The melancholy of the intellectual elite

It's pathetic to see intellectuals so melancholic about today's Brazil. Some of them were euphoric when FHC (Fernando Henrique Cardoso) was elected. "If anyone can implement this model with social policies, it will be him," one of them stated. "I don't need to choose between Pelé and Garrincha," said another, who campaigned for Lula but rushed to take a ministry in FHC's government, not without first announcing "a new democratic revolution in Brazil."
    
It was the embodiment of the dreams of São Paulo's intelligentsia and those who identify with it, like the elite of the elite of the Brazilian elite. FHC arrived defeating the left, with a banner that gave colors of modernization to a conservative program. Proposing to "turn the page on Getulism" – better yet, less State, no populism, out with unionists, PT members, Lula, left-wing parties.
    
The Barão de Limeira newspaper inaugurated a special section – “The FHC Era”. It didn't need to lend cars to his government, but it lent all its spaces and its “gift of deception”.

FHC emerged defeated, with his tail between his legs, as the most despised politician by the Brazilian people. His supporters took refuge in melancholy. The newspaper on Barão de Limeira Street gradually removed the FHC era section from its website, without even reporting its end or the reasons. It would be a hara-kiri, by the media and the São Paulo elite.

To make matters worse, that government was replaced by Lula and the PT – the very enemies that FHC intended to defeat, much to the delight of the melancholic elite. What to do, besides wait for the failure of a government unprepared to govern? If even FHC failed, what did the government have in store for Lula?

First, the accusations – mixed between the right and the far left – of Lula's "betrayal." It would be confirmed that to govern, Lula would have to abandon everything the left preached. He would have to follow FHC's economic policies and emerge as a "traitor" to the Brazilian people, unmasked. A defeat for the left for decades.

The "mensalão" scandal was the missing proof: besides being incompetent, the new government was plundering the state and would be overthrown with the stigma of corruption. A feast that once again united the right with the far left, with the Lula government and the PT as enemies. The melancholy elites salivated at the prospect of clearing the field and being able to govern for decades without the scourge of the left, Lula, the PT, and the popular movement.

What to do in the face of Lula's success, both inside and outside Brazil? In the face of his ability to elect and re-elect his successor? To take refuge in melancholy. To say that everything is bad in Brazil, about to explode. That the people sold themselves for Bolsa Família (family allowance program), for Minha Casa, Minha Vida (My House, My Life program), for jobs, salaries, etc., etc.

To make the eschatological speech about how the world is worse than ever, that Brazil is going to hell, that the people never learn, that everything could get even worse if Lula returns in 2018. And also to take refuge in the spaces that the right wing reserves for them to express these laments in their media.

Disconnected from the improving Brazil, from the progress of Latin America – in contrast to their beloved USA and Europe – all that remains for them is a resigned and grumbling end. They must search for some candidate or congresswoman who can cast some shadow on the government. Because seeing Lula, the PT, the left, and the government triumph is the final, melancholic stage for the intellectual elite of the new right.