Character Is Destiny: Argentina
Here's a letter to the editor I wrote a while back about Argentina, the country where I was born and raised. With Argentines banging on pots once again in Plaza de Mayo over the imposition on confiscatory taxes on farm exports, the subject bears revisiting, perhaps as a cautionary tale for the U.S.:
In “Fund-Razing in Argentina” (Foreign Affairs, May/June 2005), Richard Lapper reviewed recent books by Ernesto Tenembaum and Marcelo Bonelli that attempt to explain the policy failures that caused Argentina’s $81 billion default and the social chaos of 2001–02. As a second-generation Argentine, I would like to suggest that these failings were ones of character, not policy.
The sad truth is that Argentines are afflicted with character flaws of mythological proportions that render them vulnerable to disaster. Dishonesty; hubris and an amoral, resourceful pursuit of self-interest ("viveza") are traits deeply ingrained in the Argentine national character. These flaws have led to a joke among neighboring Hispanics: The best business in the world is to buy an Argentine for what he’s worth and sell him for what he thinks he’s worth. Pride comes all-too- naturally to the descendants of imperial Rome and Spain.
The Argentine nation, blessed by nature but cursed by character, flirts with anarchy and bankruptcy to the sound of pots beaten from balconies by angry citizens. Desperately frustrated, Argentines blame their troubles on the International Monetary Fund and the United States, presumably for having the temerity to lend them $132 billion. Or they blame their elected officials; anybody but themselves. They remain oblivious to the fact that, in a democracy, you generally get the government you deserve.
The people seek a savior, a caudillo who will guide them to the prosperity and prominence they believe to be rightfully theirs. But there can be no prosperity or prominence without integrity, honesty, hard work, humility, and cooperation. Until Argentines meet the enemy, and discover that “it is us,” the clanging pots will drown out the sublime strains of the tango in the land of silver.
(The foregoing letter to the editor, published in Foreign Policy, is one of several essays contained in my December 2005 Cassandra Chronicles titled "Point and Counterpoint." Copies of all back issues are available to subscribers.)