One of the rock lyrics that points to characterize the average Argentine es Repressionfrom The Rapists. In a few words he defines it like this:
“Beautiful land of love and peace /
Beautiful people, cordiality /
Soccerroast and wine /
Are the tastes of the Argentine people”.
Public opinion polls have problems in times of major change. They record what happens on the surface, not what happens in the foundations. They get data from the head of the beer, not the liquid below.
Friedrich Nietzsche en the gay science states that “the general change of taste (The taste) is more important than opinions (opinions), since with all their proofs, their refutations and their intellectual façade, opinions are nothing but the symptoms of changing taste and not the causes of that change, as is still so often believed”.
The Argentine feeling
tastes and opinions are, at the same time, projections of something even deeper. It is what makes the Argentine. They are those principles, habits, desires that make a common belonging. It is that instinct or feeling that makes a social cohesion.
in Eduardo Mallea Story of an Argentine passion raised the dichotomy between the visible and the invisible country, urban Argentina and its Hinterland. This Sarmiento dichotomy shows a hidden country, the invisible, but for Mallea it is always there and is the real one. Remain unchanged.
That basic sustenance, this common instinct is projected into tastes and then into opinions.
The hidden country, the base, is what Los Violadores, the founding group of Argentine punk, show. They are deep, silent Argentines, with simple tastes. Work, sacrifice, recognition of an authority that in turn recognizes them as citizens, are some of their values. They aspire to a better future, perhaps not for themselves, but for their children. Health, education, physical security are valued.
This Argentine feeling is built with myths that reinforce these instincts, these binding passions.
Mariano Moreno, Manuel Belgrano, and Jose de San Martin. they have been founding milestones of sagas in which things are achieved with effort.
domingo faustino SarmientoJulio Argentino Roca, Hipólito Yrigoyen and Juan Domingo Perón have recognized this Argentine feeling, either intellectually or practically.
However, recent Argentina has broken with this subterranean feeling that makes its existence as a society. These basic values that make up this Argentine instinct have been distorted.
50 years ago Balbín and Perón demonstrated, with a hug, the meaning of “La Hora del Pueblo”
The Argentina has drifted towards a short-term hedonism which has been very intoxicating. Losses in the value of effort and sacrifice, study and hard work loomed as the shortcut to a better society.
The results today show the fraud. From the lyrics of Los Violadores they have lost the roast and the wine product of poverty widespread. Football has remained.
More than 80% believe that the Argentine National Team was right not to go to celebrate at Casa Rosada
Soccer as a social reflection
The Argentine team of the “boys”, of the Lioneles (Scaloni and Messi) has returned to restore the lost Argentine feeling. Argentine society, regardless of political affiliation, social class or territory, identified with the team.
Hard work, sacrifice, low profile, recognition of authority, perseverance in the face of adversity, These are some traits that have marked the epic of the world champion team in Qatar.
The average Argentine recognized those lost values of national sentiment in the soccer team. Hence the idolatry that still persists. A popular demonstration rarely seen in recent Argentina overflowed the streets of the country to celebrate the title won.
This selection had an unprecedented gesture in the history of Argentine sports: he did not go to offer the trophy to the current political authority. This did not make the invisible Argentina turn its back on the champions.
The Argentinian it wants to be prosecuted in the feeling, in the instinct, in the passion that constitutes it as a society. Can’t find leadership yet or the political group that takes them there. He’s on the search. That is why we are facing a moment of change of tastes that is projected in their political opinions. The space is open. who will occupy it in the near future?
*Dr. in Sociology (UCA). Teacher UCA, UNTREF, UCES
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