Brazilian scammer on German podium

Image: Paulo Fávero
Whatsapp
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Telegram

By MANUEL DOMINGOS NETO*

Fascism is taking over all spaces

Apology for political truculence is prohibited in Germany, but the German embassy in Brasilia promoted a virtual debate between a military supporter of torture and two professors, one German and one Brazilian. The event is available on the Embassy website.

The officer began by displaying hereditary legitimacy, an attribute incompatible with the democratic State: he would have been “born” in the Army. Endogenous recruitment is anti-republican and hurts the military “meritocracy”. The Corporation proclaimed the Republic without admitting its presuppositions. The general also revealed the nebulous separation between active and reserve military. In civilian clothes, he said he continued “living in the Army”.

Assuming the air of a spokesperson for the “thought of the Armed Forces”, he stated that he did not admit that civilians “have to command the military”. With that, he summed up the long-standing identity crisis of those in the ranks: they dress like soldiers, think like politicians and don't abandon their police vocation. He communicated that his comrades defend the liberal ideology: the State would play the role of “facilitator”, not “manager of national progress”. And he proclaimed the ideological exemption of corporations!

He said that the nation is a creditor of the Army, but he quickly changed his mind: the corporation saved society! The 1964 coup would have been patriotic. (He did not mention the coup plotters' collusion with Washington). It justified and minimized the bestiality of the dictatorship. Dictators would have allowed free elections and free speech. Redemocratization would have been granted by the barracks. But democracy failed: “after 35 years of the so-called redemocratization we are still not a de facto democracy”. The dictatorship would have removed politics from the barracks and interrupted the routine of political-military crises.

For the general, public institutions, in particular the Judiciary, are corrupted, lacking in “political and civic responsibility”. The country's leaders interpret and manipulate laws “according to personal and group interests”. In order not to lose power and its “unfair privileges”, they act together against “the current forces of change”. There is “a notorious movement” of judges and politicians to bar the investigation of crimes.

It predicted imminent anomie and the need for the Armed Forces to act as a moderating power along the lines of the Brazilian monarchy of the 142th century. Interpreting article XNUMX of the Constitution, he said that a “military intervention” might not be legal, but it would be necessary and legitimate given the “failure of the powers of the Republic”. Only a coup would ensure “stability by preventing the country from plunging into a state of anomie”.

Like a carbonario convinced that the time for revolution has come, he spoke on behalf of the people: “It is sad, but society has lost hope in the moral and ethical transformation of politics through legal channels”.

The teachers were baffled. How to counter the rain of nonsense?

The clumsy German academic said that in his country the military does not express political positions and is prohibited from acting in the domestic sphere, except in cases of natural catastrophes or terrorist attacks. If so, they would assist the institutions of Law and Order. German military would respect the Constitution and international law.

The Brazilian professor contradicted the general by literally quoting other soldiers. He registered surprise with the performance of the Armed Forces in shaping the Brazilian political framework. He revealed that a colleague of the general had called on the troops to engage in Bolsonaro’s election. He mocked officials' penchant for interpreting the Constitution. He recalled his research into the strife in the barracks. He recorded the confrontation between Geisel and Silvio Frota. Sparing the general greater embarrassment, he did not decline the luxuriant production of journalists and academics who contradicted him. He also pointed out the ideological identity between the high command and the government.

The general stuck to secondary passages from his interlocutors. He said that the German professor was unaware of the merits of the admiral who heads the Ministry of Mines and Energy. To the Brazilian, he said that Carlos Prestes was one step away from power in 1964.

From the list of allegations, one stands out for being attacked in the virtual environment of the German embassy: the Armed Forces “reject radical and utopian ideologies of any hue” that compromise internal peace and divide the “nation”. "We are patriots and nationalists." He ignored that among his hosts the words “nation” and “nationalism” evoke the crushing of the weakest and the massacre of neighbors. The last time Germans mobilized for their homeland, the planet was drenched in blood. Many Germans carefully pronounce the words "homeland" and "nation". Rejecting disruptive utopias, the general exalted the utopia that most disrupted history!

This event took place on the 15th of September. The protagonists were General Luis Eduardo Rocha Paiva and professors Carlo Masala (University of the German Armed Forces – Munich) and João Roberto Martins Filho (Federal University of São Carlos).

The general was not arrested, nor was the German ambassador asked for an explanation.

Fascism is like that, it takes over all spaces. The Embassy may not have acted with bad intentions, but it would have contributed a lot by avoiding setting up platforms for sworn enemies of civilization.

* Manuel Domingos Neto is a retired UFC professor. He was president of the Brazilian Defense Studies Association (ABED) and vice president of CNPq.

 

 

See all articles by

10 MOST READ IN THE LAST 7 DAYS

See all articles by

SEARCH

Search

TOPICS

NEW PUBLICATIONS