For sure, Brazil’s
government would take pleasure in installing its
own peculiar form of dictatorship. Marxism has always run in the
veins of the Workers’ Party. It’s in the DNA. Not by chance, every
so often, ghostwriters for President Lula, the Supreme Ignoramus,
find room to insert a Stalinist author amidst his fastidious speeches.
by: Janer
Cristaldo
There is a concern, among certain sectors of the non-Left, that the Workers
Party is leading the nation to a communist regime. Should that be the case,
the party’s strategy would be founded on Italian Marxist thinker Antonio Gramsci,
which basically consists in the infiltration of a society’s culture prior
to the revolutionthe communist revolution, let it be clear.
That being established,
hearts and mindsto borrow an endeared expression by Richard Nixonwould
be so overwhelmed by rampant contamination that the perception of a regime
change would go unnoticed.
Forgive me those who think
that way, but I disagree. I disagree not only with the fact that the Workers
Party is leading the country toward a communist regime, but also with the
efficacy of Gramscism as a battle tool.
It is true that the press
and the nation’s academic world are engulfed in a Marxist view of the world,
even when neither journalists nor professors are Marxists. But to hold the
Italian scholar responsible for such phenomenon would mean honors where honors
are not due.
In Brazil there’s a small
circle of intellectuals who cherish his work; one must live on something after
all. But this small circle does not have what it takes to influence the future
of this uncultured nation.
A militant doesn’t need
to read great theories in order to infer thatonce the press and universities
are in checkthe culture of a nation is under control.
The celebrated Gramscians
in Brazil today are retired scholars, who would never turn their backs on
their youth doctrine. It is very hard for a man, at the end of his life, to
recognize that all he wrote isn’t worth shit. So, they continue to hang on
to lies that have brought them prestige and support. Old trees don’t stoop,
they crack.
Can anyone fathom a Carlos
Nelson Coutinho, Leandro Konder, Marco Aurelio Nogueira, Paulo Eduardo Arantes,
Tarso Genro, or so many others scholars who built their careers developing
theses and articles about Gramsci, dumping all their garbage out? That’s too
much to be expected from the perfect Latin-American idiot.
Gramsci died in 1937.
Intellectuals such as Sartre or Brecht, Aragon or Neruda, Jorge Amado or Graciliano
Ramos were drawn to Stalinism not as a result of his work. Like opium, Marxist
theory intoxicated an entire intellectual community of the past century, and
that cannot be attributed to the Italian.
Catholic Communism
Deep in the soul of every
Marxist, there is a Christian who suffocated his religion in favor of another,
secular but totalitarian as well. (At times, the path goes in the opposite
direction).
As a matter of fact, in
the West, Marxism took a stronghold precisely in Catholic countries: Russia,
Italy, France, Spain, Brazil. In Protestant settings, success was very limited.
If Portuguese is the "uncultured
and beautiful" (as poet Olavo Bilac wrote) last language born out of
the Latin, Marxism is the last cultured and ugly heir to Catholicism. Gramsci
is simply a minor religious clerk, a mere support for iconic symbols.
Nor do I deem possible
that any party, no matter how obsolete, can drag this country into a communist
regime. Will the Supreme Ignoramus manage to transform this pluralistic society
into a single party regime? Do away with elections and replace them with a
one candidate farce?
Place the opposition under
arrest? Put an end to private property and unions? Create gulags for
dissidents? Convince doctors to be content with 15 dollars a month? The fearful
please forgive me, but I cannot believe so. It is too late to attest to the
quadrature of the Earth.
Obviously, this does not
mean that the government wouldn’t take pleasure in installing its own peculiar
form of dictatorship. Marxism has always run in the veins of the Workers’
Party. It’s in the DNA.
Not by chance, every so
often, ghostwriters for the Supreme Ignoramus find room to insert a Stalinist
author amidst his fastidious discourses. If the idea of a single party, single
newspaper, suppressing elections, or gulags seems unfathomable, nonetheless,
the governing party is bound to take some action to stifle the opposition.
Last week, Dr. Strangelove
raised his arm, once again, to salute Jossif Wissarionowitsch Dschugaschwili,
the People’s Daddy, aka Stalin, which means "the one of steel" in
Russian.
Two were the modest proposals
by the government: an agency to oversee cultural productions, Ancinav, and
a council to police news media. Within one week, two heavy blows.
Ancinav would have authority
over movies, television, cable TV, radio, and other audio-visual media organizations,
that is, all that can influence the hordes of illiterates in the country.
We are turning back to
the times of socialist realism, also known as Zdanovism. This unrefined theory,
elaborated by the Russian scholar Andrei Zdanov and imported to Brazil by
the noted author Jorge Amado, was the only art movement permitted in the USSR
once Stalin rose to power, and in effect it transformed literature and other
art forms into pamphlets at the disposal of the socialist revolution.
By the way, Zdanov’s ideas
have been widely employed by Globo TV, throughout its soap opera productions,
and not one journalist ever points it out.
After all, no one is safe
from ever having to knock on the Marinho Empire’s door (the Marinho family
owns Globo GroupTV, cable, newspaper, radio, magazines), begging for
a job.
The proposal couldn’t
have come out from anywhere else but the Cabinet, controlled by Bolshevik
and Cuban agent José Dirceu, who is President’s Lula Chief of Staff.
Muzzling the Press
To reign over the remaining
portion of the educated population, a council to censure journalists is to
be created. This was proposed by our comrades from the National Federation
of Journalists.
It’s not enough that Brazil
is the only country to require a diploma to practice journalism; the group
prostitutes now want to silence the voice of the only influential bloc who
has denounced corruption in the Executive, Legislative, and Judiciary.
The Supreme Ignoramus,
despite ignoramus, is a sensible man and knows where the shoe pinches. Were
it not for the press, Lalaus (reference to Judge Nicolau dos Santos, found
guilty and sent to prison), Dirceus (reference to chief of staff José
Dirceu), and Meirelles (reference to Central Bank president Meirelles) and
people alike would remain immaculate at their posts.
Wolf doesn’t eat wolf.
Lula is illiterate, but this he can understand. He wants to hush the last
recourse for the disclosure of irregularities, the most approachable course
of action to citizens, the press.
According to one of the
Administration’s royals, labor minister Berzoini, today there isn’t a body
"to police and punish inadequate conduct by journalists."
All indications are that
the highly qualified aides in Brasilia have not informed the minister of the
existence of a Legal Code and a Press Statute, the latter being an after-effect
of the military regime.
I remain skeptical that
the government party can drive us to a communist regime. But some sort of
dictatorship is inevitable. No Marxist, even those within the Government Palace,
can endure the news media cracking down on the wrongdoings of power.
Perhaps, something akin
to the modern Chinese modelample capital freedom, yet no freedom of
thought; in any case, a kind of sequel to the post-64 regime, when the military
and their barracks rigidness imposed something on the nation that should never
have been imposedpress censorship.
The next step on the way
to the dictatorship will be taken in the coming days. On the August 18th
, the Federal Supreme Court will decide whether or not to suppress an established,
proper, and vested right, attained by government employees who are not in
active duty: the right not to pay social security.
The government, in need
of cash to compensate the "retroactive heroes" who attempted to
ruin de nation, is going all out in an effort to undermine one of the pillars
of a democratic regime.
If this pillar, the vested
right, is taken away, there will be no roadblocks for others to be eliminated,
such nonsense as the right to property ownership or to inheritance.
There will then be a new
type of dictatorial regime in place, the Tupiniquim (a common term
in Brazil, which refers to native Tupiniquim Indians, often used in a self-deprecating,
mocking context), a system which negates the rights of its citizens, rigorously
adhering to institutional guides.
Congratulations, all Brazilians!
Now, with distinct virility,
in the universe
among nations
outshines that of
Brazil
(short piece of Brazil’s Independence anthem)
Janer Cristaldohe holds a PhD from University of Paris, Sorbonneis
an author, translator, lawyer, philosopher and journalist and lives in São
Paulo. His e-mail address is cristal@baguete.com.br.
Translated
from the Portuguese by Eduardo Assumpção de Queiroz. He is
a freelance translator, with a degree in Business and almost 20 years of
experience working in the fields of economics, communications, social and
political sciences, and sports. He lives in Boca Raton, FL. His email: eaqus@adelphia.net.