The N ew WorId of the Gothic Fox
A Symposium on Culture and Economy
in English and Spanish America
Edith K urzweil:
Ever since World War
II ,
historians, economists, and
sociologists, among others, have been debating why so many
fundamental differences between the North American and South
American continents have endured. Unable to come up with a
satisfactory answer, they have fallen back on "cultural differences,"
without, however, exploring these differences in much depth. The
editors of
Partisan Review,
who thought that these questions have large
implications, decided to use the recent book by Claudio Veliz,
The New
World oj the Gothic Fox,
to do so from a variety of perspectives, by
asking experts from different fields to examine his global theses.
In
fact,
Veliz addresses the multiplicity of causes for the persistence of cultural
traditions in spite of the many initiatives, especially by the government of
the United States, to help modernize and lift the economic well-being
of the peoples on our neighboring continent.
The title of Veliz's book is borrowed from Sir Isaiah Berlin's famous
essay on Tolstoy: "The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog
knows one big thing." Veliz suggests, "Latin America is a hedgehog that
since the middle of the nineteenth century has been desperately trying to
become a fox, with indifferent results" - due to the tenacity of its
Spanish characteristics, and especially to its Counter-Reformation. On
the other hand, North America, Veliz's Gothic fox, embodies English
culture: it is compatible with the Protestant doctrines which provided a
favorable climate for the Industrial Revolution that championed moder–
nity and consumer society.
In
order to demonstrate this metaphoric
comparison, and the existing disparities, Veliz reconstructed historical and
political events, some of which his interlocutors agreed with, and some
of which they disputed.
The colloquium was sponsored by the Institute for the Study of
Economic Culture at Boston University and organized by Professor Peter
L.
Berger, Director of the Institute, and by myself, Editor of
Partisan
Review.
Boston University's Professor of Philosophy Roger Scruton
spoke on the usefulness of Veliz's pairs of metaphors; Ricardo Arias
Calderon, former Vice President of Panama and Professor of Philosophy
