Un-Civilizing America

Chapter 6Fake News

So you think you can tell Heaven from Hell, blue skies from pain

—“Wish You Were Here” by Pink Floyd¹

If you wish to visit us in Argentina, you can fly to Buenos Aires, and then to Salta, a city of about 600,000 people in the northwest of the country. From there, you will get in a four‐wheel‐drive vehicle and travel for another five or six hours, depending on which route you take. In either case, the pavement will run out after an hour or two.

You will drive along on dirt roads through a vast, empty wilderness. Depending on which route you take, you can drive for hours without seeing another car … or scarcely a house or another living soul. If you are unlucky, you will get stuck behind a truck on a long, winding road and be unable to pass. The dust will block your view and force you to roll up the windows.

Imagine, then, arriving in a tiny village of mud‐ and concrete‐houses with mud‐ or tin‐roofs. There are few visible signs of commercial or cultural life—save an occasional little sign offering empanadas or to repair your flat tires. But you notice something remarkable—streetlights.

For nearly a mile leading into town, the road is graced with modern lights mounted on tall, metal poles, curving over the road and giving off a yellow glow over the dusty main drag. There are no cars on the road … no houses near the road … no sidewalks next to the road … and no pedestrians walking on them. Welcome to Angastaco. Population: 823.

We tried to imagine the town ...