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Stupidity in politics is it a disadvantage?

2023-02-12T10:21:47.395Z


Stupidity in politics is it a disadvantage? I am not saying it, nor has Alejandro Borensztein said it, Napoleon said it, who knew so much about the subject that he invaded Russia in winter... Some thinkers such as Charles Simic (1938-2023) went so far as to say that stupidity sometimes becomes the greatest force that moves history (war, gentlemen, is a tragic stupidity). I don't know if it's a big deal, but it sure has moved comedies since


I am not saying it, nor has Alejandro Borensztein said it, Napoleon said it, who knew so much about the subject that he invaded Russia in winter... Some thinkers such as Charles Simic (1938-2023) went so far as to say that stupidity sometimes becomes the greatest force that moves history (war, gentlemen, is a tragic stupidity).

I don't know if it's a big deal, but it sure has moved comedies since the time of Aristophanes, literature, plays and editorials... Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) already said it: "You don't have to fight dictators, You have to ridicule them."

And many facilitate the task of the writers, without distinctions of political color.

These are just a few examples, an infinitesimal fraction of the only thing that Einstein was sure of its infinity...

William H. Seward (1801-1872) was so sure of winning the 1860 North American elections that he decided to make a trip abroad "to strengthen the country's foreign relations."

When he returned he learned that an unknown lawyer from Illinois, one Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) was the new president of the United States.

Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) was so arrogant and histrionic that he came to state in public that he "was never wrong".

We do not need to list his nonsense that came to cost him his life, both his own and that of his fellow citizens.

In the presidential debate between Gerald Ford (1913-2006) and Jimmy Carter (1924), the former, who already held the presidency, stated that the Soviet Union "had no control over Eastern Europe."

All Carter had to do was remain silent and let Ford explain throughout his campaign what he had meant by such nonsense.

Latin American populism is an inexhaustible source of stupidities and among them are some attributed to President Maduro (1962), who, in addition to the "little bird of Chávez", affirmed that "we should multiply ourselves as Christ multiplied penises", that "the Venezuelan authorities work 35 hours a day”, that “capitalists steal like us” (a true sincericide), that taking certain economic measures would be “self-suicide” and that Bolívar had been left “orphaned by his wife”.

In the antipodes we find George Bush (1946) who in 2004 said that our enemies "don't stop thinking of ways to harm our country... and so do we."

What was said did not daunt him and he declared: "I will continue to express what I believe and what I believe in ... and I believe that what I believe is correct."

He also stated without blushing that if you are fired "you lose 100% of your job" or "you have to have a foreign policy oriented towards the foreigner" and "if there is a low number of voters it is indicative that fewer people have voted".

For this and other phrases, Norman Mailer (1923-2007) established him as the stupidest president of his country.

It is not necessary to limit ourselves to the presidents, the actor Arnold Schwarzenegger (1947) who became governor of California, declared in the debate on equal marriage that this should always be "between a man and a woman."

In an election year like the one that is beginning, lies and stupidity will be commonplace, especially when the end of a cycle approaches.

In this case, it is worth remembering the words of Karl Marx (1818-1883): "The last phase of a historical form is comedy."

So, vermouth with chips and good show.

Omar López Mato is a historian

Source: clarin

All news articles on 2023-02-12

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