The Secretary of Health and the Machiavelli model
To create an analysis of everything that Machiavelli speaks to us, we will rely on the set of two news that keep a relationship with each other and allow us to generate an opinion about everything that happens within the Ministry of Health.
In the news "The Rockstar of the 4T", in a nutshell, talks about the entire "hate" and discredit towards "the man who is battle against Covid-19 in Mexico", López-Gatell, and giving him as nickname(On the part of the community in general) "Florero" to his boss, Jorge Alcocer, who is only in "rest" leaving all the work on Gatell. All this, related to the second news: "I was dealing with something else": the Secretary of Health tried to explain his absence at the cabinet meeting to treat the coronavirus in Mexico "shows us how Alcocer is leaving the burden of pandemic in López-Gatell, who is now only a victim of negative comments, when he (Alcocer) should be the first to receive those. As Machiavelo (1999) states "there is so much difference between how you live and how you should live". (p. 78)
Taking into consideration the “Prince” model of Machiavelli, we can see that most Mexican government officials fit in it, because as Machiavelli poses: the mechanics of the government is not moral.
Before the contingency, few knew who the Undersecretary of Health Prevention and Promotion, Hugo López-Gatell Ramírez was. Now, his face is known throughout the country, because he is the person who appears in cell phones, computers and televisions "giving her face" by the senior government officials of Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Among them, the Secretary of Health himself, who takes the role of "prince" according to Machiavelli, without being the highest authority of the country, but in the health sector and López-Gatell himself, he is taking the credit in a certain wayof the work of others and not only of the aforementioned. In this way, it appears to be "good" at the expense of others’ work, so, it fits perfect into the Machiavelli model.
In the beginning, it was criticized that a “half -haired” official was the one who was in charge of the battle against the coronavirus in Mexico. But when their decades of career in public service, their academic and scientific profile were announced, the attacks decreased, transforming it into an entire political figure.
In recent weeks the figure of López-Gatell has become more exposed than that of the president himself, while, the Secretary of Health is almost always missing in the coverage and other events in relation to the coronavirus epidemic: “Sometimes, what seems virtue is the cause of ruin, and what Vice seems only to bring well -being and security."(Machiavelli, 1999) Thus, Alcocer’s" vice "for" hiding "to the contingency of Covid-19 causes, in the end, a good for society, because let’s imagine what it would be if we were completely in his hands. Human nature does not consent that an individual could have the qualities considered as good, because this would imply the loss of the State, that is, the reason why it is hidden is because it is not considered capable of dealing with the pandemic and could changeThe course of the crisis for the country. In this way we should appreciate not being completely in your hands.
"A prince should not worry because they accuse him of cruel, as long as his cruelty is intended to keep together with the subjects" (Machiavelli, 1999). In a nutshell, "the end justifies the media". Although it is unfair that the Secretary of Health is leaving the burden of the crisis by the coronavirus in the hands of López-Gatell and others, it must be aware that they are totally trained and that they flatter the infection curve to get out faster from contingencyand thus make its virtues, which it does not have, but that, according to Machiavelli, must appear to have.
Leave feedback