Source
One thing is to miss your train, a very different thing is to burn it.

Greetings, everyone

This is my entry to the #freewrite 5-minute exercise hosted by @mariannewest. See details here.

The Futility of Persuasion

This year has been one of the most frustrating years of my life. It has brought painful realizations, drastic decision-making, and renouncing many notions that were part of my personal and professional makeup.

There was a recent call to go back to streets and protest the Maduro regime. I'm done protesting. I keep thinking that Maduro may very well outlive Trump himself and all those other politicians who have opposed and underestimate him and those behind him. Since January we have been told “Maduro’s days are counted”. Well, it so happened they were counted in big amounts. To ask people to protest after some 5 million have left the country does not quite add up. The futility of math.

After so many contradictions among the so-called defenders of democracy throughout the world, I expect nothing from politics but mess after mess; disappointment after disappointment. Trump says his administration wants Maduro out, but he embraces Turkey's president, one of Maduro's main supporters, after Putin and Xi.

I say to myself, the futility of protesting when the very people who ask you to become cannon fodder betrays you in murky negotiations and seem to be ok with breaking bread with murderers and thugs. The futility of protesting when you are an unarmed citizen who, unlike those protesting in Chile or Colombia, does not plan to loot any supermarket or mall, burn any subway station or church, or fuck the police; and yet, you have to face the unrelenting violence of “law” enforcement agents who, unlike those in Ecuador or Bolivia, will not pray before they go out to repress or try to explain in tears that they are just trying to do their job. The ones we have faced here for 2 decades could not care less about crying old men, pregnant women or naked desperate teenagers. They’ll abuse them all the same, they’ll laugh and they’ll torture and kill to their hearts’ content.

And then I think about those young men and women going crazy about socialism and wanting the heroes of the Cuban revolution to be reborn in their lands, the reincarnation of the caudillos from the Venezuelan plains to rule them with their iron fists, and I ponder over the futility of persuasion when it comes to people eager to screw up on their own accord.

Source

As a teenager, I never needed to be lectured on the harmful effects of smoking, drinking, robbing, or killing. I never needed a social worker to give me oral or written instructions about how to be a good person. I never needed videos to show me the destructive effects of drunk-driving or overdosing. It was enough to be told that actions had consequences and that if I screwed up on my own, against my parents’ will, behind their backs, then I was on my own. If I was big enough and smart enough to screw up, then, I had to be equally smart and big to get out of any hole I got myself into. That was their philosophy of education. If we were truly smart we had to recognize good from bad. Lying, smoking, drinking, hurting others, breaking the law was bad.

These young men and women who are burning Chile, Ecuador, Bolivia, and now Colombia put into question that the persuasive aspect of socialism is the promise of equality and prosperity for all. Smoking drugs, consuming alcohol, raping, bullying, breaking all codes possible only promise power over others, payback, or even revenge. To try to persuade these people that they are only going to destroy whatever good thing they had and build nothing but misery from there is futile. They are driven by resentment and an unquenchable desire to get even on whoever they think owes them something.

Source

The futility of hope.

Thanks for your visit

---

Visítanos en: www.equipocardumen.com.ve