The Idiot's Bible

Wall St. Journal ^ | April 26, 2009

[Steelfish]

APRIL 26, 2009

The Idiot's Bible

By MARY ANASTASIA O'GRADY

Just days after Hugo Chávez gave President Barack Obama a copy of "Open Veins of Latin America" in Trinidad last week, the English-language version of the book shot to the No. 2 slot on Amazon.com.

Americans seemed to be curious about Mr. Chávez's reading tastes. But in Latin America, "Open Veins" is a well-known rant by Uruguayan Marxist Eduardo Galeano. And it also has another distinction that Mr. Chávez may be less inclined to publicize: It is widely regarded in free-market circles as "the idiot's bible."

The book was tagged with that moniker in the 1996 best seller, "The Manual of the Perfect Latin American Idiot." Penned by three Latin American journalists -- Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza, Carlos Alberto Montaner and Alvaro Vargas Llosa -- the "manual" is a witty assault on the populist, militarist, caudillo mentality that has dominated the region for hundreds of years.

Chapter three is dedicated to explaining the importance of Mr. Galeano's book for the idiot: "For the past quarter century the Latin American idiot has had the notable advantage of having at his disposal a kind of sacred text, a bible filled with all the nonsense that circulates in the cultural atmosphere that the Brazilians call the 'festive left.' Naturally we refer to Open Veins of Latin America."

Open any page of Mr. Galeano's book and you will learn that Latins are losers. Not on their own account, mind you. It's all because Europe and the U.S. (the world's winners) buy raw materials from them and don't pay a fair price. In this way the haves of the world exploit the have-nots. "The history of Latin America's underdevelopment is, as someone has said, an integral part of the history of world capitalism's development.

[Winstons Julia]

Well, “he’s a reader”...and we know he likes to read Marxist literature. What a perfect and thoughtful gift!

[GodGunsGuts]

...

[tanuki]

I’m going to have to order ‘The Perfect Latin American Idiot.’ I hope it doesn’t resonate too much with Washington politics, nowadays.

[hosepipe]

[ In this way the haves of the world exploit the have-nots. "The history of Latin America's underdevelopment is, as someone has said, an integral part of the history of world capitalism's development. ]

Forcing more money on a vender than they want or agree too would be the mentality of the left.. Thats what the left would have you believe.. The reality is they-(the left) would simply TAKE what they wanted as property of the(some/their) government.. AND pay little or nothing..
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"How do you tell a Socialist:- It's someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an Anti-Socialist someone who understands Marx and Lenin" -Ronald Reagan

[ishmac]

Yeah, it might be worth buying. Let's pump up the sales of the "anti-Chavez" book!

[Loud Mime]

Awww...come on! At least Chavez did not give Emperor Zero a bunch of DVD’s that he could not play in ‘merica!

/s

[ThreePuttinDude]

.

[Eric Blair 2084]

“Citizen of the World” Barack Fitzgerald Obama criticized Americans for not speaking enough foreign languages....dumbass doesn’t even read Spanish to understand the gag gift and photo op for Chavez.