Anxious in Argentina

El atroz encanto de ser argentinos
(The Awful Charm of Being Argentine)
By Marcos Aguinis 253 pages, Buenos Aires: Planeta, 2001 (in Spanish)

La realidad, el despertar del sueño argentino
(Reality: Awakening From the Argentine Dream)
By Mariano Grondona 214 pages, Buenos Aires: Planeta, 2001 (in Spanish)

When one of the world’s most prosperous, promising, and envied countries deteriorates into one of the most troubled in the space of a few years, its people naturally will want to know whom to blame. And so it is in Argentina, which during 2001 and early 2002 saw a record succession of presidents, the end of dollar parity, and the imposition of the infamous corralito — the freezing of millions of citizens’ bank deposits.

Two of the books that best capture Argentina’s angst were actually published just before the dramatic worsening of the crisis in December 2001. Marcos Aguinis (author of The Awful Charm of Being Argentine) and Mariano Grondona (author of Reality: Awakening From the Argentine Dream) are both accomplished public intellectuals who also have held cabinet-level positions in previous governments. Their works are part of a vast genre by Argentines that explores their country’s malaise and asks who is at fault for its well-chronicled failures. Indeed, some observers have joked that the curious abundance of these books is itself a symptom of Argentina’s peculiar national neurosis. As their titles suggest, the authors look inward for explanations.

The Awful Charm of Being Argentine could be read as collective psychoanalysis (the author is a psychiatrist). It offers a vivid and, at times, impressionistic account of the different currents of Argentina’s social pathology. Its premise is that Argentines both enjoy and are afflicted by a state of mind that can be described as alternating between resignation (witness the tango title "Cuesta abajo," or "Downhill"), euphoria (at soccer matches), and pride (over a cultural superiority that is known to be in decline). Aguinis argues that the Argentine stereotype, formed both from within and from without, has become as bankrupt as the economy. The formerly self-confident, somewhat arrogant, and narcissistic character — sure of himself and his country, his place in the world, and his capacity to understand and shape it — has given way to his opposite: insecure, defensive, unimaginative, and overwhelmed by the difficulties he confronts.

Yet it is to the darker side of the old stereotype that Aguinis traces the origins of today’s crisis — notably, the breezy indifference to rules and responsibilities, the tendency to glamorize transgression and celebrate easy wealth, and the primacy of short-term success over long-term planning. Many of these tendencies are expressed in words that are difficult to translate and often incomprehensible to non-Argentines: the chanta (rascal or scoundrel), who is allergic to effort and indifferent to respect, and the vivo (opportunist), whose survival depends on the gullibility or decency of others. Aguinis shows how these and other pernicious traits all depend on a weak, inefficient judicial system that perpetuates impunity.

Mariano Grondona, one of the elder statesmen of Argentine journalism, is also interested in Argentina’s social pathology. Broad, ambitious, and decidedly international in its perspective, his study lays the groundwork for a radical break from the delusions of grandeur that have so long distracted Argentina. Grondona describes a society perpetually suspended in the gap between its mediocre present and its potential glory, stupefied by past wealth, incapable of recognizing its poverty, and paralyzed when it comes to building a future.

In addition to offering a lucid account of Argentina’s economic and political gyrations over the past few years, Grondona’s book makes an original and significant contribution by emphasizing Argentina’s inability to join the modern world. Persistent reliance on traditional forms of wealth (land, agriculture, real estate) has kept it from adopting newer ones (technology, marketing, innovation). The country Grondona presents is only half capitalist, barely competitive, and still searching for its place on the economic map — in marked contrast with Mexico, Brazil, and Chile, three countries Grondona sees as having a clearer vision of their role in global integration.

Both Aguinis and Grondona draw connections between the country’s problems and the broader development agenda. Both writers explore at some length the dangerous fragility of public institutions ("It’s the state, stupid," writes Grondona), the lack of prestige and professionalism of government employees, and the inevitable corollaries of corruption, insecurity, and inefficiency in the judicial system. Both plead for educational reform and reflect on the dire consequences of the physical, legal, and economic insecurity that afflict Argentines. Finally, both probe the difficulties of reconciling individual and public interests in weak democracies during times of crisis.

Neither book squarely or definitively places blame for the crisis on Argentines alone, though both authors indicate that Argentina’s culture of blame, denial, and resignation have contributed to the current situation. Indeed, it would be a mistake to argue that Argentina’s crisis is uniquely Argentine. Virtually all Latin American countries have suffered profound disruptions in how their wealth is produced (some have risen to the challenge and used these crises as vehicles for change). Yet no other country in the region was as European, as advanced, or as promising as Argentina. Perhaps that is the one thing that makes Argentina stand out: the distance between past expectations and the harrowing uncertainty of the present.