Joseph de Maistre (1753-1821), French thinker, stated: “Every people has the government it deserves”.
He defended hereditary monarchy and religious authority in political matters when most of the people were not educated to think, but indoctrinated to obey, an era in which stealing a loaf of bread to feed a child was punished with years of forced labor. Meanwhile, the nobility of “divine descent” squandered fortunes on parties and frivolities, completely oblivious to the people.
“Let them eat cake!” …
Time passed and the established authority, defended by Maistre, ceased to have a “divine” character to, in democracy, alternate through the force of the vote. The people stopped having the government they deserved and began electing who would govern them.
However, practice has shown that a politician elected on the basis of a discourse attuned to the voter's aspirations can exercise his mandate by denying everything he promised. And he can even be reelected!
So, is Maistre right: does the people deserve the government it elects?
Well, what is seen in Brazilian politics is that those elected are always the same politicians or their heirs, relatives or protégés.
Nothing against defending one's ideals. However, there is a limit to "ends" that justify the "means", especially when the "means" are illicit and the "ends" are rarely just.
Hereditary monarchy was replaced by “family tradition” or by party monopolies, all with their “owners”. Religious authority, including in political matters, gave way to idolatry of political myths, sustained by legions of followers, indoctrinated since childhood, ready to commit insanities and subvert order for their leaders, whether right or wrong.
In fact, the notion of right and wrong, and of morality and ethics, has today acquired such flexibility that even Machiavelli and Engels would be horrified.
Everything is valid and permitted! “It is forbidden to forbid” if it is “for the good of the people and general happiness of the nation”, in the egocentric and manichean logic of those who believe that “the State is me”!
There is also absolutism in this democracy.
The current political scenario is emblematic of the abyssal level of Brazilian politics: what is seen in speeches, in the media and on social networks is demagoguery and veiled or explicit apologia for dishonesty, corruption and impropriety.
With each new scandal, expressions of solidarity with those involved emerge. Each new accusation is answered with another, not to condemn both, but to demand “equal treatment”: the right to commit the same errors and crimes and go unpunished.
In this absurd logic, which the vote cannot change, everyone who opposes is immediately elevated to the status of hero, “savior of the nation”. But it is not long before he becomes the target of attacks and afflictions, for his credibility must be "destroyed" to preserve the status quo.
It seems that Brazilian politics does not want to amend itself, and that, the way it is, it is perfect.
So, does the people have the government it deserves?
One must think about this, for sad is the people that needs or accepts being led by caudillos, charismatic mystifiers or megalomaniac "revolutionaries" who consider themselves infallible, unquestionable and irreplaceable, boasting divine ascendancy or a “historic mission”, and do everything to hold onto power.
Such peoples will be eternally slaves to their choices!
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