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PARTISAN REVIEW
French nuns.) Against such enemies the end justifies the means: a holy
war to save "Western values." Its dirty side: a private wound to be
hidden like a shared secret or shame. The Free World, unaware of its
new champion, misunderstands; even Big Brother (once known as " the
Colossus of the North") has grown flabby; Carter is either a dupe or a
Communist; South Africa (with which there is suddenly a strange
rapport, perhaps the prelude to a new wave of immigrants, if things go
sour there) a last civilized bastion; the Buenos Aires Herald, the only
paper that speaks up (because of its harmless English-speaking audi–
ence or its connections abroad) has been "bought by the Jews. "
Worst of all, perhaps, in the long run, the new belt- and spirit–
tightening priorities implied in "living within our means."
It
seems,
for instance, that there are whole areas of "nonessential" knowledge
that can be blocked out.
In
the recent Peron days (it was the left then,
playing with its toy: the university) men and subjects were banished at
will. Working, teaching or studying abroad meant "selling out." Now
there are "practical" considerations: "We can't afford everything."
Why, for instance, in these times of hardship, would an Argentine want
to study Sanskrit? Or marine biology? Or perhaps even political
science? Why-in another vein-the luxury of small private businesses
that could be consolidated in huge centralized monopolies? Why
subsidize a dying book industry (once the largest in the "Spanish
speaking world) that can barely afford the paper it prints on (and
which has lost its markets to Spain and Mexico)? Surely (a good point)
there are too many (at least half a dozen, for a population of about
twenty-two million) automobile manufacturers in Argentina. And
perhaps also too many musicians? Or musical instruments? (Or
instrument makers, whose art has been crippled by a ruinous tax on
imported wood?) And why so much " foreign " music when an old" law,
dating back to the days when Peron held mass rallies in the opera
house, requires radio stations to broadcast Argentine composers 75
percent of the time? And so it goes, who knows where or how far in its
insidious attack on choice, variety, culture, experience-the arts,
scientific research-life itself. The question , for a country that once
lived in the world, is: how much can you leave out and still be alive?
Or, to put it another way: how poor can you afford to be (in all these
"nonessentials") without starvIng? The depressing answer, so far,
seems to be: there is money for the right things, such as the millions
currently being spent on airport renewal (not to mention the huge
transmission towers and generators needed to beam color TV to the
world in a country where the phones stopped working ten years ago)
for the 1978 World Football Cup.
