Essays in Idleness

I would not say a word against flinching from some evil, but a long scholastic treatise might be incaminated against flinching from some good. This struck me last evening while checking for news from Argentina. Having read that Mr Javier Milei — a run-off candidate in their presidential election who was not simply another Peronist, but according to the media “far-right,” and some kind of “libertarian,” and was “threatening” to make the result close — I was curious to see what happened. I was delighted to learn that he had in fact won, by such a landslide that the BBC was now flinching from reporting it.

This morning my Chief Argentine Correspondent has provided some necessary details. Mr Milei not only swept the “youth” vote, but he did that while declaring: “Killing children is not a human right!” He mocked an accumulation of political corrections, while dropping a few more “flinch bombs” worthy of the XVIIth-century bishops who evangelized that country.

The outgoing president, another tedious Peronist like our pope, shared the old presidential palace with decorative plants. Carlos, my correspondent, claims that he could make Justin Trudeau look intelligent. If true, this would be an extraordinary accomplishment. He also leaves an amazing national debt, hyperinflation, energy shortages, &c.

Mr Milei seems to have won as Mr Trump once did in the United States: by not flinching. A point may be reached in national decline when even the young will pitch out the Peronistas. Godspeed to them, when they reach this point.

Nevertheless, one must continue to despise politics. Carlos echoes Borges: “No matter how bad an Argentine government is, the next will be worse.”