THE NEW WORLD OF THE GOTHIC FOX
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book, either of Latin America and the U.S., or of Spain and England.
One ends up with a cultural view of economics in the light of which
there is an economic predominance within modern culture.
Veliz thus summarizes his dichotomy of modern culture : "Gothic
foxes and Baroque hedgehogs do not symbolize a polarity between tra–
dition and modernity but between alternative responses to the challenge
posed by modernity." An enormously complex cultural creation corre–
sponds to each metaphorical species . To the Baroque hedgehog corre–
sponds the Spanish Counter-Reformation, which "invented" the
Hispanic New World, namely today's Latin America, and confronted
"the centrifugal tendencies released by Protestantism" with "the cen–
tripetal convictions normally associated with papal orthodoxy," accord–
ing to a "culture of containment" of modernity. Veliz argues that this
creation is condemned to crumble due to its economic failure. To the
Gothic fox corresponds the English Industrial Revolution, which pro–
jected itself to English-speaking America, today's United States, and es–
poused the centrifugal tendencies of Protestantism, according to a culture
of latitudinarian creativity which wholeheartedly embraces modernity.
This creation "promises to retain the overwhelming cultural influence of
the English-speaking peoples well into the twenty-first century and per–
haps beyond," with "the possibility of its metropolitan center emigrating
elsewhere in the forseeable future ... virtually insignificant." An unend–
ing, upgraded, latter-day Hellenistic culture!
Behind this contrast, with its manifest asynchronism, lies the stark di–
chotomy between unity and multiplicity. It is as if we re-encountered in
terms of modern culture the pre-Socratic dichotomy between
Parmenides's obsession with oneness and Heraclitus's inmersion in the
many. On the one hand, there are the characteristics of the Baroque
hedgehog who "knows one big thing." His obsession with oneness ren–
ders him centralist in space; resistant to change and predictable in time;
homogeneous in quality; symmetrical and concentric in composition;
monarchical and absolutist in power; hierarchical in structure; organically
holistic in scope; communitarian (as in
GemeinschaJt)
in attitude; bureau–
cratic in organization; Thomist and Realist in mentality; conservative in
ideology; urban in disposition.
On the other hand, there are the opposing characteristics of the
Gothic fox who "knows many things." His immersion in the many ren–
ders him pluralist in space; adaptable to change and unpredictable in
time; heterogenous in quality; asymmetrical and eccentric in composi–
tion; aristocratic and democratic in power; mobile in structure; individ–
ualistic in scope; associative (as in
Gesellschaft)
in attitude; voluntary in
