsibilities
Drawn by my sole ambition to one day become relevant in politics, I decided to start where many begin at some point in their careers. This summer, I briefly became involved in the state campaigns of PAN. If it were a pyramid scheme, I would have been at the very bottom along with the acarreados.
We were taken to a small village near the airport; quite the middle of nowhere. As the candidate for Senate—Victor Fuentes—came in with his branded Jeep, we were given shirts and pamphlets, handing them away for four hours under the sun to each and every household.
His over the top personality, the annoying entourage he dragged along, the mindless followers that treated him like the second coming of Jesus, and the fact that he did not even thank anyone for wasting their entire Saturday campaigning for him, hit all the wrong places. Seeing residents going out of their homes to receive the candidate with such a smile and cheerful eyes made me realize one hard truth:
Our society is one whose foundations have been laid by faith on a single figure. Either the idolization of a religious being promising a plentiful paradise, or an earthbound “patriot” guaranteeing a less miserable tomorrow. What was the norm a century ago, a stable monarchical-like presidency, has been transformed into the chaos of “democratic” competition. The usual superficial campaigns attempt to assemble the once royal decrees of change, just without any semblance of intention.
That veneration towards one being who is supposed to rescue us from harm continues to affect most communities. A vote is blindly given to anyone that best repeats the chorus of change which has been previously sung by the people we now want in a jail cell.
This ill of democracy isn’t new to anyone, Socrates once said that voting was a skill that had to be taught. Letting anyone vote without background education, which is the case for 53 percent of Mexicans who never went further than secundaria, might as well be the same as mob rule. This symptom of failing government institutions leads to elections where logic and reason take a backseat, while easily exploited emotions dictate the next leaders of 131 million people.
An electorate tired of corruption would have been more cautious when voting for MORENA, as it was being filled with former high ranking members of PRI and PRD, seeking to re-brand into something a new generation can yet again place their hopes on. However, we all know that they won over half the votes.
We can’t build a functioning society if we continue to trust those whose words get further than their actions. For a system built on faith is nothing more than an excuse we use to avoid our responsibilities, and entrusting our future towards those who prefer to kiss us with a lie than face long-ignored truths.