The middle classes in the spotlight.

From April until now I've traveled quite a bit, going back and forth to Brazil. I went to the United Arab Emirates, Mexico, Japan, China, and last week I even went to Buenos Aires. Always participating in seminars or giving lectures. Naturally, I read the local newspapers that had an English edition. Everywhere, one dominant theme: the economic crisis. In some countries, even with very different political regimes, like China and Brazil or Argentina, there was some concern about corruption. In this same vein, I read with pleasure in Buenos Aires, in La Nación, an article by Marcos Aguines, "The Pride of the Middle Class," reproduced the following day in O Globo.

Aguines discredits the view, prevalent in leftist circles, that the middle class – the petty bourgeoisie, as it was called – was the Geni of History. Fascinated by the revolutionary and liberating role of the proletarian revolution and, later, by the impetus of the rising masses, leftist ideologues – and not only them, as the trend caught on – saw nothing but backwardness and pettiness in the middle class, the petty-bourgeois "deviations" and the timidity that robbed it of the impetus to transform society. Probably, in certain historical junctures, especially in old Europe, this was how the middle classes acted. One only needs to read Balzac's novels such as Eugénie Grandet or Père Goriot to feel that these strata were diminished, petty, in the face of the victorious bourgeoisie or the decadent nobility allied with it. However, was this the position of the middle classes in the Americas and in countries of immigration?

I give the floor to Aguines: in Argentina, both in the countryside and in the cities, the middle classes expanded and began to build values ​​that supported three cultures: "the culture of work, the culture of effort, and the culture of honesty." The same, I add, must have occurred in Australia or Canada and, in a different way, in the United States. And in the Brazilian case, was it different? Crushed between slavery and rural landownership, graced here and there with some non-hereditary title during the Empire, the urban middle classes, composed of liberal professionals, civil servants, military personnel, teachers, and a few other urban categories, on what would they rely to maintain their distinctions and achieve something in life? Basically, on school and on family values ​​that lead to work. All with great effort.

With the arrival of immigrants, as they, motivated by the need to work, "made their fortune in America," they also integrated into the middle classes, pursuing education and striving to display "good morals." Along the way, this immigrant group formed something that could be considered a "small bourgeoisie," or petty bourgeoisie: their economic base, more numerous than in the case of older Brazilian populations, came from small businesses. Even so, their integration into society and their social advancement were marked by the same virtues as the old middle classes: the valuing of work, education "to get ahead in life," and honesty.

The Brazilian working class itself, the layer of workers, using other instruments of social ascension, such as unions, and maintaining the ideal of self-employment, did not escape this pattern: school-work-decency. Obviously, when society becomes massified, when the means of communication, TV in the lead and, now, the internet, dictate the rhythm of the dance, the picture is less clear. It is no longer clear what values ​​guide the so-called emerging middle classes. Even if there is exaggeration in the insistence with which it is repeated that millions and millions of Brazilians are entering the "new middle classes," since for now it is a matter of new income categories, rather than a new "social class," the transformation of income into class is a matter of time: it is forming. Its members will gradually attend decent schools, create a network of relationships with access to the same clubs and enjoy the same recreational facilities, dress more or less the same (which is already happening), develop a culture of skilled work and, again, behave in a way that values ​​decency and honesty.

How will these emerging classes behave in politics when they transform into a social category with their own characteristics, aspirations, and values? It is likely that they will join, in their forms of behavior and values, the pre-existing middle classes. These latter classes, at the moment, feel somewhat disconnected from the institution that, while not the only one, sheltered and gave them influence: the government, the State. This is precisely because politics is increasingly perceived as a no-holds-barred game, where morality counts less than the outcome.

It is therefore time to reinforce, not to belittle, the fundamental values ​​considered "middle class"—education, work, honesty. Cultural values ​​are not imposed by law; they are models of conduct to which positive feelings are added. Only their exemplary nature and praised repetition (in school, in the family, in the media, and in public life) will gradually instill in the general mentality the forms that define what is good and what is bad. My bet is to believe, as Aguines believes, that the good old middle class, which has already contributed to the formation of the nation, can still play a relevant role and will be able to infect the emerging classes with its values, since these are already predisposed to them: they have improved their income through effort and work.

It is true that the disregard in our public life for the basic values ​​of the middle classes diminishes the chances of them prevailing. There are opportunities, however, to reinforce them. The Mensalão trial is one of them. Whatever the outcome, if the Supreme Federal Court behaves institutionally, without fear of condemning or acquitting, as long as it explains why and is transparent, it can help to define the limits of what is unacceptable. Man does not live by bread alone. Decency and honesty are part of life. It is advisable to reinforce behaviors that are inspired by them.