Two recent books about Peronism

Juan Bautista Yofre, El Escarmiento. La ofensiva de Perón contra Cámpora y los montoneros. 1973 - 1974, Planeta, 2010. 440 pp.

Jose Pablo Feinmann, Peronismo. Filosofía política de una persistencia argentina. Cámpora y los Montoneros. Sudamericana, 2010. 770 pp.

A good book about peronism is always a reason to celebrate, and Juan Baustista Yofre's book is a cause for celebration. In spite of the fact that Peronism, the political movement created by Juan Domingo Perón, has largely determined the political and historical process in Argentina the second half of the twentieth century, it has not been a matter of scholarly debate. It could be said that Peronism has been much more matter of opinion than an object of systematic study.

Jorge Asis, an argentine writer and former diplomat, offers a lucid analysis on two books recently published on peronism.

One of the books was written by an investigative reporter, Juan Bautista Yofre, and the other, by José Pablo Feinmann, a jewish philosopher living in Argentina.

The period covered by Yofre is from the return of Peron on June 1973 until his death on July 1, 1974. Feinmann book is more comprehensive covering the period from 1943 to 1972.

According to Asis, "El Escarmiento" ("The Chastisement")was based on hard facts while the other, Feinmann's book is more a freestyle interpretation by a former peronist follower.

While Feinmann prefers the first Peron - alluding to Peron's first term- a much more authoritarian and uncompromising figure, Yofre likes the last Peron, a mature stateman who could understand the gravity of the marxist infiltration in his party and took the neccesary steps to get rid of it. For Feinmann this depuration of marxists elements ammounts to a dirty work.

Yofre has documented extensively the training of Montoneros and other armed groups in Cuba in that period. This marxist infiltration in a national movement is commonly referred as "entrismo" (to infiltrate).

Asis considers that Feinmann has committed some exagerations in his appreciations such as considering Heidegger, the German philosopher, a "proto-peronist". Feinmann, has become disillusioned with peronism and joined the FPV, the political party founded by the Kirchners. He writes a monthly column in the pro-government newspaper, Pagina 12 with apologies to the Kirchners which are under heavy criticism for charges of corruption.

Yofre's book is important not only for his extensive research, but in the contribution it makes to our understanding of both Peronism and democracy in Argentina. He shed some light on Father Mujica's murder in Buenos Aires at the hand of the Montoneros. He also refers to former Minister of Foreign Relations Jorge Taiana's incarceration as occurring during the peronist period (Peron's wife term) not during the military period. At that time Taiana was charged with setting a bomb in a coffee shop in Buenos Aires and killing a waiter. The bomb was directed to navy officers who were sitting at the coffee shop but they left the place before the explotion took place.

See here Asis' article in Spanish.

Maestra Ciruela - (aka Miss Know-it-all)

About the G-20 Summit in Canada last week:

The first lady is not interested in the exchange of ideas or experiences, she went to the summit to lecture her peers, she is incapable of learning from others.


See here

Robert Byrd, former klunsman dies

As Jim Goad points out:

"I’ve often heard the terms “Republican” and “Klansman” used as if they were synonymous. But who actually birthed the Ku Klux Klan, the White League, the Red Shirts, and the countless other white-supremacist organizations who terrorized, torched, and lynched blacks during and after Reconstruction?"

See here

Purificación

Hindúes celebrando la "Aarti" u oraciones vespertinas ayer en Allahabad

Mark Lilla

Ofrece un análisis del surgimiento del "Partido del Té" y dice que los yankis estan cansados de:

"being told what their children should be taught, how much of their paychecks they get to keep, whether to insure themselves, which medicines they can have, where they can build their homes, which guns they can buy, when they have to wear seatbelts and helmets, whether they can talk on the phone while driving, which foods they can eat, how much soda they can drink…the list is long."

Ver aqui

Don Ernesto Laclau, un politicólogo criollo, nos dice en "On Populist Reason" que desdeñar tales movimientos es rechazar "lo politico" y afirmar que " the management of the community is the concern of an administrative power whose source of legitimacy is a proper knowledge of what a 'good community is."

Argentina tiene un nuevo Canciller

Si bien tengo decidido no ocuparme de temas temporales y de personajes irrelevantes -- creo que este sitio web ayuda a entender las decisiones que pueda tomar esa minúscula persona designado la semana pasada Canciller en Argentina - un espacio que seguramente como piensan muchos compatriotas - le queda enorme para quien fuera un periodista mediocre.

A todo ello se suma su falta de experiencia en temas internacionales y su condición de ex-ciudadano norteamericano (ciudadanía a la que renunciara al ser designado consul).

Aconsejamos el libro "El Mundo Clasico" donde el Profesor Kornel Zoltan Mehesz trata "El Juramento Romano", algo que hoy por hoy parece no tener demasiada importancia. Los juramentos de lealtad, para este oportunista nada significan.

Dice el Dr. Mehesz:

"Consideraban los romanos que la flaqueza humana crece en proporción directa con la viveza , por ello prestaron mucha atención a la formulación de los textos del juramento; quisieron pues impedir que su cumplimiento —por medio de hábil y sutil interpretación— fuera fácilmente eludido.

Dice Tácito, que el Senado, hizo jurar a los Magistrados que no recibieron, ni recibirán prebendas, ni otra clase de premios. Agrega todavía, que algunos de los magistrados que no tenían la conciencia muy limpia, se confundieron mucho, y mudaron con hábil sutileza las palabras del juramento para escapar de las consecuencias de un perjurio, y al mismo tiempo no ligarse para el futuro."
...
Cuando cartagineses y romanos hicieron un tratado de paz, lo confirmaron por medio de un juramento. Los primeros juraron por los Dioses Patrios y los romanos, a su vez, por una piedra, según antigua costumbre. Dice Polibio Megapolitano, que el que firmaba el tratado, después de haber jurado sobre la Fe Pública tomaba una piedra en la mano y decía: «¡Si juro verdad, que me suceda bien, pero si pensase u obrase de otro modo, excepto todos los demás en sus Patrias leyes, templos y sepulcros, yo solo sea exterminado, como ahora lo es esta piedra!», acto seguido arrojaba la piedra .

Mehesz, Kornel Zoltan, "El Mundo Clasico", Ed. Universidad Nacional del Nordeste, Corrientes, 1972.

Otro buen libro para entender este tema es Kevin McDonald's "The Culture of Critique: An Evolutionary Analysis of Jewish Involvement in Twentieth-Century Intellectual and Political Movements"

Semblanzas de Guenón

I quote Dr. Lings:

"He had a remarkable presence; it was striking to see the respect with which he was treated. As he entered the mosque you could hear people on all sides saying, 'Allâhumma salli 'alâ Sayyidnâ Muhammad,' that is, 'May God rain blessings on the Prophet Muhammad', which is a way of expressing great reverence for someone. He had a luminous presence and his very beautiful eyes, one of his most striking features, retained their lustre into early old age."

"Rene Guenon" by Martin Lings see
here