High life
Honour
Taki
Once again, within the short space of seven months, I find myself reluctant to write about High Life while brave Argen- tinian pilots and valiant British seamen and soldiers are dying in the South Atlantic. Therefore you will be spared the details of the sit-down dinner given by a fat Brazilian in New York's chicest disco for 100 of his closest friends. Well, 99 as of last week. The fat one was not amused when I told him what I thought of the timing of his party. I am glad, however, that I can still be surpris- ed by the insensitivity of the jet-set. It almost makes me feel young again.
Although the decision to fight is made by those who don't die, and the dying by those who don't decide, both the British and the Argentinians have shown that their youth is ready to die for their country. Here in America I am not so sure. In fact I'm cer- tain. The youth is so spoiled, so full of drugs, so brainwashed by the American dream of fame, that as far as they're con- cerned the British soldiers and Argentinian airmen might as well be Martians. Max Lerner, an American writer of note, wrote about the reasons that both Argentinians and British are eager to fight: 'It isn't that they want to die. It is rather the fear that if they shrink from death, their states may well be given up as lost.' He then quotes Rousseau: 'As soon as any man says of the affairs of the State, "What does it matter to me?", the State may be given up as lost.' The Argentinians I've been in contact with over the telephone throughout the crisis have all been more bitter with the United States than with Britain. In fact, some of them have praised the manly way the British have attacked them. 'We thought that the English were totally finish- ed, that nothing was sacred any longer to them,' was the way Francisco Soldati, one of my best friends, put it. Well, I say that if it wasn't for a Mrs Thatcher I'd hate to think how finished the British would be. It is a pity that a lot of Argentinian pilots will die because the British had the sense to vote out of office a bunch of spineless softies.
As I wait for my visa for Buenos Aires, one thing is for sure. Both sides have fought bravely, and the Argentinians have preserv- ed their national honour. By the time this is published, the Falklands will probably be secured. My plan for their future is to sell them to Robert Vesco. He needs them more than either England or Argentina.
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