Willing US Into Our Image
I have often wondered why people in Argentina have such animosity towards the United States. They speak of our country with the same disdain as they do their own miserable political and economic infrastructure, which is basically a huge web of misperceptions and corruption. Nothing there is at it seems, or as it should be. But why blame us for all their ills?
I have come to realize that they believe that we are equally corrupt, only better at it. That is why we are a world power and in their opinion meddling with the rest of the world. They honestly believe that our only mission in life is to take as much from the world and its various countries and peoples as possible, no matter what the price or consequences. That is what the government and all its institutions there, run by the long standing political machine, does to its people every day.
The only way to get ahead in Argentina – that is – to improve your quality of life and stop living in survival mode every day, is to become a politician and take a bite of the apple. Everyone knows that. And everyone works around it. After so many generations of expecting nothing, people have learned to find their own way, and live the best they can.
Yesterday in a major speech Bush 43 said that government cannot solve this economic crisis, but the private sector will. “Government does not create wealth. The major role for the government is to create an environment where people take risks to expand the job rate in the United States,” he stated. He could have elaborated – this is how the American Dream is possible. This is why so many people want to be here. And the ones who cannot get in feel they did not want the grapes to begin with, and criticize us from afar, speaking through their provincial prisms.
In Argentina, the executive has taken so much power away form the checks and balances inherent in the government system, which is modeled on our own, that the country is broken, I believe beyond repair. And its people know it. Entrenched powers can no longer be dislodged. The machine devours entrepreneurship, the most basic rights, and hope. It rewards paying to play – we see it in most aspects of people’s life.
So in their assessment of the United States, they apply their own cynical views to what they hear about us on CNN Esapnol and other news feeds into their media and intellectual community. As five of their Supreme Court justices are investigated for corruption, they ask: What do you do when your Supreme Court justices are corrupt? When the five year old American grandchild asks his Argentinian grandpa to pick up his dog’s poop off the street, Grandpa is shocked and cannot understand why the kid is making such a scene on the public sidewalk. When we support Israel’s right to exist they know it’s because the Jews secretly control all our banks. When terrorists down our buildings they know it’s an inside job to further American interests around the globe.
This is what having so much power in the hands of so few can do to a people’s psyche over generations. This also will be the unintended consequence of having a handsome, popular, politically astute President formed in Chicago’s political machine and molded in a church based on the African diaspora school of thought.
President Obama is willing us into the image Argentinians, and many around the world, have of our country. Countries where everyone will take a bribe, from the cop giving you a jaywalking ticket to the multi-national exec asking for the last minute millions to close the deal you’ve been working on for 2 years.
There really is no other country that I know of, with the possible exception of the Netherlands and England, that lives the sanctity of contracts as we do. In our country, laws still mean something and are not seen as suggestions. One can still get ahead by sheer will and by being resourceful. The legal system will protect you, for the most part. When you strike a deal with another business partner, you are doing it in good faith and not trying to figure out how you’ll get screwed.
The unbelievable power grab I see develop so quickly here and on so many levels is beyond frightening. And also very familiar to me. I recently heard someone say we are ceasing to be a nation of contracts, and are becoming a nation of contacts. A place where who you know, dirty money, and no scruples, will get you ahead. A place where people do not know who to trust, what to believe. Where having material things is more important than having a conscience. A people increasingly less educated in our history, where we came from, how we got here, how much was sacrificed by those before us for the freedoms, protections, rights, checks and balances we are losing. Where morality and ethics are relative and the line between right and wrong is blurred beyond recognition.
Where the populace finds solace on distractions that are easily understood — outrageous celebrity scandals, the latest victims of senseless crimes, the silly youtube video, the new electronic game or gadget.
We are becoming Argentina.