Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Roberto Arlt - The Bourgeois Sickness of Communism





Like the Bourgeois Sickness of Communism
Roberto Arlt

Our bourgeoisies are sick from communism. Slowly. But the vaccine takes over. A phenomenon that must be of interest to you. It is clear time has changed, the rents have fallen, and the financial burdens have increased. The bourgeois family is almost always a family with two or three girls who went to the movies. In the film, they learned how to keep losing their virginity. But overall, from the art of giving kisses in different styles these girls unwittingly learn other things. And one day throws the slippers [kick the bucket? Cuban slang?] exclaiming: ‘We are fed up with prejudices!’ And began her life. A life perfectly individualistic. When a slave is freed from his chains he immediately turns to individualism. Anarchism. Believes doing what he wants to be happy. And when tired of doing what was craved begins to examine the reality that surrounds it. To say: “Why this?" "Why that?"As a citizen or a slut asking half dozen times these questions, the Communist vaccine begins to catch on. From the disgust with the present form of capitalist civilization. As if apart from this form of civilization there is nothing more perfect than the Communist, fatally looks towards Russia. They turned so Russian that I noted down here a confession of the secondhand bookseller: The best-selling books are those that deal with Russia.

From Cronicas  Periodisticas, p. 40 (El Aleph, 1999)
Translated by Justin Loke

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