Bolsonaro's savagery

The forced exile of Jean Wyllys, celebrated with derision by Bolsonaro, demonstrates not only the failure of democracy in Brazil. It demonstrates the collapse of our civilization. And it demonstrates something worse: the loss of our humanity.

It's not just democratic institutions that are no longer functioning. Something deeper has broken down in our society.

We are returning to the stage of bellum omnia omnes, of the struggle of all against all, of homo homini lupus, as referred to by Hobbes. We are rapidly heading towards a situation of pre-social contract, in which the absence of justice and the reign of violent and selfish passions would prevail.

The bad example comes from the top, way from the top. Bolsonaro and his followers have never hidden their admiration for dictatorships, their heinous and barbaric cult of torturers, their barely contained desire to exterminate "enemies." They have always made clear to everyone their crude homophobia, their racism, their repulsive misogyny. They openly manifest their brutal hatred of everything that seems different and deviant from their mediocre, retrograde, and puerile norm.

Like moral swine, they wallow proudly and happily in their mire of hatred, brutality, and prejudice. They celebrate with fanfare the ignoble persecution of those they consider enemies, just as the Nazis laughed and mocked the Jews and communists who were burned in the ovens of concentration camps.

They celebrated the coup against the honest president. They celebrated Lula's imprisonment without evidence. They celebrated the death of Lula's wife.

They celebrated the numerous attacks against members of the PT (Workers' Party) and the opposition, and the shots fired at Lula's caravan. They celebrate the brutal assassination of Marielle. The governor of Rio himself and one of the captain's sons participated in the heinous act of destroying the plaque honoring the murdered councilwoman.

There were even female judges who stated on social media that Jean Wyllys should be assassinated, to the applause of a legion of brainless followers.

This alarming wave of fascist savagery has been brewing for a long time and has benefited from the encouragement or inaction of democratic institutions, which should have contained it in time. It has also benefited from the encouragement of a large part of the press and political forces that should have had some commitment, however minimal, to democracy. If not to democracy, at least to some veneer of civilization.

Now it's too late. Pandora's box of Brazilian neofascism has been opened.

What came to power in Brazil was not simply a "right-wing candidate." What came to power in Brazil was a movement of a distinctly neo-fascist character. What came to power was hatred. What came to power was brutality. What came to power was the most primitive prejudice. What came to power was ignorance proud of itself.

Savagery has come to power. Inhumanity has come to power.

When Bolsonaro stated that he would "put an end to all of this that is happening," I believe he was referring, perhaps unconsciously, to the decline of civility and humanity.

Indeed, it's difficult to recognize anything human in the savagery that is taking hold in Brazil. Economic savagery and political savagery.

In the economic field, the intention is to establish an ultra-neoliberal "every man for himself" approach, which will dispense with the existence of the Welfare State, protective labor legislation, and investments in public services for the poorest population. As in Hobbes' natural world, the "meritocracy" of the strongest or most fortunate will prevail.

This economic savagery would be complemented by political savagery, no longer embedded in a selective state of exception, but in a militia state that openly promotes hatred of adversaries and their political or even physical elimination.

Bolsonaro warned, on the eve of the second round, that his "enemies" would only have two options: prison or exile. He also hinted at a third option: death on the "beachfront."

Jean Wyllys chose exile over death or prison. He did well. After all, when the president himself promotes hatred and has a clan linked to militias, it's a sign that the threats must be taken seriously. Very seriously. Nobody is safe.

The degree of democratic and civilizational degradation promoted by Bolsonaro could, perhaps in the long run, even lead to him being prosecuted under the Rome Statute, which created the International Criminal Court.

Indeed, Article 7(h) of the Rome Statute defines as one of the "crimes against humanity" "the persecution of an identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious or gender grounds, as defined in paragraph 3, or on other grounds universally recognized as unacceptable under international law, in connection with any act referred to in that paragraph or with any crime within the jurisdiction of the Court."

The Statute defines persecution as "the intentional and serious deprivation of fundamental rights in violation of international law, for reasons related to the identity of the group or community concerned." It seems to me that the right to life and the right to free representation and expression are part of fundamental rights.

Homophobia and the extermination of gays and blacks have long been part of the Brazilian landscape. But when the Head of State himself encourages it, with his sad example and continuous mockery, things tend to change. Jean Wyllys is not an exception; he is confirmation of a new political reality.

It is clear that such a framing would be what is called in English a "long shot," something, at least for now, quite improbable. But one cannot ignore the fact that, in any minimally civilized country, someone like Bolsonaro would have already had serious problems with the law and would never have been elected to anything.

Therefore, abroad, Bolsonaro only provokes fear, revulsion and, more recently, after his brilliant participation in Davos, profound disappointment and shame.

Savagery is combated with civilizing principles, hatred is combated with tolerance, ignorance is combated with knowledge, and authoritarianism is combated with democracy.

It's high time Brazil sought to heal and rid itself of the deadly disease of Bolsonarism. To do so, all forces that still have any minimal commitment to democracy and civilization must unite.

Anyone who still hasn't understood that the main adversary of a democratic, civilized, and humane Brazil is neo-fascism, and that anti-PT sentiment is its twin brother, hasn't understood anything. Or they have understood and don't give a damn.

We need this clarity and this determination, or else we will continue to head towards that pre-civilizational state, towards what Hobbes so splendidly described in Leviathan, a kind of living death:

"...And the life of man is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."