Federico Reyes Heroles
In memory of Sonia Corcuera,
that sparkling, cheerful, and generous intelligence.
It is difficult to imagine it in a child. It is complicated to explain it to them. But it is part of their introduction to the world. It is called evil. When pranks appear, those small actions of “little transcendence” -says the Academy- there is much to celebrate. Travesear is the verb that describes that restless movement that gives away what, in the end, is a game. But boundaries exist, and over time, they become very clear.
Evil is always lurking. Many civilizing illusions make us believe evil can be cornered by raising educational levels with information and science. But no. It is inevitable to mention the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Putin’s attitude and the neo-Nazi chants in Germany and Holland are living examples of its existence. Thus, while on the bicentenary of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Daniel Barenboim reminds us of the humanitarian scope that this hymn has brought to the world and injects us with optimism, at the same time, there is another reading, let’s call it pessimistic, or perhaps we should say realistic, that forces us to reflect. Evil will always be around. Mexico included.
Marshall Sahlins, a brilliant anthropologist from Columbia University, wrote an excellent text: The Western Illusion of Human Nature. In it, there are always the eggs of evil. Rüdiger Safranski—a remarkable biographer of Nietzsche, Goethe, Hölderlin, and others, an exceptional mind—wrote what today is an indispensable reference: Evil or the drama of freedom. In freedom, one can choose evil. That is where we are.
Images: on archive/org, and on goodreads.com
Let us no longer speak of right or left or of the brutal failure of the public policies of this administration. On Sunday, we will face an even more elemental crossroads: six years of government have shown us that evil is installed in power.
Contempt for children: four out of 10 children do not have a complete vaccination schedule. We will see again children with polio and other preventable diseases. Behind are the decisions that explain it, also towards children with cancer. The attitude towards women, towards the searching mothers, towards the day care centers, are not a coincidence, they are a way of seeing the world. The daily lies and cynicism as a form of government. The persecution of journalists and leaders like Casar. The open pressure on the media. The calculated destruction of the electoral scaffolding. The initial flirtation with reelection that turned into the construction of the heir apparent in the best dictatorial tradition. The public threats to millions of Mexicans with the lie of the possibility of losing social programs. The open and ostentatious complicity with dictators. The mockery of making a pact with organized crime and selling it as a strategy. The criminal passivity in the face of the pandemic that cost hundreds of thousands of deaths. The systematic and open militarization of the country. The deceitful accounting of homicides and missing persons.
The actions to restrict freedoms -forced preventive imprisonment- and the parallel restriction of rights -Law of Amparo-. The shameless destruction of our environment is not only due to the whim of the Mayan Train but also due to the budgetary suffocation of protected natural areas. The under-expenditure in the health sector budget which is already being cut. The perversity of comparing it to Denmark’s just weeks before leaving office. As if he were governing a country of idiots, today, there are no medicines! The illicit appropriation of pensions. The wastefulness in a country with many needs. The ostentatious and unprecedented corruption. The persecution of scientists and science. It is contempt for life. The word continuity bristles.
Those accompanying him are not innocent; their complicity is pure and criminal. I will vote for Xóchitl and the coalition.
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