Carmen Aguirre, the Vancouver Sun, and disequilibrium

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      I had a moment of cognitive dissonance after reading an article about cognitive dissonance yesterday in the Vancouver Sun.

      Yep, you read that correctly.

      Below the article on cognitive dissonance was an interview with left-wing playwright and author Carmen Aguirre. Her political perspective does not normally show up in metropolitan Canadian daily newspapers.

      Aguirre, whose family escaped from Chile after the murder of former president Salvador Allende in 1973, said she's "deeply proud and supportive of the Bolivarian Revolution" in Latin America. She praised the resistance movement that fought for change in Chile after the coup, saying it "paved the way for leaders like Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales", and other progressives.

      For good measure, she also criticized billionaire Chilean president Sebastian Pinera, and quoted Nelson Mandela's justification for armed rebellion.

      In all my life, I have never read anything like this within the pages of the Vancouver Sun or any other Postmedia daily paper.

      Talk about cognitive dissonance. I was flabbergasted that the Vancouver Sun would publish any positive words about Venezuela's Chavez, who has nationalized certain industries, and Bolivia's Morales, whose response to climate change has exceeded that of virtually every other world leader.

      The famed Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget pointed out that when a child experiences a new event, it's accompanied by a state of disequilibrium.

      I was in a similar state of disequilibrium as I struggled to process how a right-wing paper like the Vancouver Sun could publish anything positive about Chavez or Morales—let alone print sympathetic words about armed resistance against former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.

      Tonight, my conundrum was resolved. Our arts editor, Janet Smith, pointed out that the interview in the Vancouver Sun was virtually lifted word for word from a Douglas & McIntyre handout, which was distributed to the media along with Aguirre's new book, Something Fierce: Memoirs of a Revolutionary Daughter.

      The interview was compelling. But it wasn't conducted by the Vancouver Sun. I'm sure that its appearance in the paper shocked many of its regular readers.

      Carmen Aguirre will speak at the launch of Something Fierce: Memoirs of a Revolutionary Daughter on Thursday (May 19) at 7:30 p.m. at the Rhizome Cafe (317 East Broadway).

      Comments

      2 Comments

      Joseph Planta

      May 17, 2011 at 10:51pm

      It's funny when I was reading the Sun yesterday, I thought to myself, I'd read this elsewhere before, and sure enough it was sitting on my desk with the book. Thanks for pointing this out.

      Nathan Moes

      May 17, 2011 at 11:20pm

      "I was in a similar state of disequilibrium as I struggled to process how a right-wing paper like the Vancouver Sun could publish anything positive about Chavez or Morales, let alone offer sympathetic words about armed resistance against former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet."

      The conundrum remains...they published it.