Maybe dancing and singing can solve our Brazilians problems
I just ran into this great piece of content about the political moment that America is living in and how Matt’s parents(author) can teach us some lessons for these “tribal times”, important lessons, especially for Brazilians like me.
There is no novelty that we are living in a kind of the same American political environment here in Brazil. With both sides, right and left fighting against each other like Matt said, like archenemies.
Matt’s text is perfect because can help us with helpful lessons to connect again with our family and friends.
But before Matt’s pinch of wisdom, I just want to mention 2 happenings here in Brazil to highlight what we are living in our “jungle times”.
One side
Since the beginning of the pandemic, our President Jair Bolsonaro minimized the virus, not even minimized how promoted gathering going to stores and public spots.
One year after OMS claimed out we are in a pandemic we still don’t have any national campaign about social distance or any sort of recommendation to our population coming from the federal government, no commercial TV. Sometimes it seems nothing is happening in the world.
Brazilian COVID numbers are a sample of our president's negations.
While the COVID deaths are decreasing worldwide.
What we see in Brazil is complete the opposite. The numbers could be better if it wasn’t for the Brazilian catastrophe, representing 27% of the daily deaths worldwide for the last week, remembering Brazil's population represents 2.7% of the world.
Another side
This week one of the most popular newspapers published an article with 150 swearings against Bolsonaro, the article is only swearing.
With a Google translator help follow below a sample of what was written in the article:
Ignoble. Dump. Low. Disgusting. Scoundrel. Deplorable. Stingy. Rascal. Sordid. Clumsy. Abominable. Detestable. Riffle. Biltre. Infamous. Aberration. Negligible. Ignorant. Vile. Uncultivated. Nozzle. Foolish. Stupid. Rude. Worm. Bastard. Damn you. Donkey. Monstrous. Sadistic. Dumb. Insensitive. Demon. Heartless. Unable. Coward. Incompetent. Sick. Sociopath. Plague. Idiot. Energumen. Unbalanced. Immoral. Mouse. Skidder. Abject. Untapped. Pusilanimous. Disrespectful. Cruel. Atrocious. Malignant. Cheesy. Execrable. Infando. Nefando. Abominable. Inclement. Bad. Sicarian. Viperino. Tyrant. Merciless. Inhuman.
How to face each side after all of that?
It’s now Matt’s article brings some light to our Brazilian situation. He shared how his parents' marriage worked even with his dad being Republican and his mom a democrat.
I just collected the best parts to help Brazilian pass through all of that:
“They knew life was about way more than politics.”
“Crucially, how they voted wasn’t their identity. Now, political views often represent the totality of a person. And that sucks because politics is boring. If your personality is based on how you vote (or whom you oppose), you’re most likely a numbing human being to talk to.”
“They didn’t trade barbs in a comment thread; they had conversations around a kitchen table. Even if there was disagreement, there was empathy.”
“And they both loved Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and Israeli folk music. Dancing and singing can solve a lot of problems.”
“For most of his life, my father complained greatly about “wasteful” entitlement programs. But towards the end, when my mom was suffering from a chronic illness that robbed them of their life savings, he heartily embraced the Medicare and Social Security payments that kept them afloat. People are complicated and life changes them.
We constantly take a freeze frame and pretend it’s the entire movie. Stick around and the film may go in all kinds of directions you didn’t see coming.”
“Dancing and singing can solve a lot of problems.”
as a Brazilian, I think that would be the best solution for our tribal times :)
