The protests that took place in Brasilia earlier this month perfectly exemplify the established dynamics of domination. Bolsonaro’s supporters not only made the mistake of trusting in politicians, but in the armed forces that, when necessary, fight to maintain the same power that oppresses them.
Under the illusion of the security forces serving the population, for months, protesters have pleaded for military intervention to “save Brazil” from the threat of communism and authoritarianism. In reality, the security forces perform the security of the elites, shielding them from the threat posed by the population they command. They are armed hands used to guarantee the continuity of exploitation.
The democratic process maintains the illusion of decision-making power to the subjugated people. Under the illusion of politicians being more than human, transformed into figures to be worshiped, the images of saviors and great leaders with the ability to guide and save the nation and the people from evil are projected onto them. Hope is fundamental for the maintenance and perpetuation of the system of domination, because under the veil of hope, power remains mostly in the same hands and with the same fundamental interests. The feeling of revolt is also something natural in democracy, because it, as well as the hope for a better reality, serves as a motor to keep the system alive, because any problem can be resolved in the next election process.
What we saw on Sunday in Brasilia were confused individuals expressing their anger at the destruction of state patrimony. Since all state heritage is illegitimate, following its very existence, the acts of destruction did not violate the ethics of property, but neither were they effective in achieving their proposed goals. Nor could they have been. The claims were never about freedom, nor even a criticism of state institutions, but only of their temporary occupants.
The physical destruction of buildings and facilities belonging to the state may be a symbolic act to represent discontent, but the real power of the state lies in the minds of the people who support it, no amount of physical destruction will be effective in eradicating an evil that actually lives inside each person who believes in it.
Sunday’s acts, besides being useless for the advancement of freedom, have justified actions that will promote exactly the opposite. The effects of what occurred will further strengthen state power, just as it did during the recent pandemic. One now accepts what would not have been accepted before. The boundaries of state action are extended when justifications are found for its expansion.
Thus, even if slowly, the state is strengthened and more deeply consolidated in life and social contexts. The potentiality may already exist, but the consolidation only comes with the actualization of the multifaceted illusion under which the new reality of power is accepted.
Now, with the justification of ensuring the security and democratic process of a rule of law, increases in the existing level of censorship will be more easily tolerated, as well as increased monitoring of electronic communications and arrests of dissidents. The media, the informational arm of the established power, will, at every possible opportunity, classify this acts as terrorist or vandalism carried out by extremists and coup plotters, in order to implant the idea, raising the gravity of the problem, that a state solution is justified and must be established.
True liberation will only come when hope in the state ceases to exist.
