A few weeks ago we were up to see what seemed to be a protest against a
R$0.20 raise in the São Paulo ticket bus price but since then the Brazilians
are experiencing the major wave of riots and protests in decades. It all begun with this protest
organized by the “Free Pass Movement” in 6th of June ,69 years after the
D-Day in a protest known as “The first
great act against the raise in ticket
prices”
The first week of protests became remembered from the confrontation
between protesters and the police. While the mainstream media coverage was focusing on the riots and
destructions nearby the famous Paulista Avenue the Brazilians were deeply
emerged in the powerful social media interactivity, represented mostly by
Facebook, focusing on the violence and brutality of the police officers. Maybe
the most remarkable YouTube video during the first week of protests was about a
cop destroying his own car window, probably to justify some violent action.
Despite all the misjudgment in both media it’s clear that this issue
was just the beginning of a chain of events that made Brazilians from all kinds
of political bias to go to streets and complain “not only for R$0.20”, a motto
that was born on the internet and just in a blink of an eye we were all on
streets. Issues such as big spends in Soccer World Cup and Olympics with no
real payback in our poor infrastructure, corruption and the terrible quality of
education and health care public services was the main complains on streets. The “Free Pass Movement”
spokespersons didn’t like the way the protests were going saying that the
Brazilians couldn’t forget about the “real” agenda. In an
opposite direction the Anonymous group was the great responsible to establish a
non-party agenda once the FPM sets themselves as a radical left wing group.
Surely is too soon to get the real
meaning of all of this but some analysis can be made right now.
A look to the past
Believe me: There’s never been such a thing as liberty around
here. Unlike the Unites States of America that in the 19th century was
preparing to become the most powerful and wealthiest nation in the world,
Brazil was a monarchist and slavery country for almost the entire 19th century.
The 20th century was no different at all and can’t be remembered of free
individuals changing this country.
90 years ago Getúlio Vargas
established himself as a populist dictator for almost two decades. In the
Fifties Juscelino Kubitschek was the president in charge when the politicians
had a "brilliant" idea to run away from the Brazilians creating the new federal
capital Brasilia, a city in the middle of nowhere. 10 years later when we were
going towards a communist regime the military force was responsible for a Coup
d'état in 1964 that last until the middle 80’s.
The military government is remenbered by all forms of censorship against political opponents (unfortunately
almost all of them was communists). Thousands of people were shut down during this period. The economic
situation was critic as well. A huge regulator and protectionist state (responsible
to provide all kinds of “basic” goods and services) vanished the little of
wealth the Brazilian middle class had due to criminal and regular periods of
hyperinflation.
What I’m going to write now it’s no
joke, ok? Influent journalists and political writers from Brazil say that the
Military Dictatorship period was capitalism at its best. A tupiniquim version for
the American way of life. According to these liars the right-wing conservatives
was the only alternative to a social left-wing regime. They say the liberalism
(in the classic sense of the word) was proven wrong so there’s no place to
consider a small state in here. Said that lets go back to history.
After the fall
of the military government in 1985 the democracy arrives but in the economics
the tragedy continued. Hyperinflation,
price fixing and apprehension of people’s money on banks were some of the
ridiculous government actions that lead to the last big wave of protests until
now. As a result: The currently President Fernando Collor suffered an
impeachment in 1992. The legacy: 20 years later we’re all on streets again.
The generation of young people that are now on streets has
lived in a pretended period of prosperity. Without hyperinflation
moments and with less protectionism than before, people now had reasons to
believe Brazil would became internationally relevant. In the politics enviroment the three major parties that stepped up
(PT, PSDB and PMDB) are all social democrats orientated. A big welfare state and credit
creation by our Central Bank made people
think we were back on track and all the “bright future” motto was all over
again been used by politicians to make us believe in their capacity of
Brazil.
What to wait for?
As we could get from this briefly analysis of the political
history of Brazil the big state has always been part of our life. The Brazilian
Constitution from 1988 institutionalizes the idea that a lot of kinds of goods
and services are actually rights. Even today people refer to the constitution
as a major milestone to our “outstanding democratic system”. So now we’re
fooled to believe that the state is the responsible to delivery us stuffs that
individuals would never been able to offer.
The anti-capitalist mentality is
still a great movement in Brazil. It’s not chocking once almost an entire class
of ‘intelectuals’, musicians, writers and artists in general has always been
flirting with the concept that economic liberty is naturally bad. Surely this “evidence” has nothing to
do with the real world in Brazil or overseas.
The enthusiastic of a progressive agenda has systematic
been attacking what they call as ‘neoliberals’. This term has
always been in use since the 90s to attack everything bad in Brazil such as the
level of misery and economic gap between classes. Once no one defends this made
up neoliberal agenda it’s was easy to associate the term with the concept of
capitalism. Gramsci would be proud of these
guys. If neoliberal
actually means something it’s nothing more than a light socialism.
Privatizations have always been attacked
by the statists. They forget that 20 years ago the telephonic sector was a
monopoly of the state and you had to wait for months simple to have a telephone
number in your house. But it’s true that you can’t expect coherence for these
guys. They say that the PSDB (Brazilian Social Democratic Party) “sold” the
Brazil while the party never has been a clearly defender of the private sector.
As soon as we still saying stupid things like “the oil is ours” happiest the
politicians will be. We’re just endorsing them to take care of our life.
Let’s face something. If you want to
redistribute (and destroy) wealth it’s wise to first create it. Sweden it’s
seen as a benchmark of a huge democratic and welfare state but people are just
too lazy to understand that before the welfare state arise in there they were by decades a pungent and free market nation. That’s the only effective way to
create wealth independent of the imorality of redistribution.
There are some reasons Brazil still a
3rd world country. One of them is that we skipped the wealth creation period
before distributed it. In other words, we’re just redistributing poverty
instead wealth. But politicians know that some liberty is necessary to avoid
the collapse of the welfare state system. Only the enough to get them
reelected.
The giant is alive but still sleeping
It’s really awesome and exciting when you realize that the
state and politicians are extremely weak when population arises against them.
They can only be in charge of our life once we legitimate their acts. We’re
stronger and more numerous so they will go to fall once we decide that’s the
way.
But come on! Are we going to call for more of the same? More
state and politicians in our live? Since when are we going to believe that
volunteer actions are bad? Individuals are capable enough to change the world and
humanity for better. If the state is responsible to regulate and supervise us who will go to
supervise them? So, let’s stop begging government for quality services.
Think about it all the great and cool
stuffs that happened in the last 20 years. If you write down a list it’s very
unlikely that the government was responsible for one of these amazing things. Only
the private market can efficiently provide goods and services that the
population need. Basic goods and services are still scarce so cannot be seen as
rights.
The results will be awful if this generation of protestors don’t
fight for a real reason that would make us proud of changing this country for
better. Liberty is kind of a new word in Brazil but we can’t give it up of
pursuing that. Only individuals actually acts and been so no central planning will be
capable to offer real positive change in a planet with 7 billion people and a country of 200 million people. We’re
much more than a tool to elect a politician.
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