As in Shechem, the government of the Thorn Bush

By: Hugo Marcelo Balderrama - 08/09/2025

Guest columnist.
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The Bible is an endless source of wisdom, and not only in religious matters, but also in all spheres of human life. For example, chapter 9 of the Book of Judges begins by telling the story of Abimelech, a leader who rebelled against the government of the judges. He argued that being ruled by one man was better than a group of wise men. This is the typical personalistic messianism common to all the world's dictators and tyrants. Later, Abimelech sought support with ethnic discourse: "I am of your flesh." Finally, he used the temple money to conspire against the established order; obviously, the participation of the social lumpen (unscrupulous and lazy men) could not be absent.

The chapter ends with the parable of the Thorny Bush: a great lesson in Political Science that explains the consequences of the best men in society ignoring politics.

That's precisely what's happening in my native Bolivia, as ordinary citizens are worried about a potential victory for the duo of Rodrigo Paz and Edman Lara. Especially because Lara has proven to be a person with little emotional maturity, zero anger management, and no culture. Here, a question arises: how is it possible that someone with those characteristics is one step away from occupying the second-highest office in the country?

The answer is very simple: it's their fault. Yes. It's their fault. It's almost a rule in Bolivia for families to prevent their children from talking about politics or even learning about it. It's very common for children to be told things like: "We don't discuss politics in my house"; "Don't get involved in those topics, they're dirty"; and, worst of all, "I don't make a living from politics."

It's true that many, the vast majority, don't make a living from politics; however, politics has the power to live off us. Hence the urgent need to understand it, study it, understand it, and discuss it within the home.

In 1922, William Fielding Ogburn, an American sociologist, explained that every political crisis has its origins in an earlier field, in the family.

The family has economic, religious, educational, protective, and political functions. The family is the transmitter of tradition par excellence, as it is there that our instincts are domesticated through culture. Hence, Hayek always referred to culture as that space that lies between the instinctive and the rational. It is within the family that valuable life lessons, including legal lessons, are learned, since all of us were taught by our mothers not to touch other people's property. It is thanks to the family that society improves and prospers. It is within the family that citizens and the values ​​that will make such progress possible are formed.

When the family neglects its educational functions, as is happening now, citizens find themselves orphaned. Therefore, that space will be occupied by bureaucrats and teachers. Education is sacrificed on the altar of indoctrination.

In short: the quality of a leader is built within the family. It is there that children must learn that performing the tasks of government is a service and a mission focused on achieving the common good, and even, for those of us who are men of faith, a path of apostolate and holiness. Do we want better governments? Well, let's have more united and alert families.

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