Antonio Navalón
The Chinese year that will end at the end of January is called the year of the rat. Certainly, and alluding to its Chinese symbolism, 2020 was a year not of predators but of rodents that have managed to dynamite – under the blow of an insolent virus – the image and the bases of what we understood as a stable world until it became into an unrecognizable one. The Chinese year that will begin on February 12 will be the year of the buffalo. It is curious because when you visit Africa, you immediately discover that the true king of the jungle – in my opinion – is the elephant. And, secondly, that the two animals that follow, in terms of danger, are not predators or big cats, but rather hippos –how endearing they seem–, and another species that when isolated and converted in a solitary being one is more afraid than any other: the mad buffalo.
You can tell that a crazy buffalo is a danger because the herd’s first thing is to expel it from its bosom. Later, this crazy buffalo wanders alone through the savannah and rivers seeking death that, the more destructive and violent, the better. Due to its size and physical capabilities, it is an animal that is difficult to be eliminated or defeated. Curiously, the current situation in the world – or at least the world in which I live more closely – has a lot more of a crazy buffalo than anything else. We thought that – with hope, confidence, and under the motto that the turn of the poor had already come – on July 1, 2018, we had managed to put the lion that had stalked us behind bars for so long. But it was a lie; the only thing we have achieved in the two largest countries in North America has been to wake up the lion and turn it into a crazy buffalo.
If one takes a good look at the outcome of the elections and the country that Joseph Biden and his family will have to govern in sixteen days, one will discover that, above all, division, hatred, and great social fragmentation is what characterizes the moment of current American society.
Beyond the efficient distribution of vaccines – which with the help of the market and capitalism, I suppose he will achieve without great effort – the main job that Biden will have will be to deal with the inheritance and the economic and social consequences of the pandemic. Biden will have to overcome the feeling of what it means to rule societies overwhelmed, scared, and placed in front of the supreme truth that the choice between life and death means. Also, it will have to correct through competition the already undeniable fact that the United States, for the first time in history, has numbers and statistics lower than those of China and that the Chinese economic and technological leadership is truly worrying both for The United States as – in my opinion – also for the rest of the world.
The biggest problem that Joseph Biden really faces is that once the lion is awakened and turned into a mad buffalo, the only desire one has is to go against each other or to seek to annihilate all those who do not belong. In this sense, I have to confess that since the story is so cruel and has such a black sense of humor, it has made, through very different paths, that the current situation in both Mexico and the United States is – from the social point of view and the dangers that the crazy buffalo can cause – or is at a very similar time.
Presidents long ago – at least the one who will be in the White House until January 20 and the one that will have Mexico until 2024 – dismissed the argument that society’s polarization or radicalization was dangerous. Both chose the path of persecution and merciless confrontation against all those who dared to argue with them or question any of their government elements. It is the patrimony of political changes – each one in its language and its way of expressing it – that loyalty and blind obedience are above all other considerations. It is the patrimony of the societies that embody and govern the confrontation until the last man without any rest. It is a consequence, then, not of solving problems by adding, but of solving problems by eliminating anyone who does not see it as one sees himself.
The origin of power can be democratic. However, the exercise of power can cease to be democratic at the moment in which dictators seek – through a process that appears to represent the voice of the multitudes – to impose their will at any cost and regardless of the consequences. At this time, beyond the confrontation between societies, what we need is peace. The time has come to face the challenge posed by traffickers – be they of souls, money, drugs, or any other condition – and seek to solve all existing problems ranging from health to economic and military. And victory can only be achieved under the establishment of national objectives that are formulated from the union.
A great test that will help see if it is possible to build a fence that separates the crazy buffalo from coexistence and prevents it from destroying everything will be to see the final result of the election that will elect the next two senators from the state of Georgia. In the election that will be held tomorrow, both parties will play the majority in the Senate, with the detail that, if they are winners, the Democrats will be able to enjoy having control of the Presidency, of the Chamber of Representatives – both already insured – and in addition to the Senate, to, in this way, fulfill their part of the bargain, which is to isolate the buffalo, building bridges for unity and not scenarios for destruction.
In this situation and at the beginning of the buffalo’s year, the panorama in which we are developing is absolutely far from what the magnitude of the crisis would advise. It is as if we understood that only by eliminating the other, the one who does not see things or is not like us, only in this way could not only our success be guaranteed, but also, if there is no such confrontation and that fight to the death, there would really be no possibilities of consolidating what the different offers of the parties that are facing are. Not even the supreme reality in which we live or die that this health crisis confronts us serves to unblock this level of confrontation in which it seems that the way we criticize the neoliberals or the fifís no longer matters, or the consequences of Black Lives Matter on the streets of the United States.
The Americas are in trouble. They are survival problems. Problems of which it is not good to be distracted about their magnitude. In this sense, it is necessary to put the buffalo back not inside the gate – assuming that it could withstand its outbreak – but rather, the social dynamics must be completely changed. I will ignore how much this discourse and this situation are similar to others that have lived in places like Europe or at other times in our history, and that always ended badly. But I do think it is important to know that at this moment, we are not only facing a health crisis, but we are also reshaping societies that have to seek to answer the following question: can they really only be built from the extermination of one part over the other? It is equally important to determine whether concerting and union are still possible or, conversely, too late. We will see what destruction the crazy buffalo does.
Comments:
He’s way past his prime, and I believe pretty sick, but we certainly have the right style of leader in the US for the challenges we are facing. I think the US president and the country spiritually benefit from the fact that our failures with the virus happened during an election year. We can tell ourselves it was a fluke because we elected an amateur (that’s not true. Virtually no element of our system succeeded in any way, shape, or form). It’s important for us to be able to tell ourselves this to move forward.
As for actual policy, I believe much of the foreign policy pivot to China during the Trump era will remain. Perhaps no tariffs and perhaps no public antagonism a la the Paris Accords, but the focus will be there. It should have started probably during the Bush-era but instead, we chose to squander blood and treasure crushing tinpot dictatorships of no threat to ourselves. Obama made a China pivot in the last half of his second term; it should have come sooner. So, here’s hoping we have both the policy and the style.
I used to envy Mexico’s sexenio because it meant avoiding using energies of the presidency on getting re-elected and sparing its voters the extra psychological anguish of a presidential campaign. Now, I’m not so sure. Question is – if AMLO had to run again in ‘22, would he even be voted out?
St. Cyr
