The "Barrosian refoundation"

"I would send Jesus to the stake if he returned and questioned the principles of the Holy Church." Thomas of Torquemada

In a seminar hosted by Globo, Supreme Court Justice Roberto Barroso stated: "Brazil is undergoing a refounding, a new public and private ethic is emerging. The current situation is grim, but we may have a happy ending."

Barroso did not spare his colleagues and attacked the Supreme Federal Court itself. He said that the end of coercive detentions approved by the court "was an effort to discredit courageous judges."

Not a word about the presumption of innocence, about the accused's right to remain silent, about individual guarantees.

In a recent lecture in the United Kingdom, the Supreme Court Justice also stated that "Brazil has a society addicted to the State." Regarding public universities, he declared: "they are expensive and provide little return."

Luís Roberto Barroso graduated from the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ). He earned his doctorate from the same university, where he is a professor. Since 1985, he has been a State Attorney for Rio de Janeiro. In 2013, he joined the Supreme Federal Court (STF). A civil servant trained in public institutions, he became known as a lawyer, working on famous cases defended by his firm.

If society is addicted to the State and the public university doesn't deliver results, then, from his own experience, Dr. Barroso must know what he's talking about.

The ritual of transformation is always similar. Those who uphold legal guarantees become Torquemadas. Lawyers for social movements transform into vigilantes of the Colosseum. The ascent to the halls of the Brazilian elite tests convictions. Those who cannot resist rush to give conclusive demonstrations that they have rid themselves of the "sin of their origins."

Starting from the observation of real problems to arrive at conclusions filled with ideology is a well-known trick. Real wounds become clouds to confuse and justify neoliberal, conservative, and authoritarian positions.

Corruption is a dysfunction present in all countries; it is not a privilege of Brazilian patrimonialism inherited from the "misfortune of our Portuguese heritage," as some would have us believe. The yuppies of Wall Street, who broke the world with the gambling frenzy of 2008, make Brazilian problems seem like child's play.

Are we living in an age of enlightenment, with neo-enlightened figures within the state apparatus willing to confront vested interests in order to refound the nation? That doesn't seem to be the case to me.

What structures are being reinvented? Is a social democratic revolution underway? Is wealth being redistributed? Have we overcome the private monopoly of communications? Have we implemented a socially just tax reform? Have we ended the usury controlled by a handful of billionaire bankers?

Our history indicates that we are experiencing a repeat of the anti-democratic zeal of an anti-national elite supported by sectors of the state bureaucracy eager for a place in the "first class."

Getúlio and Jango could be called Lula. Médici and Geisel could be called Moro and Dallagnol. Out go the uniforms, weapons, and tanks. In come the robes, Armani suits, and television cameras. The Galeão Republic could be in Curitiba. The CIA, more discreet and modern, is now called the NSA.

The crime of treason is as serious as torture. They destroyed millions of jobs by dismantling the national engineering sector. They ruined the image of Brazilian animal protein in the world. We are experiencing a deep recession. 

They are destroying the nation. Is this what they call its refounding?

The democratic rule of law has been abandoned on the sidelines. The "witch democracy" is being burned at the stake.

The moralizing of the audience tore up our Constitution and unleashed the obscurantist genie from the bottle. It pushed our country towards division. The only refounding underway is, unfortunately, that of deplorable fascism.

It emerges from the shadows, offers nothing new, and doesn't seem to point to a "happy ending."