Aquarela do Brasil

Have news of Bolsonaro´s latest would-be authoritarian twitchings come to the international press yet? In my reluctant capacity as a reporter from the trenches, I have to be clear about this: that´s not an Erdogan or Duda on the rise, that´s a case of political Tourette´s. There are proximal causes in the Revolutionary Guard´s increasing zeal in their recently-acquired role as Grand Inquisitor (it is truly weird to have Supreme Court justices conducting investigations and ordering arrests of small-fry YouTubers), of course; there´s also the more general issue of the fundamental untenability of presidential democracy, which has to be skilfully dodged by systems of bribing (chrema) and of legitimizing such bribing (chroma). But Jair has never been about skill, he´s always been about truth-rain. The contingent fact that he´s something of a crook (and a small-fry one, at that) does little to undermine his radical metaphysical novelty, although it did lead almost everyone who fashions themselves bem pensante (I´m not proud to admit this includes us) to ditch him as damaged goods.

Still, there is something in this flareup that rehabilitates him. Had him managed a full conversion to overt fascism in the Italian tradition (reactionary and yet set in motion by the Futurists), there might be more — as long as it made allowance for that in his heart which still pines to be a conduit for the systemic sources of quability. As it is, the sheer impulsivity of his ¨political Tourette´s¨, the space it opens for his enemies to manipulate him, the senseless agitation it produces in his fervorous followers, all of this opens up space again for the light in his heart to shine through. NB it´s not only self-destructive, it´s destructive simpliciter, makes everyone worse off as it both ignores and ignites a full-on economic meltdown. Does the mobydickness of this destruction (¨from hell´s heart I spit my last breath¨ etc) somehow redeem this? Yeah. But by planting a spike in the heels of Macunaíma, it may be making things worse, as it induces some kind of a nosebleed without ever making the higher chroma argument (let alone the higher axiological engineering) for something else.

We´re fucked. The way out is through, the way out is General Axiology. But theory (while radically necessary to break this rut) is not sufficient. Theory is neither sexy nor metaphysically potent enough to truly connect the Messiah to the systemic sources of quability.