THE ORGANIZED COMMUNITY

 FOREWORD

por Carlos Pissolito

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, an authority on philosophical thought, designated South America as “the country of the future” and prophesied that: “...it can be assumed that in future times the weight of universal history will manifest itself in the antagonism of North America with South America, a dreamland for all those weary of the historic arms depot of old Europe.”

For his part, the Russian thinker, Alexandr Dugin, more specifically, recognizes the thought of the "Third Position" of Juan Domingo Peron as "...the negation of the dominant ideological paradigms of that moment: North American Capitalism (Liberalism ) and Soviet communism (Marxism).

But many, especially in North America-wonder: Who was this Perón? Wasn't he a South American fascist? A military demagogue and clumsy like many other dictators south of the Rio Grande.

The majority among them, are the ones  who maintain this vision fueled by years of propaganda. And very few have dared, over the years, to verify its veracity and much less to read his books.

Books, Peron wrote books? They act surprised when are faced with facts, still. And when they are told that, indeed, he did, they doubt and argue against the fact that definitely these were books written by other people.

But it happens that Perón had, among other things, a long history as a man of letters. As a  his youth, he was a prolific fiction writer with works such as "Silvino Abrojo" and "The Detective With the Black Mask" two theatrical comedies under the pseudonym of José M. Casais. Later, as a young officer in the Argentine Army, he published several books oriented to his military profession. Among them, I remember Notes on Military History and others. They were of great help for my time to the  War College Staff. Patagonian Toponymy of Araucanian Etymology. 

But, it was his closing conference, during the First National Congress of Philosophy (Mendoza, March 30, 1949), entitled ``The Organized Community” when he held the Nation’s presidency; with the most famous and profound of them all. The Congress was attended by leading world-renowned specialists in the field, such as Karl Jaspers, Benedetto Croce, Gabriel Marcel, Martin Heidegger, José Vasconcelos, Julián Marías, among others.

As such, "The Organized Community" is a political philosophy text, which uses its support of the best of the history of philosophy to delineate the limits of its thought and conception of man and his interrelations with society. That is going to start Peronism as a doctrine, which is known -more precisely- as Justicialism. The one that is independent of all and the diverse forms that many followers of the so-called Peronism have tried to embody, although most of the time in open contradiction with the basic principles of this doctrine.

In this work, Peron lays the foundations of his political thought, understood as an idea of ​​community. This is what is going to distance him, immediately, from any totalitarianism such as Fascism, since he understood that politics is an action rooted in human nature; and therefore part of its essence. For this reason, justicialism is a movement that is born from below with the free organizations of the people, such as intermediate bodies, corporations, and unions, and that rises above them to interact with the State.

Consequently, for justicialism, the State is an instrument, the efficient cause of the political order, and therefore must be effective. For it is a human praxis ordered to the common good, a practical knowledge governed by the cardinal virtue of prudence.

In this sense, it escapes both from liberal absolutism which denies almost all participants to the State, and from Marxism which claims almost everything for that State. In this sense, it adopts the principle of subsidiarity; that is to say that the State acts only when individuals cannot do it by themselves.

Justicialism advocates a clear subordination of the political to the ethical because it does not understand political means as unrelated to their ends. In this sense and more precisely, it recognizes the Christian Faith as its own; although it is not a Christian party or a simile of the Christian Democracy.

One characteristic of Justicialism is that as it passed through Argentine society it created institutions.  The most creation is the union which became an intermediate organization between the multitude of individuals and the State. In that sense, Justicialist trade unionism is not only a response to Socialism of its time but also is against Liberalism. The French Revolution, reduced society to a simple aggregate of individuals against the State, without intermediate organizations between the two for society to defend itself.

To make available to North American thinkers, especially those who speak the language of the great Shakespeare, we made the decision to translate “The Organized Community” for their use. 

For a better cohesion of the task, we met with Amedeo Tenaglia, not only a friend, but a US citizen and a Syracuse University graduate, BA, MA, and a Rutgers University ABD. And to whom we have asked to be the translator of this work in the idea that as the Italian writer, Gesualdo Bufalino, affirms, "Of a text, the critic is the occasional wooer; the author, the father and husband, while the translator is the lover".

Please click in the link below:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/126z7hHu6seYGm_GFpa0tkCu8BINkx8r1ZD35w3lkmLE/edit?usp=sharing