Durito and A Story About Cracks and Graffitis

Durito says that the powerful have made the world flat. Through the force of
war, death, and destruction they have crushed it to a point where they have
taken away its roundness.

"And that's not all," says Durito, "now that is has been flattened, the
powerful have positioned the world as if it were a wall that divides some from
others. But it is not a wall like the ones that we are used to. It is a wall
built lying on its side. That is, there is not just one side and then another
side, there is an above and a below."

Durito says that on the side above the wall live the powerful in impressive
palaces with fancy cars, huge gardens, pools, and extremely tall buildings.
Durito says that there above there is lots of space and few people. Few, very
few.

"On the side below the wall" says Durito, "live the common everyday
people, who reside in extremely humble homes all stacked each on top of the
other--the air is dirty and so is the water. Here below there is little space
and many people. Many, very many."

"In geography books they still claim that the world is round, but this is just
a trick to hide the fact that there are some who are above and others who are
below and that those above are they because they are sustained by those
below." Says Durito as he hammers at a globe, like the ones that are used in
schools, in order to demonstrate today's lesson.

Durito says that the wall and those that are above weigh too much and thus those
below are not happy--they murmur and conspire.

Durito says that this enormous weight has created a huge crack in the wall.
Durito says that neoliberalism tries to patch up the wall and that the cement it
uses is the political class.

Durito says that those below, in other words, the immense majority of humanity
try to look through the crack to see what it is that could weigh so much and to
find out why it is that they should be the ones to hold up this weight.

Durito says that rebellion in the world is like a crack in a wall, its first
impulse is to stick its head through and look to the other side. But
afterward, this gaze weakens the wall and ends up bringing it down entirely.
Durito says that rebellion goes beyond the modern notion of "change."

Because the modern notion of "change" takes advantage of the crack to simply
sneak passed to the other side, forgetting consciously and unconsciously, that
not everyone can slip through the crack. "Change" then is going over to the
other side above the wall and alongside it neoliberal democracy means that a few
look after the representation of many and that those few will simply recount to
those many what it is that they cannot see.

"Of course," says Durito, taking great care never to come anywhere near
the topic of why there are just a few above and so many below and why those
below maintain those above.

"Rebellion, in contrast, goes further. It does not intend to look to the
other side and even less to go over to that side, rather, it intends to weaken
the wall in such a way that it simply crumbles so that there will no longer be
one side or another, neither an above nor a below."

"And since we're on the topic of walls, a wall without graffiti is like a
world without rebels, it's just not worth much. Says Durito as he is
unsuccessfully chased by a police van after having sprayed, in big letters and
in every color, a "NO" on the pages of the Calendar of Power.

Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
Mexico, April, 2003