THE TIME.

There are things that we only perceive with time, and even worse, even if we feel them in some much earlier time, we only understand them clearly much later. One of the things that I already felt but that became so clear so recently is that unless you are a complete idiot, on one of the many levels of manifestations that are also idiotic and pathetic is to be Brazilian.

Of course, there are now prolific smiling testimonies of foreigners who say without mincing words that they have found in Brazil a kind of paradise with things that do not exist in their own countries and peoples. Things so diametrical that it is hard for us to believe that only in this land of fugitives from religious wars or not, of losers in wars, of those deceived by the songs of some sirens or ambitious opportunists came to find their faces and boots, or without them here.

It is true that in the past these testimonies came in newspaper texts, chronicles, essays and novels. It is also true that he hears recorded and famous phrases from comparatively famous minds who said very much to the contrary. But what does it matter that there is a certain climate here, despite sixty thousand murders a year, fifty-odd thousand traffic deaths and four women raped every minute, that here is a paradise, a kind of heaven on earth or a piece of nirvana.

The truth, and this is probably exactly what I felt from a couple of days ago, is that if you want by legitimate choice to be an apedeuta, an ass, a donkey or even to have a more descriptively accurate adjective than these, live in Brazil for the next few years of your life. Really living among average Brazilians, and this is definitely not about, has no relation to social condition, be it economic or even formal education, is to make you a worse person, or at least to stagnate you in a despicable and toxic mediocrity.

Of course, we are not the only, travel not the worst, most toxic culture in the world, but we are on a dangerous threshold, and we should if not be avoided at all costs as urgently, if there is any chance, desperately reversed.

This, in a more terrible way, happens in all social areas, in all age groups and in the luckiest economic situations. This country is a disaster and the ideological trappings as sometimes subtle, sometimes crude artifices to take people to an unattainable heaven on earth is a deception and shows itself every day a greater and imminent disaster.

When a person who, after a dubious undertaking, establishes a relationship with a possible presidential candidate, who once inaugurated even after a dubious political career and election, takes advantage of a position that only exists in a way determined by a tradition without legitimate election, it is not He is simply wasting taxpayers' taxes without discretion and, on top of that, he commits two blunders: saying in an interview “open” and in a video “citizens”, it must be something after some definitive end.

But it is not a question of demonizing just one party or one ideological side, although it is practically indefensible to have so many blunders, scandals and crimes always related to the same party and the people who are part of this, more precisely, a gang. The fact is that at face value, decadence, error and endemic disorientation is real, and like everything in life or in reality, a price will be charged or is already being charged, without discounts and with exorbitant interest.

But is this a Brazilian phenomenon only or does it occur as a fact in other regions of the world today? As the great Nelson Rodrigues wisely and prophetically said, “idiots will dominate the world, in fact, there are many of them”. If we look at human history without major passions, just attentively and intellectually honest, we will see, we will see that the useful and great contributions to the good of all of us were always due to some enlightened ping cats in some way, I believe by divine providences and mercies.

However, Brazil suffers more due to a more serious detail. This detail is that by being a sponge absorbing ideas and behaviors born and produced abroad, in other places from the West to the East, without criticism, and without producing any organized thought of our own, we have become a result of a strange and totally spurious amalgam. This disaster occurs from the lowest social and intellectual layers to the highest, all contaminated in a terribly disastrous way. It's a lot of stupidity per square meter in a single country, in a single nation.

And it is almost impossible for anyone to argue against this reality, without resorting to false statistics, fallacies or ideologically impactful catchphrases. Things aren't going well, they definitely aren't. While education certificates are distributed without there being a real assessment and verification of learning from the base of the educational hierarchy to, amazingly, at its apex, the inability to recognize reality and reflect on it, means that a multitude of people just take a position of one side or the other, irresponsibly and passionately not taking responsibility for errors or disasters that have consequently occurred, causing everything to follow such undefined paths and that the worst results are ultimately what happen to us.

Technology and improvement of the human condition throughout the history of humanity have always had some relationship, however it has not always meant a moral improvement in the corresponding proportion. What has happened is that wars and great disasters have suddenly promoted greater awareness and a certain degree of regret followed by a time of comfort and adaptation until new generations with sufficient memory of the hardships and sufferings of their ancestors begin to spend their lives in idiocy. and exposing yourself to completely unnecessary risks. Perhaps that is why periods of war or disaster precede periods of peace followed by times of madness and incomprehensible madness.

Remember Sodom and Gomorrah, whether myth or reality, they were not places behind their time and place, but a place of security and provideable pleasures that were either not allowed or not known in other places. Such a relationship between possibility and cause has been repeated countless times in human history and is now also repeated in our present, unfortunately.

Remember Sodom and Gomorrah, whether myth or reality, they were not places behind their time and place, but a place of safety and provideable pleasures that were either not allowed or not known in other places. Such a relationship between possibility and cause has been repeated countless times in human history and is now also repeated in our present, unfortunately.

Helvécio S. Pereira

Belo Horizonte, November 8, 2024 (the date I publish, the ceiling is much earlier)