Once again the minister Sandra Pettovellowho grouped several ministries in one, it seems that he does not have the ball, after the setback she suffered when she challenged the poor who were hungry to come one by one who was going to serve them and, the next day she gathered 20 blocks of queue waiting for her. Now, he recognizes that the government lied when journalism discovered the flaw.
The country is not all the same. Although the president won with around half of the votes, there are many others who did not vote for him and do not agree with him, nor with his ideas. The whole is more than the sum of the parts (Kant). The entire country is part of this new social economic experience. It is not possible to take half of the citizenship and leave the other half aside. It can be decided which policy is applied, but the inhabitants are 47 million. Something has to be done with those who disagree, whether they like it or not.
The attempt to generalize the will of 50% is simply not viable, but it is even worse: a recent report by the consulting firm Zuban Córdoba y Asociados, shows the level of approval that Argentines have for Javier Milei’s management. 74% of those surveyed believe that “we are all paying for the adjustment” and 65% disagree that “salaries began to beat inflation.” Meanwhile, 41% say they make ends meet “just enough” and 41% do not make ends meet.
On the side of President Milei’s policies, the 44% who did not elect him is the main factor fueling resentment that can trigger incendiary anger. A president of the Nation, until now conservative-neoliberal, also has responsibilities towards the poor, and cannot be ironic by saying: “If they didn’t make ends meet they would have died”. It is a mockery in bad taste to take the literal nature of the claim to respond with irony.
The symptoms of polarization between rich and poor are becoming more accentuated. The current administration does not have all the responsibility, but According to official data, there were 3.2 million poor people, only in the first quarter of 2024. Two more months to go. The president is the person most responsible for the 3.2 million newly excluded people.
The government has its historical stories and founding myths of a country that was fantastic, and a notion of its heroes that is quite debatable, but what is more worrying is the idea that Javier Milei has of himself: “The tour showed that I am the greatest exponent of freedom worldwide”.
Statements of this type are usually relational expressions, which is why they greatly worry Milei’s image of himself, which includes his own idea about others and, in part, how he depends on it. His self-image, his presumptuous identity- “I am blonde with blue eyes” – his self-perception of being uniquehas less to do with your history of academic and professional achievements than with the reality that requires a particular way of acting.
Define yourself by decreeing: “I am the second leader in the world, so it is clear, every time I go somewhere it is a party,” It is an arrogant denial of the potential of all other world leaders. Remember today the “Lula communist” who saved the situation, giving up part of the Bolivian gas so that it could be imported by Argentina, and thus avoid the lack of gas for the industry. A real shame, after having offended the president of Brazil, he has to ask him for favors.
It is worrying, as we said, that Milei’s idealized image of himself allows him to create a hateful, dangerous and, often cruelly destructive, connection between the objectives he pursues and the means he uses.
THE MEDIA HIDE MILEI
Never before has our society been so poorly equipped with resources in the media, such that at a popular level something can be learned, or someone can come to express ideas. The product of the formidable construction of concentrated media leans inward and is abstracted, the average citizen learns what is happening in Argentina through media whose news is tailored to the morality and perspective of the establishment.
Television and its extension on social networks made Mauricio Macri and Javier Milei presidents, but for some time they have become the main instruments of representation, as well as what citizens should think. “Ordinary” people no longer think, they perceive.
Since “125”, the power of the media kept the Argentine people closed to ideas, abandoned, absorbed; That constituted the essential problem that led to a situation that at this moment is difficult to sustain, because today there is hunger among the poor and deprivation among the middle class.
The exercise of crude power, without an informed democratic examination and without control, does not constitute an expression of justice but it manages to become a formula to make people convincing with the errors committed in their name and without their consent, contrary to what, after a serene meditation, they would have estimated better.
The events that we have been seeing two weeks ago in the province of Misiones are Dantesque. The “5 thousand tons of stored food”, which mobilized hundreds of people from the undersupplied canteens to the government warehouses. The Néstor Kirchner gas pipeline, which is stopped the public works, will now have to disburse 500 million dollars to meet the increased demand for energy. Cancer patients whose medication was stopped, without further ado, report a social situation out of control.
In short, the Executive Power that we are seeing affects people’s lives, without considering the need to know and debate the real consequences of public policies.
Mental health specialists say that, in everyday life, they are perceiving significant traumas in a large part of the psyche of Argentines..
Ignorance of people’s problems prevails and their shortcomings are hidden, even though there are few means to find out, in the ecosystem, there are many that hide what is happening.
For Milei and his government team, their ideas and stories are the only margin to measure what is reasonable, normal and appropriate. Milei and several members of her team expressed it this way, they interpret what they know about others with a binary opposition, where they claim to be part of “the good people.” In this way, they come to believe themselves better than others. They also believe that they know more than others, than they know about themselves, they know what the nature, character and intention of “the others” is, based on a sordid analysis and for their own benefit.
The president, emulating George W. Bush, has created his own “axis of evil,” which constitutes another perversion. The people who are contrary to his ideas are those who, according to him, hide behind criticism, just because they don’t think like him. But, on the other hand, he includes economists and businessmen who act in an ersatz way and whom he has mistreated, such as his former employers Miguel Ángel Broda and Eduardo Eurnekián, his idol Domingo Cavallo and his colleague Carlos Melconián.
That kind of absolutism is reflected in the way he acts, even with the people around him. We have seen the untimely dismissal and humiliation of his Chief of Staff Nicolás Posse and more than 30 officials since the administration began. That is a recipe for disaster, the sign of the dehumanization of it and the demonization of internal and external relationships.
Milei today has the power and resources to reject criticism, he is the president who still enjoys a high level of approval, in a country where a significant part of the population has forgotten to reflect for themselves. The lack of diversity of academic and professional opinions that we suffer, given the restrictive structure opposed to us by the media inclined to support Milei, does not allow us to reflect the political plurality that considering “the other half” implies. This is on the way to becoming antipathy, hostility and, even hatred, towards everything that Milei and its sponsorship represent.
If Milei does not manage to reflect on himself, his use and abuse of power, and the capital that finances him does not encourage him, the consequences of his style of government and its practical application with citizens may be compromised. Mauricio Macri discovered that hatred and persecution are not the foundations to build a better country, he has become a highly unpopular individual, not even in Boca Juniors he is respected.
Sixteen years after so much resentment and violence displayed – since 2008 with “la 125” – one thing is clear: society is tired of the cracks. Milei has a responsibility to all the Argentine people, the situation is becoming difficult and the dangers she faces give her no room for error. He assumed the duty to think and act for all Argentines, including “the others” as well, in this way he could prevent hatred from continuing and there be peaceful cohabitation, without which, it will be very difficult for him to sustain the mandate that was granted to him. until December 2027.
Director of Esperanza Foundation. https://fundacionesperanza.com.ar/ UBA Postgraduate Professor and Master’s Degrees at private universities. Master in International Economic Policy, Doctor in Political Science, author of 6 books, @pablotigani
Source: Ambito
David William is a talented author who has made a name for himself in the world of writing. He is a professional author who writes on a wide range of topics, from general interest to opinion news. David is currently working as a writer at 24 hours worlds where he brings his unique perspective and in-depth research to his articles, making them both informative and engaging.
