Look at Gonzalo Otalora. Is this just a gimmick, or is he really angry about the advantages afforded beautiful people. Or should he just get plastic surgery and join the ranks of the plastic? No no, that would be a monstrous denial of one’s principles, betrayal to the maximum. But what about the conflicting maxim: If you can’t beat them, join them. Anyway, here is Gonzalo Otaro’s crusade, summed up in three delicious words: Tax The Beautiful.
Gonzalo Otalora, for instance, is downright ugly, and he is not embarrassed to admit it.
In fact, he is fighting back on behalf of all those Argentines who don’t fancy themselves as film stars or models.
I went out with him on a grey day in the Argentine capital. It was raining and windy which can cause havoc if, like many Argentines, you have spent hours dressing and making yourself up to join the ranks of the beautiful people on the streets of Buenos Aires.
Ponces.
It’s not about making yourself look beautiful, he says, but about coming to terms with and being positive about who you are and what nature has given you.
“The most important thing is not to feel so insecure,” said Gonzalo. “The difference between being beautiful and ugly is not aesthetic but is inside. And if someone has high self-esteem then you can compete in any area in this society on equal terms with a good-looking person.”
This is true. But he makes an even better point. If you add up all the seconds and minutes spent by people, men or women in primping themselves, in being deeply shallow, you’d get millennia wasted on essentially pfaff. Some might argue that it’s worth it on a biological level, since being better looking invites more interest and hence a better chance of getting your genes passed on and all that rubbish. Tell that to the first caveman, seconds before he brings his antelope femur down on your head and starts ripping your entrails out as you’re still alive and can only watch in glazed shock.
Taxing the beautiful won’t work, several beautiful people are poor, despite Gonzalo’s protestations. Perhaps we should doubly tax the rich and beautiful, after all, they’ve reaped the benefits of beauty and are in a position to pay it. Or maybe more Argentines should listen to this man:
Of course, failing that, he can always
