Popular revolt against materially stronger rulers, on the other hand, may engender an almost irresistible power even if it foregoes the use of violence in the face of materially vastly superior forces. To call this 'passive resistance' is certainly an ironic idea; it is one of the most effective and efficient ways of action ever devised, because it cannot be countered by fighting, where their may be defeat or victory, but only by mass slaughter in which even the victor is defeated, cheated of his prize, since nobody can rule over dead men.
the bubbled age of compartmentalized political paranoia is no stranger to the southern realm. oddly enough, it is only after a few pints in a northern Bs As dive and a thorough reading of a truly terrifying article on the contemporary state of american democracy (http://www.thenation.com/article/37165/kabuki-democracy?page=0,0) that i've come to realize this. on the one hand, our culture wars are not that different. hundreds of thousands of orange-clad, banner-waving reactionaries took to the streets the other night to protest an upcoming floor debate on a bill that would potentially legalize both gay marriage and adoption rights (why orange, you wonder? because "naranja significa la union entre el hombre y la mujer." i'm not making that up - apparently winter can have that effect on those accustomed to more sexually enticing summer hues. personally, i would've gone with cafe con leche - but that's just me). true, it was an ambitious first step to take for a country that's yet to legalize abortion (and still apparently far from doing so) - though was still disheartening to see the cameras pan from the raving, flame-emblazoned familial values vanguardia marching against the bill in front of Congreso to the hundred or so supporters thereof meekly disseminated around the Obelisco a half mile away. Hannah Arendt once noted that (political) power is "dependent upon the unreliable and only temporary agreement of wills and intentions." what a frightening permanence such wills occasionally have the tendency to betray. oh, the perennially sweet, sad power of no.
on the other hand, our culture wars are markedly different. conservative argentine political culture does less to romanticise, so as to appropriate, the values of the working class, as is more likely in the case in our fair land. regarding the (north)american 'working class,' of course, we mean white 'working class' - a group whose politico-economic aspirations, it has been said with no dearth of bad faith, are supposed to mirror those of their masters. in argentina, such is not the case. political stability is a fragile affair, and one that would be wrought with further complications should the conservative factions try to enlist the cultural wrath of the underclasses - as been done with its caucasion variant north of the rio grande. argentine conservatism, on the other hand, betrays an odd cosmopolitan-bourgeois, militaresque consensus of catholic solidarity praising a past that never existed and a future that never shall. that in mind, should it really strike us as that odd that our metropolis-dwelling concitoyens not prove the vanguard of progressive tolerance we've come to expect from voters in New York, Boston and San Francisco? Face to face with - and fully benefiting from - the contradictions of modern urbanity, who can blame them? alas, at times the pie only seems to be getting smaller...
if the fear of political implosion in plutocratic democracies is not unmerited - perhaps it could be useful to chart international variations thereof. one the one hand, conservative and liberal (north)american pundits alike, in wildly varying shades of veracity, either augur a forthcoming nationalsozialistische dictatorship and or (somewhat accurately, in my opinion) expose the baffling contradictions of the one already in place (the reader is implored to see the above-mentioned article). in argentina, there is no frantic denunciation of that which lie around the imminent historical corner: according to every party, the worst has already manifest itself. "i was thinking of traveling to entre rios this weekend - you know, get a taste of the argie countryside to ease my urban conscience," i mention to my spanish prof in passing. "tis full of fachos - good luck! you have to realize, my dear, you live in a bubble of light - an island of humanity amidst a sea of unrepentant fascists. they'll skin your poor soul if they can." admittedly, i am exaggerating - though she's not entirely mistaken. rather than insinuate 'locking and loading' a la palin to resist obama's snakelike stranglehold on the american soul, noted argentine journalists still openly advocate military coups against the leftist kirchner government (here's to you, grondona). eventually, you begin to sympathize with her conviction that we bold 'argonauts of the ideal' are perpetually encircled by legions of reactionaries ready to pounce at any moment.
here, conspiracies, blanket denunciations and genuine mistrust exist on an altogether different scale. "80 percent of robberies, burglaries and brake-ins are conducted by - or linked back to - the police," my friend Dario, a very intelligent and studious young political scientist, tells me. "when pablo sanchez refused to keep robbing at their behest, he was disappeared." i do not deny the darker doings of the argentine security forces - though do find this systematically unsophisticated pillaging of the populous a tad far-fetched. but don't get me wrong, little in life is more fun than simplifying the universe into little prettily-packaged cup-cakes of quantifiable misinformation; indeed, the bulk of my worldly convictions were born of this pastime. that being said, whereas mine usually intended to be a coy, if not slightly obnoxious, caricature of more candid attempts to document reality, in argentina the art has been taken to new extremes - and not always by well-intentioned conspiracies from the Left. "90% of the students at the UBA are foreigners (that is, negros)," nico's facho aunt from entre rios reminded us one night over dinner (maybe my spanish prof was onto something!). "and 60% of argentina is jewish."
in any case, the moral of the story is that this trench-like political mentality - the fear of ideological engulfment from every possible front - is rampant and all-encompassing amongst the educated (that is, leftist), moneyed and middle class catholic (that is, rightist) factions. tis a peculiar suspicion, a primal pessimism if you will, that i've only encountered amongst the most fervent of american leftists; generally, the latter's countryfolk, however politically involved they may be, tend to betray an almost-clumsy optimism in the efficacy of their efforts (we won't speak of the politically apathetic, disenchanted or disenfranchised for the time being) - a spring of belief whose source, while dwindling as of late, has not been irreparably depleted, i should hope.
Evan, your words hold a refreshing honesty. In one's youth, it is strangely easy to hold idealistic notions of how the world should behave, but when faced with the actual implementation of the human condition, heaven falls so short. No matter what one calls oneself, in the end we are all just bleeders. Keep up the good work.
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