Joel Bowman, with today’s slightly waterlogged Note From the End of the World...
It’s a rainy ol’ Sunday down here in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The temperatures have dropped... the season has turned... and the dengue mosquito plague that was wreaking havoc on the city’s residents has finally abated.
Hooray for small victories!
While dear wifey and daughter take the opportunity to celebrate with a bit of puddle jumping down in our courtyard, your editor remains indoors, socks dry, readying for our upcoming trip.
Yes, dear reader, it’s that time of year again, when we pack up our pied-à-terre here in the capital and take to the open roads (and skies, oceans, etc). But don’t worry... you’re invited along for the ride. We want to see how a few other Ends of the World are going, too.
Just to back up a bit...
Another Dimension
As long time readers know, we’re focused on what we’ve been calling “The Greatest Political Experiment of Our Time” from our post down here at the Fin del Mundo. The project began late last year, with the election of the world’s first ever self-described “anarcho-capitalist” president, Javier Milei.
While directionally challenged pundits in the mainstream press rushed to pigeonhole Sr. Milei as “hard right” or “far right” or (when they had exhausted all their available adjectives) “super-duper-ultra-far right,” we sensed there might be more to the story.
Rather than the one-dimensional “left vs. right” paradigm, which the establishment so reliably serves up to deplorables racists transphobes voters as part of their age-old stratagem of divide and conquer, we thought we saw in the rise of Sr. Milei an additional dimension.
You might think of it as freedom vs. authoritarianism, liberty vs. tyranny or, as Sr. Milei himself explained just last weekend, '“individualism vs collectivism.”
Your editor was front and center at the AynRandCon 2024 event here in Buenos Aires, along with a small group of other unreconstructed liberty lovers, when the president laid out his commitment to stay the course, despite plenty of opposition from Team Parasite.
“The ideas of freedom are stronger, stronger than the damned political caste,” Milei bellowed from the stage just a few feet from us, fists visibly clenched. “Because of this, I cannot stop. And I promise, I will not stop.”
You can catch up on Parts I and II of our coverage from the event in the columns below...
We’ve got a few more tickets to book, visas to secure and hotels to manage before we set off on our annual walkabout... so we’ll leave it there for today.
Stay tuned for more Notes From the End of the World...
Cheers,
Joel
P.S. As always, a special shout out to our Notes Members, whose generous dues make our work here possible. Notes From the End of the World is an entirely independent, reader-supported publication… in other words, we accept no advertising, bow to no boss, bend no knee.
Rather, we’re interested in free markets, free people and free minds… and we hope you are too!
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Beyond 'Divide and Conquer' Politics