In a few days, Jair Bolsonaro will officially become a re-educator, what we call convicted prisoners serving their sentence. Radical “education” comes about because one of the state’s goals when punishing a criminal is to reintegrate him into society, a process in which education is a key variable.
It is for no other reason that the system provides for an exemption from reading penalties, meaning that re-educated students can have four days reduced in prison for each book they read, up to a maximum of 12 books per year or 48 days. The book-loving prisoner’s year is shorter by a month and a half.
I am an optimist, and I believe that Bolsonaro has already been bitten by the knowledge-seeking bug. After all, he said that he violated the electronic ankle bracelet out of curiosity, and curiosity, as we all know, is the feeling that drives a person towards science and knowledge.
To make peace with himself (and with Alexandre de Moraes), I suggest that Bolsonaro begin his reading program with Principles of the Philosophy of Law by G. W. F. Hegel. There the German philosopher believes that criminals must desire condemnation.
The punishment, in the end, is the denial of the crime, which in turn is the denial of the right. Condemnation, through the restoration of law, corresponds to the will of the criminal himself, who, as a rational being, must desire to see the re-establishment of justice and the triumph of the universal will over the private will. From Hegel’s point of view, pardoning Bolsonaro and releasing him from his sentence would be tantamount to ignoring him as a rational and free being. That would be tantamount to excluding him from humanity itself, understood as a moral community.
Hegel is not an easy author. Bolsonaro may not be fascinated by the subtleties of dialectics. In this case, the re-educated person may, as long as the judge approves, of course, turn to more non-fiction books, and perhaps coloring books.
In any case, if Bolsonaro, even if out of self-interest rather than out of sincere commitment to global reason, turns into a bookworm, the conviction will have already achieved a miracle.
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