Now that the World Cup is over, the news will be even more focused on the issue of elections. Following the pattern observed in past elections, It will be precisely during this period – from August to the elections – that we will actually choose those who will win our votes.
In truth, political-electoral discussions have already begun and demonstrate that all necessary instruments will be used by the different groups that want power. This represents a huge risk for Brazil’s still incipient democracy., since even institutions that should not interfere in electoral matters – from the Judiciary to the international financial market – became active characters.
Certainly the corridors and streets of Brasília are already used to all this.. Even though the architecture is modern and rationalist, the paths are too tortuous for the average Brazilian. This tortuosity, being exposed to all Brazilian capitals, reinforces some of our most important and deeply held principles: the rules of the game are made during the game and by those who have power; at the end of it all, They will be there and we will continue here.
This is how we are solidifying our Schumpterian democracy at the same time that the number of socially excluded people increases and the public space for debate continues to be reserved for a few. Perhaps this is precisely where the biggest gaps in the current electoral discussion lie.: a idéia de projeto nacional e da exclusão.
Ao observarmos os quatro principais candidatos à presidência da república, veremos soluções técnicas para os diversos problemas que o Brasil enfrenta. Com maior ou menos capacidade argumentativa, todos procuram mostrar como é relativamente fácil trazer desenvolvimento e felicidade ao país; alteram-se dois ou três taxas aqui, promove-se este ou aquele setor e logo tudo estará bem. Valendo-se desta linguagem mais tecnicista – exigida pelo mercado eleitoral brasileiro – reproduzimos o velho circo do “Brasil, país do futuro”.
O discurso economicista tornou-se tão forte que substituiu até mesmo a questão da inclusão social. Like this, economic development is enough to end all the exclusion that we have practiced throughout our modern history – from colony at 10ª largest economy in the world. Has our history not yet managed to show that our problem is not economic but structural??
This deviation in electoral discussions is echoed in the media and among opinion makers, showing us the total absence of the idea of formulating a national project. What we want to be or how we want to be in 10 years? No one dares to think in such broad terms; We resign ourselves to waiting for the problem to arise and then find a solution.. Today's problem is currency stability, portanto a discussão tem que variar em torno desta questão.
To build a country whose elite are not ashamed of having been born there and whose masses envision and achieve a different future, you must first know its deeper structures. We need to identify those that are useful to us and those that hinder us, so that we can establish a national project. Yet, Note that this project cannot be created by a group of enlightened, who know how to guide a complex society like Brazil, a new social pact is needed, in which everyone must participate, contributing what they can or know.
Without the willingness for this new social pact, these elections – regardless of who wins – will be just another milestone in Brazilian conservative historiography; It will be further confirmation that Brazil will remain the “country of the future”, without understanding that life occurs in the present.
Moral of the hist & oacute; ria: In the land of the blind, one-eyed is king.
Literary advice:
"Há alguns anos, all countries are plunging into inevitable globalization, but Brazilian leaders are not content with diving: they want it to be fast and free from archaic nationalist symbols, of their exotic names in Portuguese and the habit of discussing moral aspects or the national interest. And little by little, in the name of the postulate that these are unimportant issues and that defending them is showing the dinosaur archaism of nationalism, let's let Brazil dilute itself"
The foreigners – Cristovam Buarque
Originally published in:
magazine Author
Pol & iacute; tica
Year II – N. 13 – July of 2002
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