After writing about how disappointed I was with Brazil and chatting with my wife yesterday I realized that I have written here about Brazil's inhabitants but not about our society, so here goes.
[10/05 Edit: I got the first immigrants wrong, it's fixed now.]
brazilian Society
It has been said over and over again that Brazil is a land lovingly created by God:
- The land is fertile and everything that is sown, grows;
- A nearly limitless amount fresh water and navigable rivers that reach far inland;
- A coastline teaming with fish and plenty of safe harbors for ships of all sizes;
- Rolling valleys, gentle hills and fields;
- Forests so friendly that native inhabitants never developed complex tools to tame the land;
- Peaceful weather all year round;
- Fauna and flora so abundant that not all of it has yet been made known;
- Natural beauties of all shapes and sizes;
- Melodies of nature that even a deaf man can hear.
We're lazy, stunted and permanently immersed in a deep state of stupidity thanks, mostly to our Portuguese founding fathers.
Mind you, I'm not blaming Portugal, that wouldn't make sense since, despite their stunted economy, made it into the EU.
I'm blaming the Portuguese that came to Brazil - our Mayflower, in a very loose comparison, wasn't filled with religious outcasts looking for freedom in a land to call their own, [Edited] it was full of thieves and folks in debt wanting to evade their debts to society and creditors [/Edited]. Later, seeing that the land was fertile, Portuguese landowners came over to build huge plantations and so our history of slavery started. The Portuguese landowners never really left power, when slavery was abolished in 1888 the slaves stayed put and started receiving miserable wages or worked for food and board - essentially, slavery still existed, just under covers.
The exploitation of the Brazilian workers is part of our national growth as african slaves evolved into african freemen into freemen (mostly mixed races, especially decedents of african and portuguese, as the portuguese men LOVED the black booty) into the modern, low wage, Brazilian working class. The low wages are generally due to the Brazilian educational philosophy and panem et circenses (populist leaders, incredibly popular sporting events, telenovelas, welfare state and, quite literally, cheap bread).
Social strife or class struggle is nipped at the bud at an early age by our education based on the Positivist motto of "Progress and Order", present on the Brazilian Flag. Education here is seen as the vomiting of information into the minds of the young folks - questions and debates are not seen as being very positivist so they are not part of our educational doctrine. Once the young mind is full of useless facts, boredom and dislike for knowledge sets in and little headway is made into the search for truths. The young adult, even with adolescent rebellion, assumes their role in society as an automaton that does what he is told as thinking differently is frowned upon. The few that dare think outside the box are labeled troublemakers but are left alone to become people, not numbers.
With that you now have a traditional colonialist society where a small part of the population, the former aristocracy, holds the lands, factories and power while a majority is wildly entertained by men running around kicking a ball while eating loaves and loaves of really crappy "french" bread (if the French ever knew we call the crappy bread "french bread", they'd invade us).
The Working Class gets its kicks from saving most of their salaries, being hypocritical catholics, watching mind-numblingly stupid TV and, quite literally, kicking a football around.
While, in the past no incentive was made in the field of self improvement or higher education, recently both have been thoroughly explored as the abundance of unskilled labor has now become a burden on the industry so college level education is in demand. The focus, as should be is expected, is not on acquiring knowledge and understanding but in buying a diploma in 24 to 60 monthly payments while having to endure 15 to 20 hours a week of sitting in an ill equipped classroom listening to someone talk.
The Upper Class is comfortable as their position is defended by the working class itself as, according to popular belief, class change is something that only happens in the telenovelas (that are nothing more than elaborate fairy tales that are full of merchandising) and that true self improvement is a thing for people that don't have to work. This class is made up mostly of politicians (most are blatantly greedy, corrupt and without a care for the population), TV artists and business owners and there are plenty that are part of two or three of the groups.
It is important to note that the position of power is not one that they invented or strive to maintain but one that they are born into or have it dropped on them in acts of chance (like getting banged by Mick Jagger without a condom). In reality, the upper class is just as sterile as the working class but instead of kicking a ball, they watch the NFL and instead of "french bread" they eat real french bread.
Class struggle is a social taboo and revolution and change are never acted although lots of folks talk about it, nobody is really willing to rock the boat - it's as though society here has been thoroughly sterilized from creative and outside-the-box thinking.
In essence, to think differently here is to break from norms and, unlike other countries where different means shunned, here you take part in Brazil's third class, the Thinking Class - a very small group that has managed some miracles despite the collective stupidity around us.
You may ask, after such a long rant, if I hate this place.
After understanding it I have no feelings for it whatsoever, either positive or negative. However, since thinking isn't a crime and chaos is what surrounds me, I can live free without fear of persecution for being who I am and saying what I please. I know this is true of most modern democracies but here in Brazil, the governmental powers, so involved in itself and in its greed, leaves the population alone believe that they are being well taken care of by their own social chains.
In truth, I'd rather be a thinker in a land of idiots than a drone elsewhere.
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