I like the wide range of discussion on this issue. First to say, anti-American sentiments around the world tell us as much about the resenters as about the Americans, who embody a very wide variety of cultural values from the white-power road bikers who backed Donald Trump to the radicals who want no control of any kind on immigration but want control on guns etc. Americans are as varied as Argentinians: there are the Macristas who would have openly or tacitly accepted military dictatorship in the past if it meant social stability, to the radical populists who are to the left of Peronistas. Secondly, I do agree with Solzhenitsyn who was shocked to find that in the land of the free he could see an endless pursuit of consumption but a spiritual desert in a country that vehemently asserted a conservative Christianity, even literal readings of Creation as told by Genesis. Whenever I go to the US I find this endless concern with consuming whatever is new and what-must-we-have is expressed in a media that purports to embody freedom of speech but in fact is control by a small number of wealthy conglomerates. That is why the battles over the internet, Google, Facebook, Wikipedia, has been so important - control of communications is key to keeping the country on-message. In Argentina Clarin and the rest seem to give Macri a remarkably easy ride given the problems the country now faces. So the similarities are as evident as the differences. Ok so like Europe, Argentinians are cultural snobs and have a rich literary, dramatic and visual culture not to mention tango. Argentina's soul as well as its heart is worn on the sleeve of the national tangueros and the national futbol heroes. Its all emotional. That is why we love it and why we find it so bewildering when the practical side of things (water supply in hot weather drips away while tourists visit the fabulous palacio de agua), doesn't match up. But the differences are what we want - as Vincent says in Pulp Fiction "The little differences are important."
