By NUBIA AGUILAR*

Since 2016 we have been in a scenario of catastrophe for Brazilian politics

Gabriela clove and cinnamon became a classic of Brazilian literature. Jorge Amado sails through the port of Ilhéus, with a representative depth and narrator of many nuances attached to the historical concreteness of the time. In the narrative, Mundinho Falcão challenges the political stability guaranteed by Colonel Ramiro, representative of a summary bathed by the oligarchic interests of the great families.

In the midst of the development of the plot, gradually, a side of permanencies is revealed, and not the expected changes, when local politics wins Mundinho as a representative. Parallel to the world of letters, in which Jorge Amado built these characters, there are the discomforts of the lived world, in which we are the protagonists.

The 2022 elections resume a scenario that for many should have been forgotten: a polarization woven between proposals from governments tending to progressivism, with the realization of a perverse conservatism. And to make the climate even denser, it is added that the candidates who head the electoral dispute have a history of government, experienced by the people who live here.

But since 2016 we have been in a scenario of catastrophe for Brazilian politics. The fragility was put to the test, with the initiation of an impeachment process, the result of a vote, first, in the Chamber. Even today, the speeches around a family, religious values ​​and the homeland echo. From a moralism dyed by arbitrary values, it was of little use to say about this tear that was opened. Corruption was the target of maximum censorship, which entered Brazilian homes and dilated the egos of citizens who found themselves – and continue to do so – tasked with responding to this context in a forceful way. The result of this, as has already been debated in droves, was an ideological departure, which appears to be almost irremediable.

What imprisons thousands of Brazilians to an idea of ​​a destroyed past, of ethical and moral values, and inverted reparation is certainly one of the questions that most visit the minds of those and those who cannot understand the point we have reached – and who are deeply insecure and fearful how far can we go.

Doubt can go further, and we start to ask ourselves: Are we incarnating indifference? We cover up scientific research, pity, suffering and Brazil, again on the hunger map, to defend a moral value, an absolute belief that violates data that point to the loss of almost 700 thousand lives throughout the pandemic. The cost of the policy being defended already appears on many fronts. What else is needed to consolidate the understanding that the strategies adopted so far have not worked?

Defending what is believed to be right does not have much to do with accepting measures that annul people, bring exclusion and resume a wheel of benefits for specific sectors. Glimpsing fixing something, seen to have been corrupted, shouldn't have such a high cost. We, as a nation, are enacting with open arms the political scene of Ilhéus, the exacerbated values, the utopia that ejects hatred. Jorge Amado showed us the end, almost the same, of this roundabout, in his novel. Starring in this plot shouldn't make sense at this point.

* Nubia Aguilar is a doctoral candidate in history at the University of São Paulo (USP).

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