What's It All About?

@andrei: Andrei, thanks for visiting my blog and your honest assessment. I don't know if the dark you encounter is from a color calibration issue; though, I admit I like my images dark. For me the image has a meaning that can be difficult to communicate given the lack of a description and sociocultural context.

This was taken at a parade in Mexico celebrating independence from Spain in the late 1800s. Since then no real benefits have been passed onto the general population or what George Orwell might call 'prols' in reference to the proletariat. The man in the image is a peasant that was observing the military march. Mexican history shows how his class and hundreds of thousands of indigenous peoples have been cheated by their government time and again. They settled for small parcels of land instead of equal access to the political and economic life of the nation that is currently in the hands of less than one percent of the population. Current 'democratic' trends --like elections and the removal of the PRI from 70 years of rule-- now mean that policy is forced fed by what the superficial media gives you, skewed government information, and distraction from the real issues and causes of the nation's woes. Before you got beaten on the head, now people are duped by lies, deception, bread, and circus.

People like this man will seldom protest or join any violent or peaceful protest against government as this show of force in the name of nationalism and patriotism sends a mixed message: in part, how impotent they truly are against such power if welded against a frustrated and hopeless population.

As I framed the image I thought about what this man must be perceiving from this military march. What it truly meant for him, which I will never know and continue to speculate. If the situation is bad in the US, the prospects are --for the short term-- worse for Mexicans. The government has money to spend on this army created for the sake of national stability, not the defense of sovereignty: It is there to ensure control by that less than one percent mentioned earlier vis a vis an attack from a foreign entity.

Sorry for the lengthy reply, but such issues get me all worked up. Thanks again for sharing your thoughts.

@Thierry Masson: Thierry, you hit it right on; exactly what ran through my mind. Cheers!