Unseen Buenos Aires- Lightning sometimes strikes twice-

“... ‘Lightning never strike twice... cause some place, two times just isn’t enough...’ 

Although never analyzed, and purely hypothesized as a concept, the idea that reality and primarily events constantly repeat themselves has been a standard philosophical theory since antiquity. The ‘Doctrine of Eternal Return’ or ‘Eternal Recurrences’ has been heavily studied, by not only modern theologians and physicists, but by archaic Pythagoreans and Stoics.

The concept was constantly address by such lofty minds as Arthur Schopenhauer, famed German philosopher, and, after it had fell into disuse in the modern world, by Friedrich Nietzsche.

Psychologists have even gone so far as to blame this phenomenon, of a cyclical and fluctuate span of time, as oppose to linear chrono frame, for the experience of ‘convergence’, ‘resonance’, or ‘deja-vu’.

Mark Twain, the american writer, was even quoted as saying: ‘A favorite theory of mine, to wit, that no occurrence is sole and solitary, but is merely a repetition of a thing which has happened before, and perhaps often’.

Some minds have even claimed that we ourselves, as a populace, are to blame for such revolving chains of causalities. They estimate that perhaps, even in a supernatural or unconscious level, we are destined to repeat, time after time, certain events that have been hammered into our spirit.

Argentina is no exception to the rule. The country has had to suffer, almost every 10-12 years, periodical loops of geo-political and economical turmoils, and endless rotation of interminably failed  social plans. They, as a society, are not limited in a macro-cosmological sense to such upheavals, but instead are also pawns, as individual, to a microscopic repetitions of their daily routines. In a way they are constant marionettes to a controlled chaos system, were chance and entropy are only ideas that blossom in forgetful minds.

They must endure calamities and tragedies on a ceaseless, and tiresome, thread of reruns; from the continued dangers of riots and looting, that occur on a yearly basis right around Christmas time, to the manifest indifference of a government, that talks a big game on the necessary obligations it must fulfill to improve the train’s infrastructure but, that is notably absent, every 6 to 8 months, whenever a derailment or fatal accident occurs.

They most wade through the elliptical and repetitious allegations of corporate greed and political corruption, all the while knowing that no guilty party will ever be brought to justice. They must live through these strings of eternity, over and over again, remarkably aware, but somehow forgetful, of the fact that this has happened before and will happen again.

A clear example is the uproar and outcry warranted by the ‘República de Cromañon’ tragedy. With a death toll of 194 bodies, and at least 1400 wounded, this popular discotheque went ablaze’ because of a series faulty safety regulations and illegitimate use of indoor pyrotechnics by the audience, during a rock concert. Since that horrible 30th of December, 2004, the rippling a effects have been widespread. Irregularities in building codes and safety procedures, in other such environments, have been enforced with an almost Gestapo like efficiency and brutality. Still, nevertheless, as the years wane-off, and absent-minded individuals allow that memory to slip, the same codes, that have been so rigorously upheld, little by little fall in disarray; housing capacities are exceeded, inflammable materials are once again used, emergency exits are flippantly being chained up, construction and habitation regulations are passed-over, all these misdemeanors are conducted under the diligent eyes of inspector and their well oiled palms. As time passes there is a beating realization, even though history seems to warm Argentina with such clear reminders as ‘The Lame Horse’ nightclub fire in Russia and ‘Kiss’ nightclub disaster in Brazil, that the cycle wishes to reemerge; the monster wishes to feed.

Ironically, if certain parapsychologist are to be believe, we as a species brew the necessary conditions for our sorrows and triumphs; the longer we dwell on old victories or bygone scars, the higher the possibility for a repeat. Strangely enough it is our very nature that compels us to scratch at sealed wounds and play with those hurtful and fetid thoughts; it is our macabre sense, of being seduced by that which might pain us, that will ultimately lead to our downfall.

 Buenos Aires is a city, like every other, in part devoted to tragedies. Huge shrines, memorials and commemorative statues single out a dark piece of its troubled past. Many tourist comment on this flowing atmosphere of sadness that some times flows, like the innumerable subways, below the pavement; like a river of grief through veins of steel. The ‘porteño’, the name given to people who live in the capital of Argentina, soaks in these woeful memories; on those dark chapters of their shared history. Yearly, in Argentina, more psychologist and psychiatrist graduate than in any other profession; such is societies need for their service.

Some visitors to this magnificent city qualify, and give that morose melancholy that shadows their host’s spirit, a whimsical name: ‘alma de tango’ or  ‘tangoed soul’. 

All the while the pot is stirred and the meal reheated; all those dark occurrences and memoirs rising up from the ground, livid to repeat history, over and over again.

Excerpt: The Wraith of The Obelisk- L.J. Gomez.