Chapter 9

By David Villacorta

This is a fascinating chapter. It deals with civil government, such as the ones we have today. He talks about one kind of people that is essential in the sustainability of any government: the nobles, who nowadays are represented by the rich people or as Marx named them “bourgeois”.  The methodology described by the author is aimed to people of their time. Like saying be careful with the nobles, because some they are astute and cunning, they are hard to deal with, and some of them may approach you with good intentions and some with bad ones. So it tells the reader to approach them wisely. This brings the question to me as to how to deal with that today? I mean, can a president from middle class, rule the country without the rich’s favor? I think this is what happens to Mel Zelaya. He got away from the politicians and the rich people, and so they kick his butt. I mean, who holds control for real in Honduran soil? The government or the rich? Of course that the rich.   Our pathetic parents pay us to live some sort of life shaped as the American one here, and we, as dumb followers of American tradition believe we are sort of a privileged breed, and we are not, we are pathetic Hondurans living in a pitiful way believing we are better than the rest. The rich, the Facusse, the Atalas and others actually control this Indian country. So Mel tried to do it his own way, and the nobles kicked him away. In the author’s time they would have murdered him. There is one detail though, like, the author ends up saying that the favors of the people is assisted only if he makes them happy. But that’s not the case all the time, sometimes the nobles makes people think that what the civil ruler is doing is bad. So the stupid people believe it and make the ruler go away, because the nobles just want to oppress. Wasn’t that the case here? Was Mel doing the right thing? My parents think he wasn’t and I think my parents are way off. I don’t know what to believe or where to stand. I’m greatly favored by the current system compare to most people my age in Honduras. So where should I stand? I got no clue.