Federico Reyes Heroles
Tell me what you pay attention to, and I’ll tell you who you are.
José Ortega y Gasset.
Distraction? There is a lot of it; I do not mean the necessary one, which allows us for a moment to travel out of this world: music, sport, a good exhibition, the conversation itself. That is why it has been cultivated since ancient times: theater, declamation, the “storytellers” of Iceland. Necessary and optional. The will is imposed. But the matter is reversed in our times: distraction imposes itself and turns us into slaves. It is enough to observe the “hen house meals” in which everyone interrupts everyone else, and even – a marvel of modernity – there are many who interrupt themselves! The controversial Daniel Kahneman exploded a firecracker with Think Fast, Think Slow.
A central actor in this human tragedy is the cell phone, which replaces reasoning; an image forces the explanation, and that’s it. Of course, these fantastic devices have advantages, but only if we control them. I said tragedy because in the 21st century -in which information surrounds us- we live without digesting it, assuming it, reasoning it, or acting. Mexico is on the verge of falling into a dictatorship. In fact, the expression is misleading: we are already living in a proto-dictatorship; look at the pressures on the media, the threats to journalists, to Justice Ministers, to judges, the systematic destruction of counterweights, the limitless opacity, the surrender of the civilian sphere to the military, or the lofty phrase: “No, above that law is the moral authority, the political authority”, in the mouth of the President of a Republic. It is not a threat, and voting is the only way to prevent it from consolidating.
Faced with this, many are in despair. But how is it possible that they continue to support it? I have long maintained that we live in a society trapped by fear. Fear of losing the pension -even though it is impossible- fear of losing stimuli, fear of being betrayed by an employee in a purple vest who earns his bread and butter by circulating questionnaires that coerce the voter. Or the businessman threatened to lose a concession. Fear was implanted; we were yielding, normalizing. Today, it is king. It is called the “spiral of silence” and is not a new phenomenon. Fortunately, the agency Activa Mexico recently released a study that can be summarized in a few figures. 54% believe there is no freedom of expression; another 63% agree that they have been afraid to express their opinion openly. In a frightened country, the polls are dislocated.
The second factor is distraction. In this era, many are caught up in themselves: I am at the center, and the rest is irrelevant. “But mom, if we’re doing so well – upper middle class – why are you fighting with the 4T?”. Real dialogue. Here’s just one figure: from January to November 23, the government allocated 20 times more money to oil than health. We produce the same as we did 45 years ago. Let’s concentrate. We are all in the same boat. The warning is not new; the first one who said it was Adam Smith -now there are figures- no one can be happy in a crumbling society, no matter how rich he is. This is the case. About 35% of voters are young, and many think the future will be the same for them if there is continuity. This is false. The participation of these young people can determine the future of Mexico.
We have to shake them; they or their partners or children or friends could be victims of the cancerous crime; the children with polio could return; they are citizens of a beautiful country, which we can no longer travel. They will not get quality jobs; they could live in a country without dignified judges, drowned in corruption and impunity, without trained teachers, without water, without privacy, and polluted, in which the Armed Forces are a political threat. This is what is at stake.
The good news is that engagement in social networks, the main measurement of conviction, Xóchitl Gálvez sweeps in all of them.
“Tell me what you pay attention to and…”.
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