By MANUEL DOMINGOS NETO*

Two general ministers grotesquely manipulated statistics to, pleasing the boss, relativize the devastation of the pandemic. Where did you see the military disturbing scientists and doctors who work intensively to protect the people?

It is not possible to talk about scientific and technological development in Brazil omitting the military. The military taught engineering, topography and design. He built roads, works of art, monumental public buildings and churches before Brazil had specialized colleges. He employed mathematicians when there was no paid job for such a scientist. He drew maps with exact outlines of rivers, mountains and ocean currents when nobody knew anything about geography, cartography, oceanography and air currents.

Boosted the veterinary, the military. He needed horses capable of transporting troops and armaments. He developed agronomic studies to guarantee pastures for the animals and food technology to have healthy products to feed the troops.

And more: he studied and renewed medicine, pharmaceutical sciences and dentistry aware that, without defeating pests, mending bones and healing the wounded, there would be no troops capable of winning battles. He disseminated healthy habits, hygienic procedures and sports practices to have strong men.

He introduced and developed the study of chemistry, physics, mineralogy and metallurgy for the production of weapons and ammunition. He understood that without having the best quality steel, powerful and manageable explosives, resistant boats and good fuel, he would not be qualified to fight.

He was a pioneer in statistical studies to find out how many Brazilians there were and where they lived, otherwise universal obligatory military service would not be feasible and would continue to form troops with unfortunate peasants recruited by the noose or thieves and murderers removed from jails and disciplined at the base of the whip. The IBGE was essential to military modernity.

The military developed communications and logistics to be able to operate in large territorial spaces. Going to war, he bargained for a steel plant, the mainstay of multiple industries.

He dedicated himself to aeronautical studies, electronics and computing in order to have planes and rockets that would expand his offensive capacity and his autonomy in relation to the foreign supplier. He was a pioneer in nuclear research in order to have a deterrent weapon capable of embarrassing would-be owners of the world.

Studied and taught philosophy from the positivist matrix. He ennobled our “opulent lexicon” (Euclid). He inaugurated systematic geopolitical thinking (Mário Travassos). He translated Weberian sociology (Otávio Velho). He popularized Marxist concepts and engaged in the interpretation of Brazil (Nelson Werneck Sodré).

Shouts at the Military Club echoed through PETROBRÁS. The military created the CNPq and boosted scientific research. He boosted CAPES so that the country had qualified higher education. He offered scholarships and created scientific merit assessment committees. He secured funds for the creation of Casa Ruy Barbosa and many other relevant institutions.

He recognized the human sciences as an area of ​​scientific knowledge. It facilitated the dissemination of graduate programs in sociology of development, political sciences and anthropology. He arrested, beat and killed teachers, students, artists and journalists who did not like the dictatorship, but he spread universities across the country. Olival Freire says that, seeing that the bloodthirsty repression was scaring away important scientists, the military promoted “repatriation of brains”.

The military inaugurated FINEP to support innovation. He created EMBRAPA to revolutionize agriculture and livestock. He created EMBRAER to manufacture airplanes and encouraged companies such as ENGESA and AVIBRÁS, which inserted Brazil in the sophisticated international trade of weapons and war equipment.

The military supported the emergence and consolidation of heavy engineering that soon became world-wide and started to bother foreign competitors.

My colleagues at the Brazilian Society for the History of Science don't let me lie, but it's not possible to describe the development of science and technology in Brazil forgetting those who are preparing for war.

Behold, as in a dark storm, the military freaked out, freaked out, went crazy! Downloaded Procruste in the military!

Haunted by a ghost dubbed “cultural Marxism”, the military embraced flat earthists, creationists, crazed denialists, sworn enemies of reason.

First, the military applauded the dismantling of heavy engineering in Brazil. Then he endorsed the sale of strategic companies he helped create. Finally, he paralyzed a government that withdraws money from universities, dehydrates research funding agencies, defames scientific institutes, leaves costly equipment without maintenance, attacks the Ruy Barbosa house, sabotages scientific events, cuts scholarships, including very low-cost ones and great return in scientific and social terms such as scholarships for scientific initiation! It interrupts the prospect of young talents from humble families starting a scientific career…

Anyone who wants to follow the dismal spectacle of the dismantling of scientific research in Brazil, prepare your stomach and follow the posts by Ildeu Moreira, president of the SBPC, on social networks.

Or watch the video in which two minister generals grotesquely manipulated statistics to, pleasing the boss, relativize the devastation of the pandemic. Where did you see the military disturbing scientists and doctors who work intensively to protect the people?

The soldier disappeared when he heard the President of the Republic, in a ministerial meeting, summarize the archaeological investigation into the discovery of “petrified Indian poop”.

Lord God of the wretched, tell us, Lord God, what will become of us when men paid to protect us lose their senses?

* Manuel Domingos Neto he was president of the Brazilian Defense Studies Association (ABED) and vice-president of CNPq.