Where will the sectarians go?

Upon rereading the First Words, written as an introduction to Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire in 1968, during a period of exile in Chile, I recognize in this small excerpt from the book issues that are still relevant to the political and existential debate in Brazil.

Freire, in his dialectic, contrasts sectarianism with radicalism in the face of historical processes. For him, sectarianism is a closed, castrated position that feeds on fanaticism. The sectarian operates irrationally and transforms reality into a falsehood that cannot be changed. In this sense, they live on their own certainty and their truth, always operating on false and idolatrous bases, very similar to the Bolsonaro movement of these times.

In contrast, radicalism, in the sense of going to the roots, is creative. It operates within uncertainties, in the process of dialogue, and is therefore critical of reality and liberating. 

Considering the present time, these two ways of looking at the world are in conflict in the Brazilian electoral process. And the sectarian option is the opposite of the current power project in place, for which thirty percent of the electorate will fight fanatically, because they cannot tolerate change, alternation; democracy.

What the sectarian fails to realize, given the alienation in which he is immersed, is that the reality he understands as immutable was not created with his participation. Little does he know that this reality was given by powerful organizations that depend on this immutability so that the economic system they represent and the social inequality they feed on are not questioned.

Given the potential victory of a progressive government project, led by Lula, on October 02nd (hopefully!) or at the end of the same month, we propose a valid question: Where will the sectarians go?

Conjecturing, the necessary and probable alternation of power should provoke a collapse of reality in this electorate. I believe they will be forced to look at a radical reality, rooted in concrete life. Perhaps they will begin to realize the price of things in the supermarket, the precariousness of life, the rats they have become following a terrible, charming (fetishistic) piper who has thrown them into a long existential abyss. 

I hope they become depressed, in the sense that forces may compel them to look at their own reality and existence, and perhaps they will be left with a project to recover their lost humanity. It remains for us to build pedagogical alternatives for this process so that this tragedy or farce does not repeat itself.

I conclude by expressing a wish (contrary to the risk of sectarianism, possible in both progressives and conservatives) that radicals, with the new government, may turn their energies, attention, and actions towards their roots, towards the simple people often forgotten by political projects.