The European “desmadre”: Uniting the struggles against the system

Pablo Solón

The overuse of a word can sometimes devalue it and make it lose its impact. The word “crisis”[1] no longer evokes fear or worry. Now, it is a word you hear almost everyday, and it has lost its significance. So today, when people hear about the crisis in Europe, there isn’t really an appreciation of the gravity of the situation. Things have been so bad for so long and everything seems to be in one way or another, in crisis, that people have been desensitized.

But the situation in Europe is, in the truest meaning of it, a crisis. And so as to convey the message that things are indeed dire, we will use a different word to refer to the European crisis. “Desmadre” in Mexico, is a particular, unique word to refer to a situation where everything is going wrong and falling apart. And in the case of Europe, desmadre is exactly the term to use.