By MARCELO SANCHES*
The geopolitical interests of Americans fit perfectly with the expectations of the oligarchies of our continent
The other day, I received a message from Gerusa.
Gerusa is a cousin of mine. We were practically raised together, although I lived in different cities for a long time. Gerusa always seemed to me to be the most sensitive of my cousins and brothers. She was, let's say, the one I identified with the most. There was always a hint of melancholy in her eyes.
She seemed to be dreaming about something. Perhaps she had been convinced that she deserved many good, elaborate, special things; after all, Gerusa is blonde, beautiful and being blonde (or blond) is something that is highly valued in our society. But despite that, there was that extra sensitivity, that melancholic look, that taste for sadder, more introspective songs. There was also a look of compassion towards the suffering of others. Life went on. Then, in the year 2014, something happened to Gerusa.
On one occasion when we were returning from a city neighboring ours, Gerusa was furious, showing an anger that I had never seen in her. When she was a child, she would blush, try to laugh, but then cry when something upset her. But this time, she was foaming with hatred. The object of hate? Dilma Rousseff. I was perplexed.
Unlike Gerusa, I had problems with social adaptation from an early age. Today I wonder if I was a little guy with some serious mental problem or if it was the society in which I lived that was sick. I tend to believe the last hypothesis. The fact is that I won the prize and carried the title throughout my life: I spent my whole life defending myself from the stigma of being chubby, after being white, of wanting to be a musician, a composer, of not getting cool traditional jobs, of being a daddy's boy. and end up graduating as a sociologist! Cross I believe! What soup!
A constant struggle between what I managed to be, what my superego ordered and what they expected me to be. The fact is that, say the “winners”, people like me, who are critical, feel jealous for not having become one of them. It may even be that at certain times I felt it. But I am human, and denying the humanity of these feelings is not part of my egoic playpen. In fact, I think this condition makes us want to understand things, see how they work. Nowadays, within neoliberal rationality, they say that the blame for personal failures lies solely with the individual.
Doubting this sentence thanks to the advice of a lot of nice people, I went to study to understand things and understand that it is society's responsibility too, and perhaps it is the most substantial part. Because when we understand the world through our culture, the disturbances are already there, ready to embrace you. For good and for bad.
And how I have studied. And not just politics: psychoanalysis, anthropology, history and even religion!
But what about Gerusa?
Well, I always thought that Gerusa had one foot in this condition, even though apparently everything seemed perfect for her. She adapted well to the basic modus operandi of our social segment in childhood and adolescence. No disputes; She became an architect and, of course, years later, she supported Sergio Moro in arresting Lula, supported the coup against Dilma Rouseff, took a swipe at Michel Temer and, finally, voted for Jair Bolsonaro! Then, when she saw the damage, she decided to vote for Lula in 2022.
Gerusa likes politics and is interested in the topic, so I was hoping that she would, little by little, expand her range of information. I never stopped sending texts, information, maybe I even overdid it. But I suspect that, like the rest of her cousins, she never reads long texts or listens to the audios I send. There is almost never a response or a gentle “I’ll read it later”. Silence as a method of ignoring. Of course, when the topic is politics.
After years of silence, Gerusa sent me an audio, indignant:
– I remembered you the other day, when you once told me that we had never lived in Venezuela. That I couldn't say it's bad there because I didn't know the country. But I want to tell you that I know people who were there and who tell me that Maduro is killing the population. You weren't there either and defended the guy. Just heard about it. You don't know what it's like to lose a relative or friend like that, tortured, killed.
– Gerusa…only Venezuela to make you contact me. Great! It's a shame the way things are going in Venezuela. I don't like Maduro. I think he already missed the tram. He's already become a dictator. But let me tell you: I met people here, in São Paulo, who lost their father and mother to the Brazilian dictatorship that our families supported in the 1970s. We were children, we didn't know that. But today everyone is old, right, Gerusa, and this was talked about a lot and to this day families search for their missing children. And you voted for a guy in 2018 who defended these atrocities that Maduro is doing and that you condemn, fortunately! But in 2018… well, this anger is contradictory, huh, Gerusa…
– Yes, we always talk about right-wing dictators, but never left-wing ones! And now, listening to Reinaldo Azevedo, I am amazed at the atrocities that Maduro is doing!
– Gerusa, I already told you that I don’t like Maduro. But can I ask you something? Why does Maduro repulse you so much? Do you have the same repulsion for Benjamin Netanyahu's genocide, for example? And the dictatorship in Saudi Arabia… do you know what they do there? And with the blessing of the United States?
– And you answer me with other questions! You mop! What a thing!
– Gerusa, we have to contextualize things. Sorry, cousin, but when you talk about Maduro, other things come to mind. It's immediate...I can't contain myself. Maduro today is an autocrat, he is becoming an Ortega, a little dictator. We agree. I don't like dictatorships, neither left nor right. But let's contextualize. Venezuela is attacked by the United States, which is ultra-imperialist, wants oil, wants to dominate the world since the beginning of the 20th century, finances dictatorships across the planet, destroys governments that threaten to do business with China and Russia, does not want Mercosur and control the Europeans. They invade other people's cultures and transform countries that do not accept their arrogance into an “axis of evil”.
The guys spent 222 years at war. And they have existed as a country for 239! They support Benjamin Netanyahu against Gaza, for example, because this translates into profit for their war industry! And because many Zionists finance political campaigns and control the money that feeds big businesses in the United States. They own the film industry, the advertising industry, the communications industry. I love a lot of things that come from the United States, especially the music they produce. I'm not one of those people who don't listen to jazz or rock because they consider it music for alienated people, but it's a difficult contradiction to deal with, you know.
Gerusa, look, all this is not my delusion. It is proven, noted, researched information. It's history. I'm not talking about my head.
– Funny…everything is the United States’ fault, then?
– No, of course not. Latin American people have a very backward social organization, based on agricultural properties, production of primary products for export that concentrate income and offer few local jobs. Oligarchies that always have local armies as allies. This happens here in Brazil too. As a result, they consider their state apparatuses their property; When it comes to distributing income and expanding social rights for the people, they say that there is no need for the State, and that each person (the worker/entrepreneur) can manage individually.
When it is necessary to contain the rebellious population or the poorest people who sometimes organize to protest, they use the same state apparatus (the police) to get down with them, in addition to buying politicians to vote for projects that concentrate more income. They are elites who are eternal allies of the Americans, because their income is in dollars, it is in tax havens, Gerusa, as I said. The geopolitical interests of Americans fit perfectly with the expectations of the oligarchies of our continent, Gerusa.
There's a perfect marriage. Do you understand? The point is this, Gerusa: protect the accumulated capital. And make it multiply to infinity. Without distributing even a thousandth of it to those who gave their lives to produce hard for the hoarders. It is a perverse, colonial logic of cruel, unfair exploitation.
– You are exaggerating and getting off topic. So why do the main journalists we have condemn Maduro? Well, Marcelo, you move to the left, you don't give a damn!
– Because the Brazilian mainstream media reproduces the opinions of Americans. If the New York Times makes an editorial, Brazilian newspapers and the Globo practically reproduce here. Because they are committed to the financial circle that supports it. Because their owners convert their money into dollars abroad, in offshore.
Have you ever stopped to think that your worldview is completely favorable to American geopolitical interests and those of big businessmen and bankers? Why is that, Gerusa? I don't think you even notice. Because having Americans as tutors and references has always been the mark of our oligarchy and our middle class. They never wanted a powerful and autonomous country. We middle class people side with the richest. We are their slutty bull. Whenever they need to, they induce us to take to the streets wanting to overthrow popular governments. From Carlos Lacerda to Aécio Neves.
Because we always identify with those who are above us in the social hierarchy, forgetting that we come from poor families, manual workers, poor Italian and Spanish immigrants... and then we jump on the bandwagon because we live in a hierarchical society and we love to be on top of someone too. And the funniest thing: I know a guy who worked for a company for years, was fired and received huge compensation. And why? Well, because he had labor rights. Because someone fought for his social rights decades ago. Today this guy preaches less State and less social rights. How can you?
– I know, but they achieved everything with a lot of work…
– Of course, and the Brazilian people work very, very hard, Gerusa… so why do we always position ourselves against the interests of these people? We graduated because our parents had and still have acquired social rights, such as pensions. And they want to end these rights. For example: Do you believe they want to keep interest rates high because of inflation that would harm the people? They want sky-high interest rates mainly because it benefits them in their investments, Gerusa.
They want to protect the 700 billion reais a year that interest on the public debt earns them. There are many progressive economists who offer alternative, more modern solutions, which many European countries are returning to practice in terms of economic policies; the mania for privatizing everything that exists is already receding in the same Europe, while here they sell profitable state-owned companies at a bargain price! But the media does not open space for those who challenge the neoliberal economy. We are left without the possibility of learning about other ideas and proposals. Obviously because they go against the interests of this media, well!
The Brazilian elite does not want to transform the country. He wants to go to Miami and New York. But never invest in Brazil! Then they blame the people for it. Recently, one of the investors of a large company had a video of him circulating on the networks, where he spoke negatively about Brazilians, claiming that they were fraudsters. And then his company suffers a blow, a blow, which they say was an accounting operation defrauded by the shareholders themselves, and this guy was one of them. This is the Brazilian elite that ignores the country.
– So you think Maduro is a victim? Uffff!!!
– No. Maduro succeeded Hugo Chaves, who carried out a revolution in Venezuela, freeing the poorest layers from poverty. Because the right that has always ruled Venezuela, their oligarchy, has always lived off oil and let the rest of the country starve. Chaves cut this process. Maduro, from what I see, has lost his way and is doing shit. I repeat, Gerusa: I don't like Maduro and I think there is a part of the left that still prefers to support him simply because the USA is the enemy. They cannot understand this fact. It's a complicated situation.
But we can do both: condemn Maduro and condemn the USA at the same time. Poverty in Venezuela is not only the effect of the strangulation of options other than oil exploration, but also and mainly because of the sanctions that the Americans impose on them. Let's hope that a new government – if that ever happens – doesn't repeat what the right has already done badly in Venezuela. Maduro is on the wrong path, but his opponents could be even worse. Don't be fooled.
In this case, specifically, there is no bad guy against the good guy. He has a lot of old war sons of bitches and people becoming sons of bitches. The issue is complex and requires a deeper understanding. The danger is that we fall into the media trap: hating Maduro and linking up with Lula. That's what they want, Gerusa: to destabilize Lula. And they will convince you to do it. Unless you try to broaden your understanding.
– Well, let's end this discussion. I don't want to say anything more. He arrives! You are on the left and I am more on the right. I already think Lula is doing shit...
– Do you see? Everything connects. He already hates Lula again. The guy is doing gymnastics to be able to govern with this Congress that is considered the worst in the country's history and acts against him; has already managed to reduce unemployment to less than 7%; he is reviving the national industry, doing his best within constitutional rules, unlike the coup leader who was in the presidency before him. Lula and the PT have a brand of republicanism that even irritates. It may seem strange, but Lula is not leftist, that's the funniest thing. He is a liberal and there are people who consider him a left-wing extremist, good heavens.
He's meeting the fiscal targets imposed by big business and everything else... even I have criticisms of Lula. And many. But very different from yours, Gerusa. Lula is not superman. He wants to please everyone, but no one can. And he is running a good government. His goal is to distribute some of the wealth to the people. He is a fair man. But any slip-up, boom! Here comes the neoliberal “market” army within the newspapers to criticize and cast the evil eye.
Gerusa, your thoughts are shaped by the opinions of journalists from the mainstream media, who work to defend the interests of bosses and the financial market. This fucking financial market, a bunch of sharks that only want to concentrate wealth. Do you realize that you defend them without knowing for sure who they are, Gerusa? Do you realize that in the end you unintentionally defend their interests?
Zappian silence.
I have the feeling that Gerusa lives in another sphere, as if it were a neighboring planet, as if there were a cloud surrounding this world protected from contradictions, pluralism of information and possibilities. Anything that challenges this dome of certainties is treated as a threat, a danger of invading your perfect world; any voice is labeled “left” and immediately silenced.
– Yeah, Gerusa…you don’t want to talk, right…so okay.
Hours later, Gerusa, that blonde girl with once-melancholy eyes and crystal-clear youthful sensitivity, on the other side of my “left” world, sends me an emoji of a woman making a sign that suggests: “I can’t do anything.”
*Marcelo Sanches é musician, graduated in sociology from the São Paulo School of Sociology and Politics Foundation (FESP).
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