Suicidal consumption

What we see these days is that we are a consumer society. Poor, but a consumer society. Poor consumption, perhaps, or simply a society with the idea that freedom is the power to consume. These lines of anxious people trying to get into shopping malls after the easing of restrictions (a sophisticated name for condemnation) illustrate this well. 

I sit here thinking about these times of total freedom of thought, what do they want to do in open shopping malls? Since they don't have that much money, maybe they want the illusion that the bad times are over. Everything is back to normal. I can go out again. Or maybe they want to experience the equally illusory feeling that they can spend again. Spending has become a symbol of freedom. As long as they don't forbid me from consuming, I am a free person. It doesn't matter if I have money or not. I spend what I have and the rest be damned. I might even get infected by this crazy impulse for liberation, but I'll get infected exercising this right. 

This is somewhat what Bolsonaro and his cronies preach, confusing people about what freedom is. There are certain achievements of democracy that cannot be overturned. It's part of the constitution. Even respecting the constitution is part of the constitution. But they think that freedom of expression means being able to advocate for the overthrow of the constitution. That's not allowed. This threatens democracy in the same way that any Nazi demonstration in the world is prohibited because Nazism is precisely against free expression. Just read a history book, including those fascicles from Editora Abril that were sold at newsstands.

But returning to our society and its free expression of the desire to consume, we find a fundamental flaw. This neoliberal society creates people who are incapable of living more dignified lives. It creates people who dream of being what they will never be. Neoliberal society itself is structured on this pyramid where the poorest support the richest. The poorest, according to the richest, must return to work, to shopping malls, and to consumption as soon as possible. They may even die, but we, the richest, need this mechanism to become richer every day. We protect ourselves better from the virus, we have more money and more hospital beds, so we can keep working so that you can support us and circulate in popular shopping malls and public transport, feeling alive again until the moment you die. In this way, many people will die, but what difference does it make to those who have more money? None, or rather, all the difference. Fewer people, the distribution is better, more money is left over.

What kind of society have we become in this suicidal path we embarked on during the pandemic? Why do people have this eagerness to return to normal? Because normal is deceptive, it gives the feeling that we are winners. We managed to overcome the pandemic, and will we be able to overcome life's difficulties? Going back to shopping malls or beaches creates this illusion. We want to live, of course. That's fair. But we want to live real life, where work is a right and quality of life is an achievement. Pretending I'm okay doesn't solve anything. We need more time. We need a government that knows not only how to set an example but also how to provide the conditions so that this society can wait at home. 

A stronger state is fundamental, but a strong state isn't one that walks the streets armed. It's one that provides comfort and security to its citizens so that when the day comes, they can truly go out into the streets to be happy and not be deceived by buying a fake t-shirt at an exorbitant price as a gift, hoping to feel alive again. That's dying from being deceived. But don't be deceived.