Honestly though, I think Mexico limps along due to what Kropotkin called "mutual aid" -- Mexicans know their elites are bullshit and help each other out. It's kind of like the late Soviet Union.
It really hasn't helped that the USA has been fucking around in Mexico ever since the guerra de in…
Honestly though, I think Mexico limps along due to what Kropotkin called "mutual aid" -- Mexicans know their elites are bullshit and help each other out. It's kind of like the late Soviet Union.
It really hasn't helped that the USA has been fucking around in Mexico ever since the guerra de independencia, although I do confess to being a fan of Abe Lincoln's "a bunch of rifles fell of a train and Benito Juarez got aholt of them? Well I never" maneuver.
Given the challenges of Mexico's history- many of them imposed from without- the amazing thing isn't that the institutions of the government are half-rotted from corruption; it's that anything remains that hasn't been corrupted. I think your comment about mutual aid is on-point. It's the parallel structure that keeps the remnant of a decent society in place. The people who aren't corrupt, or who only resort to corruption when it's absolutely necessary.
It's interesting to hear the condemnations of NAFTA from the American point of view that it hurt the US (or even "destroyed" us, per a comment I read elsewhere in the thread.) Because what NAFTA really unravelled was the middle class of Mexico. The result for them is akin to what recently happened to independent Internet retailers when Amazon blew up.
My attitude toward Mexicans and Central Americans streaming northward to cross the border illegally is ambivalent: from my point of view, it's a terrible undermining of national sovereignty. We can't just dismantle border protections and let everyone in with no accountability!
On the other hand: wouldn't you? I totally get why a Mexican, Honduran, etc. would feel the need to abandon the home of their birth and get out of there as soon as possible, taking their chances to cross the border as an outlaw resident in a new land. I don't like the criminal element, but I respect the people who just want to get away from the chaos and come north to make an honest living. Assuming the risks of getting caught, and accepting them. The US government indisputably has a lot more power to ameliorate the problems of Mexico or the Central American nations than any peasant family fleeing the paramilitary gang wars down there. That's certainly a valid reason for refugee status, in my view. Or for having a go at sneaking into the country, if the option isn't available. If the US wants to effectively reduce that sort of immigration as a problem, it needs to be addressed at the source.
I'm amazed Obrador hasn't gotten Kennedy'd yet.
Honestly though, I think Mexico limps along due to what Kropotkin called "mutual aid" -- Mexicans know their elites are bullshit and help each other out. It's kind of like the late Soviet Union.
It really hasn't helped that the USA has been fucking around in Mexico ever since the guerra de independencia, although I do confess to being a fan of Abe Lincoln's "a bunch of rifles fell of a train and Benito Juarez got aholt of them? Well I never" maneuver.
Given the challenges of Mexico's history- many of them imposed from without- the amazing thing isn't that the institutions of the government are half-rotted from corruption; it's that anything remains that hasn't been corrupted. I think your comment about mutual aid is on-point. It's the parallel structure that keeps the remnant of a decent society in place. The people who aren't corrupt, or who only resort to corruption when it's absolutely necessary.
It's interesting to hear the condemnations of NAFTA from the American point of view that it hurt the US (or even "destroyed" us, per a comment I read elsewhere in the thread.) Because what NAFTA really unravelled was the middle class of Mexico. The result for them is akin to what recently happened to independent Internet retailers when Amazon blew up.
My attitude toward Mexicans and Central Americans streaming northward to cross the border illegally is ambivalent: from my point of view, it's a terrible undermining of national sovereignty. We can't just dismantle border protections and let everyone in with no accountability!
On the other hand: wouldn't you? I totally get why a Mexican, Honduran, etc. would feel the need to abandon the home of their birth and get out of there as soon as possible, taking their chances to cross the border as an outlaw resident in a new land. I don't like the criminal element, but I respect the people who just want to get away from the chaos and come north to make an honest living. Assuming the risks of getting caught, and accepting them. The US government indisputably has a lot more power to ameliorate the problems of Mexico or the Central American nations than any peasant family fleeing the paramilitary gang wars down there. That's certainly a valid reason for refugee status, in my view. Or for having a go at sneaking into the country, if the option isn't available. If the US wants to effectively reduce that sort of immigration as a problem, it needs to be addressed at the source.