Mistakes of The System.
Sunday, 02/22/04 - 2:54 pm.

Coming home yesterday at 4 in the afternoon (having left home at 9 am) I saw the horrible hand of man all around me, building a complex Complex where there used to be a forest.

Once upon a time, when you'd drive to the limits of the next town (coming back to this one, that is), you'd have the bliss of driving in a (sort of) highway surrounded by forests. All you saw by the sides of the road was green and brown, the weather was fresh and the air was clean. But now, all you see is gray, inorganic gray, and you feel asphixiated and horrified.

My eyes seeing through the window an endless chain of concrete capitalism (make it TWO forests), I suddenly thought of Fight Club.

- Tyler Durden: did you know that if you mix equal parts of gasoline and frozen orange juice concentrate you can make napalm?
- Narrator: no, I did not know that; is that true?
- Tyler Durden: that's right...one could make all kinds of explosives, using simple household items.
- Narrator: really...?
- Tyler Durden: if one were so inclined.

I want to be that inclined. I'd like to find a gang I can trust in, and drive by that mall at one in the morning, tossing a bomb out of the window to destroy something so cosmetically beautiful. And stain the walls of the construction area (oh, yeah, there's a third forest nearby that was cut down to build another mall) with graffitti.

I don't mind malls per se. I mind too much malls when it's well known that only 2% of the wild life of the country hasn't been cut down and/or killed and people are literally dying of thirst, because we are running out of water.

Anyway, that's not the point. The point is I thought of writing a book about it. About three, four people who are "mistakes" of The System (because they have a critical mind) and they create complete chaos and are labeled as terrorists, but in the end The System kills them and nobody ever heard anything, because The System has a clever way to cover up its mistakes.

I went to bed very late ton...this morning, writing the first chapter, but by noon it ended up in the trashcan. Just like the rest of my brainy ideas.

And that's because I feel I know nothing. I don't know enough to write a book. Any kind of book. For instance, I know (and by now so do you) that one could make all kinds of explosives using simple household items. But I don't know which ones and how.

But still...I'm unhappy with The System. So I wrote this e-mail yesterday, and sent it to someone with a very disturbing column in the morning newspaper. He hasn't replied, and he won't. I bet he won't even read it, but it was worth a try. My parents and my brother were very keen on the idea and they were impressed (that was a huge compliment for me, as I've always felt I was the "intellectual black sheep of the family"...you don't know it, but my family are very much into the social revolution...and then there's me, the dumb one. But HA, not anymore).

I've only omitted names. Not to protect anyone, but because you, living where you live, wouldn't understand. I know it'd be better if you read the entire column first, but one, you don't care, and two, I'm not translating it, out of spite and laziness.

***

Mr. *M*,

I'm writing to you respectfully, hoping that the freedom of speech that everybody's talking about these days, applies to the ones who have a different opinion than the one you stated. I bothered to read your entire column, knowing I wouldn't agree with it. I hope you do the same with the feedback.

�Why don't *candidate to president of the republic from the left wing* and his party generate confidence in the people? You are right, the answer is very simple. As a matter of fact, you are part of it when you say: "let's not be intimidated by the actions that the *left wing party* will take against us and our right to vote. Let's remember how we did it under the bullets of that same *left wing party* in the 80s, and let's say once more yes to Peace, to Progress and to Freedom". It's the media who dwell, over and over again, on "what will happen" if the *left wing party* wins.

And that wouldn't be so bad if you really had a clue about what's going to happen. I tell you this because it seems that the *right wing party* is, at least partly, blind when it comes to knowledge of any ideology other than neoliberalism. A few days ago, on a debate show, someone called the studio and asked *mr. rightist fellow* what communism really was. He answered, and I quote, "communism is the opposite to capitalism". Gee, let's give it up for Marx, shall we?

I might be even half a century younger than *mr. rightist fellow* but I do know what communism is (I trust that you're not close-minded and will understand that when I say "I know about communism" I don't mean I am a communist). And I can see the difference between the communist system and the ideology of El Salvador's left wing.

I understand we're all entitled to choose X party, and I congratulate you because you already did. I don't reproach you so, but your lack of vision beyond the Official Discourse.

You and everybody else are right when say that the *left wing party* was part of a bloody civil war. But for a war to be such, there has to be two parties (that happening in Iraq, at least in the beggining, wasn't a war, was an invasion). Remember that the other party was the government (please tell me at least you know the historycal roots that go beyond the 70s). Remember that the civil war was just the end of decades of repression and opression from the government and the military, who took advantage of the country however they wanted. The situation hasn't changed that much ever since. What happens now is that there are no more bullets and the government, instead of torturing and killing the "troublemakers", just ignore them.

I don't know who'll win the election (for president, in march), but I tell you this, in all honesty: don't be afraid of the left wing. They are not communists. *The right wing party* members say they have no fear, but they sure know how to instill it. *The right wing candidate* said in a meeting that we should expect violence. A candidate for president who speaks like that is also scary, you know?. Anyone would expect that at least he'd ask his followers to avoid violence as much as possible.

Anyway....thank you for your attention to this opinion (because you bothered to read it in its entirity, didn't you?) that's so different from yours. If both parties were as tolerant as you and me are we wouldn't need...mentions of national issues that don't matter in this diary.

Thank you, once again. Have a nice day.

***

And The System said unto its mindless followers: thou shall ignore feedback from troublemakahs.

And so, he's probably deleted my e-mail without reading it in its entirety.

Because The System has a clever way to cover up its mistakes.

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