Since the last meeting three months ago, Sicilia appears to have ramped up his discourse:
.. an atmosphere of violence and horror is polluting words and speeches. There is a greater threat we are detecting and that citizens are condemning, that of authoritarianism and its most brutal face, fascism.Honestly, fascism? I wonder if, in retrospect, Sicilia will see the irony of his own words: Hurling around such labels, which serve absolutely no constructive purpose rather than to provoke, polarize, and distort reality, are also polluting the dialogue he himself has been so central in promoting.
Sicilia is a poet, and knows the emotive value of language. While "Fascism" is a rather slippery term when it comes defining it as a political or economic theory, it is used to characterize states which have militarized internal security and which use state violence against those who question or resist the regimes' economic and social agenda. And, of course, Sicilia — while also a devout Roman Catholic — is a leftist, and "fascism" is used among the Mexican left to refer to the falangist and synarchist tendencies you still find in PAN. While Calderón's father honorable resigned from PAN in protest against fascism within the party, his son has never to my knowledge ever complained about these factions within the party.
ReplyDeleteTrue - while much a centrist within PAN, he certainly has never confronted the yunquistas or other fascistoid elements in PAN. But I am just not sure what purpose it serves to suggest fascism is coming to Mexico. Militarized security, yes - but as far as I can see, still wholly under democratic control. I just fear that he risks sidelining himself with the "F-word," and diminishing the value of his message.
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