Fernando Alcoforado*
The ship of foolish is an ancient allegory widely used in Western culture in literature and paintings. Imbued with a sense of self-criticism, she describes the world and its inhabitants as if they were in a ship whose troubled passengers neither know nor care where they are going. Brazil is like a boat sinking. And we Brazilians are passengers of this boat that is going nowhere and we are sinking with it.
Imagine the situation of a ship, that is, Brazil, going sinking without its occupants, that is, the Brazilian population, perceive the catastrophic situation that slowly imposes itself. This image is part of a medieval allegory that was represented in the most distinct forms over the last five hundred years: The Ship of the Foolish. There were many who brought to light all the splendor of this idea, among them Erasmus of Rotterdam in Praise of Madness, Michel Foucault in History of Madness and Federico Fellini in the cinema.
In the film E la nave va (And the ship goes) by Fellini, the most obscure and selfish facets of human beings surface. By reproducing with masterly dexterity the most disturbing aspects of individual behavior on the social environment, Fellini exposes the poorer face of human existence that might lead us to believe that we are dealing with the representation of a society altogether distant. The bad news is that most of the elements that make up la nave (the ship) are still noticeable in our own Brazilian reality with the regrettable behavior of many of the members of the Executive, Legislative and Judiciary branches and the Brazilian population.
The Brazilian population is in ship of foolish called Brazil, commanded by the federal government as the characters of Fellini and in the midst of this trip to nowhere, because the Bolsonaro government does not have a plan or course for the Ship called Brazil that faces the most terrible storms, strong winds, natural disasters and accidents in its course. And so, worried about the future, the government and the Brazilian population look forward without realizing that the water is already touching the waist and that there is no more how to turn back. This is the scenario lived with Ship of Foolish called Brazil sinking in the contemporary era.
The ship called Brazil is sinking because it is being led by a President of the Republic, Jair Bolsonaro, who does not seek to unite the nation around common goals. Quite the contrary, he preaches confrontation against those who oppose him, contributing to further divide the inhabitants of the country by putting into practice his neofascist project of government in the economy and in the areas of education, environment, crime, among others, in addition to inciting the population with the act scheduled for May 26 past, aiming at the closing of the National Congress and the Federal Supreme Court.
The Bolsonaro government’s proposal is typically fascist because its discourse is based on the explicit cult of order, state violence, authoritarian government practices, social scorn by vulnerable and frail groups, and anti-communism. Despite Bolsonaro’s assertion that he will respect the Constitution and the Laws of the Country, the threat to the current democratic order in Brazil is explicit in his manifestations throughout his life and in his antidemocratic campaign speech.
The escalation of fascism is already a concrete fact in Brazil, widespread, rooted and may become irreversible at the present moment if there is no resistance. In order to avoid the end of the current democratic system in Brazil, it is not enough, therefore, to rely on the republican institutions that can undergo changes contrary to the interests of the great majority of the population through projects of Law and Amendments to the Constitution by the Bolsonaro government. In order to avoid the escalation of fascism and the establishment of an extreme right-wing dictatorship in Brazil, a democratic anti-fascist front will probably be formed in Parliament and Civil Society to defend the Constitution of 1988 and to fight against acts of government that are contrary to the interests of the great majority of the population and of Brazil, contributing to further divide Brazilian society.
While the Bolsonaro government is contributing to the rise of fascism to power in Brazil, the Brazilian economy is headed towards depression and the social situation of the working class in Brazil is worsening. The ship called Brazil has an economically active population of 90.6 million workers. Unemployment is 13.1 million workers and the economically active underutilized population is 27.9 million workers. For the Brazilian economic system to generate the necessary jobs for the economically active population, it is necessary, as a first step, the Bolsonaro government to immediately implement a broad program of public infrastructure works (energy, transportation, housing, basic sanitation, etc.) to increase the employment and income levels of the population and, as a consequence, to promote the expansion of household consumption resulting from the increase in the wage bill and the income of companies with investments in infrastructure.
In addition to the public works program, the Bolsonaro government should develop an economic plan that would contribute to the resumption of Brazil’s development, which would present the population and the productive sectors with a perspective of overcoming the current crisis and resumption of economic growth. Taking into account the speech of the economy minister of the government Jair Bolsonaro, Paulo Guedes, who is a fundamentalist of neoliberalism hardly the federal government will play an active role as an inducer of economic growth by developing a development plan to promote the reactivation of the economy and raise employment levels in Brazil, thus contributing to economic sinking of the ship called Brazil.
The Bolsonaro government contributes to sink he ship called Brazil by not adopting any strategy that contributes to the achievement of 3 economic objectives that are fundamental to: 1) promote the resumption of the country’s economic growth; 2) to face the ongoing trade war in the world economy between the United States and China that could jeopardize Brazil’s exports; and, 3) prevent the country from suffering the consequences of the probable explosion of the world debt bomb.
The Ship of Foolish, medieval allegory, portrays the reality lived by Brazil at the moment. The aggravation of the political, economic and social environments tends to conflagrass the country with the intensification of the political struggle between the supporters of the Bolsonaro government and the opposition political forces whose consequences are unpredictable. All this situation causes the inhabitants of Brazil to act as if they were in a ship whose disturbed passengers neither know nor care where they are going as in the medieval allegory.
The Bolsonaro government acts by sinking the Ship of Foolish called Brazil. The pitiful thing is that the passengers of this boat, the inhabitants of Brazil do not realize the catastrophic situation that slowly imposes itself. It is imperative to prevent the ship called Brazil from sinking. In order to prevent this from happening and ensure social peace in Brazil, despite the immense contradictions that exist, the Bolsonaro government should summon the main political leaders and the Brazilian people to converge around a common project of political, economic and social development. Without the adoption of this measure, the ship called Brazil will collapse and the political, economic and social conflagration will be inevitable in the future.
* Fernando Alcoforado, 79, awarded the medal of Engineering Merit of the CONFEA / CREA System, member of the Bahia Academy of Education, engineer and doctor in Territorial Planning and Regional Development by the University of Barcelona, university professor and consultant in the areas of strategic planning, business planning, regional planning and planning of energy systems, is the author of 14 books addressing issues such as Globalization and Development, Brazilian Economy, Global Warming and Climate Change, The Factors that Condition Economic and Social Development, Energy in the world and The Great Scientific, Economic, and Social Revolutions that Changed the World.
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