Argentine society and social philosophy seems to be typified and defined by all sorts of small details one sees all day long on the streets of Buenos Aires. Like the way people cut you off in traffic, then slow down just for the fuck of it, or the insanely egotistical habit people here have of leaving huge steaming piles of stinking dog crap right in the middle of the sidewalk on busy streets and avenues for others to step in or have to play hopscotch around all day long.
While people are assholes everywhere there are people, of course, I’ve honestly never come across such widespread deeply ingrained institutionalized assholery anywhere else in the world to the surreal degree it’s commonly practiced here.
Having lived in Buenos Aires on and off for many years, and having a pretty good base of comparison from all the other places I’ve lived on and off too over the years, I can only come to the sad conclusion that this beautiful and tragically culturally-isolated end-of-the-world society is totally fucked now.
While not liking to generalize, I still think it’s fairly safe for me to say that, for a number of reasons, Argentines in general — more than just about any other people on earth — seem to live by the rule that whatever you can get away with is acceptable behavior. And the most amazing part of this insane equation is that, for the most part, people accept that sort of narcissistic attitude as being as normal and innocent as a Sunday picnic here.
“Do Unto Others” takes on a whole new meaning here in Buenos Aires, believe me, where it translates in day to day life and social interaction to something more like “Fuck or Be Fucked.”
This sort of thing can best be defined as Poverty of the Spirit. And while Argentina is in no way at the top of the global Fuck You list in that department, they do seem to be trying real hard for World Champion status in the Fuck Thy Neighbor tournament, on a grass-roots level.
No fucking wonder the economy is in shambles here, where the resources of the country have long been sold by evil politicians to the trans-national corporations, and Argentine youth’s chief ambition is to get the fuck out and never look back — leaving whatever’s left of the old patria’s questionable future in the hands of a handful of morally-corrupt mentally-retarded old mummies.
And before anybody gets their tits in a wringer and starts referring me as some sorta dirty Yankee Imperialista, lemme make it quite clear that as a Gypsy and world-class outsider, I’m not taking any cheap shot at Argentines in particular. I actually have many close friends and even blood family members in my Gypsy community here in Argentina. And most of them are the first ones to unconditionally agree with every word I just said… and then some!
I’m just telling it like it is from my particular insider point of view. In case anybody reading this week’s blog isn’t familiar with my writing already, lemme remind ya that I commonly slam all sectors of human society with equal venom and vigor, simply as a matter of practice — especially myself!
After all, when you lose the ability to laugh at yourself, you pretty much turn the task of laughing at you over to everybody else, right?
This is pretty lightweight stuff for me. For further poisonous ranting about Argentina and the almost poetic state of spiritual decay that righteously abounds here, check out the last few chapters of my book, Narcisa.
God knows, I’ll probably be banned from the country altogether once the fucking spanish-language translation comes out here.
Oh well…
© Jonathan D. Shaw 2010.
1) i don´t need a “fucking spanish-language translation”, i can read and speak your language
2)i´m a hot argentinian brunette (talkin about narcisism and stuff… =P )
3) I agree with you, we´re assholes… but, we´re adorables and cutes, we are the best friend (or the worst) ypu can ever have, we are smart people… and, we alwayls know when we screwed up… (and yes, you´re right, we don´t do anything about it…)
4) Buenos Aires is a post apocaliptic trash city… but, you shoul go to the “interior”, and meet that people… i´m from Rio Negro, and i see porteños the same way you do.