By SERGIO GODOY*
Chronicle of an Uber ride
Yesterday I was really scared, I was anxious to have real contact with the election because it was the first time since I was 16 that I couldn't go out on the streets to campaign and talk to people. As soon as I got into the Uber, leaving the airport, I started chatting with the driver about small talk so I could make room for the main topic, the elections.
Motora was a young, friendly, black man, wearing glasses, chubby, listening to samba on the radio, soft-spoken, with a good vocabulary. A really nice guy. His car was a bit used, ran on gas, and had a strange smell inside. He told me he was getting organized to buy a house in the ABC region of São Paulo. In Jessé de Souza's sociological typology, Motora would be a hard worker.
When the prose comes to the election, he declares that he will vote for Pablo Marçal because he is the only one capable of change. Pablo Marçal is very good at speaking and stands up to traditional politicians, he says he saw this on social media.
I ask him if he is confident that Pablo Marçal is really capable of doing everything he promises, and if these are not easy solutions. He says he hopes so, but that politicians usually don't deliver on their promises because they don't understand the complexity of what they are talking about.
He shows that he knows that Pablo Marçal's promises are simplistic, but he doesn't care.
I asked about the allegations of crimes and illicit enrichment, he said that he had already voted for Lula to remove Jair Bolsonaro, it was the only way to remove the clown from the government, so that didn't matter anymore either.
Without me asking, he said he was worried about Pablo Marçal's followers, they seemed like a sect, they were blind, but they were the same as the PT supporters, and that this scared him, that the polarization tired him (he used exactly those words).
The race was ending, I asked if Guilherme Boulos could represent this change, he answered no, not at all. In the second round he would not vote for Guilherme Boulos. He preferred Tabata Amaral, but she had no chance, he thought Pablo Marçal would win so he was thinking about voting for Pablo Marçal in the first and second rounds.
I chose not to campaign, I was very divided, thinking about what would be more valuable at the moment: fighting for a vote or listening to that character.
Guilherme Boulos, forgive me, but the need to listen prevailed. Although it caused me a lot of anxiety, I must admit.
Of course, it is just one person, it is not possible to draw up a representative statistical framework or an ethnographic study.
But the boy was so aware of what he was saying, he knew both poles and chose solidly.
It's amazing how one can be so consistent and yet so ignorant of the outcome of one's choice at the same time. An object lesson in the true meaning of alienation, as old Marx would say.
Because Motora ignores how tragic it will be for him and all young black people in São Paulo if Pablo Marçal wins. But at the same time he knows the arguments and positions himself confidently.
That's why the conversation seemed very representative and profound, with many elements for analysis and worthy of recording. A true chronicle of a tragedy foretold. With many points for us to debate.
I must say in advance that putting Lula and Pablo Marçal in the same place, as the only option to change the undesirable, tolerating a criminal record, is something unbearable. But we need to analyze it.
The simplification of political struggle in the form of polarization is another difficult issue. There are not two poles, it is fascism versus socialism. On one side, those who accept domination and death, on the other, those who promote solidarity and social justice.
But this is what alienation is, a strong fog that prevents you from seeing more than 10 meters.
Even if Pablo Marçal loses the election, having gained space in this young man's mind, in the way he won, is already something that deserves our attention, and action.
*Sergio Godoy is a PhD student in International Relations at PROLAM-USP.
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