Political ideas

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By LUIZ MARQUES*

Resentment feeds anti-republican feelings, an aversion to egalitarian norms. Its revolt targets the subordinate position in the hierarchy, not the system.

Political ideas in the Age of Enlightenment refer to education, the driving force of progress. In post-1789 France, the problem is to restore the spiritual unity previously reserved for the Catholic Church. There are those who bet on science and pedagogy for the newest common sense; and those who insist on a return to religion. In the following century, Karl Marx demystifies ideas, since they do not rise above class interests and the real activity of flesh-and-blood people. In the german ideology, argues: “It is not consciousness that determines life, but life that determines consciousness”. He puts dialectics on its feet.

In the 20th century, the prevailing idea was that liberalism ensured political plurality and a society open to economic development, capable of reducing social injustice. This was the painful lesson of the conflict that resulted in the deaths of 8 million Russians, 6 million Germans, 500 million Jews and XNUMX Americans. Since then, democracy has been a cherished horizon for Western civilization.

In Brazil, after the abolition of slavery and the proclamation of the Republic, intellectuals racked their brains in search of a way to effectively unify the young country, with 350 years of white supremacy, rule and obedience. Anita Leocadia Prestes, in Vargas Era: authoritarianism and repression (1930-1945), points to the crisis of hegemony of the rural oligarchies in the production and commercialization of coffee, in the Old Republic, as the trigger for the uprising of General Góis Monteiro and Getúlio Vargas. At the time, the authoritarian sociology school postulated “a One State for a One Society”.

Getulist flirtation with European far-right leaders, Adolf Hitler, is understandable et caterva, at the world crossroads. The pragmatic negotiation of the fox of São Borja with the United States is also understandable, for logistical support in exchange for resources for the construction of the Companhia Vale do Rio Doce. Without a marching band, industrialization began in Brazil land.

Today the “elites” temper emotional cohesion into anti-politics and hatred. In Democracy versus neoliberalism, a work coordinated by Wagner Romão, Juarez Guimarães in the collection emphasizes: “It is necessary to politicize the concept of neoliberalism, as a fusion of political and economic powers that install new regimes. Based on the new neoliberal concept of freedom, the constitutional foundations and forms of regulation of the State are reviewed and transformed with an impact on all fields of economic and social life, political culture and subjectivity”. To politicize is to expose responsibility for the negative consequences of decisions, in a significant totality.

Signs of the times

Signifier words can generate meanings to drive mass movements. Corporate media fulfill this function in news broadcasts; cyber networks, with fake news. Linguists, historians and political scientists try to decipher the importance of vocabulary at each moment. To mention Walter Salles' great film, we are still here, between 1964-1985, the situation refers to torture, censorship, human rights, the fight for democratic freedoms, and Direct Elections Now.

With redemocratization, the emphasis shifts to political parties and the restructuring of the State. Studies with heuristic value on social issues (urban violence, marginalization) give way to the politicization of analyses with demonstrative value (governability, constitutional order). Pressure grows for civil, social and political rights, which have participation as a strategic front.

Considering the minutes of the National Journal, corruption arises with governments fighting inequality that include the poor in the Federal Budget; the rich, in the Income Tax table. The commotion with false heroes is a sign of the times. Globo, loyal to the money that irrigates it, a standard bearer of ultra-liberalism, it disputes public opinion with state institutions. The toxic product it sells is monotonous, it only has one string to propagate the deep sound of manipulation.

After the 2016 coup, the terminology changed. The forgotten privatizations of the PSDB were resumed. The labor and social security counter-reform echoed the precariousness of outsourcing, in the name of the pseudo-modernization of work. Misogynistic and racist agendas infected the agenda with the reactionaryism stemming from a theology of domination. Pastors preached the imminence of the apocalypse.

Neofascists share the motto of individual freedom and the regime of exception, which benefits the volatility of finance, the circulation of capital, the free market, and agribusiness. commodities. Resentment feeds anti-republican feelings, an aversion to egalitarian norms. Their revolt targets their subordinate position in the hierarchy, not the system; like the “dalis” in the series The paper house, created by Álex Pina, after the rise of Donald Trump. The pro-rebels are apprentices of Trumpism. The soundtrack, Bella Ciao, serves to give a libertarian air to the ideological content of the narrative.

The heart of the people

Em For a political history, orchestrated by René Rémond, readers come across an essay on “Public Opinion”, subdivided into “static” and “dynamic”. The first is made up of moral and intellectual formation, thought patterns and social structures, in the long term of traditions. The second is a response to disruptive events of the rules of the game, in the short term of micro-history and its specific circumstances. In parallel, there are laxities and whims.

The current government’s communication struggles to address the two sides of public opinion. Measures that have an impact on the static landscape and aim to reorder the social imaginary require creativity from advertisers; from political agents, boldness. The challenge is to exemplify them within a broad spectrum. Mais Professores had to come as part of an education project. Corrective measures in a dynamic inflection require quick and firm interventions, preferably on a radio and television network. Pix, in fact, should appear in the context of a project against corruption and tax evasion. In retail, good intentions dissipate like clouds; in wholesale, they contribute to the politicization of politics itself.

O National Regeneration Movement (Morena), a Mexican left-wing party in defense of ethnic, religious, cultural and sexual diversity, as well as human rights and the environment, aims at a utopian society. The regional experiments, prior to the election of Claudia Sheinbaum to the presidency, unfold non-systemic collective socio-environmental processes called “utopias”.

Public utopias (parks, schools, hospitals, housing, etc.) are dreams of solidarity and hope in socialism. They anticipate the future in concrete terms. They symbolize the courage to be reborn. This is what “Transformation of Public Life in Mexico”, in the enlightened synthesis of the former mayor of the capital. It is about promoting the democratic right to have rights, towards substantive citizenship.

President Claudia Sheinbaum multiplies changes against the grain status quo conservative. Lula reinvents relationships in various sectors, without communicating properly. The battery of “alternative facts” fired by robots embodies the right-wing strategy to neutralize official numbers and statistics, in the post-truth. Another world is possible, brought to everyday life with political ideas, words and actions to touch the hearts of the people.I don't believe in the paths / but there are / there are”, the poet sings in verse.

* 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.


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