I love politics. I love politics the way some people love movies or television. Only to me, politics are real. I have loved politics since I was a teenager. I don’t remember exactly when it was I began my love affair with them, but I suspect it was when Lyndon Johnson ran for President. I was mesmerized with the entire process. It was much more interesting than the Miss America contest, at least to me, young as I was. I was too fat for a bathing suit, although I loved the talent contest. I never wanted to be Miss America — never. The bathing suit thing was a real hangup. Besides, listening to all those senators was much more interesting, they really had something to say.
I never remember a time when I was not involved in politics at some level: national, city, state, and even neighborhood. I was always fascinated by how the machine moved and who moved it. It was like playing checkers.
Now I live here, in Argentina. I have lived here since 2004. I came here to dance Argentine tango, I came here because I fell in love with the Argentine culture. My life is completely different. Now, I live with much less, but I have much more: I sold everything I had, everything I had ever worked for: the house, the nice car, the truck.
I came with my computer, my dog, and my tango shoes to start my new life, and I have never regretted it. I live completely differently; my life is in Spanish, I spend in pesos. I am no longer the high-power, high-earning computer geek, I do what I can to earn a living: I rent two bedrooms in my apartment to people who come to dance tango, I teach tango, I do translations; I live like an Argentine, from day to day.
I am happy Obama is the president of the U.S., but to be honest, I am not really all that interested in U.S. politics anymore. They do not affect me on a daily basis. It is the politics of Argentina which affect me. They cause my daily expenses to go out of control; make life a little less secure.
Argentine politics are complex. Especially when you need to learn about them in another language. I don’t read the Wall Street Journal and Mary O’Grady to get my opinions. She would probably prefer to colonize Latin America and be done with it. The Economist is another; though maybe they don’t want to colonize Latin America, they certainly think that the Western world is the only world that knows how. (They certainly do, just look at the mess they created.)
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Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Clavos
Welcome to Blogcritics!
This is a nice insight into contemporary Argentine life and politics.
It's of particular interest to me because I visited Buenos Aires a number of times while working for a South American airline. I found it to be the most sophisticated, cosmopolitan city in South America at the time.
2 - Deby -TangoSpam
Thank you! I hope to provide more insight of what it is like to live here. Ilove living here. Buenos Aires is a city of conflicts. But then I guess that is what makes it so unique and never boring. Besos
3 - Dr Dreadful
I found it to be the most sophisticated, cosmopolitan city in South America at the time.
It still is. Well, sophisticated anyway. I was there a couple of years ago. Beautiful city, beautiful country.
Interesting article. Makes a nice change from the usual americentric monkey poop-throwing that goes on here! ;-)
4 - Deby -TangoSpam
Thank you...Dr. Dreadful. I like that. Well... you know, people from the Bay Area have never been normal, you Fresnoites (?)should know that.
Argentina is a beautiful country. As for Buenos Aires, it is beautiful, but it gets dirtier and more run down every year. It is a shame. Don't me started or I will start to sound like a Porteña complaining about the government. (A Porteña is someone who lives in Buenos Aires)
Besos
5 - STM
My son is going there in November, flying to BA via Auckland, NZ. I am not particularly worried about him going to Buenos Aires (I'd be more concerned with Auckland to tell the truth), but then he's going to - of all places - Bogota and then Rio. At least he's decided to cancel the trip to LA.
I suggested to him that he'd be better off staying in Buenos Aires and Argentina for the duration of the trip.
But of course, he still knows everything.
6 - Deby -TangoSpam
Of course! He's your son... I have someone staying with me from Aukland in October. But you know, I think your son will be fine Dad, even if he goes to LA. Remember what it was like when you were his age. (or maybe that is the problem...)Kiwis seem to be loved no matter where they are. Besos...
7 - roger nowosielski
Tired of "americentric monkey-poop," Dreadful? Me too.
I've got radicalized, From now on, it's the critique of post-industrial societies.
8 - Ruvy
This was a delight to read! If you can get Americans to stop staring at (and smelling) their navels, you will have an accomplishment under your belt that can stand.
A lot of this sounded terribly familiar to me. Politics in Israel are very similar to politics in Argentina in that the government controls much of what the media says - and the government here represents all of 19 families, while pretending to be a parliamentary democracy.
Apparently life here as an ex-pat is not that different from life in Argentina as an ex-pat. You gave up most of your material possessions to pursue a passion - so did I. You live life day to day - so do I. I'm guessing that there are a lot of things you cannot rely on in Buenos Aires. That is certainly true here. You talk about the capital getting dirtier and shabbier daily - wecomed to Jerusalem!
I look forward to reading more of your articles!
9 - Deby
Ruvy,
Thank you so much for your comments. I think to be an immigrant no matter where you come from and where you go is not always easy. I moved because I wanted to, not because I had to.
Some things are wonderful and others can make day to day life a challenge. When you are from another country (or sometimes I feel another planet) you see things differently. But then, I guess that is why I am still here!
Besos from Buenos Aires...
I cannot even begin to imagine what life must be like in Jerusalem. Your blog is nice.
10 - STM
Close Deby, but no cigar ... he's flying to Buenos Aires from Sydney, Australia, VIA Auckland. I hope he likes BA (everyone does) and stays there for the duration of the trip instead of heading north.
11 - Deby
Well I love people from Australia. I think if I ever leave here, that would be my next stop. A friend of mine just came back from Rio and he said he didn´t find it so bad. I have another American friend who lives in Medellin and he says it is lovely there. I can tell you as an Ex-pat the press blows the problems of Latin America out of shape. They really exaggerate sometimes. When I read about here I think "Who wrote this crap?" Well anyway, I will hope for the best for your son. I am sure he will be fine.
12 - Ruvy
Thank you for the compliments Deby. We used to live in Jerusalem. Filthy and dirty as it is, it is way too expensive for us now. We live in the "low rent" district of the country, Judea and Samaria. And even that is becoming pricey.
Probably the big difference between Israel and Argentina is that we have a whole bunch of people (Arabs) who want to kill us off here, who have the support of lots and lots of foreigners who think that these folks have all sorts of "rights" that their terrorist leaders whistled up out of thin air - and our leaders do not have the guts to kill the bastards off. They are afraid of "world opinion" - all these loud mouthed foreigners.
But hey! I don't want to talk about that here. Tell me about teaching the tango in BA!
13 - Dr Dreadful
Surfer Jr should be fine in Bogota, Stan - I don't think it's the war zone it used to be. As long as he stays away from certain neighbourhoods and tries not to look too much like a tourist, he should be OK. Same goes for Rio - it's mellowed out a lot. You can even go on tours into some of the favelas now.
14 - Dr Dreadful
@ #12: Buenos Aires has seen its share of Arab terrorism, Ruvy, as I'm sure you remember.
15 - Ruvy
DD,
The difference is that the Arabs - or Iranians, to be more precise, do not go after the general Argentine population - they leave that for the right-wing generals. The terrorists you refer to go after Jews - who are targets of Jew-hatred world-wide under all of its guises.
16 - Mark
Rog #7 - for your consideration in the development of a post postmodern program:
17 - roger nowosielski
Thanks, Mark, for the link. I'm glad your're on to it and I hope to have a fruitful discussion with you and Cindy as well.
Let me digest the article a bit before I comment. I'll be a break from rereading Lyotard's ultra dense texts.
18 - roger nowosielski
Thought-provoking article, Mark. What I see it as in essence of the critique of the present generation - is it because they're uneducateable, lack of competent teachers, the overwhelming impact and the dummying effect of technology. One way or another, lots of people failed to do their job and, as a result, another generation down the drain.
I believe there are some inaccuracies - e.g., the statement that "postmodern philosophy emphasizes the elusiveness of meaning and knowledge." It's to vague as a stand-alone, for there's a sense they knew exactly what they were talking about - but we can shelve this matter for later. Also, the point about the reader "becoming" (and/or taking precedence over) the text is not exactly a new idea: the whole idea of deconstruction has been around for twenty years and no longer.
Nonetheless, Kirby's focus on pop-culture (rather than on the events in the academia) is well taken, because what better index is there of the popular sentiment.
So perhaps revolutionary changes aren't going to go about from the young but traditional, Marxist elements - such as the working class, whatever remains of it.
I'd have to think about more deeply about the cultural changes that Kirby's article is full of in order to come up with a more critical assessment. In the interest of strategy, I think it would be better, however, if we shelve the author's interpretation of the presence until we get down to the fundamentals and identify the relevant issues, the nature of the dispute (with Habermas, for example) and other such things.
I'm thinking of Cindy first and foremost, so that she can get grounded first, but also of myself because I haven't consolidated my position as yet and still have some reading to do.
Again, thanks for the link,
19 - Mark
Consider Cindy's recent excursion into cooperative anarchy on twitter in response to the Iranian suppression. Has she put the lie to Kirby's banality thesis, or is she the exception that proves it?
20 - Cindy
There's nothing wrong with the children. They aren't the problem with education.
The biggest problem with education is that adult humans become very rigid and incapable of learning anything new (it's just the way they were raised). So, these adults get the idea that they know best about things that they actually know nothing about.
Then these brilliant adults decide how things should be done, and they enforce their plans. When things still don't work, they double up and push harder in the same wrong direction.
How can children be expected to learn anything with such unintelligent creatures making decisions?
If they ever looked at evidence to see whether their beliefs are workable and supported by reality, you wouldn't be able to tell. Most would just twist the evidence into a pretzel trying to conform it to their presuppositions or they'd just ignore it. For that is how human beings have been taught to think--always be right, never change your mind.
21 - Ruvy
Deby,
Looks like the "intellectuals" around here just made off with the comment thread. The "leftists" debate such things as anarchy, while the "rightists" debate the holiness of capitalism.
You can forget about your strumpet of a president and her power-hustling husband. "Those who know better" here don't want to know. The navel smelling gringos are back in the saddle and you get to walk behind the horse, broom in hand, sweeping up the er products of their debate....
22 - Mark
...speaking of examples of Kirby's pseudo-modernists -- ignorance, fanaticism and anxiety
23 - Ruvy
...speaking of examples of Kirby's pseudo-modernists...
From what I remember of Kirby's, Mark, there were no "pseudo-modernist" attachments. There were no "post-modernist" attachments either. But I think there were attachments to clean up some of the horse turds I see in the five comments above comment #21.
24 - Deby
Yes, I was wondering why they have to have this debate on my blog..guys can you take this somewhere else? I have to deal with "Los K" todos los dias... por favor..I think it is a little maleducado being this is my first post here guys...
25 - zingzing
deby--nope. the thread will go where it will go, no matter how much you (and ruvy, of course,) want to complain about it. that's the beauty of this place. the thread may return to being on point, but that's beside the point. and it's not "your blog" anymore. you posted it here, so you get what you get.
and trust me, ruvy's hypocrisy knows no bounds. he'll turn any post into an treatise on anti-semitism, or the torah, or burger king. and after he tells you all about the torah codes, he'll drivel on some more about the "so-called intellectuals."
point is, you have no control over what happens once you've posted something here. so you can forget trying to forcibly move a conversation in one direction or another. your best bet would be to comment in ways that move the conversation in the direction you desire. post a follow-up or ask a question, but don't try to move people away from your post, or all you'll have is silence.