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Recently, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, in an interview with Joaquín López Dóriga, described the unfortunate situation in the country: A violence that grows, an economy that does not grow, a lot of deterioration in public services
. ( Millennium3/17/22).
After listening to such forceful dialogue, I return to questions from other times: Has the time come for the great design, for the great revision, shall we say it in the singular or extend it to the plural? I am not certain, but what is certain is that the world has not completely overcome the serious danger of falling into instability and stagnation, nor have the extreme risks to human habitability been overcome. This is precisely what the Law to Reduce Inflation, presented by President Biden to his Congress and approved by the representatives or deputies, tells us about. Less than what the president asked for, but enough to raise Democratic spirits and speak presidentially of a victory
. And, given the circumstances, also to explicitly assume the emergency and attend to the distressed alert calls, as well as demonstrate that politics is, and continues to be, the only option within our reach to aspire to trace an alternative path to the one followed.
It is not just a problem of ideology or understanding of the human that involves us. It is the dangerous and increasingly aggressive signals from Nature itself that impel us to innovative action in politics, economic, environmental and energy policy. Nothing more, but nothing less: the historical springs of the rise and evolution of capitalism in the last two centuries are placed on the examination table with the operating room aside. Without anticipating eve, it is essential to assume that, as proclaimed in the most conspicuous forums and elegant halls, the world is in imminent danger of dismantling, mass deaths, disappearance of entire coastal regions. And we could go on, because if we add those of the pandemic to the count of the consequences of the crises, the sum puts us before the apocalypse. Without that reference, it is not possible to make significant progress in what could still unite us.
In Mexico, the missing link in this viacrucis has been, for too long, in the loss of the idea of development and the expulsion of any idea close to cooperation, collective action or the national project. Those words and other similar ones became prohibited or in bad taste, before the thousand and one promises of the change of the world towards globalization and the unified market.
Today we can say, with the English scholar John Gray, that it was a false dawn
and that Dani Rodrik’s opportune, early question about whether globalization had gone too far would today have a resounding affirmative answer. Yes, practically all of us earthlings went too far and too fast, so much so that we could not even slow down to begin a slow, deep reflection on what we wanted to do, of ourselves and of our world, given the inventory of portents and calamities that we discovered as we continued down the path opened up by globalism.
In this task, which we summarize in the word reflect, we have lost time and form, skills and imagination, but it is still possible to retry it, reformulate it. Above all, if we return to the forgotten and reviled word of development, its necessity and how important it is today to give shape and relevance to the very idea of development.
The angry and extreme climate we have created, with the government and its coalition at the forefront, is not helping. The exchanges of half-truths and sweetened lies that are launched from the pulpit to the believing contingents, committed to a vague change, but without a doubt promising, do not construct realities that can be translated into a political verb, nor do they reflect the iniquitous reality of the social question reconfigured by economic and political stumble. They only confuse and dazzle not a few when criticism is risked or some skepticism is noted. There is a lot of fuss, but the political arena is deaf and dumb, stunned, while the unarmed State is put against the ropes of the ring rickety our political exchange has become.
Nothing good and little new under this inclement reality. Even so, it will only be in and from politics where it is possible to weave and find the way out of loss. That it will not be miraculous or by decree, but it will have to be of great will.
