Categoria: Idiomas

Politics and dialogue in light of Dilma Rousseff’s re-election

Leonardo BoffDeixe um comentário

The re-election of Dilma Rousseff calls for reflection on the various forms of party politics. To engage in politics is to seek or to concretely exercise power. That illuminates what Max Weber wrote in his famous text, Politics as a vocation: «Who engages in politics seeks power: Power as a means to serve other ends or power for its own sake, to enjoy the prestige it brings».

This last type of political power has been exercised throughout most of our history by the elites, for their own benefit, forgetting that the people is the subject of all power. It is about the famous patrimonialism so clearly denounced by Raimundo Faoro in his classic, The Owners of Power.

I see five forms of exercising power.

First, the politics of the fist. This is power exercised from the top, and in an authoritarian form. There is only one political project, that of those who hold power, which can be a dictator or a dominant class. They simply impose their plans and crush the alternatives. This is what has occurred most often in Brazilian history, especially under military dictatorships.

Second, the politics of the little pat on the back. This is a covert form of authoritarian power. But it is different from the previous one, because it is open to all who are out of power, but it seeks to lure them to the dominant plan. They obtain some advantages so long as they do not constitute an alternative. It is the well known paternalistic and assistance politics that undermined the resistance of the working class and corrupted so many artists and intellectuals. It functioned among us, especially since the time of Vargas.

Third, the politics of the out-stretched hands. Here, power is distributed among several carriers, who form alliances under the hegemony of the strongest. The alliance between the winning party and other allied parties guarantees governability. It is the presidentialization of the parliamentary coalition. This type creates favoritism, disputes for important positions in the State and even corruption. It is what has happened in recent years.

Fourth, the politics of the intertwined hands. It starts from the basic fact that power is distributed among all the movements and institutions of civil society, not just those of the political society, political parties and the State. That type of social and political power can converge into something beneficial for all. It is about the present great debate that foresees the participation of the social movements and the councils in order, together with the Parliament and the Executive, to define public policies. A participatory democracy is sought to enrich the representative one. To oppose this form is to oppose democratizing democracy, and to keep the present, low intensity one.

Specifically: the politics of the intertwined hands occurs when the head of State proposes a broad dialogue with everyone, on a minimum common project. The proposal is that; above all the differences and conflicting interests, there exists in society the idea of what kind of country we want, the minimum solidarity, the search for the common good, the observation of agreed-upon rules and respect for the values of sociability, without which we would become a pack of wolves. The extended hands can collectively intertwine. But to achieve that, there must be a dialogue that listens to everyone and searches for agreements that are win-win and not win-lose. It is ethics in politics and good, truly democratic, politics.

Finally there is the politics as seduction, in the best meaning of the word, that underlies the proposal of President Dilma. She proposes an open dialogue with all the political actors, and the popular sector. It is urgent to seduce the 48% that did not vote for her so that they may support a Brazilian Project that benefits all, starting with the inclusion of the most ostracized, the creation of an ecological and socially sustainable development that generates jobs, better salaries, and the redistribution of income, one that creates decent transportation and greater security for the citizenry, besides caring for nature and promoting a horizon of hope, so that the people may find politics enchanting again.

We would have to be our own enemy to be against these goals. The art of that dialogue is to make politics enchanting again, and to seduce people towards that blessed dream.

For that we must look forward. Those who won the elections must be magnanimous, and those who lost them, must show humility and a willingness to cooperate, looking towards the common good.

Idealistic? Yes, but in its deeper meaning. A society cannot live only through structures, bureaucracy, and ideological disputes about power. It must elicit the cooperation of all and nourish the dreams of permanent improvement, one that to the extent possible, includes and benefits as many as possible, in order to overcome our terrifying social inequality.

The ecclesiastical base communities are correct when they sing: «Dream that to dream alone is only pure illusion. Dream that to dream together is a sign of a solution. So, let’s dream together, let’s dream in collaboration».

This is the supra-party convocation that President Dilma is making to the Parliament, to the popular movements and to all the nation. Only in this way can we overcome the talk of division and prejudices against certain regions, and can we heal the wounds produced in the heat of the electoral campaign, with all its excesses by both sides.

Free translation from the Spanish by
Servicios Koinonia, http://www.servicioskoinonia.org.
Done at REFUGIO DEL RIO GRANDE, Texas, EE.UU.

How “cordial” is the Brazilian People?

Leonardo Boff2 Comentários

Calling a Brazilian a «cordial man» derives from the writer Ribeiro Couto. The expression was popularized by Dutch Sergio Buarque, in his well known book, Roots of Brazil, (Raices de Brasil, 1936), where he dedicates all of chapter V to it. To clarify, in contrast to Cassiano Ricardo, who would understand «cordiality» as goodness and delicacy, he said that «at its core, our ordinary form of social coexistence is exactly the opposite of delicacy» (from the 1989 21ª edition, page 107). Sergio Buarque understands cordiality in the strictly etymological sense: that which comes from the heart. Brazilians are ruled more by the heart than by reason. From the heart may come love or hatred. Well, says the author: «enmity can be just as cordial as friendship, because both are born in the heart» (page 107).

I write this so as to understand the «cordial» emotions that erupted in the 2014 presidential campaign. On the one hand, there were expressions, to the point of fanaticism, of enthusiasm and love for the candidates, and on the other, profound hatred, and haughty expressions by both sides of the electorate. What Buarque from Holland wrote was affirmed: the lack of delicacy in our social coexistence.

Perhaps in no previous electoral campaign were the «cordial» gestures of the Brazilians better expressed, in the sense of the love and hatred encompassed by this word. Those who followed the social networks noticed the low levels of good education, the lack of mutual respect, and even the absence of a democratic sensibility, understood as the coexistence of differences. That lack of respect also affected the debates between the candidates, broadcast on TV. For example, the fact that one of the candidates called the President of the country «a loose woman and a liar» falls within this meaning of «cordial», but it reveals a great lack of respect for the dignity of the highest office of the nation.

To better understand this «cordiality» of ours, it helps to mention two inheritances that weigh on our citizenry: colonization and slavery. Colonization produced in us a feeling of submission. It made us adopt the political structures, language, religion and customs of the Portuguese colonizer. Thus, La Casa Grande and La Senzala were created. As Gilberto Freyre showed, it is not just about external social structures. They were internalized as an insidious dualism: on one side is the master who owns and orders everything, and on the other, the servant who owns little and obeys, or as in the social hierarchy exposed by the great divide between rich and poor. That structure persists in people’s brains, and has evolved into a code for interpreting reality.

Another very perverse tradition was slavery. We must remember that there was a time, between 1817 and 1818, when more than half of Brazil was composed of slaves (50.6%). Today, nearly 60% have something of the African slave in their blood. «Patience, resignation and obedience» was the catechism priests taught the slaves; the slave owners were taught «moderation and benevolence», which, to tell the truth, was not practiced much. Slavery was internalized in the form of discrimination and prejudice against the Black, who had to always serve. To pay a salary is still understood by many as charity and not as a duty, because slaves did everything for free before, and they imagine it must continue that way. In many cases, employees, domestic workers, or ranch hands are treated in that manner.

The result of these two traditions is found in the Brazilian collective unconscious, not so much in terms of class conflict, (that also exists), but of social status conflict. It is said that Blacks are lazy, even though we know that it was the Blacks who built almost everything in our cities. People from the North are unschooled because they live in semi-arid areas with harsh environmental limitations, but they are very creative, astute, and hard working people. The main writers, poets and actors come from the North East. In today’s Brazil, it is the region with the highest economic growth, on the order of 2-3%, above the national average, but prejudice dooms them to inferiority.

All these contradictions of our «cordiality» are on display in twitter, facebook, and other social networks. We are contradictory beings.

I also add an anthropological argument to understand the emergence of the love and hatred in this electoral campaign. It is about the essential ambiguity of the human condition. Each possesses a dimension of light and darkness, sym-bolic (that unites) and dia-bolical (that divides). The moderns say that we simultaneously are demented and wise (Morin), this is, people of rationality and goodness, and simultaneously, of irrationality and evil. Christian tradition says that we are both saints and sinners. Saint Augustine expressed it well: everyone is Adam, everyone is Christ, this is, each person is full of limitations and vices, and at the same time, is a carrier of virtues and a divine dimension. This situation is not a defect but a characteristic of la condition humaine. Each must know how to balance these two forces and in the best case, to give primacy to the dimension of light over that of darkness, to that of Christ over that of old Adam.

In these months of the electoral campaign, who we are within was revealed: «cordial» in the double sense of the word: filled with rage and indignation and at the same time with positive exaltation and serious and self controlled militancy. We must neither laugh nor cry, but try to understand. But to understand is not enough; it is urgent to seek civilized forms of «cordiality» where the will of cooperation for the common good predominates, the legitimate space for a serious opposition is respected and the different political options are welcomed. Brazil needs to unite so that together we confront the grave internal and external problems (wars of great devastation and the grave crisis of the Earth-system and of the life-system), in a project assumed by all, so that what Ignacy Sachs said of Brazil, «The Land of Good Hope», may become true.

Free translation from the Spanish by
Servicios Koinonia, http://www.servicioskoinonia.org.
Done at REFUGIO DEL RIO GRANDE, Texas, EE.UU.

To understand the victory of Dilma Rousseff

Leonardo Boff3 Comentários

In this Presidential election, Brazilian men and women confronted the Biblical scene spoken of in Psalm Number One: they had to choose between two paths: one representing success and possible happiness, and the other, error and inevitable unhappiness.

The conditions were in place for a perfect storm, with distortions and slanders spread in the mass media and social networks. One magazine in particular seriously transgressed journalistic, social and personal ethics, publishing falsehoods to undermine candidate Dilma Rousseff. Behind it all were the most backward elites, striving above all to defend their privileges, rather than to universalize personal and social rights.

Facing these adversities, President Dilma, who endured torture in the dungeons of the repressive organs of the military dictatorship, strengthened her image, grew in determination and gathered her energies to confront every attack. She portrayed herself as she is: a courageous and valiant woman. She emanates confidence, a fundamental virtue for a politician. She displays integrity, and does not tolerate things not done well. That evokes in the electorate a sentiment of “feeling firm”.

Her victory is due in large part to the militants who took to the streets and organized great demonstrations. The people showed that it has matured in its political consciousness and knew, Biblically, how to choose the path that appeared more correct, by voting for Dilma. She was victorious with more than 51% of the votes.

The people already knew the two paths. One, tried for 8 years, enabled Brazil to grow economically, but transferred the great part of the benefits to the already well off, at the expense of depressed salaries, unemployment, and poverty for the great majorities: good policies for the rich and poor ones for the poor. Brazil was turned into a minor and subordinate player in the great global project, led by the wealthy and militaristic countries. This was not the project of a sovereign country, conscious of her human, cultural and ecological wealth, and worthy of a people that is proud of its crossbreeding and richer for all its differences.

The people have also traveled another path, the correct one for possible happiness. And the people had a central role in this. With public policies focused on the humiliated and downtrodden of our history, one of its children, a survivor of the great tribulation, Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva, managed to incorporate a population equivalent to all of Argentina into a modern society. Dilma Rousseff carried on, deepened and expanded these policies, with democratizing measures such as Pronatec, Pro-Uni, the university quotas for students from public rather than private schools; quotas for students whose grandparents came from the dungeons of slavery; and all the social programs, such as Bolsa Familia, Light for All, My House, my Life, and More Doctors, among others.

The fundamental question facing our country is being addressed: to guarantee to all, but primarily to the poor, access to the goods of life, to overcome the dreadful inequality and through educational opportunities for the young, so that they may grow, develop, and be humanized, as active citizens.

That project awakened Brazil’s sense of sovereignty, and projected it onto the world scene with an independent position, demanding a new world order, where humanity discovers itself as humans inhabiting a Common Home.

The challenge for President Dilma is not only to consolidate that which is already working and correct any defects, but to inaugurate a new cycle of the exercise of power, embracing a qualitative advance in all spheres of social life. Little will be accomplished without political reform that eliminates once and for all the bases of corruption and enables an advance in representative democracy, incorporating participatory democracy, with councils, public audiences, consultation with the social movements and the other institutions of civil society. Tax reform is also urgent, to advance equality and help diminish the abysmal social inequality. Education and health care will be at the center of the concerns of this new cycle. An ignorant and sickly people will never be able to advance towards a better life. President Dilma will be obliged to address the social imperatives regarding basic sanitation, urban mobility, with minimally dignified transportation, (85% of the population live in cities), security, and combating criminality.

In the debates she proposed a broad range of changes. Through the seriousness and sense of efficacy she always has shown, we can be sure that they will take place.

There are questions that were barely mentioned in the debates, such as the importance of modern agrarian reform, that stabilizes the peasant in the country, with all the advantages that science has to offer. It is important also to demarcate and standardize the indigenous lands, many of which are threatened by the encroachment of agro-business.

The last and perhaps the main challenge comes from the realm of ecology. The future of life and of our civilization are seriously threatened, both by the man-made death machine that could eliminate all life several times over, and by the disastrous consequences of global warming. If the warming is abrupt, as entire scientific societies warn may occur, life as we know it perhaps could not continue, and a great part of humanity would be lethally affected. Given her ecological wealth, Brazil is fundamental to the equilibrium of our tortured planet. A new Dilma administration cannot not ignore this question of life or death for our human species.

May the Spirit of Wisdom and Caring guide the difficult decisions President Dilma Rousseff must make
Free translation from the Spanish sent by
Melina Alfaro, alfaro_melina@yahoo.com.ar,
done at REFUGIO DEL RIO GRANDE, Texas, EE.UU.

Consolidate our democratic and peaceful revolution

Leonardo Boff3 Comentários

Something fundamental in Brazilian history is at stake in the second round of the current presidential campaign: our first popular, democratic and peaceful revolution, realized through the vote, with the assumption to the Presidency of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva; Lula. It was not only a change of power but a change of social class. A representative of the impoverished and permanently marginalized reached the highest office of the nation. It was the fruit of the Labor Party, PT, (from its Portuguese name), its allies and the great combination of social movements and unions, and it has been furthered by Dilma Rousseff.

As the noted historian Jose Honorio Rodrigues said in his Conciliation and Reform in Brazil, (Conciliación y Reforma en Brasil, 1965): «the interests of the people were neglected by the leaders; hence the struggles, the rebellions, the bloody history, the commitment and conciliation. We have never had a revolution in the sense of transforming the economic structure, the land regime, the change of social relations. Given her disappointing leaders, the great success of the history of Brazil is her people».

Jose Honorio continues: «the victories of the people are objective and indisputable;… Brazil owes to the people political unity, territorial integration, crossbreeding, racial tolerance, religious homogeneity, psychosocial integration, an alive national sensibility that demands “abrasileramiento” of all foreign contributions» (p.121-122).

This revolution was inaugurated with Lula and Dilma, and it is not yet finished, but it must be consolidated and deepened. Let’s hope that these elections are not badly wasted by the victory of one who represents the old oligarchical politics, more interested in economic growth, the market and alignment with the globalized macro-economy, than in the destiny of millions of people lifted from poverty by the republican policies, and transformed into social subjects, who participate in society.

That is why it is important that Dilma wins, to guarantee, consolidate and enrich that inaugural revolution with a new cycle of transformations.

At the start of colonization, the official chronicler Pero Vaz de Caminha wrote that here «whatever is planted produces». The five centuries of history, still in the light of the European paradigm, show the truth of that claim. Here everything can produce and be produced to fill the table to satisfy the hunger of the whole world. What would preclude a New-Brazil-project, democratic, social, popular, ecological, ecumenical and spiritual?

The Brazilian people became accustomed «to confronting life» and to getting everything «in the struggle», that is, with difficulty and much effort. Why then would the Brazilian people not confront this great and final challenge that lies in their path? How can they not conquer it «with courage and strength», with a solidarian consciousness, and organization, in order to guarantee the power of the state, which already has 12 years, to infuse it with the true sense of forging the necessary changes, primarily for the most forgotten, and then for everyone, giving them sustainability, and guaranteeing for them a good future for the country?

That path has already been traversed, although much remains to be finished. Twice have newcomers assumed the centers of power. Fewer and fewer are the means by which the dominant elites can return to power, with their neoliberal project that has ruined the major countries and thrown a hundred million people in Europe and the United States out of work.

We associate with the lyrics of, The saga of the Amazon, by singer Vital Faria: «Only he is a singer who carries within the smell and the color of his land/ the blood stain of his dead/ and the certainty of the struggle of those who live». That struggle, we hope, will be victorious. The country will flourish in the splendor of her multicolored people, like our landscapes, that enchant our eyes. The words of a union leader in the somber days of the submission are on point: «They can cut one, two, or all the flowers, but they cannot prevent the arrival of spring».

The spring is already well advanced. And with the spring sun we want to celebrate the victory of the majority of the Brazilian people, by reelecting Dilma Rousseff.

If it cannot be now, the challenge will remain for the future. What must come to be has strength, and the day, that blessed day, will come, when it will be triumphant.

Free translation from the Spanish by
Servicios Koinonia, http://www.servicioskoinonia.org.
Done at REFUGIO DEL RIO GRANDE, Texas, EE.UU.