A New Wave of Authoritarianism

A New Wave of Authoritarianism

By: Erreh Svaia

“We are at heart so profoundly anarchistic that the only form of state we can imagine living in is Utopian; and so cynical that the only Utopia we can believe in is authoritarian.”

Lionel Trilling

According to some serious surveys, Mexicans are really tired of democracy, it no longer full fills the dreams of people about a better country and a better government, as people openly speak about their delusion on the political party system that looks as if every political party is rotten to the core and no good option is offered to society to vote for, in a way people feel trapped and can’t really see any real options, feeling that every option or party is pretty much the same making them loose interest “because nothing changes”.

The world lives in at this precise moment in dark times, and the bad mood the Mexican president denounces is being ignited by social networks is not only happening in Mexico, but all over the world, a nightmarish economic crisis started in 2008 in the USA that spread globally, from which we don't seem to wake up, the decline of the world fastest rising economical star, China, and the quickly dropping prices of oil, are enough variables to start depressing even the most positive minds.

Is a little bit confusing matter, as in Mexico, economy is certainly going better than it had in decades, unfortunately like during the PAN administration, there is a social feeling that inequity is growing, that people are getting poorer, that the jobs created are low paid and low quality and that insecurity is taking over, and although such vision of the country is not so wrong at all, and although we as a country are doing so-so, there are many things left to do, economic growth is certainly not enough to permeate all levels of society, corruption is running rampant thru the government and the security crisis doesn't seem to be solved.

It must be recognized that the country has done a great job by moving from an oil based economy into a manufacturing country, it put us in a safe position when compared to countries like Venezuela or Russia, but dependency on cheap labor (like China) and on the USA capital is still affecting the economy, we haven't been able to create well paid jobs that help strengthen the low class helping them to reach the middle class, education hasn't been applied to get better skilled and note productive labor force, the government still sees the country as only a cheap labor force and not a major designer and innovative player, with the USA as our biggest client, unable to diverse our customer base, as those in power are still afraid big not being able to keep power with a better prepared better thinking citizens and that keep us away from making a better country for the coming generations.

As populism has been falling apart in the rest of Latin America, Mexico and the USA still look like potential victims for disaster, the governments in turn haven't been able to communicate their advances, corruption, insecurity and wrong foreign policies and inability to stop multinational corporations advance within the government have left an open door for populists arrival, demagogues like Donald Trump and Andres Lopez who have been able to exploit people's insecurities, it seems that we are desperate for change even if that change is in detriment of democracy and in favor of authoritarian governments, I'm amazed at people denouncing the end of our democratic party system, considering that out democracy is about 16 years old, talking about obsolescence is ridiculous, even accepting more desperate options like so called independent candidates and outsiders who bring more danger to our political system.

I believe our political system needs a change, it needs truly deep reforms, not the superficial cosmetic reforms so much publicized by Enrique Peña government, we don’t need not a devastating populist revolution, although slow paced, we have managed to move forward even at a better pace than other Latin American, Asian and European countries, the worst we can do is scrap everything and pretend to start all over again.

And for the rest of the world, if the USA voter insists on voting from the guts without reasoning they end up with another Putin as their president, an authoritarian who will look up only for his own benefit and for the benefit of his close circle of friends, a new and uncontrolled oligarchy that would turn the USA into an unashamed cleptocracy, it would become a new protectionist regime that would suppress civil rights and freedoms in the name of moral and traditionalism, it even gets scarier if you consider than guys from the far left like Vladimir Putin or his ideologue Aleksandr Dugin ( or even Mexico's supposed radical left leader Andres Lopez, who looks more like a closet far right winger) have spoken in favor of Trump calling him a great "leader", like Kim Jung Un, like Fidel Castro or like Hugo Chavez, may I ask...?