Self-Criticism Thread

[Lord Winter]

The bigist arguement against America is a five minute talk with the average voter. With appoligies to Churchill

We focus more on Retoric then data and logic.

The two party system limits us to two veiws and dosn't fully repersent the wants of the states by limiting every state to these two veiws. It also throws out good chairpeople for senate commites not because they are not the most qualified but because they belong to the other party.

Corpreate lobbyism is two big.

A tendiacy to want everything to fix it self intstead of dealing with the problems.

[Soulforged]

We're arrogants in general, but not in the snobby kind of arrogant, it's more like a typical harborman arrogance. The typical "porteño" feels like he's on the top of the world while he's still carrying boxes or jobless and drinking on a bar (this is at least true for the "harborman", that's the person (not necesarily male) who lives by the docks of Buenos Aires). But, worst of all, we're proud of that image...

For that many of us tend to take advantage of tourists, while it's also true that we take advantage of natives.

We tend to make a cult of certain people, usually people who are famous, they don't really need to do anything special. This is derived from a general superstition and fanatism of the ignorant part of the population (wich sadly is also the poorest part). And by fanatism I mean religious fanatism or national fanatism.

This poor people will tend to remain poor because, if the education system on the US is bad, ours is ten times that. Some public schools cannot even remain standing without the patronage of someone. The requisites for universities is very low, and some teachers don't even care about teaching anymore (I suppose this is universal though). Some of them, even if they've the highest income of all in their State, will reclaim better salaries anyway.

People do tend to reclaim better salaries in general with disregard of the rest.

We're usually very extremistic in our behavior. In that context is a good thing that we don't have a very strong sense of democratic rights as a nation.

Perón remains the most important politic figure of all times here, wich leads to every president to seek for a comparision with him. This is serious it actually leads to break ups between members of a same front, party or even those who uphold a similar ideology in general.

For some reason or another (usually corruption) almost every national enterprise ends in failure, this is most certain with little industries wich want to grow up.

Even after all the strikes it has received, the farming sector remains as a nearly aristocratic field, and we usually find some landowners with real politic power. This has been changing though, but for the worst. Now we've two or three persons owning almost all the important national companies (farming or otherwise), or at least managing them. This leads to an oligarchy, sometimes cartels (mainly on the petro-oil field), and many times monopoly.

Many of us only feel that we belong to a nation only when the football team plays. And while this can be good sometimes (the lack of nationalism) it also can lead to self-destructive behavior as a nation.

In general we treat bolivians, peruvians and paraguayans like crap. And for what I've heard we're treated in the same way overseas, wich is kind of ironic. This is pure racism, to the point that those three nationals don't feel like belonging to Argentina in most cases. All of this while some of them also enter this country illegally.

And finally (at least for now)... we don't really have a nation...

[Lemur]

We're arrogants in general, but not in the snobby kind of arrogant, it's more like a typical harborman arrogance.

I always wondered about that. One of my best friends in High School was from Colombia, and whenever someone would behave haughtily or with arrogance, he would mutter, "There's a little bit of Argentina in everyone." I never really understood the reference.

[rotorgun]

As for the United States I could elaborate a large list that would probably bore everyone to death, so I'll sum it up with one description: EGO-CENTRIZM.

[Soulforged]

I always wondered about that. One of my best friends in High School was from Colombia, and whenever someone would behave haughtily or with arrogance, he would mutter, "There's a little bit of Argentina in everyone." I never really understood the reference.

Yep. The arrogance appears more strong when you talk about it. But it's always the harborman, it's not an attitude you'll find on other provinces. However the man will not deny his arrogance, he'll usually spit something like "Así somos" (We're like that) or "Bienvenido a Argentina" (Welcome to Argentina), he'll even seem proud, there's no wish to change this attitude at all, and the problem is that it has become a culture, sometimes a man born in the capital believes that he has to be like that. It's also true that people from outside and inside always forget that the Federal Capital in Buenos Aires is not all of Argentina, even if almost all commerce and job opportunities (and therefore, people) are concentrated in that tiny space. And again is not any kind of arrogance. We usually don't think we're superior to anyone (as a individual or a nation), even more we recognize sometimes that we're the worst, but that makes some of us feel proud in the "I-will-blackmail-you" kind of way...

EDIT: To understand better the idea I can post a frase that's typical here wich illustrates the kind of arrogance I'm talking about- "Cuando vos fuiste, yo ya fui y volví mil veces"- Wich can be translated as "When you went, I already went and came back a thousand times". I think that the meaning is pretty patent.