Jan
18
What is the people?
After Reading the two articles for this week I started thinking how difficult is to define the meaning of “people” that formed a society, in this case the people of the Argentinean Nation. I do not think that is fair to attribute ideas and actions of the people of this society just to one factor. I believe that the combination of external and internal factors is what shapes the behaviour and actions of the people. In “My message” of Eva Peron one could see that even though she had experiences with the upper classes and we could say that she benefited for being part of that elite she went against the flow of the river and she fought for the working people and women. On page 50 Eva writes that “Because no one who left the people take my path ever went back, They were dazzled by the marvellous fantasy of power, and they remained there to enjoy the lie” and I agree with this thought because most of the people once they have power they do not anything to change things to benefit others. I think that Eva´s passion made her strong and that is why she was able to speak out.
In the second reading there is the testimony of the guy that is part of the Argentinean army. This article made me think of the people that also joined Hitler’s army. I am not saying is right but I think that under certain pressure at that time and nowadays people have two options to be part of the governments “movement” or to be against it, and in order to be against it people needed to be very courageous because it is very hard to go against the flow of the river. The guy even describes the Argentinean army as the monster so I think he was not in it because he really wanted, but at the same time he did not do anything not to be part of it.
It is interesting to see that both were aware of the issues that were affecting their country at that time. Eva fought for what she thought was right even though she knew many people would not like her. It is even more interesting that she was a women and she did not assume the “role” that women had and still have( I would say even thought things have changed still there are some role expectations for women). In one class last semester we saw how Rigoberta Menchu also went against of her gender expectations and showed that she was a very brave woman. To be that brave is psychological only expected for men. Women tend to be “fragile” in the mental constructions of societies, when in fact that is not true and those two women proved it. On the other hand, the guy just acted the way he was “expected” within the social context of that time.
