I posted this in my journal in DU 2-an excerpt from House of Spirits. I want it in my DU3 journal so here goes.
I’ve never felt like I had anything of worth posting in my DU journal, but current events and recent opinions both in print and blogs made be remember the words of a novel.
Salvador Allende of Chile, the legitimately elected president of that country was deposed and killed by a US backed coup lead by Pinochet. Allende’s cousin, Isabel Allende, is a novelist living in California. Her first novel is The House of Spirits. I believe this is a fictionalization of the coup that destroyed her family, home and country, and she has wisdom for us.
This first quote is of Miguel the revolutionary lover of Alba the granddaughter of conservative Senator Trueba. Alba is so excited because the left won the election and their man is to be president--
”We’ve won, but now we’ll have to defend our victory,” Miguel to Alba.
Meanwhile at the headquarters of the Conservative Senator Trueba:
”It’s one thing to win an election and quite another to be President,” Senator Trueba said mysteriously to his weary co-religionists.
The shock of losing the election did paralyze the Conservatives for long. Used to working in secret even while they had long held power they mapped out their plans and so:
Following the election the senator
headed to a country house on the outskirts of the city, where a secret lunch was held. There he met with other politicians, a group of military men, and gringos sent by their intelligence service to map a strategy for bringing down the new government: economic destabilization, as they called their sabotage.
Back to the victors:
While the people were celebrating their victory, letting their hair and beards grow, addressing each other as ‘compãnero,’ rescuing forgotten folklore and native crafts, and exercising their new power in lengthy meetings where everyone spoke at once and never agreed on anything, the right was carrying out a series o strategic actions designed to tear the economy to shreds and discredit the government. The controlled the influential mass media and possessed nearly limitless financial resources, as well as the support of the gringos, who had allocated secret funds for the program of sabotage. Within a few months the results could be seen. For the first time in their lives, people had enough money to cover their basic needs and to buy a few things they always wanted, but now they were unable to do so because the stores were nearly empty.
This story ends as it did in Chile. The economic destabilization did not bring down the government and so the Conservatives let the military do their thing. One problem is the military refused to let the Conservatives rule again. The armed forces suppressed the right as well as the left.
I’m not saying that this is where our country is headed but we need to be vigilant. I’ve been reading posts of people discontented with our present government. Suck it up! To quote the Rolling Stones- “You can’t always get what you want but if you try with the help of your friends you get what you need.” (or something like that).
We are in danger of growing hair and beards and never agreeing on anything while the enemy cooks up their plans to destroy us.
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