Escrevi o artigo aí abaixo para um periódico estrangeiro, procurando fazer o ponto da situação da conjuntura brasileira no pós-impeachment. Em tempos de sociedade da informação e em rede, a circulação dos textos se reproduz rapidamente - o artigo então está publicado em diversos locais, como aqui: http://www.telesurtv.net/english/opinion/Brazil-Ideology-Politics-and-Manipulation-20160912-0007.html. Duas considerações de Noam Chomsky, de determinada forma, dizem do sentido do texto, quais sejam: 1) "A população, em geral, não sabe o que está acontecendo, e nem mesmo sabe que não sabe."; 2) "Os hipócritas são aqueles que aplicam aos outros os padrões que se recusam a aceitar para si mesmos."
Brazil: Ideology, Politics and Manipulation
By Ivonaldo Leite
There is some similarity between the atomic age and
the action of ideology. The atomic age has put the spotlight on the smallest
unit in nature, the atom. On the other hand, ideology has put spotlight on the
smallest unit in society, man.
Somehow
the energy of ideology is greater than atomic energy. For the idea that
controls the brain that controls the hand that splits the atom, is what finally
decides how and where the power of atomic energy shall be released. A nation’s
strength cannot be measured solely by economic resources, production potential
and manpower. Greater than all these is the penetrating and uniting power of
its idea.As has Campbell said, just as the nation which has the greatest
knowledge, skill and resources for splitting the atom will be first in the race
for military power, so the people who possess the secret and skill of changing
human nature will be first in the race for adequate ideological force to remake
world.
These
considerations about ideology are extremely important in Brazil in this moment.
After the subtle coup that ousted President Dilma Roussef, Brazil is living a
phase of political struggle that has as its central focus the ideological
dispute. The new government acts on three fronts: adoption of a conservative
agenda that attacks social rights; reorientation of foreign policy, adopting
belligerent positions against other countries in South America; attempting to
block investigations of corruption cases as they reach members of Temer
government.
Diverse
and growing popular protests against the new government have been carried out
throughout the country, which have been harshly repressed by the police in
states like São Paulo.
Therefore,
using ideology, Temer administration aims to manipulate people and gains support
for its political agenda. This is the focus of the ideological dispute in
Brazil today.Basically, the ideological narrative that the new government tries
to promote has two points: the defense of order and the affirmation of the
moral postulate against acts of corruption. As a result of the first point, it
has intensified the repression against protests versus the new government. On
the second point, the government is in no condition to defend itself because
Temer's administration is the result of a pact involving several tricksters,
and many of its allies are being investigated for corruption.
One
of the fundamental tasks of independent Brazilian intellectuals today, is to
demonstrate the discursive mechanisms of ideological and political fraud that
is taking place in the country.
Ideological
manipulation leads to suffering, chaos and injustice. But good ideas can make a
society reborn to new political, economic and social projects.
