In “On the Brevity of Life”, Seneca criticizes people who are very busy, who run from one place to another, responding to a thousand requests, but do nothing for what really matters, because what they do does not last. There is a dynamic specific to Brazil which resembles the underlying politics and diverts it.
Here, invariably, the crucial themes follow one another. For example, one week we started to predict that the dominant topic would be COP30, with its expectations and frustrations; we switched to Banco Master two days later, a subject that will probably come up again; then there was the reduction in customs tariffs; finally, the indication to the STF. However, surprisingly, the case of Bolsonaro’s anklet came up.
There were more than 1.3 million messages and more than 28 million interactions on this latest move, in less than 24 hours, galvanizing public attention to a mediocre act. This episode surpassed the weirdness of important themes, which were also already neglected.
In a networked society, incentives for the hypercirculation of information are inevitable. But attention can easily be diverted, manipulated and directed. There is an unrealistic “Instagramization” of reality, which leads politics into a vacuum, creating a growing deficit of public dissatisfaction. With networks, polarization, untruths and insecurity also increase. Bolsonarism has precisely an impact on this.
I am not referring here to the character, but to an arc which brings together currents in the ultra-conservative field, associated with specific interest groups, which are articulated politically and conceptually. This arc seeks to create an institutional dynamic of confrontation, with the hyper-accelerated mobilization of its digital support network, based on facts and facts. As a field, it is distinct from the political center, which is more subtle, pragmatic, pendulum and institutionalist.
In Bolsonarism, which is pure spectacle, institutions are portrayed as captured or supporters of a program contrary to customs. They are conspiratorial and restrictive of freedom. A local version of the “deep state”. For him, the interpretation of freedom is a sophism that threatens freedom itself. To face an unstable reality, where the mode of production shifts from the material to the immaterial, generating a new uncertain social dynamic, a moralist, unitary and fundamentalist discourse is recruited with the aim of reaching voters.
With the disappearance of Olavo de Carvalho and the absence of Paulo Guedes, Bolsonarism is sinking deeper and deeper into the messianic discourse. The character despairs, becomes empty. January 8 first arises from this dynamic of defeat. Protests and international conspiracy are the second derivative, and the anklet case is the third.
Paradoxically, due to the excess of spectacle and contradictions, Bolsonaro as a character has become prisoner of an imagery which, although powerful before, now robs him of prestige. Nevertheless, he is capable of hijacking politics, as we have seen, through victimization, and preventing the opposition camp from finding another candidate in time for 2026. He must maintain an electoral expression that determines to other competitors whether or not they can go to the second round, but without the leading role of the past.
The leaders of the far right formally offer solidarity, but have already taken into account its diminishing residual importance. The field of protest within the opposition is gradually opening up, but not yet sufficiently. The amnesty program galvanizes and impoverishes the opposition’s repertoire. In this context, time is in favor of a new mandate for Lula, who received crucial discursive elements from the throes of Bolsonarism.
The country needs the policy to be brought back in an updated version. Will essential and always postponed reforms have room? Will public spending be nuanced? Will the intangible economy be the subject of a strategy? Will the future of work in AI and robotics be considered? Seneca’s point of view remains: the wise man does less, but he does what matters.
TRENDS / DEBATES
Articles published with a byline do not reflect the opinion of the newspaper. Its publication aims to stimulate debate on Brazilian and global issues and reflect different trends in contemporary thought.
About The Author
