The death and demise of old politics

Jorge Amado masterfully portrayed in The Death and Death of Quincas Berro d'Água The hypocrisy of the ruling classes in Brazil. A great story told to us, in a picaresque way, by the great and dearly missed writer from Bahia. Read the book and/or watch the film. Just like Quincas in this masterpiece of Brazilian literature, the old politics and the old politicians live amidst the hypocrisy, promiscuity, and false morality of the ruling class and need to be reborn and turn their gaze and affections towards the poor, the black people, the prostitutes, and all the underprivileged in this immensely vast country, which cannot be contained within reductionist regionalisms, parochial disputes, and petty prejudices.  

However, despite all the glaring truths, in real life... Great literary works gather dust on the shelves of the few public libraries available in Brazilian municipalities or lie forgotten on the bookcases of so-called "family homes." Lessons follow one after another. But we learn nothing, or very little. Truths seem to succumb to lies and cynicism.

 Corruption scandals repeat themselves. Successively. Frenetically. One after another. One involves politicians from party “X”; another involves politicians from party “Y”, and yet another, those from party “Z”. The party alphabet is vast, laughable, and tedious. After so many scandals, nothing seems to shock us anymore. Such is the lassitude and hypocrisy of our public figures. Such is the lassitude and hypocrisy of our journalists. Such is the lassitude and hypocrisy of society.

But then I finally hear a dissenting voice amidst the prevailing false moralism and hypocrisy, amidst the voices of judges and executioners in a theater staged to entertain the galleries thirsting for Justice. Although they do not know and do not want to know what Justice truly is.

A newly appointed Supreme Court justice said: "[The trial of AP 470] will have been in vain if no measures are taken to reform the political system." And he added: "The country urgently needs political reform, whether carried out by the federal Congress or through civil society participation" (...) It is worth reading the full text of Justice Barroso's speech very carefully.

I have been saying and repeating these same words here for months, along with a few rare journalists and political commentators, in a kind of "resistance journalism" ["resistance" to misleading accusations, false moralism, selective/hypocritical justice, and so-called "market journalism"]. 

I have been saying and repeating these same words here in this space for months, in vain... Will the words of this new Supreme Court minister, who seems to me truly imbued with noble intent, who seems to place himself at the service of citizenship and the defense of the public good [the Republic – which, as history has taught us, has prevailed over the old and decadent monarchical regime of conservatives and slaveholders], also be in vain? For a new order to be established, the old one must die.

Finally, at last, a Supreme Court justice does not kneel before the silent and hypocritical empire of the eternal "masters and lords of Brazil" and stands in defense of the homeland and the Constitution?! Or, better said, in defense of that which constitutes us!

How many times will the old hypocrites and decrepit oligarchies, their sycophants or descendants of sordid lineage, have to die before the new can be born? How many deaths will be necessary for them?!  

Death to all the chieftains and oligarchs! May they die and die again, as many times as necessary, for a definitive death. 

No, we shouldn't worry or waste time naming them, because what matters – and history and writers insist on teaching us this lesson – is not the people, the names, or the parties we condemn. We must condemn and change the entire corrupt system, for therein lies the cunning rat, which produces, in its putrid entrails, the little rats in the underbelly of politics. If we do not exterminate the great rat, it will continue to give birth to its filthy offspring.

Wasn't the harsh process of Collor's impeachment enough?! The Budget scandal? The congressmen bought by FHC (or, let's say, by his operators)? Or the Lunus case? Wasn't the alleged "monthly allowance" scandal involving the PSDB party enough? Or the PT party's? Or the DEM party's? 

Isn't the scandalous case of the so-called "bribery pipeline" involving the PSDB party, now in the headlines, enough?! Nothing seems to be enough to satisfy the hypocrisy of the most reactionary and conservative part of our elite. They still feel comfortable in their Big House. And, for them, children of the empire of conservatism, with their bastard heritage, to hell with the slave quarters! 

Enough!!!

Nothing seems to be enough to appease the irrepressible fury of the militants and "warriors" in a stupid political battle that senselessly takes place on the ruins of ethics and the destruction of the true original cause of our utopia: the construction of a great nation and the well-being of all its citizens.

Enough of the hypocrisy! Let's lay down our arms in the name of political reform. Let's all surrender in the name of utopia!