The Zapatistas describe what "our head of state" is doing, without meaning to:
Last edited Sun Jan 28, 2018, 04:26 PM - Edit history (1)
(This is part of a teaching parable the EZLN uses to discuss the structure of Mexico's economy...but I think you'll see a lot in this that's familiar)
In the prologue to a book of Zapatista writings, a meeting is held in a shelter with a obviously weakened central beam. The person teaching at this meeting asks everyone to imagine that, above this tiny house, a much larger and heavier house has been built, and is continually expanded, putting greater and greater weight on the underlying house. The expansion of the house above is relentless and pointless. The instructor then says
....there finally came a time when those above forgot that they were being held up by those below. What’s more, they even started to think that those below existed thanks to the mercy and kindness of those above, and that in fact it was those above who sustained those belos.
If they had thought about it a little with each new weight above, they would have added a reinforcement below. Not only did they not do this, but in their eagerness to accumulate more and more above, they were dismantling the primary supports for the building. As if that wasn’t enough all of the beams, especially the principled one, had rotted, because those who had been assigned to maintain the edifice were instead stealing parts of the structure and pocketing the money that should have been dedicated to the maintenance of the beams.
These people who claim to manage the building deserve special mention. The whole problem is this: they only manage WHAT ALREADY EXISTS. But not only that, they also dedicate themselves to looting part of the building’s structure. And as if some tragic comedy, they compete amongst themselves to decide who will be in charge of that theft.
This is why they go every so often to ask those below to mention them, to applaud them, to vote for them. They want to give speeches and steal pieces of the walls, furniture, and even the floor.
On top of that, their very existence is adding more and more weight to the roof. In sum, their essential work is to weaken what is below that and strenghthen what is above.
Conclusion: it is very likely that the house will collapse. This will be bad for those above; it will be worse for those below, But why maintain a house that is no longer a house? .
This is what's going on above us, and it's why OUR party has a special obligation NOT to be that sort of "managers"-to stand with all who live in the house below.
