Chavez and Latin American Dreams

[monk222]

♠
While many in Argentina would, nevertheless, not hesitate to call the Venezuelan president a clown or a madman, it’s worth keeping in mind that a very heady dose of megalomania is a prerequisite for even dreaming of confronting a rival as overwhelmingly powerful as the United States — which is also led by a president viewed, in many quarters, as a clown and a madman.

-- Luisa Valenzuela, "What We See in Hugo Chavez" in The New York Times

Ms. Valenzuela writes of how Mr. Chavez fans the old dreams of an integrated Latin America that can stand against the hegemony of the United States:

Two major Argentine characteristics are in play here: intrinsic distrust and the need for immediate gratification. Mr. Chávez awakens both of these inclinations, and it’s interesting to see them balance each other out. The dream of a single-currency Latin American Union, modeled on the European Union, to create, insofar as possible, a buffer against the hegemony of the United States no longer seems so impossible.

I’m no political analyst; I have delved into politics only as a fiction writer. But I’m an optimist by nature, and the feeling of empowerment that President Chávez instills, and that various South American governments are endorsing, strikes me as a good engine for further progress — a means of upgrading ourselves from the status of someone’s backyard into that of a truly autonomous region, beyond Mr. Chávez, Mr. Bush and every other form of demagoguery.

Such grand dreams, though, have to be built on wealth if they are to be more than dreams, and Chavez-style 'socialism' is not likely to produce that kind of economic foundation.

It would be better to focus on working on the cooperation needed for a pan-Latin America framework, rather than enjoying the cheap thrill of blaming America for their woes. As the Islamists need to understand, scapegoating an enemy (even a very powerful one) is not the answer to development and empowerment; you have to be constructive and creative in your own right.

xXx

Comments

[antilapsarian.livejournal.com]

I think the popularity of America bashing serves a dual purpose. It helps the rest of the world feel better when they realize that the US has its own problems and gets taken down a peg. But also I think everybody knows which side of the bread is buttered, so to speak. The US is the 500 pound gorilla in the room and in order to see any change in the rest of the world there has to be change in the US, first. Which is what really brings out the hatred is a certain amount of realizing that in terms of global democracy there is a lot of non-representation where the US acts and nobody else gets a say in affairs that greatly affect them.

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

I don't see what sort of changes can be expected on the part of America. Even a President Barack Obama is not likely to rain money on them, nor do I see any prospect for giving non-Americans a vote in American government. Democracy is something they have to build in their own countries, before there can be any real notion of realizing some kind of unitary global democracy. They really need to focus on real-world solutions to solve their very real problems.

[antilapsarian.livejournal.com]

Your first sentence there I think is at the heart of a lot of divides. The attitude that America can't/won't change versus the attitude that it must/should. It isn't about just money, for sure. But why shouldn't the world have a say in American government when the world is greatly affected by the decisions of Americans? Sure, democracy would be great in all these nations. But, even more, they DO need real-world solutions to very real problems. And that isn't going to come about via the current methods and practices. That's where the frustration is at, I would say, both within and without is that the US seems to be on a primrose path of self-righteousness while surrounded by an environment to the contrary. Which is what makes it all the worse is that, as an American, I would say I don't think Americans are horrible people at heart. We're mostly not out for wrongdoing. Rather, it is our inability to be perceptive sometimes. Ignorance, arrogance, blindness, corruption. We're often in childlike innocence in the way we *feel* we're acting toward others without considering the consequences of those actions fully.

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

But, even more, they DO need real-world solutions to very real problems.

But it is not very 'real world' to expect others to solve our problems for us. It is childlike innocence, naievte, and ignorance to imagine otherwise, including the idea of getting any say in American government, beyond regular diplomacy and dealmaking.