Welcome to project Worldview's Worldview Watch
periodic commentary and analysis on news items from a worldview perspective

 previous issue                                          issue #12,  posted 9 / 16 / 2010                       archive of all  issues

The Worldviews Behind Drugs, Violence, and Lawlessness in Mexico

in the news:  "Amid A Drug War, Mexico Marks a Muted Bicentennial" proclaims the headline of the Time Magazine story by Tim Padgett.  After pointing out that fear of violence will keep many Mexicans from celebrating their Independence Day,  Padgett sees two causes "for the narco-crisis": 1) "America's insatiable drug appetite" and 2) "Mexico's incorrigible lawlessness." 

commentary and analysis (by Stephen P. Cook, founder and manager, project Worldview, www.projectworldview.org):  I see three players in this tragedy: a) the producers/distributors, b) the consumers, and c) law enforcement personnel.  I view the key themes behind the worldviews of these players as follows:

The Worldview Themes Valued or Not Valued by the Main Players in the Drug War 

If any one of these worldview themes were valued less or, in the case of law enforcement human rights and ethics lapses valued more, the problem would not be as bad.  What this analysis doesn't make clear is the transfer of wealth from relatively affluent American drug user to those producers/distributors aspiring to be affluent or those greedy for more factor.  It has been said that "Nature abhors gradients."  I have no doubt that if the wealth gap between richer USA and poorer Mexico was reduced, both drug traffic related and immigration related problems would generally lessen.  While that may help in the long-run, changing the legal status of drug possession, cultivation / production and use by decriminalization statutes may offer more immediate help by lowering inflated prices and reducing profits.  This is hardly a panacea: it may simply shift the problem from one of law enforcement failures to the need to treat the increased drug addiction.