Living in The Matrix

Living in The Matrix

By: Erreh Svaia

“Like dreams, statistics are a form of wish fulfillment.”

Jean Baudrillard

We currently live in the Matrix, the reality we live in is a carefully developed simulation, our democracies, our politicians and their decisions are carefully scripted ballets, I bet that brilliant simulation theorist Jean Baudrillard is happy at the fact that his theories, widely used for fictional stories are now more real than ever, if reality means something these days of the post fact era, it's our duty to start analyzing with critical eye all the information that comes at an incredibly fast pace in the internet era.

The recent announcement made by USA car company Ford about cancelling the opening of a manufacturing plant in Mexico in order to augment their local operations in Michigan not only shook Ford in the global stock markets, it was also a lethal blow to the Mexican Peso value versus the dollar, in  the age of populism rage, everything can be used for propaganda means, Trump aka TOTUS, Troll of the USA quickly tried to take advantage of the situation claiming to be the real reason why Ford made its sudden change of mind, in reality there's a decline in the car industry, it seems that self-driven cars are an immediate future, so Ford decided to invest in USA with better prepared personnel instead of investing in Mexico, at low cost but with not technologically qualified work force, Trump is a liar and an opportunistic character, but the truth is that Mexico should learn from this, bet heavy on education and start considering to where the car industry is headed to, car industry is a safeguard for national economy, but self-driven cars might be changing the games rules in a close future.

Mexican president Enrique Peña is a not too smart politician, in fact his always unfortunate announcement a couple of days, justified the rise in gasoline prices on the rising prices of oil in the global market, but what Peña is forgetting is that when oil prices were historically low, Mexicans never saw the gasoline prices declining in the country, and if that wasn't enough, he named as Foreign Relationships Minister Luis Videgaray, the former Finance Minister who was ousted when revealed as the man responsible for according Trump's visit to Mexico, a key event that propelled Trump's presidential campaign, awkwardly, it seems that the only victim of such inept simulations is Peña itself, who yesterday talked about the tough decision he had to take in rising gasoline prices, but I would rather see Peña taking the tough decision of downsizing his bureaucracy and their salaries.

Last but not least, is the fact that the inept administration of Peña seems to be putting his political party, the ultra-conservative PRI (Revolutionary Institutional Party) on peril of losing the 2018 presidential election I'm what seems to be a big defeat for the supposed  "new PRI" that won the 2012 elections, mistake after mistakes seems to confirm that Peña is slowly dismantling the party, and an internal reaction of the most traditional parts of the party seems to be aligning with conservative "left winger" Andrés López, Nacional boogey man and leader of the MoReNa (National Regeneration Movement) Party, a politician that once belonged to that traditional part of the PRI, a man that seems as driven as Peña to destroy the "neoliberal" legacy of ex-president Carlos Salinas de Gortari, considering Salinas main legacy, the NAFTA (North America Free Trade Agreement) is in danger of an attack by USA soon to be president Donald Trump, whose presidential campaign received a new impulse after Peña invited him to México, so in a way, both Peña and Andrés López seem to be on the same boat on a mission to destroy Salinas' legally, isn't just a casualty that Salinas main political opponent, Mexican ex-president Ernesto Zedillo was helping in the shadows Andrés López in order to become Chief of the Mexico City? In the end it looks like Zedillo is about to win a battle against Salinas de Gortari.

Lots of things lurking in the shadows, reality is just not what it seems to be.