The most important book yet to be written by a new and necessary Gilberto Freyre will describe what happened in Rio de Janeiro in the last century. Such a work, if undertaken seriously, will be the most significant of the century. It is a perhaps unprecedented human catastrophe that separates the Rio de Janeiro of Machado de Assis from the Rio de Janeiro of the 2000s, and even though it is scandalous, it is difficult to trace the succession of events that made it possible. To do so, it would be necessary to gather documents and delve into history with unusual awareness and acumen, capable of identifying the psychological roots of a physically crystallized phenomenon. Someone will have to do it. From a destruction like this, something very important must be learned. Possibly, Brazil’s destiny depends on the success of such an undertaking.
Tag: history
There Seems to Be an All Too Obvious…
There seems to be an all too obvious moral distinction between the great argonauts of the past, separating those motivated by discovery from those motivated by domination. These are very different impulses, which only appear to be compatible. To discern them, it is often enough to analyze the successes after landing on the land found. It is therefore strange that all this is not very clear, allowing true glory to be conferred on the true and very brave heroes.
Du Pouvoir, by Bertrand de Jouvenel, Dates Back…
Du pouvoir, by Bertrand de Jouvenel, dates back to 1945. At that time, the staggering growth of the modern state and the realization that it could only continue to grow inexorably were already causing fear. But what astonishing speed this happened with! The power wielded by the state in those years, just over half a century ago, seems insignificant compared to the power wielded today by any Western democracy. Today, the state has the means to monitor the most intimate details of any citizen’s private life and to annihilate, overnight and without the slightest effort, the life of anyone it targets. In 1945, although the relentless process of growth in power could be predicted, no one could have imagined the monstrosity of the technological arsenal that would quickly fall into the hands of Lobaczewski’s psychopaths. Between the individual and the state, the disparity of means is absolute. Indeed, Lobaczewski seems to have grasped something valuable: to understand the historical, sociological, and political development of the West, it is appropriate to establish a science of evil.
It Is Always Very Interesting When Historians…
It is always very interesting when historians or biographers, eschewing the usual generalizations, manage to outline the influence of economic factors on individual lives. Because such factors, although sometimes overestimated, and although they do not explain everything by themselves, determine much of what is done. There are decisions that seem irrational if stripped of the economic factors that motivated them, just as there are trials, misfortunes, and states of mind that are economically based. Sometimes, it is in this type of factor that the greatest obstacles to a personality’s affirmation are condensed. It seems somewhat undignified, but that is how it is.