Yearly Archives: 2016

Luis Rubio The beautiful thing about libraries, about books, is that they are like cherries. You finish one, and this leads to others, which end up leading you inevitably. Arturo Pérez Reverte In 2012, very much in his style, Charles Murray published a provocation that turned out to be predictive of Trump’s victory. In Coming Apart, he […]

Luis Rubio It is rare day that our politicians realize the effects of their decisions. Assured of the infallibility and bonhomie of their ideas, they rarely consider the possibility that their choices and actions might give rise to opposite outcomes from those sought or radically different from those imagined.  Politicians think in terms of their […]

 Luis Rubio Mexico is experiencing a growing universe of “little” civil wars that can end up with it in ruins. By the same token, the dynamic that this is creating could in like manner finally generate a country-wide platform for transformation: it all depends on how these processes are channeled or, more appropriately, whether there […]

Luis Rubio Concern is in vogue with regard to China’s growth rate and its potential implications for the world. However, the same phenomenon can be observed in the U.S., Europe and other nations, including of course Mexico: the pace of economic growth has been descending. The question is why. The simplest explanation for the tendency […]

Luis Rubio Western democracies are in crisis. One country after the other undergoes radical changes in the conformation of their electoral structures: voters appear to be fed up with the traditional solutions and begin to opt for alternatives that previously seemed inconceivable. In France, the Extreme Right advances without cease; in Spain the old Spanish […]

Luis Rubio The general tone is one of catastrophe: the world changed and no one is going to be able to save it. The Trump victory may not have been desirable, but it certainly was probable. The manner in which the government and many opinionators have reacted suggest that “the end is near”, but that […]

 Luis Rubio “History teaches by analogy, not by identity”, noted Kissinger in an interview. His proposal was that there are no two identical historical situations, but that some indeed present important similarities that transcend the time and space in which they have occurred. It is evident that Trump and Andrés Manuel López Obrador are very […]

 Luis Rubio Whatever happens in the U.S. election next Tuesday, it is imperative for us to redefine our way of seeing our neighbor to the North in order for us to never again confront the risks that were evidenced during this long electoral season. The first part of the nightmare ends now, but the true […]

Luis Rubio The election that will be over in nine days has not been the most polarized in history; whoever recalls the Vietnam era knows that there are cycles in this respect, but also an enormous capacity of regeneration. That is one of America’s strengths and characteristics and there is no reason to suppose that […]

Luis Rubio In his comedy The Knights, Aristophanes groups the population into a personage called Demos who, on being led by the nose, is coaxed with flattery and beguiled by adroit demagogues. The Athenians who applauded and celebrated the comedy did not appear to recognize that the fable referred to the audience itself. Surely something like that […]