War Structure

Recently I commented on Prof. Enrique Semo's idea of a two hundred year old war in Mexico; How Long a Revolution?. I believe that the war is even older. I see links to Lev Bronstein's concept of Permanent Revolution .

Here I connect these ideas with the concept of Autonomy, as in Maturana and Varela's concept: Autopoiesis.

Today we can read in the NYT that in Thailand people are fighting in the street.

This minor essay tries to copy Thomas Kuhn's: "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions".

Reading about the War in Thailand, I couldn't help thinking about my great uncles. My grand mother Tayde Castro Uriza, was Mardonio, Rosendo, and Abraham Castro's little sister. My late mother Emma, was Tayde's youngest daughter. My uncles lived in the town of Huitzuco, down South in Mexico, in the Guerrero State. You may know about this state, because Acapulco and Zihuatanejo are here. These uncles, together with other friends and relatives from Huitzuco, and the nearby towns of Tepecoacuilco, Quetzalapa, and Chaucingo; started the War in Guerrero on February 28, 1911; a few months later of the set date of November 20, 1910, as the plan of Francisco I. Madero, called for.

Another uncle, he was married to Felicia Uriza, Francisco Figueroa Mata went to settle a truce with Porfirio Díaz Morl , then President of Mexico in early 1911. The Dictator refused, and by Summer of that year, Porfirio Díaz was exiled in France, and my uncle, was Governor of Guerrero from 1917 to 1925.

What structure do I see here?

Uncle Francisco Figueroa could talk to Porfirio Díaz. He was not just a guy in the street that had the brilliant idea of a revolution. Mexico was in internal crisis, was breaking down. This is similar to what is happening in Thailand. From the NYT article above we can read:

"“The government cannot turn back,” Abhisit Vejjajiva, the prime minister, said in a nationally televised address on Saturday night."

Also:

"The protesters, who began their demonstration here two months ago, have demanded the resignation of the government and new elections. But the movement, which is made up of farmers and the urban poor, many of them supporters of Thaksin Shinawatra, the prime minister deposed in a 2006 military coup, has fractured and their ultimate demands are now not clear."

There is a Thai officer that already sided with the "Red Shirt" citizen group, and is now badly wounded.

"The army officer who was shot Thursday, Maj. Gen. Khattiya Sawatdiphol, was on life support late Friday, and his doctor said his chances of survival were “almost nil.”"

My point with this essay is that the structure of war is one of breakdown of Autopoiesis. This property has three main elements, production, maintainance, and defense. For the case in point. Thai society built itself, very likely several thousand years ago, has maintained itself, with ups and downs; and finally has defended itself against foreign invasions.

Right now, from inside, just like in 1910 in Mexico, it is breaking down.

Finally, according to Lev Bronstein, better known as Trotsky, human societies live in a permanent state of revolution, just like Enrique Semo says is happening in Mexico right now.

The best description I have of the current situation in Mexico is from my late uncle, Ignacio Uriza Castro, he said: "now the poor are rich, and the rich are poor."

If the Mexican elite (mainly of pure European stock), do not recognize the power of the peasants (mainly of Amerindian stock), this low intensity war is not going to stop.

As far as I know, there is only one politician that has been to all the Indian towns of this huge country of one hundred million inhabitants, his name is Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and won the 2006 Presidential election, which was stolen by the elites, with the support of the US embassy.

The US embassy in Thailand is telling Americans in that country at war, to leave the "life firing zone". Pardon the poor English of the Thai people, I wonder how much Thai, my American readers know.

For the Mexican case, you can read in Spanish, Pablo González Casanova's article in:

Pablo González Casanova alerta sobre embates contra el pensamiento crítico.