Categoria: Educação

Democracy on the brink of the abyss

Leonardo Boff1 comentário

There are moments in life when we have to chose which political side we are on.
On the side of democracy that respects freedom, allows demonstrations of citizens and understands itself to be within a democratic State based on rights.

Either we are on the side of the one who denies democracy, praises the 1964 military dictatorship, lauds its torturers, whose victims, according to him, should not have been tortured, but simply shoot, starting with former President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, who detests homosexuals and advocates repressing them, who reviles the quilombolas, who, according to him, are good for nothing, not even for reproducing themselves, who scorns the Indigenous people, advocates a weapon in the hand of every Brazilian, publicly humiliates his own daughter, saying that she was born of “carelessness”, and who would be incapable of loving a homosexual son.

That man, a retired captain with no experience in public administration, who confesses that he understands nothing about the economy, nor of health or education, because that supposedly is the charge of the respective ministers … He does not understand that it is a President’s mission to define public policies, to set the path for the nation and to leave the execution of those policies to competent ministers.

That candidate, who received the most votes in the first electoral round and also has a large advantage over his opponent for the second round, shows a clear taste for Nazi-Fascism, in his language, his gestures, and the brutality of his expressions.

The recklessness of most political parties, that, not having won the elections, explicitly support him or give their followers freedom to pick a candidate, shames the country. They think only of the part, their political party, and not of the whole, that is Brazil.

Such neutrality in this historic moment of great danger to democracy is irresponsible. The resentment and hatred that have taken hold of a great part of the Brazilian people are the worst guides for coexistence in a minimally civilized society.

It is pointless to blame the people, saying they are ignorant but that in the end it was their choice. This ignorance and lack of awareness are fruits of the policies of the old oligarchies and the unfettered capitalism that has grown among us.The oligarchs always wanted an ignorant people with no awareness of their rights, so as to better manipulate them and maintain their own privileges. They are not afraid of a poor person, but they are terrified if that poor person is aware of his citizenship and demands his rights.

As noted by the great historian José Honório Rodrigues, who studied the relationship between the oligarchies and the people, the oligarchs always conspired against the people, humiliating them and denying them their rights. They never had a political project favoring the people.
This former captain with a fascist perspective is aligned with this tradition.

He even copied Hitler’s motto, Deutschland über alles, translated as:“Brazil above everything”. In his rude style, far from democratic civility, he promises to combat the present violence with even more violence, ignoring the fact that the first victims will be the poor, the Blacks, those with a different sexual orientation. Knowing the prospects of victory, his followers are foreshadowing this violence, to the point of murdering a famous capoeira educator in Bahia, and carving a swastika in the leg of a young woman in Rio Grande do Sul.

In the present moment, more important than political parties is having a broad front to defend against the threat to democracy and the denial of fundamental rights. We live in urgent times. Differences must be put in perspective, in order to face the danger that could threaten the destiny of our country and negatively affect our neighboring countries, whose democracies are also of low intensity. The rise of the far right in the world, especially in Europe and the United States, would be strengthened, and it would represent a return to the somber times lived in Europe under the boots of Hitler, Mussolini and Franco.

We know now that they rose with discourse similar to that of the fascist candidate, speeches that promised security and repression of all those who opposed them, many of whom were murdered or sent to the gas chambers. A few managed to find refuge in exile, such as Einstein, Freud, Brecht, Arendt, and others. We do not want this history to be repeated in our country.

Therefore, while we must respect the right to vote, but each one of us must be conscious and aware of the importance of the vote for himself or herself, for their families and the future of our country.

In the eyes of foreigners who are very concerned about our elections, we cannot be seen as a pariah nation, going back to nefarious times and policies; against which we all want to repeat: “¡Nunca más!” (“Never again!”).

Leonardo Boff Eco-Theologian-Philosopher, Earthcharter Commission

Free translation from the Spanish sent by
Melina Alfaro, alfaro_melina@yahoo.com.ar.

L’ANTI-PETISMO: LA CREAZIONE DI UN CAPRO ESPIATORIO

Leonardo Boff3 Comentários

René Girard (1923-2015), pensatore e filosofo francese, l’uomo più saggio che io abbia conosciuto in vita mia, che è stato dalla parte dei teologi della liberazione nel 1970, ha dedicato la sua vasta opera a studiare la violenza, soprattutto al bisogno di una società di creare un capro espiatorio (vedere Il capro espiatorio, 1982).

Con questo meccanismo del capro espiatorio, la popolazione è indotta a scaricare la corruzione, che sta diffusa e concentrata nei grandi corrotti e corruttori, sul groppone di uno solo, del PT, allo scopo di nascondere la corruzione stessa e con questo tutta la società passa a dimenticare i veri corrotti e a pensare che essa si trova soltanto nel PT sul quale si rovescia tutta la rabbia e l’odio. È come un capro espiatorio, già testimoniato dalla Bibbia. Gli ebrei buttavano addosso a un capro tutti i peccati e le malefatte del popolo e costringevano il capro a rifugiarsi nel deserto per espiare e a morire di fame. E riti simili li ritroviamo in quasi tutte le società antiche.

Da noi c’è stato un tempo in cui il capro espiatorio erano i sovversivi, poi i comunisti (questo persiste), in seguito i giovani neri delle favelas, descritti come legati ad azioni criminose e a droghe, i gay e quelli della LBCT. Su di loro viene trasferita la violenza presente nella società. In questo momento il capro espiatorio sono PT e Lula. A loro viene attribuita tutta la corruzione, anche se tutti i partiti, alcuni più che il PT, hanno partecipato alla corruzione.

Con l’appoggio della macchina repressiva dello Stato, di buona parte del Pubblico Ministero, non esclusa una parte del STF, della classe media, specialmente dei media privati la corruzione è stata trattata in modo selettivo. Sul PT si butta tutta la colpa dei mali attuali del Brasile, mentre gli attori principali spariscono e creano un capro espiatorio.

Ma quello che sta davvero dietro all’antipetismo, col pretesto della lotta alla corruzione è l’odio verso l’ex-presidente Lula, un operaio che è riuscito a entrare nella stanza dei bottoni. La classe dominante e le oligarchie tradizionali, che hanno ereditato il modo di pensare della Casa Grande, mai hanno digerito che qualcuno della Senzala arrivasse al Planalto. Hanno coltivato e coltivano ancora odio e disprezzo per i poveri, odio e disprezzo un tempo riservati agli schiavi. Come può un povero frequentare il loro stesso spazio sociale: nella scuola, all’Università, allo shopping, sugli aerei? Questi erano spazi riservati esclusivamente agli arricchiti, sempre vissuti nel privilegio, senza il minimo sentimento di uguaglianza di tutti, base di qualsiasi democrazia. Da aggiungere ancora quelli che mai hanno riconosciuto umanità e dignità umana nei poveri, nei neri e nelle nere, per non dire dei nativi e degli abitanti dei Quilombos.

Ora questo odio latente nelle oligarchie, ha infiltrato parte della classe media spaventata, ha contaminato, non senza l’aiuto delle chiese neo-pentecostali televisive parte della popolazione povera.

È qui che risiede la radice ultima dell’anti-petismo. C’è odio e rabbia stratificati in gente che si dice “dabbene” e si professano cristiani. È un cristianesimo puramente culturale, di facciata, ma eticamente anti-cristiano. I media commerciali che mai sono sono andati d’accordo con la democrazia e che nutrono un sovrano disprezzo per il “il popolaccio” o “popolino” o “feccia” nell’espressione tecnica – provocatoria di Jessé De Souza, ha giocato un ruolo decisivo nella diffusione dell’anti-petismo e dell’odio.

Per l’anti-petismo si sono avvalsi di tutti i mezzi, basta vedere i blogs, i twitter e i face-book, per non parlare dell’incontrollabile mezzo che è il whatsapp che ha creato uffici di diffamazione e fake news contro i PT e il candidato Haddad. Ora sappiamo che milioni di messaggi falsi sono stati finanziati da imprese private, comportamento che, secondo la nuova legislazione è crimine di seconda fascia.

Ma questa è la politica basata sul concetto di capro espiatorio, politica di odio e aggressione all’altro. Così come esiste il bullismo nelle scuole, ora il bullismo collettivo è contro il PT. E’ necessario resistere a questa ignominia. La società tutta deve fare la revisione dei suoi anti-valori della sua corruzione quotidiana.

Il sindacato dei Procuratori della Fazenda (SINDPROFAZ) comunica che fino al 18/9/2018, circa 450 miliardi di reais sono stati evasi, soprattutto dalle grandi imprese. Negli ultimi dieci anni queste hanno evaso 1.8 trilioni di reais. Questa non è corruzione alla grande? Chi la contrasta? Che fa il Pubblico Ministero e lo stesso STF? Se anche solo in parte questo denaro fosse acquisito non sarebbe necessario fare nessuna riforma della Previdenza. È più facile e comodo creare un capro espiatorio, il PT, e subito nascondere la corruzione che invade la società perfino nel tentativo quotidiano di corrompere poliziotti di passaggio. Noi rifiutiamo questa logica del capro espiatorio, perché è selettiva, ingiusta, disumana e profondamente anti-etica come denunciava sempre René Girard.

*Leonardo Boff filosofo, teologo e co-editore deli libro

René Girard “René Girard con i teologi della liberazione” .

Traduzione di Romano Baraglia e Lidia Arato

Even these rough winds will lead us to a safe harbor

Leonardo Boff3 Comentários

Brazilians are used to “facing life” and to accomplishing everything “in the struggle and with great effort”, this is, they are used to overcoming difficulties, with much hard work. Why would the Brazilian people not also face the latest challenge of making the needed changes, in the midst of the present crisis, that would lead us to the right path of justice for all.

The Brazilian people is still being birthed. We inherited Brazil the Enterprise, with an enslaving elite and destitute masses. But from the core of the masses leaders and social movements with consciousness and organization were born. Their dream? To reinvent Brazil..

The process began from below and no longer can be stopped, either by the successive coups, such as the civic-military one of 1964, and the parliamentary-juridical-mass communications-media coup of 2016.

In spite of the poverty, exclusion and perverse social inequality, the poor wisely invented paths to survival. To overcome this anti-reality, the State and politicians must listen to and value all that the people already know and have invented. Only then will we have overcome the division between the elites and the people and rather than a divided, be a united, nation.

The Brazilian maintains a commitment to hope. Hope is the last to die. This is why the Brazilian people understands that God writes correctly in crooked lines. Hope is the secret of the optimism that allows them to make the dramas relative, to dance at their carnivals, struggle for the football team, and keep alive the utopia where life is beautiful and tomorrow will be better. Hope takes us to Ernst Bloch’s hope-principle that is more than a virtue; it is a vital pulse that enables us to form new dreams, utopias and projects for a better world.

In the present moment, with the country all but shipwrecked, some fear exists. However, the opposite of fear is not courage. It is the faith that things can be different, that the people organized can move forward. Brazil proved that she not only is good at carnival and music, but can be good at agriculture, architecture, the arts and in her never ending joy of living.

One characteristic of Brazilian culture is joviality and a sense of humor. These help us endure the social contradictions. That joyful joviality is born of the conviction that life is worth more than anything else. This is why it must be celebrated with feasts and in the face of failures, maintaining the sense of humor that makes things relative and bearable. The result is the levity and vivaciousness that so many admire in us.

A marriage is occurring that never before existed in Brazil: the union of academic and popular knowledge. Popular knowledge is “knowledge born of experience,” that is, from the suffering and thousands of ways Brazilians have developed to survive on limited resources. Academic knowledge is born of study, drinking from many wells. When those two forms of knowledge are united, we will have created a new Brazil. And we will all be wiser.

Caring is part of the essence of the human being, and of all life. Without caring we fall ill and die. With caring, things are protected and last much longer. The challenge now is to understand politics as caring for Brazil, her people, especially the most vulnerable, such as the Native peoples and Blacks, caring for nature, education, health, and justice for all. That type of caring is proof that we love our country, and that we love everyone in our country.

A trademark of the Brazilian people, well analyzed by anthropologist Roberto da Matta, is its capacity to relate to the whole world, to add, join, bring together two different, often opposite, currents, and to synthesize. For that reason, in general, Brazilians are neither intolerant nor dogmatic. The Brazilian likes to welcome foreigners. These values are fundamental to globalization with a human face. We are showing that this is possible and we are building it. Unfortunately, in the last few years, contrary to our traditions, a wave of hatred, discrimination, fanaticism, homophobia and contempt of the poor (the dark side of cordiality, according to Sergio Buarque de Holanda) has arisen, that shows us that we, as all human beings, are sapiens and demens, and now more demens. But that certainly will pass, and a more tolerant coexistence will prevail, one that will appreciate and respect differences.

Brazil is the main neo-Latin nation in the world. We have everything needed also to be the main tropical civilization, not imperial but solidarian with all nations, since Brazil incorporates within herself representatives of the 60 different peoples who came here. Our challenge is to show that, in fact, Brazil can be a small symbolic precursor, showing that everything can be resolved: a single humanity, united and diverse, seated at the table in a fraternal gathering, enjoying the fruits of our beautiful, great and generous Mother Earth, our Common Home.

Is this a dream? Yes it is. It is a good and necessary dream.

Leonardo Boff Eco-Theologian-Philosopher.member of the Earthcharter Commission

Free translation from the Spanish sent by
Melina Alfaro, alfaro_melina@yahoo.com.ar.
Done at REFUGIO DEL RIO GRANDE, Texas, EE.UU.

 

Quien odia al hermano es un asesino”dicen las Escrituras

Leonardo Boff1 comentário

Reina mucha violencia, rabia y odio en nuestro país a causa de la segunda vuelta de las elecciones. Lo que nos escandaliza y va contra la Constitución que afirma ser un Estado laico (no oficializa ninguna religión ni estas pueden ser usadas partidariamente), son las iglesias neo-pentecostales y algunas evangélicas, concretamente la Universal y su líder, que se han transformado en centros de fake news, verdadera máquina de producción de calumnias y falsedades contra el candidato Haddad, hasta afirmar que, de modo semejante al estado totalitario comunista, “el niño después de 5 años pasa a no pertenecer ya a los padres sino al Estado”. ¿Quién puede imaginar semejante absurdo de una persona que vive en armonía con su familia? Además de ser mentiras y calumnias suscitan el odio.

Aquí no vale otro argumento que el de la Biblia, que por lo menos reconocen, aunque traicionen sus preceptos.

El gran mensaje de Jesús es el amor incondicional hasta al enemigo, pues incluso “ama a los ingratos y malos” (Lc 6,35). Quien está fuera del amor, está lejos de Dios y traiciona el legado de Jesús.

Más explícita aún es la primera carta de San Juan: “Si alguien dice: ‘amo a Dios‘ pero odia a su hermano es un mentiroso” (1Juan 4,20).

En otro lugar es aún más perentorio: “Quien odia al hermano es un asesino. Y sabéis que ningún asesino tiene la vida eterna” (1 Juan 3,15). Pues estamos llenos de asesinos en nuestro país y sabemos especialmente de dónde vienen, aunque no exclusivamente: de un candidato que es claramente homófobo, misógino, enemigo declarado de los LGBTI, de indígenas y de quilombolas.

Predica la violencia contra ellos, cosa que ya está siendo practicada en anticipación a su eventual victoria (que los cielos nos libren) en varios lugares del país por parte de sus seguidores, llegando incluso al asesinato del gran maestro de capoeira en Salvador, maestro de los cantantes Gilberto Gil y de Caetano Veloso, y a la violencia contra una joven de Porto Alegre a la que con una navaja le grabaron en la pierna la esvástica nazi.

Esta actitud va contra toda la base religiosa cultural cristiana de nuestro país. Son verdaderos enemigos de la patria, además de enemigos de los mencionados arriba. En el lenguaje del Nuevo Testamento son asesinos.

Pero lo que más nos falta y éste fue el legado de Betinho, nuestro Gandhi de los trópicos, es la sensibilidad ahora que estamos celebrando los 30 años de su gran obra “Acción por la ciudadania,contra el hambre y la miseria y por la vida”.

Supo identificar la crisis central de la humanidad actual en la línea del Papa Francisco hoy.
De su boca oímos y de su ejemplo aprendimos que “la crisis central no está en la nueva economía política de la exclusión, ni en la corrupción de la política, ni en la derrota moral de la humanidad. La crisis fundamental reside en la falta de sensibilidad de los humanos hacia otros seres humanos”.

Después de siglos de racionalismo y de dictadura del proyecto de la tecno-ciencia, hemos quedado todos con una especie de lobotomía que nos impide sentir al otro como otro, que incapacita nuestro corazón para sentir el pulsar de otro corazón y nos hace crueles y sin piedad ante el sufrimiento humano y la devastación de la biosfera.

No es el logos griego ni la ratio cartesiana sino el pathos (el sentimiento profundo) y el cuidado (cura en latín) quienes organizan las estructuras básicas de la existencia humana en el mundo junto con los demás.

Esta es la gran lección humanitaria, ética y espiritual que Betinho nos ha dejado como legado inmortal. Esta lección todavía hoy habla a lo profundo de cada ser humano, donde vive el mundo de las excelencias como el amor, la solidaridad, compasión y la verdadera hermandad entre todos.

Esta lección, en el contexto actual de Brasil atravesado por odios y rabias viscerales, posee inmensa actualidad. Sería la única cura verdaderamente eficaz.

¡Qué falta nos hace Betinho en estos días!

*Leonardo Boff es filósofo, teólogo y escritor.