Martin Fierro versus Rambo: a Cultural Proposal

We have mentioned our conviction that the Argentine Republic turns out to be the ultimate repository of Western culture: Greece, Rome, Spain, the Catholic doctrine, the Hebrew and Arab components.

We have also exposed that, in our opinion, the "Global Village", the "One World", is sustained on a single axiological basis: the economic one. At the same time, the exclusive -and excluding- predominance of economic values entails impoverishment for people at all levels and the progressive loss of cultural identity.

Today, through "globalization", we know more about the Gulf War -that bloody battle presented as a miniseries- than about the "Return of Forced".

We are more aware of Bart Simpson's adventures than those of Inodoro Pereyra.

Each new Jim Carrey (?) film is awaited with as much expectation as the presentation of the last show of “Les Luthiers”.

The innumerable Rambos that are on the loose and the hundreds of replicas of the new John Wayne -always speaking in English- are symbolic incarnations that do not stop reminding us that force -forceful, irresistible- supports the validity of economic values in the "Global village".

The omnipotent presence of this model of fictional Super Human Being -always isolated, always alone, without the need to resort to others- tries to falsely point out the triumph of the individual's will over the social environment in which he works.

He Super Man Model First World he exclusively attends to his individual perspective -as if he could be happy alone-, ignoring what is happening around him.

When "everything is better" for him, surely everything is worse for the rest of society. In a word, Darwin through, the law of the jungle.

Faced with so many messages-massages that proclaim "live today, what does transcending matter?"

How to exhibit a different approach in the face of the avalanche? How to talk about another scale of values without feeling separated from the herd?

It is here where we understand that we must resort to the sources that, now socially integrated in our country, allow us to formulate a possible answer: the Creole proposal must be based fundamentally on the culture of which we are a summary. This is the formidable weapon that we Argentines have to face the invasion of so many video clips.

The Argentine people, Catholic, Mariano, heir to the West through the great immigration flows that flowed into our territory in the last century and in the present, have the enormous possibility of offering the world a cultural response based on another axiology, as opposed to so much technique.

A town that has been the first to recognize the merits of Gabriel García Marquez and Ingmar Bergman; that it has offered the “Billiken”, with which thousands of Latin American children were educated; who has been distinguished with numerous Nobel prizes; who has been fortunate to have teachers like Jorge Luis Borges, Ernesto Sábato, Julio Cortázar and many others; that it has maintained the prestige, despite everything, of the National University of Buenos Aires; that tells in its history utopians with a human face like Evita, like “Che”; that reverences Benedetti and Neruda, and so many other examples, is a people undoubtedly charged with essentials.

We Argentines -whether looking lost in front of the immensities of the Pampas plain or the Atlantic Ocean-, whether looking into each other's eyes -with coffee-, in Corrientes and Callao, we continue to be concerned about the search for answers to the questions that truly matter : life, death, the notion of God, the Homeland, hope, love, destiny, the neighbor.

These same questions made Greece immortal; not for having found the answers, but for the simple fact of having raised and debated them, without being distracted.

So I propose that so many monologues (every Argentine is potentially a philosopher) and so many enriching dialogues be institutionalized.

As? Resorting again to the sources: recreating the public square.

Taking advantage of Saturdays and Sundays, with the coordination of so many sociologists, psychologists, unemployed teachers, let's call people to squares, parks, amphitheatres, to chat, debate, give their opinion on the issues that really matter.

Let's listen to the experiences of parents and grandparents; let young people come to tell us their dreams about the essential so that it is no longer invisible to the eyes.

It will be a good path, a different path, for the people of the Argentine Republic to acquire true moral authority in the concert of nations.

It will be the best way to exercise identity in the face of solvent “globalization” and a way of saying: it is possible to worry, inquire, share with others issues that continue to be universal and for which the “global village” has no answers; what's more, he doesn't even consider it.

How long will this cultural revolution take to grab the world's attention? how much to be imitated?

Perhaps this is, then, the way to tell Rambo: "OK man, yours is great, but you're still alone."

We, on the other hand - without so much muscle, without so much money, without so many weapons - are simply together and sharing.

In this, which is the best thing that could happen to us, we have followed the advice of one of our immortal Creoles, who once taught us: "Brothers be united because that is the first law...

Extract from the book "Return to Louis XV", by Alberto De Vita (not yet published)