Tetra Ciklina

There exists a version of Goodwin’s law in Chile, which I have noticed in the national press and even in day to day conversations. The longer the conversation proceeds, and the more political it gets, someone will invariably invoke Argentina or Venezuela to argue against your point. This is done in the same manner and for the same reason employed by religious people when they bring god into an argument; it is a blunt force instrument to attempt to destroy the other side without really engaging with the argument itself.  For example, when you argue that the level of redistribution is low for a country with Chile’s GDP per capita, invariably you will be faced with having to respond to the Argentina/Venezuela accusation. This is not to say that Chilean politics, such as they are, entirely exclude the possibility of the Argentina/Venezuela outcome. It surely is possible. However, not all measures to reduce inequality and respond to the issues that Chile faces are a step in tha...

During the past year I have consistently read the columns of Daniel Matamala, a prominent Chilean columnist. I chose to read him because he is often quoted in the press and social media and seems to be the kind of columnist that is respected by a large fraction of the Chilean public. His columns almost always become a hot topic on Sundays. I also think it is a useful exercise to understand the general mood of a country by the quality of its most prominent op-eds in the same way that reading Edward Luce at FT or Krugman/Brooks at NYT give you a general idea of where the general discussion in the UK/US is going. After nearly a year of reading Matamala though, I still don’t really understand why he is such a prominent voice of the left. His columns often leave me confused as to his main point, even though he often puts it right in the title. In fact, his columns are too often a populist’s wet dream, the lamentations of a man of the people, demanding answers to his overly simplistic ...