At mass events – recitals, marches, demonstrations, political rallies – it is easy to get carried away by the euphoria. However, I don’t think I’ve ever shouted slogans that I didn’t agree with. During my adolescence, living in Argentina during the dictatorship, I could shout “He who doesn’t jump is a soldier”, but I didn’t join in on the song “He who doesn’t jump is an Englishman”. There was enmity over the Malvinas war, but it seemed absurd to me to repudiate all the inhabitants of a town. These days in Argentina there is much discussion about whether it was the strength of anti-Peronism that made the party in power, La Libertad Avanza, win in the legislative elections on 26 October. Peronism does not seem very willing, indeed, not at all willing, to review its role in the recent history of the country, as if until yesterday we had been governed by aliens. The day in 2023 when the ballot Because of the presidential elections, I went to the bunker of Unidos por la Patria – then it was called the Peronist party whose candidate was Sergio Massa – which is four blocks from where I live. An hour had passed since the polls closed and the atmosphere was festive. A delegation from UOCRA, the construction workers’ union, beat the drums with the enthusiasm of the winners and thousands of people sang: “I don’t care what they say / what others say. / I follow you everywhere, / I love you more every day.” Shortly afterwards it became known that Javier Milei had won with 56% of the votes, 11 points above Massa. I thought then, and I think now, that part of the problem lies precisely in “I don’t care what others say”: what you don’t want to see, what you don’t want to see, what perhaps you will never see. It is the danger of repeating the song: it becomes part of one, it becomes flesh, blindness and conviction.
Kidnapped singing | Opinion
