So; Argentina has a new president – a singular leader of chainsaws and organ trade.
The self-styled anarcho-capitalist Javier Milei won in, well… a landslide one might say, with 56% of the popular vote, so no doubt he’s actually the “people’s champion”. Despite, y’know… the promises of dismantling the government, the proclamation of a culture-war against the left, swapping out the failing peso for the dollar, and generally turning the country into a libertarian theme park.
At risk of judging people by their appearance as far as political competence or philosophy goes, once this mad-lad gets going (for example on his rage against the left) he takes on the mad sheen of a person getting off on shaking puppies so hard that their necks snap.
The alt-right is cheering. Big corpo and investment firms are jubilant. And so too are Argentines.
I know fuck-all about the political and economical situation of Argentina. If one is to believe the reports, the country is suffering from record breaking poverty rates, a triple digit inflation, and soaring debt. As far as I can tell, half the width of a world away, Argentina isn’t doing too hot. Which brings me to my thoughts, not on these Trump-alikes popping up across the globe like mold on a withering orange, but rather on the environment of the fruit bowl in which they’re allowed to rise to power.
Because if there’s one thing that the likes of Boris, Åkesson, Trump, Modi, Bolsanaro, and now Javier Milei are all correct about, it’s that there is something truly rotten in their neighbourhoods. This much is undeniably true. Because if it wasn’t true, if their societies were hale and whole, then they would never have sprouted into power.
You see, in the same way as with Hitler or Stalin, despots such as these cannot attain any real power without societal collapse and discontent. They are by no means a cure, as they claim, of the dysfunction of society, but they very much are a symptom. And the reason why they’re so hard to get rid of once they take root is because the establishment, the same establishment that created the environment in which these fungi flourish, don’t want to or aren’t capable of either seeing and/or accepting the fundamental illness of their circumstances.
The Trumps and Modis and Milei’s aren’t the problem. Pay heed: They’re not the solution either! But the only way they can resonate with a public is because that public is fed up. And until there’s a solution on the board (which as far as I can tell there isn’t) these beasts will keep cropping up.
This has been the story for as long as it’s been written down. The leadership becomes complacent, indulgent, and corrupt. The societal functions start to deteriorate. The people get fed up. Madmen invigorate the masses. And in their unproductive, insane, ways of “helping” (because there’s not an adult in the room) they end up burning the house down to its foundation.
Good luck, Argentina. I fear it’s gonna get worse before it gets better. For you and for all of us.
/Sebastian Lindberg 21/11-2023
WastedWords 