Back as usual

I just can't help a bitter smile when I remember a recent cover of the parody news magazine Barcelona, with the large headline: REACTIVATION — THE MIDDLE CLASS REGAINS ITS HISTORICAL LEVEL OF FASCISM. "Reactivation" is how the economic recovery of Argentina since 2002 is commonly called.

Barcelona mocks the traditional "fascism" of the Argentine middle (and upper) class for a reason. Back in the 1990s, the poor and underprivileged were simply forgotten, swept under the rug. With Argentina being in the First World and all, the poor were an anomaly and anything leftist/progressive was anathema. Then the crisis hit and the middle class found itself struggling not to become "one of them", only it didn't think of "them" because we couldn't possibly become like "them", as we the good, decent, hard-working people were born with better genes. Then the crisis exploded, it was everybody run for their lives, etc. etc.

But as things got better, the middle class couldn't stop but noticing that it was getting better for "them" as well, and they want "what?". A typical dialogue: "Did you learn they're giving them a raise?" "What do you mean, a raise? More welfare? Aren't they living off the state enough already?" "Oh no, but you know, they're parasites. They steal power and running water, they don't pay taxes, and on top of that they ask for more!" "Very true. They're living for free. And they're having children all the time, you know! Like cockroaches. They breed and lie down all day and then the government gives them money." "And don't even think of asking them to work for a living." "No way! They're lazy, they're all lazy, and their kids are like that too. It's in their genes." "And thieves and drugheads." "We're the fools, you know. We pay taxes so they can get drunk and watch TV." "Somebody should burn all those shantytowns."


The above is not made up. It's what I hear on a regular basis from certain (fortunately not all, not even most) middle-class people in my everyday environment. Some of them are such nice people that one has to wonder whether they think at all before they open their mouths to utter such barbarity, or whether the isolation between us, citizens of the same country and minds of the same culture, has erased the last traces of empathy in their brains.

Barcelona does comedy and satire, but the headlines are not always innocuous made-up funny phrases. Good satire is eye-opening, in that it sometimes exposes the rotten core of its subject for the public (which may include its subject) to see and think, and (if possible) learn. The Argentine middle class buys Barcelona and rightly laughs, and it's often laughing at itself.