questions: How has the Mexican Statenbeen able to achieve the enormousnpower it now exercises, and, in a part ofnthe world where the overnight coupnd’etat is a recognized political ploy, whynhas it taken 73 years to do it? SalvadornBorrego sees two fiindamental reasonsnwhy the socialization program has enjoyednsuch remarkable success: the unwaveringndetermination of politicalnleaders, and the corresponding lack ofndetermination on the part of the public.nSuccessive governments have movednalong their chosen path step by stq) withnsingle-minded dedication. If now andnthen they seem to have paused or evennto have taken a step backward, it appearsnto have been only for tactical reasons. Inngeneral they have followed a systematic,ncoherent course, continually proclaimingntheir progress to be inevitable and irreversible.nWhile the present crisis may benmore than they bargained for, it, too, cannbe made to serve their purpose if governmentnbecomes stronger while thengoverned become weaker.nRegarding the second question, aboutnwhy the “revolutionary” change is sonsluggish, it can be argued that Mexico isntoo large and too complex a nation to beneffectively transformed at gunpoint.nThere are 30 times as many Mexicans asnNicaraguans, and the total area of all sixnCentral American countries would fitninto a few states in the south of Mexico.nEven Chile and Argentina are, respectively,nless than one-sixth and one-thirdnthe size of Mexico in population. (This isnnot to say that a golpe de estado is impossible,nand an amusing litde novel bynjournalist Manual Sanchez Ponton recountingnan imaginary coup and countercoupnis currently topping the localnbest-seller list.) Violence, however, hasnnot been the way of Mexican politicians,nat least over the last half-century.nSalvador Borrego comes down hardnon the silent majority of his countrymen.nWhen the revolution took away the rightnof millions of small farmers to OVSTI property,nother sectors of society shru^edntheir shoulders: city real estate was notnaffected, so they didn’t care. As the e/Ulon48inChronicles of Culturensystem moved into collectivism, causii^nmillions to flee the countryside, no movenwas made to stop the process. When thenCatholic Church was denigrated, putnunder impossible controls, and thennopenly persecuted, popular reactionncame slowly; even when thousands hadngiven their lives in armed struggle ancompromise put the government backnon top. At each stage of the program toninsert Marxist-Leninist teaching into theneducational system there were sporadicnprotests, but again, whether throughnlack of unity^mong the protesters or thenaction of infiltrators, the settlements alwaysnworked to the advantJ^e of thenleft. While labor has generally submittednto control by the giant semiofficial tradenunion, captains of industry, throughnselfishness and shortsightedness, havenmissed innumerable opportunities tonshow what the government’s claim tonbe the only firiend of the working mannreally means. Sector by sector, a free societynhas been pushed to the wall becausennowhere has the relentless processnof statization met with firm resistance.nLooking ahead, Salvador Borrego seesnthe foreign debt with its crushing interestnpayments increasing. He sees further inflationnand devaluation bringing on socialnunrest, which will be met by governmentnmeasures stronger than anythingnenvisioned today. He concludes with anquestion that is reaUy a prayer: Will whatnthe Mexican people have sufiiered andnwill suffer in the years ahead forge withinnthem what has been lacking and whatnthey must have in order to defend themselves,nsomething that can only be called annational soul? DnTHE AMERICAN PROSCENIUMnA Plague on One HousenThe pox, in keeping with the saying, isnactuaUy on both houses—^Democraticnand Republican alike. Yet, the real losernis one house—^the all-encompassing one,nthat of the duly elected representativesnof the American nation, that august bodynso venerated by high school primers onncivics. What’s happened in that house ofnlate has turned the issue of public education,nso intensely discussed these days,ninto a grotesque symbol of what’s wrongnwith us in general.nOn the surface, what we have here is ancase of flawless symmetry in the electivennndemocratic system: a Republican and anDemocrat, each guilty of sin, impropriety,nor hanky-panky—^you name it, accordingnto your lifestyle denomination. Butnin those indefinable layers of individualnand collective subconsciousness, thenRepublican is at least one point up: henmade it in the old, regular way, with an17-year-old formally “willing” femalencongressional page—if we wish to leavenaU the circumstantial trappings, pressures,nand lures unconsidered. But it wasnstrange to see the gentleman (?) fi-omnMassachusetts in the reverent, heavilynpaneled chamber of the U.S. Housenadmitting urbi et orbi that he is a homosexualnand shrilly demanding compas-n