By LUIZ MARQUES*
Denialism constitutes a “crime of responsibility” awaiting clarification
The results of the catastrophe that struck Rio Grande do Sul are not shown on television. However, it is on the tip of taxpayers' tongues when it comes to the administrative management of the state and the capital of Rio Grande do Sul. In both instances, the denialist conduct of managers is disapproved, due to the hundreds of changes in environmental legislation in favor of corporate self-inspection and the lack of maintenance in the Mauá Wall floodgates, pump houses and dikes. Denialism constitutes a “crime of responsibility” awaiting clarification. The representatives were careless with the “internal security” of the jurisdictions. As in Noel Rosa’s samba: “My God in heaven, what an unfortunate guess”.
The economic (property), social (jobs, housing, schools, hospitals), cultural (theaters, cinemas, identity ties) and emotional (loss of relics, photos) losses affected two million fellow citizens in 467 municipalities, out of a total of 497. In May, 600 people were left homeless and 40 had their homes destroyed. There is no need to dramatize the pain. “Neither laugh nor cry, but understand”, says the philosopher. The question is: why do the rulers, with blasé about mechanisms for caring for nature and cities, have they given in to negligence and disregarded the common good? Superb?
Answer: Their “model of society” centers on the free market and capitalist accumulation. The flagship of the future is the private company. The State is the obstacle. They privatize public companies, even though they provide essential services for the population (water, electricity, gas, public transport). If the issue does not come into discussion, it is that the objective of the media — excluding self-propaganda — is not to inform. But satisfy sponsors, with emphasis on finances. Hence the oscillation that goes from spectacularizing facts to appealing sentimentalization. Anything, as long as it impedes the work of critical thinking. Consumers only serve as an alibi.
The “phenomenological” action of the news hides the social construction of reality, as if extreme weather events had no historicity. The flood becomes a label — catastrophe, tragedy. “This is not the time to look for someone to blame”, pray those who are to blame. The media make dissimulation a divine decree and, except superficially, avoid the subject. The slogan “Pra Cima, Rio Grande” eclipses those responsible for the storm in paradise (neoliberal). At the same time, it promotes the boycott of positive actions by the federal government for the well-being of everyone.
To give you an idea, the group RBS announces 126 temporary houses in the Metropolitan Region with praise for the state government, and nudges President Lula against the short-lived measure. The paralysis of local authorities in listing properties worth up to R$200 for acquisition by Caixa Econômica Federal remains unscathed. Next day (July 5th), in a corner of the newspaper Zero hour, inserts the good news from the Extraordinary Minister for Reconstruction of Rio Grande do Sul, Paulo Pimenta, about two thousand houses purchased by the Union for delivery in July; and five thousand already registered for acquisition by CEF. City halls, likewise, are not advised on land for building houses for those affected. The press sings far from the nest. Understanding is unmasking the aporophobia of corporate pantomime to exempt the system.
The model dispute
In practices of domination, two fields are fundamental — the political and the institutional — for the consolidation of status quo. The cadres of right-wing parties are formed in think tanks of added value, such as the Institute of Business Studies (IEE). The ability to evade from upstairs is copied. Admiration for “entrepreneurs” in the autocratic style of Elon Musk shapes his worldview. Gated communities and cruise ships imitate the mansions and leisure of the “elites”, who do not focus on lights but rather on money. The colonization of the State by American way of life and social-ethnic eugenics corrupt democratic urbanization with the logic of plutocracy.
Through the mechanism of mimesis, the paradigm of neoliberalism makes stops at the Palácio Piratini and the Municipal Palace of the pioneering metropolis: (a) in the ecological struggle with AGAPAN (Gaúcha Environmental Protection Association), founded by José Lutzenberger in 1971; (b) in the fight for creative governance with the OP (Participatory Budget), founded by the PT / Workers' Party in 1989 and; (c) in the anti-neoliberal struggle with the FSM (World Social Forum), founded by social movements in 2001. These utopias placed Porto Alegre on the world map of hope and, now, encourage resilience and energize overcoming difficulties with “citizen participation ”. The republic is not limited to the binomial “presidentialism” or “parliamentaryism”. There is a third variable to consider.
O habitus of “exchange value” focuses on the loss of car insurers, rather than the 200 human deaths in the waters. Politics takes a vacation. Individualization erases the main triggers of the ecological crisis. The emphasis on individualities highlights substances, when what matters for understanding are party and class relations.
Pierre Bourdieu uses the term “agent” instead of “individual” to highlight socioeconomic constraints in the historical context, and not confer non-existent autonomy on personas. Decoupling political and institutional activity from events implies absolving the model of society and managers for the bad consequences.
Freedom of choice disappears in the face of multiple relationships and financing that involve individuals. Agents must be thought of and analyzed based on a relational political theory; They are not isolated atoms. Primary socialization via family and secondary socialization via school, added to personal upstart, inject into public personalities practices that attenuate the right to dignity of the poor. The principle of classification in interactions makes the privileged superior to others.
The praise of governor Eduardo Leite (PSDB) and mayor Sebastião Melo (MDB) for the false virtues of privatizations and the endorsement of large construction companies to build luxury buildings, in areas of environmental preservation and indigenous presence, is the seal of classist mediocrity . The agents of private interests in the administration of the federative units do not feel empathy for the losers. They belong to the economic and cultural field of winners, for whom progress begins with the rich and closes the circuit with the rich. They lack the imagination in power to serve the community as a whole.
Position on the offensive
Environmental disasters pit neoliberals against progressives in the dispute to define the desirable parameters for rebuilding life, rescued from the rubble. The hegemonic model based on financialization is confronted by an alternative model in defending the population and combating speculation. Cities belong to citizens. In the dictionary of democracy, housing is a social right. It is wrong to smuggle it into the “merchandise” entry.
The primacy is in “use value”. Quantification is the work of neoliberalism. Lula's attitude puts dots on the “i”, by prioritizing permanent residences for those who suffer so much from the ineptitude and neglect of regional representatives.
Spontaneous sociology removes the outer layer of the onion and gives names to the perpetrators of the misfortune in the south of the country. The topic is frequently discussed in bus queues and bars. “They don’t get re-elected.” Science has been denouncing the deforestation of riparian forests and the urbanization of waterfronts for decades. The financial circle in the natural and social space, with the transfer of parks to profit and groynes as modernization in flood zones — see Pontal do Arado, in Porto Alegre — has the fingerprints of the governor and the mayor. Due to cognitive limitations or the desire to make mistakes, some journalists cry about Lava Jato, compare garlic to bugs and remain silent about the conviction of the suspect judge.
Eduardo Leite and Sebastião Melo hold “symbolic capital” that disappears with credibility and popularity. The group RBS with the totalitarianism of a Big Brother Orwellian claims to be “our voice”. However, the interests of rentierism prevail. Ibope and the ethics of responsibility wane, in holding.
It is up to democrats and socialists to take on the political offensive against the enemies of socio-environmental solidarity. As in Pablo Neruda's poem: “From this ashes / tomorrow / we will be reborn”.
* 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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