The “moderate” citizen

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By JEAN PIERRE CHAUVIN*

Two signs of the moderate: arrogance (in the midst of social misery) and impudence (in the midst of the criticism he receives)

The moderate is substantially an opportunist. When the electoral process approaches, he spreads the most perverse and obvious commonplaces again. “Neither right nor left: I belong to the middle ground”; “the biggest problem in the country is corruption”; “the US sets an example of democracy to be followed by Brazil”. Here are some of Slogans that combine hypocrisy, in relation to the abuses of the criminals they elected, and intransigence, when a party legend does not only defend the interests of bankers, industrialists, mega-businessmen, landowners et caterva.

Someone will object that this figure has always existed. Perhaps. However, there has been a disturbing change in the last two or three decades. The so-called moderate used to be a specimen found especially in sectors of the middle and upper classes. But, the FIESP buildings hosting the campaign against twenty cents, in 2013; the bravado of the presidential candidate defeated in 2014; the 2016 parliamentary coup; the legal kidnapping of Luiz Inácio in 2018; and the election of the unspeakable and his gang that year, suggest that the discourse, moderate in theory, started to be reproduced also by the most disadvantaged classes.

At this point, it should be evident to the citizens of this neocolony that 30 to 50% of our family members, friends and colleagues are part of the circus and evil wing of good citizens, who, due to class prejudice, detonate democratic parties; but they close their eyes, cover their ears and remain silent, faced with the daily parade of lies by the current president and his minions. Not to mention the deaths of environmentalists; the threat to politicians who dared to publicize the militia super scheme; the punishments suffered by those who denounced pedophile deputies; or they showed how friends and family of the president are known to be involved in gigantic corruption plots (rachadinha; franchise for money laundering; acquisition of millionaire real estate etc.).

Two signs of the moderate: arrogance (in the midst of social misery) and brazenness (in the midst of the criticism he receives). Unable to recognize the incentives and opportunities he received from the family, this specimen classifies the homeless person as a slut and defeated by life. Implacable judge, your discomfort does not stem from witnessing the increase in poverty; but by noting that the paths of the his flat, fragrant and wooded neighborhoods are full of obstacles in the form of people. "People?". Well well. This perhaps explains the elegant petition of a Neighborhood Association for a Shopping center remove the beings wrapped in blankets from the immediate area. The consumer's path cannot be affected by decrepitude.

The moderate does not “cover the sun with a sieve”; he hates what he sees and, if he could, he would command the extermination of the "weak". Make no mistake: a considerable number of these beings reinforce their own feeling of victory, when they compare themselves with those who were expelled by the system for lack of “tenacity” and “persistence”. The moderate sounds, in the outdoor café, like those media artists repeating the maxim “don't give up on your dreams”. The moderate acts like an island. For this reason, he has elected the same caption for 30 years, in order to mismanage the state of São Paulo with maximum efficiency. From the so-called non-political manager to the religious maniac, no tucana administration did more than privatize, “clean up” the Pinheiros River, withdraw funds from health, education, sanitation and popular housing and, of course, massacre legitimate movements in defense of rights acquired.

But, as we know, they are the ideal candidates, according to the moderate citizen, because they reproduce, on a state scale, what their moderate voters do at home and abroad. On the one hand, they pretend to recognize their employees as “family members”; on the other hand, they love to spend order verbs, either with family members or with servants. The important thing is not to vote for the extreme right, even less for the left. Evidently, if there is no option, it is clear that the moderate will choose the representative of his interests and privileges. His conception of the world rests on the feeling of natural superiority and the fear of being confused with inferior types.

The exemplary moderate is the one who, dissatisfied with the sign of destruction and mythomania that has plagued us for three and a half years, scratches his head and says that the presidential choice will again be very difficult in 2022. guardianship of the United States, with the approval of the armed forces, at least since the 1940s: he is not bothered by the coup banner. As long as his routine doesn't change too much; as long as the country is free of imaginary communism (he will never know the difference between systems and regimes of government, as he is too lazy to read); as long as things continue as they are, fostering the illusion that he is better than most, this specimen will continue to say that every government has flaws and will put democrats and criminals on the same level.

That a subject from the so-called elites behave in this way would be almost predictable, in an exclusionary pseudo-country like this one. However, sovereignty and social ruin approach when the precarious “collaborator”; the worker with no employment relationship or rights; the shop owner; the watchman who works and does odd jobs; all those who suffer most from social asymmetry, lack of medical care and the generalized loss of rights, introject the discourse of simulated moderation.

Will they act like this because they believe that reproducing the opinion of the “superior” could distance them from the “poor” discourse, ensuring some dignity before the groups they attend? Dare to take arguments of this nature, when “dialoguing” with one of these beings, and you will be promptly classified as “very radical”. Parodying what Antônio Vieira observed in the sermon of the sixtieth, the moderate citizen lacks a mirror, eyes and adequate light to see better. In any case, this is not due to a lack of fraudulent pastoralism, litany, profit and prayer, is it?

*Jean Pierre Chauvin He is a professor at the School of Communication and Arts at USP. Author, among other books, of A thousand, one dystopia (Publisher Glove).

 

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