Reasons for delay

The founding settlers of the United States arrived in Massachusetts in the 16th century. In each human settlement of more than 1000 people it was mandatory to build a school and a temple. To “save themselves” Protestants were forced to read the Bible, an effective remedy against illiteracy that Catholics did not use.

Education was financed from the beginning by the Calvinist colonists themselves who saw work as a blessing by saving and enjoying prosperity and wealth in order to glorify God. While the Protestant religion generates wealth, the Catholic religion maintains that “it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.” So the rich who create jobs, generate wealth, support the government with the payment of taxes and earn foreign currency, will not have access to the kingdom of heaven, on the basis that it exists? Let’s compare English-speaking countries with Spanish-speaking ones for explanations.

Education was entrusted to the Catholic clergy, in such a way that in 1822, when we became independent, 95% of Mexicans could not read or write, a catastrophic social burden that has limited our development. In the encomiendas, unlike the calpullis, churches were built instead of schools. What would have become of Cholula if instead of 283 parishes, 283 academies and universities had been founded? Mexican society did not participate in education with its cataract of harmful effects.

Protestant landowners elected their representatives in the so-called House of Burgesses to organize their communities. They built their self-government, established the tax to be paid by each settler and controlled the destination of the proceeds. When the English crown sent a governor to subdue the colonists, they rejected him, claiming their right to choose who governed them. A non-existent self-government in the viceroyalty. The rule of law, ethics, education and the division of powers in the 13 colonies were key to triggering economic development in the United States.

During the 300 years of viceroyalty we were not able to build a self-government as happened in Canada and the United States. What we built in the 19th century was a disaster: by expelling the Spanish, holders of administrative experience, the Creoles did not operate a new monarchy in independent Mexico, but rather a Federal Republic, a new political model without the presence of mestizos to start the process of political petrification.

The “pilgrims” arrived with their families without mixing with Comanches or Navajos, etc…, a substantial difference with the conquerors extracted in large part from the Spanish prisons, single men in search of gold and pleasures. There is a Pedro Cabeza de Vaca boasting of having procreated 423 children, something unacceptable in a Calvinist community.

The social destruction was terrifying in a context of authoritarianism, of inefficient organization of the economy, of violent disputes for power, of absurd migratory policies, of wars and invasions, of the retarded church of the counter-reformation, of the collusion of political powers, of legal uncertainty, unpunished corruption, resignation and ignorance, among some of the devastating consequences of backwardness.

While the Protestant countries were interested in the development of reason, the Inquisition burned scientists alive along with their works. Lying is punished, private property is a right of all men and theft is a very serious act. The popular will is a legitimate source of the power of the rulers. The rule of law prevails. Habeas Corpus ensures the basic rights of people, in the context of a free market, freedom of the press, religion and conscience. The United States was born as a secular state without suffering a devastating war like the Reform.

If AMLO considers himself an expert in history, why does he insist on promoting backwardness with ideas taken from the garbage can? It has not understood what is most convenient for Mexico according to its past.