Water and oil | The Economist

It is a bad omen when we humans do not agree. And it seems that in these years of pandemic we are the inhabitants of this little blue dot in the universe, very prone to the grab. That yes, that we are violent is nothing new, the more than three million years that we have been evolving, from hominids to today becoming these supposedly less aggressive homo sapiens, we have been fighting. The killings always happen, but there are also some periods, not perfect (never) but a little less brutal.

With the unstoppable arrival of populism, we could say that we are back on the crest of the wave, since violence and bitterness form a substantial part of this way of accumulating power, I do not mean governing.

And I refer to the evidence, there is not a single populism in the world that has not managed to deeply polarize the population in the first place. Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba, the Peru of Fujimori, Bolsonaro, Bukele, Evo, Trump, Kirchnerism, etc. years ago or now the messianic leaders have all done exactly the same thing. The well-worn phrase “divide and conquer” is the prodigious recipe from which authoritarians enthrone themselves.

President López Obrador has already divided almost all of us: businessmen, the cultural community, scientists, the media, opinion leaders, academics, unions, well… even families. In this corner—he shouts every morning—conservatives, aspirationists, fifis, hitmen, traitors to the country, neoliberals, they are my adversaries…and in this other one—he boasts—the good and wise people that I embody.

Perhaps we are—hopefully I am wrong—in the face of a dying system, collapsed, in intensive care, in which more institutions are destroyed every day and mistrust and hatred among the population increases. Woe to those who resist the cult, who challenge the dogma; they, says the ruler, are instruments of conservatism, the origin of evil and are to blame for everything. The only solution, says the populist, is to divide the country in two. And boy has he succeeded.

Today, in this complicated 2022, we see with great concern how the problems for our country multiply in health, economy, foreign policy, security and how the division of powers that prevents the imposition of one power over another, fades in the face of the charisma of the Leader.

I think that the only fight we can give to this terrible situation is to fight to convince and excite that other half in love with the words, more than the actions of the authoritarian, that it is possible to build a true democracy, broader, less angry , where we all fit in and where we don’t repeat the same mistakes that led to this failed fourth transformation.

I am not talking about a utopia, but about a real country, beyond the imagination of a seller of lies. A country that we can build in the medium term and only with a determined citizen commitment, where we Mexicans are no longer water and oil. Will we be capable of it?