What are you playing?

José Padilha's film, Tropa de Elite, portrays the dichotomy of modern societies. One the one hand, the real people who are out there working, killing, bribing, fighting, dying, and on the other the dream people, who are discussing Foucault, smoking pot and attending parties. The bridge between the two is, on the film, the system of drug dealing. And as some of the characters go from one world to the other, it is impossible not to realize what group one belongs to.


I don't really know who came up with the term chairo, but I once knew this gal who would very well fit into this category (I always thought her adidas sportsware were reminiscent of her aristocratic past, but it seems it was just normal chairo stuff). Allow me to tell you two episodes I lived with her, which quickly came to my mind when watching this excelent movie.

1. One day, she said that all policeman were thieves, that she didn't felt at all secure with one of them around. I asked her why and she proceeded to tell two stories of middle class friends of her who were detained by the police only to be robbed. After a couple of seconds, she accepted that both of them where rather high on drugs when it happened.

2. In accordance with the life style she pursued, she was an occasional user of illicit drugs. Yet, she was always alarmed when drug-related violence emerged in the country, and said she was very much afraid that the drug-lords would take over the Mexican political system.
Of course, with the extremely cheap production of ammunition now a days, every little joint she made gave those very same warlords enough money to buy a 7.62x39 round and use it against each other, and possibly Innocent by-standers, or to load it into their AK and threaten with it a city mayor, lawmaker or police officer.

It all made me think, what are we playing? we go around pursuing a lifestyle or another, and never touching or stopping to see how we affect the real world. That which is valuable to us is solely dreams, socially imposed dreams of popularity, of having a good time, of being beautiful, trendy, up to date with culture, buena onda, socially responsible, ...

As some of you might know I hang around at the school of science at UNAM, and there, where future scientists are supposedly in formation, that pursuing of illusions is very frequent. Most people don't see their scientific labor as the most exciting part of their present lives, while we consider education important for ourfuture, what really moves us is the pursuit of socially created valuables.

I believe that science and art are just as real and important to society and culture as any other field. But we are not scientists, we are middle-class youngsters trying to be trendy in some way or another, at least on week ends, it is that which occupies our minds. It's not about having fun, it's about fitting in.

We are not real people doing real stuff to make this world better. We aren't really in pursue of knowledge, we are just fooling around.

Let us wake up.




(A legitimate question would be "and what the hell? I want to be a chairo just as much as you want to be a scientist? it is my right to pursue any dream I want" Yet, there is problem with socially and commercially driven life styles.

They damage other people. On the one hand, as mentioned above, the use of recreational (pfff) drugs harms society, kills people, makes peasants work for drug lords, etc. On the other hand the use of money to pursue something as unproductive as a lifestyle damages the economy and makes people's lives more miserable. You think I'm going to far? go ask the 9-year old boy who assembled your adidas jacket, or the 15 year old pregnant girl who soldered your ipod or your motherboard, or the peasants who are nearly slaves to produce your starbucks coffee...



And chairos will pop up and say "well.. that's why I'm a chairo and listen to music of "resisting cultures", buy fair trade, use biodegradable soap and go see every expo that features photos of indigenous people having a bad time.

That so called respect for the poor and the humble is, when combined with driving a car and using expensive perfumes, no different from the colonialist attitude of the English Victorian period. Back then, the people indigenous to the colonies were all seen as rarities and it was trendy, among some, to go and watch them at freak shows, or photograph them so they were known to the world, or listen and dance to their "primitive" music and see in it anthropological interest. But by the middle of the afternoon, sip some delicious Ceylon tea, and smoke some neat American tobacco, and by evening get high on some nice opium. Back then the colonial system of oppression was necessary to maintain many life styles, including that of supposedly anthropological interest in the colonies.

150 years later, the system of globalized oppression, cheap labor, corruption, drug dealing, arms trading, etc. is necessary to maintain many life styles. Including, but not limited to, the chairo style. )