What in the hell …

Marcos piece, excerpt 2.

The Intellectuals in the Middle
Just like in the impossible center of the impossible geometry of power, are those
intellectuals in the fragile crystal towers of “neutrality”and “objectivity”who are navigating, flirting discreetly or blatantlywith the system, without caring about the color of the one holding political power.
Looking above, these intellectuals answer the explicit or implicit question with which they start their work:“From where?”And other questions are tied to this question:“Why?”, “With whom?”, “Against whom?”
From the threshold of power, on their best behavior in the mandarin court of the current administration, these intellectuals are not in the middle, but rather in transit to above. They put themselves on offer, with the tools of analysis and theoretical debate, at the banquets of political and economic power in Mexico, with a sign that reads: “Speeches made. Government programs justified. Businesspersons advised. Magazines produced at your pleasure. Entertainment provided for parties and for shareholders’ and cabinet meetings.”
Next to those intellectuals are the ones who, slowly or quickly, lose their principles, give in, and desperately search for an alibi which will save them in front of the mirror. They are the prudent, mature and sensible intellectuals who have put away the weapons of criticism for the blandishments of those who see their work of the right as being of the left. But the dishonest position of these intellectuals who belong to the system doesn’t cease to amaze. The weak alibi of deliberate, rational and responsible change isn’t enough to sanctify that den of thieves which is the self-styled electoral left. They clothe themselves in the fragile transience of the media and in that waytheyconceal not only their lack of principles, but also their renunciation of all critical analysis of the political class. Beset by the ghosts their prudence has created, they confirm their profound contempt for intelligence.
And there are the ones who say they belong to the radical left and are even Zapatistas
(certainlyin the same way Guajardo says he’s a Zapatista). From the comforts of the
academy they set themselves up as the new judges, the neo-commissars of good manners in the debate on what AMLO’s irresistible ascent in democratic modernity—in the polls, that is—really means. They are the ones who say that anycriticism of the political class promotes abstention, and with Thomist logic, that that will help the right. The ones who choose and edit national reality in order to present the unpresentable. The ones who remain silent in the face of the way the municipal president of Tulancingo, Hidalgo, of the PRD, treats indigenous and senior citizens. In the face of the frenzied leap by the PAN and the PRI into the open arms of the PRD anywhere in the nation. In the face of the nepotism of the PRD city halls in Tabasco. In the face of the selling of their franchise to the current cacique of anystate. In the face of the approval of laws of neoliberal destruction by the sol azteca wing. In the face of the suspicious similarity of first and last names on the lists of PRD candidates to those of PRIand PAN ones of days gone by.
They are the same ones who want us to swallow the millstone that we have to put up
with the macro-economic program, at the same time the macro-political changes.
They are the same ones who sell the illustrious “retirement to home.”The increasingly
lesser evil is the only—comfortable—option. They are the same ones who shamelessly say that the government is protecting the Other Campaign so that it will attack López Obrador, while various police forces are photographing, watching and harassing members of the karavana, state, regional and local coordinators. The same ones who feel a profound contempt for their readers and who, without any shame whatsoever, say that Rosario Robles is a heroine one day and on the next if they see her theydon’t remember her. They are the same ones who discredited the young students of the CGH who, in 1999-2000, managed to keep the UNAM as a public and free university with their movement. The same ones who silently applauded the repression of young altermundistas in that disgrace to the Jalisco calendar which is May28, 2004.
They are the same ones who sigh with delight for the Segundo Pisos, the bullet train, the
trans-isthmus project, the co-investors in Pemexand in the electricity industry, Mexico’s
entrance into major league baseball, the concerts in the Zócalo in Mexico City, the privilege of colloquy with officials.
Ah! Finally a high-class, Segundo Piso, scene, so we don’t see, or we pretend not to see,
those of below, the provocateurs, the hyper, the pelos parados, the rebels, the commoners, the wretched, those of below.
Who cares if the same ones are in the politics of above and if it’s the same “macro-
economic”program as before? Who pays attention to that minutia? Who is worried that the program represents the continuation and deepening of the destruction of the Mexican nation? They are the same ones who offer the calamityof not being satisfied with what is, man, nor do you have to be too demanding, man, whether Madrazo or Calderón, whether the PRI or the PAN, well, what would the foreign nations say? The big investors, man, well, they already understand, now we just need those of below to understand, to obey. But everything’s all wrapped up, man, it’s ours, man. Now we really did do it. A consultancy, trips, meals, rubbing shoulders with the big shots.
They are the ones who carry their leaking buckets of water to confront the promise
written in Guanajuato:“There are still a lot of corn exchanges to set on fire.”They’re the
ones with the thin skins who crack at the first criticism, and they scream their heads off,
doling out labels like “intolerant”, “Stalinists”, “ultras”, “outdated”, “immature.”
The intellectuals in the middle… While the Other says “wake up”, those intellectuals say, beseech, beg, implore: “Stay asleep.