Immigration--Cortez Lands in Mexico

David Zannucci – March 13, 2008.
489 years ago today, Hernan Cortez and a group of Spanish Conquistadors landed in Mexico. And so began what many historians consider the greatest military campaign in world history. Except for the Spanish putting an end to human sacrifice, it has basically been all downhill for the indigenous people of Mexico ever since.
Nearly five hundred years later Mexico is still ruled by the descendents of those placed in charge by the Spanish crown. The so-called “landed-elite” still manages to run one of the most corrupt governments in the Western Hemisphere, if not the world.
And things have gotten worse for the average citizen of Mexico since the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Since that agreement went into effect, real wages are down in Mexico and millions of their people have crossed the northern border looking for a better life in the United States. To make matters worse, countless more people in Mexico have been forced off their ancestral lands to make room for American owned factories so we can eat our lunch with cheap, plastic spoons.
I believe the quality of human life would improve if only we would return to a simpler lifestyle. If we can’t return to the ways of hunter-gatherers, I would settle for a return to an agricultural society. So in honor of one of the pivotal events of world history, I would like to share a quote from Octavio Paz, the great Mexican poet, writer and diplomat.

“And at last the philosophy of progress shows its true face: a featureless blank. We know now that the kingdom of progress is not of this world: the paradise it promises us is in the future, a future that is impalpable, unreachable, perpetual. Progress has peopled history with the marvels and monsters of technology but it has depopulated the life of man. It has given us more things but not more being…”

Talk about it! Discuss this post and politics in general on our new message boards. Help us get them started!
http://politicalbrainfog.yuku.com/