By LUIZ MARQUES*
Sérgio Moro, Dalton Dallagnol and the Medalhão theory
"Medalhão Theory, a satire still current on the 'values' of our elites.” (Flávio Moreira da Costa).
In the 2018 election campaign, the racist, sexist, lgbtphobic and misogynistic violence of the obscurantism candidate was presented as “picturesque”. Despite the evidence, on the eve of the election, The Estadão considered “a difficult decision for the voters” to choose a teacher with a brilliant passage through the Ministry of Education against a fascist.
To get the PT out of the Planalto Palace, the anti-republican ignominies and the cowardly salute to torture during the military dictatorship by the winner were toned down. Forgotten were his connections with militias and his career in the Chamber of Deputies, with activities that long ago should have cost him his mandate. O old chicago and the incompetent and partial judge gave their approval to the authoritarian adventure whose outcome was quite predictable. It didn't take long for the rabid pitbull put tight collars on the Economy and Justice. For sociologist José de Souza Martins, “the upside-down scenario we are in is situated in this forgotten order”.
The pantomime in the theater of communications continued, from the apology to the treatment of the treasury as a private vault for the offices of the family (“the 'cracks' don't harm anyone, except the CCs at the service of the clan”), went through complacency with money laundering and buying votes to approve antisocial projects (“the denialist extrapolates in the use of parliamentary amendments, does not corrupt , exaggerates”), – and reached the scandalous lies brazenly reiterated by the first representative at UN meetings. As a result, the tropical nation became a despicable pariah. Made downplayed by highlighting the gaffe of those who called the Tower of Pisa the “Pizza Tower”. Diversionism softens the sordid presence of scoundrels in the dining room of Brazilian homes. Nazism started like that, as a joke.
The effort of the spokespersons for the owners of media vehicles is so moving to normalize the abnormal acts of those who serve the interests of financial capital and rent. They act, with ardor, as an auxiliary force in the fearsome incubation of the serpent's egg.
Again, history repeats itself like farce
Now, the curtain extends to Moro and Dallagnol (“Operation Lava Jato was flawed, but it did not commit crimes that dirty the records of the protagonists, it is the right of citizens to run for elective office”). Uncommitted to democracy, the hegemonic media has no qualms about covering up the sun with cronyism and complicity. What unites television networks & regional satellites to the juggernaut of counterfeiters is the satirical Medallion Theory, by Machado de Assis (1839-1908). “You must put – says the father to young Janjão – all care in the ideas that you have to nourish for the use of others or for your own. It would be better not to have them at all... You seem to have the perfect mental ineptitude, suitable for the use of this noble office”. The craft of being the eminence of mediatized platitudes to numb and idiotize consciences.
Here is the portrait of the indigenous elites, without creativity and without the “anthropophagic” capacity to metabolize the ideas coming from outside, of which Oswald de Andrade's Manifesto spoke. Stupidity, which sounds “gravely” in the precepts of neoliberalism, reproduces atavistic intellectual misery allied to the ancient colonial-slavery pride, by importing ready-made formulas that suspend thought. A task later vaunted, adds the Witch of Cosme Velho, for the “publicity… that you must ask for by dint of small treats, sweets, cushions, little things that express the constancy of affection rather than daring and ambition”. Corruption, which never dares to pronounce its name, is completed with awards and caresses for the vanity of the “most admired journalists” (sic). To what an embarrassing point servants of the financialization of the economy go. What a perversion. What fools.
In order for the reporters on duty to publish order reports without misunderstandings, “you can help them by writing the news yourself”. How we do think thanks, sponsored by mega-entrepreneurs, in the war of position to spread the “values” that format the society of precariousness of bodies and souls. The neoliberals take from the Washington Consensus trunk (1989) the narcotics that the financial press intentionally takes to citizens. The ten-point prescription remains valid for consumption in the country.
The 2007-8 crisis, which the United States spread to the four winds, broke a major investment bank, Lehman Brothers, and 380 smaller commercial banks, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). At the origin of the chaos, reminiscent of the 1929 debacle, were deregulations and Manchester's praise of the free market. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) already recognizes the importance of regulating the economy, against the mythical iron tripod of the laissez-faire: Hayek, Mises and Friedman.
Many convictions, no imagination
The important thing is that “you never transcend the limits of an enviable vulgarity… No imagination? None”, listens attentively to Janjão. In their own way, Moro and Dallagnol listen to the advice of the founder of the Brazilian Academy of Letters. With anti-country cynicism, they added fuel to the destructive fire of Brazil land. Strategic national engineering companies, which competed for markets across borders, were led to criminal bankruptcy with a balance of hundreds of thousands of unemployed. Delations forced under torture were plotted to slander and defame icons of the popular-democratic field. O lawfare it became a combat weapon to smooth the way for the ascension of “captain zero”.
How could such nullities come to the surface and float in the wave of crowds, amidst the confusion? To respond, it is necessary, on the one hand, to underline the discredit of political representation (“it does not represent me”) and of political parties (“they dispute power, they should dispute the counterpower”). Institutions, which promised socioeconomic development, failed to deliver on their promises. Public policies practiced by progressive rulers were insufficient to meet the expectations raised by institutional reformism. They bumped into old and solid “structures”. If the bread went to the table, the butter did not. The 2013 demonstrations were not a “storm in heaven”, as philosopher Slavoj Zizek believed. It was the volcanic eruption that brought the repressed larva of history to the streets.
In 1970, the income of children was 90% higher than that of parents. It dropped sharply to 50% in both hemispheres, to be optimistic. If the “fear of the future” added to the protests of May 1968, – now it throws water in the mill of civilizational setbacks. Research in fifteen countries in Europe on whether the causes of social conflicts stemmed from income inequality, unemployment, ethnic or gender differences highlighted ideological factors in the past. Currently, they put the set of variables in a single bag, from which it appears that a block rejection broke out establishment. “It is necessary to accept that representative democracy has failed to distribute income”, sums up political scientist Adam Przeworski in an interview with Valor Econômico. The queue did not move. It went off.
Among us, the lack of systemic trust is compounded by a mistrust provoked by the conduct of the Minister of Economy, caught with offshore (read: illicit enrichment) that affront the status of senior civil servants. The disturbing context invigorates anti-government sentiment, any constitutional government, whether from the right, center or left. The neofascism, to the right, and the green joints, to the left, find the avenue open with the decline of ideologies born in the XNUMXth century. Like liberalism, driven by the Industrial Revolution and the increase in urbanization. The “identity” guidelines obey the tendency to maximize the spectrum of political representation, the result of struggles for recognition. And, often, they obey the opportunistic de-ideologization of background polarizations, due to pain in the liver. For a crass political error, the PSTU and a wing of the PSOL endorsed Lava Jato's illegalities to incriminate its alter ego: the PT.
The importance of ecosocialism, now
Naomi Klein, in Don't Just Say No (Ed. Bertrand), regrets that the factual revelations of climate science, in overly technical language, do not assume catalyzing functions for actions to deconstruct the ongoing dystopia. “There couldn't be a clearer indication that the current system (capitalism) is failing. Larger expanses of the planet will cease to be suitable for human existence.” "A firm and irrevocable deadline based on science" is urgently needed. In a word: “Climate change requires abandoning the pro-corporate economic playbook, one of the main reasons why right-wing ideologues are determined to deny reality. If we are to avoid catastrophic warming, we need to initiate a major political and economic transition. immediately".
Concern for the planet and humanity is a priority for young people. It is up to socialists and democrats to establish a solidary dialogue with youth. Joining the flag of democratic socialism to the urgencies of ecological balance and the preservation of biodiversity is what will allow terrible enfants of future generations, the incorporation of new and unavoidable contents to the class struggle agenda. The rapid neoliberal unfolding of the system gave rise to plots of increased complexity, by making present demands that were so far distant from physical perception. Ecosocialism is not a middle-class whim, it is a dramatic issue for the permanence of life on Gaia.
The choice, therefore, is not between universalism and identitarianism, but between barbarism and socio-environmental civilization emancipated from the shackles of predatory irrationalism and the process of capitalist accumulation, within the gears of immediate profit. The demands of the unions, regarding the reduction of the working day, became the demand for wisdom in the face of the disproportionate degree of pollution. Impasses have a dimension that goes beyond the classic dialectic of capital and work. Radical transformations in the rhythm of production are urgent for the survival of all species.
For the analyst of the unsuspecting Financial Times, Simon Kuper: “Instead of manufacturing more, governments need to give people more time. In developed countries, where people have enough to live on, we should cut working hours to save the planet. A four-day week would be a good start. First, because most people don't like their jobs and feel out of time. Second, because rich societies are not necessarily happier. Egalitarian societies tend to stay, but unequal ones do not”.
I close with a quote from Machado. “Ruminate what I told you, my son. Keeping proportions, tonight's conversation is worth The prince, by Machiavelli”. Neither Moro nor Dallagnol understood the satire. The people, yes. We have to organize and mobilize to win.
* Luiz Marques is a professor of political science at UFRGS. He was Rio Grande do Sul's state secretary of culture in the Olívio Dutra government.
