Will we forever think our national problems boil down

[sandywang5230]

it's the collective failure of 110 million people, seemingly genetically conditioned to accept mediocrity. The story is reversed when it involves a country we admire, like Germany. We see Teutonic efficiency in their every victory, which reminds us of their economic prowess and industrious character. But when mighty Germany gets eliminated for the umpteenth time by "lazy" Spain or Italy, it's just football.Our real national sportIt is telling that over-analysis is not just shared by the layperson but by generations of Mexican intellectuals that have tried to find the key to our underdevelopment inside our peculiar ethno-psychology. These go back to philosopher Samuel Ramos early in the 20th century, to psychologist Rogelio D��az-Guerrero, and to Nobel Laureate Octavio Paz whose most widely known work, The Labyrinth of Solitude, is essentially an essay on Mexican identity. Most recently, Jorge C. Casta?eda has chipped in to the debate, going so far as to devoting a part of his last book ( Ma?ana Forever?) to analysing Mexico's sports failures in the context of identity. One has to really question whether this is time well spent, and whether the answers actually lie elsewhere. Following Occam's razor, could we not conclude that Mexico's football fiascos are simply because we're not that good? And that we're not that good because the system of finding the best players, grooming them, and polishing them into world-class athletes falls short compared to other countries? Mexico has, after all, won a pair of Under-17 world championships and an Olympic gold. In this respects, the country appears to have much more in common with African teams, who frequently win at the Under-17 level but don't achieve much beyond that. Is this a psychological problem, or an institutional one? Will we forever think our national problems boil down to how we are rather than how we do things?Ultimately, football matters little in the grander scheme of things (although as Argentinean legend Jorge Valdano once said, "it is the most important among the least important things"). But Mexicans would be wise to stop thinking that our collective character flaws and the imagined conspiracies against us have sealed our fate as a ut coins nation, both on the pitch and outside of it. Our worst habit may not be hidden in volumes after volumes of self-analysis and introspection, but rather in the act of self-analysis itself. Perhaps we, as a people, should start pondering less about the perceived defects in our national identity and realize that these may not be the cause of our problems (bad politics, economic mismanagement, corruption etc.) but rather a result of them. Even in the age of rising humane consciousness and importance of being politically correct, real politics are stronger than anything, and they are lead by many interests. Some say liars, thieves, criminals and politicians have fewer scruples than the rest of us, and maybe they aren't very far off.