Today, in Brasilia, there was an attempt to oust the current elected president, Lula Inacio da Silva, and his government. I expected something like that to happen. I expected that the Brazilian right wing was going to attempt to create some chaos. For weeks many “Bolsonaristas” (followers of President Jair Bolsonaro) expressed their discontent with the results of the Brazilian presidential elections. The Bolsonaristas obviously took a page from the book of the January 6th rioters in Washington, DC. They were angry and did not accept the loss of their candidate, and tried to depose the current president.
It is tempting to compare what happened today in Brazil with what happened here, in Washington, DC, on January 6th, two years ago. There are many similarities between January 6th, 2021 in Washington, DC and January 8th, 2023 in Brasilia. A mob attacked the Brazilian seat of power, and they belonged to the same group of the president that was voted out. In both countries, the president that was voted out was from the right-leaning party. This is where the similarities ends. There were many more contrasting factors, that bear being pointed out. The past president, Jair Bolsonaro, was out of the country. The attackers were not trying to overturn the result of the elections, because the current president is already installed. This group attacked on a Sunday, which means that the Brazilian congress was not in session, and there were no lawmakers or staff in the building.
I point this out because I hear from some news sources that are comparing the Brazilian situation with the American situation, pointing out only the similarities between the two countries, disregarding the cultural differences and circumstances of both, implying that Brazilians are just doing exactly what happened in America, fomenting fears of the spread of right-wing sentiments throughout the world. It is easy to make a generalization about social phenomena, yet not everything that happens in America is happening or will happen exactly the same throughout the world. It is important to maintain a clear view of the cultural differences that create certain situations here, in this country, and will make a similar situation very different in other places. Every country, every community, have their own ways of behaving, their own cast of characters that do not have to mirror other communities. I think it is important to remember that communities are not the same. Every one of them have their own idiosyncrasies, their own craziness, their own beauty, their own way of life. We try to reduce the experience of others to fit our own definitions, instead of allowing the possibility that other cultures have a different way of being.
This is also true about individuals. Human beings do not all fit a mold. We have similarities and differences. It is not because we belong to a community, or because we look a certain way, or because we live in a certain place that we will, undoubtedly, behave in scripted ways. There are many things that define us and our culture and our environment surely influence who we are. Yet that doesn’t mean that we will behave exactly in the same way that our ancestors did, or exactly like our community does. When we generalize we create problems, expecting other people to be or act in a certain way, imagining that we know who the others are, reducing others to strangers with a script to follow. And that script, most of the time, limits all the people involved in the society to a very uncomfortable, boring picture, a caricature that is an impediment to deepening relationships. What happened in Brazil today is similar to what happened in DC two years ago, and it is also quite different. I am very similar to my family and my community, and I am also very different. Let’s allow for individual, communal, and cultural differences, and create the space for a much more interesting and fulfilling life.