By Marcos Roitman Rosenmann on June 6, 2024
When social pain is an escape valve to feel pleasure, we are in the presence of a broken society. Politically administered with a language of hate and pointing blames, social pain is a weapon in the hands of shamans. Argentina suffers from the syndrome of autolytic injuries. It bleeds out of its own free will. In times of identity crisis, messiahs emerge. Javier Milei embodies the role of redeemer.
Breaking canons and transformed into a champion like El Cid, he undertakes his battle accompanied by faithful followers. He possesses the revealed truth. A redeemed convert, thanks to the discovery of Murray Rothbard, founder of the libertarian movement in the United States, architect of the concept of anarcho-capitalism. In his works Power and the Market and Towards a New Freedom: The Libertarian Manifesto, he defines the state as a mafia organization dedicated to theft, blames feminism for forging policies of false equality and declares himself a Holocaust denier.
His texts, published in the 1980s, rescued in the 21st century, lay the foundations of the alternative right, homophobic, nationalist, xenophobic, with roots in Nazism and fascism. Milei follows their dictates. With a chainsaw, he will fight against the enemies of the homeland.
Milei
On the pickaxe, institutions and politicians: caste, socialism, communism, democracy, gender ideology, abortion, free education, higher taxes, lazy civil servants and an oppressive market state. All of them threaten individual freedom. First it will make itself known in television programs, multiplying its presence in the networks thanks to youtubers, in the youth making massive use of Tik-Tok, recruiting influencers. The pandemic, with all its denialist, anti-vaccine and conspiracy ideology, provided him with a good watering hole to grow. Thus, his delusions became opinion, quasi common sense, and ended up being debated in universities, media, political institutions and even took to the streets.
In this context, Milei feels supported by millions of Argentines loyal to his principles. He has been sacralized. His followers and voters accept to go hungry, to lose their jobs, to reduce their pensions, to lose social rights, in short, to be injured, to sacrifice themselves, in exchange for a future of abundance, decency and freedom, in a reborn Argentina. Eden as a horizon.
The land where San Martin was born will finally be redeemed from sin. Six months into government, the chainsaw and cutbacks define its policy. Increased inequality, growth of extreme poverty, health crisis, repression, violence and hunger.
Six months into government, cabinet crisis, scandals and growth of social protest. However, his followers adopt fanatic behaviors, they exude hatred. Milei’s formula to exercise control lies in adopting a metaphor as a slogan: the lion roars and exerts its strength, the sheep bleat and are flock. It is necessary to bring out the inner feline. Awaken the libertarian that Argentines carry inside. A new characterization of the world accompanies the lion’s roar. Freedom is not collective rights, it is an opportunity to triumph individually. Every man for himself, but me first!
Social justice, an option alien to personal effort and competitiveness, typical of lazy people. Feminism, a mutation of the natural order of the patriarchal family. And public education, a space controlled by “lefties” indoctrinating, with the aim of holding the armed forces responsible for genocide and crimes against humanity, during the years of the civil-military dictatorship.
His assertions are transformed into ideas and forces. Its conceptualization spreads in the Argentine society. The cultural war of libertarianism gains ground. High-flown declarations, strident behaviors and negationist behaviors accompany the story. Its triad: a lukewarm right wing, corrupt Kirchnerism, and a thieving and interventionist State.
But let us be clear, Milei is not the problem, he is the result of betraying an alternative democratic political project to capitalism. The dominated and exploited classes have been abandoned by progressivism. And in this circumstance, totalitarian, anti-democratic and exclusionary solutions become a way out. Suffice it to recall the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party.
Under this reality, the slogan “Let them all go!” becomes relevant. But they have names and surnames. They are the “caste”, a concept that applies equally to some as to others. In this case, it is made up of those belonging to the alliance Unión por la Patria: Peronists, Radicals, Kirchnerists and marginal forces. Likewise, Juntos por el Cambio, the weak right wing, identified with Mauricio Macri and Patricia Bullrich, are a caste.
La Libertad Avanza, an alternative condensed in two phrases: Libertad, carajo! and ¡que se vayan todos! found a fertile field. Milei, reaped the results of a betrayal. The governments of Cristina Kirchner and Alberto Fernández signed the agreements with the IMF, renounced to a national-popular project, the defense of national sovereignty. They lied to cover up their shame, while their intellectuals gave them their ears. Thus grew the messiah Milei.
But, as always, it is up to the Argentine people to innovate and forge resistance organizations. New ways of thinking and acting beyond Peronism will break the siege of anarcho-capitalism, transforming social pain into hope. The gods forged in sectarian hatred have an ephemeral existence.
Source: Correo del ALBA, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English