Mark Twain, a great American writer, is remembered for his novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and its sequel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. However, another of his novels, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Courtis a science fiction satire in which Hank, a factory operator in Connecticut during the 19th century, is transported to the England of Arthurian legends.
The book mocks superstition and The ignorance of the British people in the Middle Agescapable of swallowing the tale of wizards, ogres, giants, fairies, magic swords and other legends. The most interesting thing, however, are his dialogues with the noble elite of King Arthur’s court: knights, princesses, etc. They all insist that slavery, vassalage, unjust laws and mistreatment of the population are the fault of the latter, since it is not ready to govern itself.
According to the nobles of the court, if the tax laws, the judges or the administration of justice are against the poorest, they actually deserve it because they wouldn’t know how to handle themselves any other way. There is a monarchy because the people have no capacity for political discernment, everyone from King Arthur to his junior grooms tells Hank. The people need a wise king to guide them because they couldn’t even organize themselves any other way.
Hank has doubts and thinks of the 19th century American republic from which he is originally from. The British people are “not fit to live in a republic like the Roman one or in a democracy like the Greek one,” King Arthur tells Hank very self-assuredly. Hank realizes that it is the same argument of the American oligarchs of his time and of all despotisms in all ages. So he begins to organize the people in the villages with new customs.
In the novel, Hank not only establishes new schools to educate the people, but gradually instills in them ideas of self-government and proposals contrary to the monarchy. The people begin to demand rights and dignity. At one point, Hank invites the king to dress up as a poor man to tour his domains and once both characters are dressed up, they are captured by a slave trader. King Arthur is sold very cheaply, because without his expensive clothes he looks like any other beggar. Only then does King Arthur begin to reflect on the need for a dignified treatment for all human beings and considers the abolition of slavery. Only when the elite itself begins to feel the chains of oppression, does it realize that it is not convenient for anyone.
In both America and England, the ruling elites claim that ordinary people are not fit to live in freedom, Hank believes. Meanwhile, Hank forms an opposition faction to the status quo that believes that people, given the opportunity to educate themselves, will be the first to defend their freedom.
I think of this novel while watching the parliamentary debate (so to speak) on Mexican judicial reform.
In my country everything is upside down. It is not the government, but the opposition that curses the people. “Enjoy what you voted for,” shout the representatives of an opposition that is increasingly stupid and brutalized by defeat. “Mexicans do not have a liberal or democratic culture, they voted to be slaves,” say the self-proclaimed intellectuals without any shame.
A great strategy to persuade the majority. Keep insulting them.
Worse still, they do not even realize their mind-boggling political clumsiness. They complain that the government blackmails opposition legislators with investigation files, but that is because The opposition nominated candidates who have huge outstanding debts with the justice systemWho came up with it?
The two PRD senators went to Morena. Traitors, the PAN members exclaim furiously. Did someone invite the PRD members to join the PAN or PRI benches? No. The PAN, with extraordinary cynicism, calls the PRD members traitors. Yunes and his familybut has nominated them for all positions in Mexico and its surrounding areas. Marko Cortes He made father and son the titular and alternate senators. Does this really seem appropriate to you? He made his daughter-in-law the municipal president. Did you not know the ethical background of these characters?
How can one criticize presidential nepotism? If the offices of an entire state were mortgaged to a family chiefdom?
We are not so far from the England of King Arthur’s court. Mexico did not deserve such a degrading spectacle, much less our children and grandchildren.
Analyst. @avila_raudel
