By LUIZ MARQUES*
Neo-urbanism tramples on master plans. He who can, commands; he who compromises or becomes corrupt, obeys.
Paraphrasing Roland Barthes, neoliberalism accelerates the spiral of “decomposition” of conventional structures. Institutional representations melt into thin air. Images suffer a resounding erosion. Not that official authorities and real estate developments aiming at modernization are aware of the significance of their interventions. The very dynamics of capitalism generate a disfigurement of the landscape to enhance accumulation, at the expense of sociability. Neo-urbanism tramples on master plans. Those who can command, obey those who compromise or become corrupt.
Condemned to the privatization of their existence, people become apolitical and disregard the ideological narratives that compete for public opinion. The ground then becomes fertile for anti-political preaching and the worldview of hyper-individualism, which reiterates Margaret Thatcher's fatalism: “Theres no alternatives"The erosion of the basic values of the West (liberty, equality, fraternity) is the counterpart demanded by the economy of destruction. The general interest gives way to private interests. Big capital is in contradiction with the republican spirit.
It is understood that overexploited workers on application platforms (Uber, iFood) develop the perception of the “war of all against all”, in which the only one who survives is self-made man. The man who makes his own way without government assistance echoes the material conditions of those who are precarious in the informal sector. The lack of union experience and participation in political movements prevents the raising of consciousness to point out those responsible for necropolitics. The extreme right uses alienation to hide the authors of the drama and demonize progressive forces.
The scarcity of opportunities turns in favor of those who boast of being “winners” thanks to their individual courage. The prosperity theology of charismatic evangelicals in the periphery extols false meritocracy. The castes that parasitize the State apparatus with illegitimate and immoral perks give credence to the pantomime. With this, they endorse the alibi that the “elites” need to justify their status quo. For the “losers” there remains the exclusion of the right to have rights, because they do not deserve them. The impression is that the squaring of the circle is solved through the “tyranny of merit”, in the words of Michael J. Sandel. Cynicism and hypocrisy are inherent in the dialectic of domination.
Without the lowering of the people's self-esteem, stripped of the identity of active citizenship, civil disobedience would confront submission. Conservatives do not question the factors that shape apathy. By questioning, they would come to the conclusion that the lack of interest in abstract ideologies and politics is deliberate by the rotten powers, using semiotic techniques to reformat desires and minds, now with the help of artificial intelligence algorithms. Big Techs.
The invasion of Internet users' privacy is disguised by an imaginary provision of services. Thus, the post-industrial tentacles studied by Byung-Chul Han in the essay evolve Infocracy: Digitalization and the crisis of democracy. In order to contain its advance, the “courage of truth” is needed (parrhesia) so that freedom of expression implies the commitment to speak what is truly assumed to be true (isegory), being prohibited to disclose fake news to deceive the audience.
Not even the indirect power of voters over their representatives remains in place today. The rationality of voting is nonexistent, given the interference of wealth and corporate media in the course of elections to expand the dominant political field. The purpose of voting to choose and monitor representatives is an illusion.
The design of the masses is defrauded, first, by daily propaganda for the benefit of finance; during, by the inequality of income to promote candidacies; and then, by gait of legislative and/or executive activity protected by secrecy. Secret amendments in the National Congress are a result of the political framework, rather than a systemic distortion. The authorities anointed at the polls hold the monopoly of deliberation after each election.
The Leninian question
The system has its own laws, like an autonomous machine that never stops making decisions. The belief in stability, through the suspension of state interventionism, leads to a demolition of the paradigms that form the civilizing consensus. The rise of neoliberal hegemony and its correlate in the economy, laissez-faire, lead to the naturalization of “urban fascism”. Vertical buildings create ruins that bear witness to the fantasy of the future. Individuals are left to find satisfaction in primary groups, where they sublimate their private lives with the affection of family and friends, to counterbalance the low rates of unionization and political-party engagement.
In Rio Grande do Sul, Governor Eduardo Leite has the support of the PSDB, MDB, PDT, PP, PSB, PSD, PTB, Podemos and União Brasil. A privatizer, he takes advantage of opportunities to transfer public assets, according to the lexicon of real estate greed. Example: the sale to the construction company Melnick from the Military Brigade Gymnasium and the Fire Department School on a beautiful corner of Porto Alegre.
The complex covers Ipiranga Avenue, Silva Só Avenue and Felipe de Oliveira Street. The plan is to create a luxury condominium-club, with leisure facilities, a gym, residential-hotel operations, mall e rooftop lounge – a lounge on the terrace with a 360° panoramic view. The socio-environmental impact goes beyond the company's calculations, as it paid a bargain price for a huge estate in a prime, busy city area. A great deal for investors.
Mayor Sebastião Melo is a member of the MDB, PL, PP, PSD, PRD, Republicanos, Podemos, Solidariedade. A denier, he neglected dikes, pump houses and the floodgates of the Mauá Wall to protect against flooding; and as expected, he bowed down to the neo-urbanism of the Melnick. He authorized the construction of an imposing, tasteless tower on Duque de Caxias Street, which would overshadow the Júlio de Castilhos Museum, the Metropolitan Cathedral, the Piratini Palace and part of the Praça da Matriz.
There is symbolism in the configuration that, on the road that pays homage to the Patron Saint of the Army, implants the fury of the mega-construction company above: (i) the house where the founder of the modern administration of the state of Rio Grande do Sul lived; (ii) the Catholic temple of the federative unit; (iii) the cerebral headquarters of the state government and; (iv) the street in the geodesic center of the Executive, Legislative and Judiciary branches. The arrogant financier tramples on iconic spaces of history, religion, politics and the Republic. Nothing is sacred.
Those who in the last four years have revived the positivist tradition in the sense of “administrators of things” instead of people, by extension dehumanize the concept of progress by giving it a purely market-based character, focused on dollar signs instead of the well-being of residents. In London, fifty years ago, 60% of housing had a social use value; today, less than 20%. Financialization imposes the dictatorship of exchange value. Housing enters the speculative cycle. In a show of resilience, Barcelona has just canceled 10 licenses for the short-term rental model, called airbnb, which inflated the cost of rent for native inhabitants.
“Cities are no longer designed for living, but for speculating and profiting,” notes David Harvey, in Espaitec's transformed into the book Anticapitalist chronicles: A Guide to Class Struggle in the 21st Century. The strategic goal is public control “of both production and distribution of surpluses.” Organic intellectuals, who amplify the voice of the subaltern, have much to do to help organized society answer the Leninist question of “what is to be done?” The answer does not lie in the free market that is the cause of chaos and gentrification. It lies in popular empowerment.
“I want to govern with you,” pretends the pro-Bolsonaro mayor as he seeks reelection at the birthplace of the World Social Forum. But what he is offering is demagogy. If he governed with the people, he would return to the Participatory Budget the power to apply municipal resources and distance himself from the vultures that devour the carcass of Porto Alegre. If he liked to work, he would not privatize the award-winning Companhia Carris and part of Parque Harmonia. If he respected knowledge and science, he would denounce pandemic and climate denialism. If he were a democrat, he would refuse to give up the fascists. – Out!
* Luiz Marques is a professor of political science at UFRGS. He was Rio Grande do Sul's state secretary of culture in the Olívio Dutra government.
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