It is forbidden to deceive

Image: Johannes Plenio
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By ADEMAR BOGO*

The mobilization against the Bolsonaro government must be permanent

The philosopher Nietzsche, in genealogy of morals, tells us that, “we are not allowed to deceive ourselves or find the truth by chance”. The reason for this understanding is certainly to show that we should not rely too much on superficial evidence and not consider as true only the fact after it happened; processes are also true or misleading.

These teachings are for everyone and for any circumstances. For anyone who has lived long enough to learn that the dominant class is always dominant as long as it exists, and that, in addition to being the owner of capital, it also controls the capitalist State, making it act coercively in its favor, it is of fundamental importance not to trust in truths occasional, mainly because history never gives reason for continued conformist positions and perpetually submissive to the established order.

In possession of these understandings, we confirm that historically the forces of repression are maintained, trained and fed, to be available to the centralized power, to act whenever the opposition forces move against the order, sustained by the dominant interests. In the absence of imminent threats, mainly the armed forces, they disappear from the news and little is debated about what their role in the structure of the State really is.

Usually the Armed Forces protect the country from external enemies and possible threats against national sovereignty. For centuries we have not heard rumors that any neighboring country has shown interest in acting in this direction. However, wars are not only waged against states, they can also be waged against other species and forces of nature. At that moment we have the “internal invasion” of indigenous territories and the devastation of defenseless forests, without the defense forces moving to protect these peoples and other species of life devoured by deforestation. If this does not threaten our territorial sovereignty, as a nation, it threatens our moral and political sovereignty, causing us to lose admiration, respect and authority vis-à-vis the other nations of the world.

It is at this point that political apathy becomes a danger. A few days ago, the Minister of the Environment, while participating in the 26th United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP26), in Scotland, hid the true reality of environmental devastation in Brazil, offering soft data to pretend to agree and be committed to the proposals stated there. However, he shamefully concealed that the growth rate of Amazon deforestation officially grew by 22% between August 2020 and July 2021.

There is, evidently, after several defeats, without changing the nature, a change in the political posture of the Executive branch. As an example, we can cite the priority of vaccination and the use of a mask; the annulment of the implementation of the “non-party school” that imposed gags on teachers; confirmation of the electronic ballot box; the “discouragement” of the Federal Supreme Court, which restored rights and recomposed the traditional order of politics and, among others, the loss of popular support for the President of the Republic.

The random truth comes to light when the behavior of the President of the Republic is transmuted, in the sense of adapting to the aspirations of the “old policy” that he previously rejected. In these practices reigns the art of political business, managed by the “Centrão”, whose center does not lead to a position of balance between political forces, it only reaffirms the way of politicizing around its own interests. This articulation, in addition to easing the tensions between the powers, began to bear fruit and the government started to have significant victories in the scope of the approval of its projects; the main one is the one that released the increase in spending for the next year, allowing the ceiling so contested by the neoliberals to be breached, when the budgetary limits were established.

The behavioral inflection to act apparently within the order was enough to make disappear from the news and also from many debates, the risk of a coup, the presence of political banditry in the government, the role of the military in the structure of the State, and so many other themes that they intimidated and worried left-wing forces and progressives – traditionally aligned with the capitalist order.

If Nietzsche is right when he says that “we are not allowed to deceive ourselves”, deception ceases to be, for conscious people, an acquired right to be deceived; this is because what is prohibited is prohibited because it is not allowed. That is, it is only permissible to deceive yourself if there is no prohibition. We have dozens of bans described by defeats already experienced. Therefore, if “the truth is not found by chance”, whether it be in chaos or in the rise of solutions, it is necessary to find it and affirm it.

The supposed sensation of calm and the attenuation of the rabid threats coming from the central plateau (excuse the metaphor) were reported after the “mad dog” that, popularly exposed in the month of August, in the last month of September accepted the collar and now would be tied. But the question to ask is whether he stopped being crazy? If we believe so, we will be going against the truth, as science attests that canine rabies has no cure.

Let's assume that the dog is really tied up, but he is alive, and the waiting time works in his favor. To take back the threats they just need some skills to let go, and then they will attack with greater violence. It is not too much to warn that the defeats suffered by the government came from popular mobilization, in fact, it was with them, when they were in its favor, even in insufficient quantity, that it tried to intimidate the other powers, and, also, when the leftist forces and social movements, we imposed resistance and made the situation change color.

Otherwise, we must perceive the intense activity of the “information dictatorship”, with which the militiamen try to confuse the naive, religious and apathetic consciences, that the “lie will set them free”. In this way and in this lapse of time, the principle of “historical patience”, validated by the revolutionary experiences of the past, of advancing little by little until reaching the partial objective, also serves the right-wing forces, and this possible “calmness” is very favorable to the government, which hopes, with the “Brazil aid” to regain popularity, as for the indefinite “third way”, but which circulates around the tied dog, seeking to occupy that territory and enjoy those votes.

The self-indulgence on our part, as if “what has already been won” justifies the suffering of waiting, which currently separates us for almost 14 months, must be awakened by the warning that “anything can happen” and, without permanent mobilization in the streets, favorable to the political death of the rabid dog, the truth of chance will also prevail in the wandering and misleading distorted ideas prevailing in our ranks.

The XNUMXst century has already demonstrated that democracy has left palaces and parliaments and has become an efficient homeless person. There is your place. Whoever really wants to find her must go to meet her and stay there.

*Ademar Bogo He holds a PhD in philosophy from UFBA and is a university professor.

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