Tango Is the Search for a Dream

Tango embodies the dreams, longings and hopes of the early immigrants to Argentina. It offers a utopia or refuge where brotherly love, intimacy, fellowship and kindness triumph over animosity, prejudice, hatred and injuries, where peace and harmony are achieved through trust, submission, cooperation and accommodation rather than conflict, competition, antagonism and aggression, where the two sexes complement and comfort each other rather than being hostile and belligerent to each other, and where people can enjoy a temporary relief from the pressure and stress of modern day living (see Tango: The Historical and Cultural Impacts).

Those who equate modernization with progress overlook its darker side. In many ways, modernization is a dehumanization process that transforms us from interconnected, interdependent social beings into self-sufficient, isolated individuals. It weakens the bonds that unite us, shifting our focus from the common good to individual gain. The attachment, fraternity, interdependence and mutual responsibilities among people have faded away. Family is falling apart. Family values are lost. Ecological balance is disrupted. Natural resources are depleted. The environment is irreversibly damaged. Meanwhile, egoism, individualism, feminism, division, inequality, polarization, divorce, homosexuality, same-sex marriage, single-parent family, materialism, competition, stress, corruption, violence and crimes become the new norm. In short, humanity is being overshadowed by so-called modernity (see The World Needs a Different Philosophy).

The popularity of tango in our times is a profound phenomenon. We dream of a society that is equal, fair, friendly, cooperative, orderly and harmonious like a well-organized milonga, not a society that is driven by self-interest and imbued with competition, hostility, injury, stress, madness, inequality, division, and shooting. Those who place blind faith in modernization need to confront reality. A blogger wrote, "The world is like water, and humans are like ink. What humans do to the world is like what ink does to water; with time, ink only makes water muddier, not clearer. Comparing to our postmodern world, the past seems simpler, purer, and better." A woman wrote, "In modern life, we center everything around work, which demands aggression. But if we bring that aggression into our marriages, constantly fighting for self-interest, forcing our partner to concede, what can such a marriage create but unhappy people?” Another blogger wrote, "How many American businessmen lie in a hospital bed, after their heart attack, before they look around and ask themselves, 'How did I end up spending my life this way... working too many hours... the love of my life is a stranger, if we haven't divorced... I missed my children growing up because I worked too much... I spent my lifetime, not with my friends, but pursuing financial security... and in the end, I ended up here?'" Indeed, modernization is like a fatal attraction that causes us to lose the essence of being human. What happened to our sanity? Why an intelligent species who have invented computer, internet and GPS couldn't build a world for ourselves that makes more sense?

I believe this universal reflection on modernity versus humanity, this yearning for a balanced life and a harmonious society, is not irrelevant to the revival of tango today. A hundred years ago, immigrants far away from home created this dance in which they placed their dream, a dance full of human spirit and beauty, a dance that highlights connection, fraternity, cooperation and harmony. Today's tango dancers are chasing the same dream, I believe. People who have the fortune to get involved in tango must take the responsibility to preserve this sanctuary for mankind. We not only need to teach people how to dance tango but also promote its values, because without these values, tango, too, will be assimilated by the world (see How You Dance Matters).