By JEAN PIERRE CHAUVIN*
Some notes in which there is nothing by Plato, Erasmus or Saramago, except the expectation of illustrating everyday situations
“But you see, Socrates, that one cannot fail to pay attention to the opinion of the people” (Plato, Christian or Duty, translated by Jaime Bruna).
Assuming that there are still those who find reasonable justifications to defend moralists with no morals, dictators, denialists and genocidaires, it seemed valid to us to resort to dialogue: a didactic genre among the oldest of which there are records, in the scope of philosophy and literature.
Here are some notes in which there is nothing from Plato, Erasmus or Saramago, except the expectation of illustrating everyday situations, with a view to highlighting the assumptions, methods and objectives embedded in certain personal or other people's conversations.
anticommunism
Application Driver – Good evening. Shale, right?
Researcher – Yes! Goodnight.
Application Driver – Are you a student?
Researcher – I am. I came to participate in an event about rhetoric, at the University…
Application Driver – Be smart. It's full of communist students around here!
Freedom of expression
Content producer – We can’t say anything more! It's an absurd!
Successful guest – Yeah… Everything is censored. Then they say that there is no communism in Brazil.
Content producer – That’s what was needed not being able to complain about food delivery people!
Successful guest – The services provided here are of poor quality.
Content producer – Imagine me being recriminated for swearing at a kid! Is it my fault he was late?!
Entrepreneurship
Ex-friend – I like Ogre.
Ex-friend – What is it like?
Ex-friend – Yes. He lowered taxes for micro-entrepreneurs.
Ex-friend – But what about the seven hundred thousand dead? The cracks? Overpriced notes? The jewelry scandal? The economy minister profiting from the rise of the dollar…. The Ogre imitated people dying from lack of air…
Ex-friend – You don’t want me to defend the thief, do you?
Meritocracy
Subway user – I don’t complain about my job, no.
Interlocutor – Do you like the company?
Subway user – There’s room to grow there, you know? I just have to commit.
Interlocutor – Ah, that’s true.
Subway User – Instead of complaining, I just have to work hard and I’ll get there!
*Jean Pierre Chauvin Professor of Brazilian Culture and Literature at the School of Communication and Arts at USP. Author, among other books by Seven Speeches: essays on discursive typologies (Cancioneiro Publisher).
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