Recently I watched the documentary, The Edge of Democracy which describes recent events in Brazilian politics. Brazil has been on the edge of a new totalitarian regime for a while. Too many people don’t seem to remember the horrors of the military junta (1964-1985). The risk is very high now if current president Luiz Inàcio Lula da Silva loses the runoff election against Flavio Bolsonaro, the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, scheduled for next Sunday.
Bach and director, Petra Costa, combined, offered to me a glimpse into the depth of evil, not in an abstract sense, not defining for me evil in general, but showing very concretely the absurdities of the charges against Dilma and Lula, the bloodthirsty words of their opponents, and the misery awaiting the poor in Brazil whenever the Bolsonaro gang gets the upper hand. I think indeed that the passion of Jesus as recounted in the Gospels maps very well onto the recent history of the democracy in such a country.
Democracy, not as an abstract series of procedures, but as a living organism, the imperfect yet real manifestation on earth of justice and freedom for all. In the same book cited above, Matthew gets directly to the heart of democracy, reaching for its spiritual roots. He is not saying that democracy as we have known it has ever been perfect, but that Meister Eckhart celebrated the dignity and equality of all people four hundred years before the birth of American democracy, and that only by reaching the depth of such roots can we hope to defeat the current upsurge of evil.
To the depth of evil must correspond the depth of our understanding of it and our fight against it. Just yesterday, some of Bolsonaro’s supporters were pleading with Trump to bomb their own country in case Lula wins the runoff. Such is the depth of the death-wish that we are confronting. Obviously this transcends politics into something more fundamental. The psyches of so many Brazilians have been warped and are prey to the archetype of evil. How else would you explain such statements?
In 2023, not willing to leave power, Jair Bolsonaro staged a storming of the parliament and even an assassination attempt of legitimately elected Lula. Bolsonaro is now serving a long sentence, but few doubt that if his son gets elected, he will be out the next day.
Lula and his government have implemented some socialist measures which brought relief to the suffering poor of Brazil, but most interestingly they have morphed from the revolutionaries they were into defenders of democracy as such.
The Bolsonaro family instead is made of common thugs. The destruction of the Amazon forest through a technological and commercial agreement with Trump is, in short, the proposal of the right for the prosperity of Brazil — meaning essentially, the prosperity of their pockets.
The edge of democracy means also the edge of decency. It means the risk that the prince of lies will triumph for quite a while in a country so vast, so populated, and so rich in resources that the whole world would be negatively affected. We may not want to speak of the devil literally, but surely the power of evil is not metaphorical in our times.
Banner image: Brazil, located on the globe. Image by Sanjay Rao. Wikimedia Commons.
Queries for Contemplation
Do you know other musical or artistic works depicting evil in a way that helps recognizing it and thus confronting it?
Related Reading by Matthew Fox
TRUMP AND THE MAGA MOVEMENT AS ANTICHRIST: Recognizing the Archetype of Evil in Our Time
The Beloved Will Guide You: St. John of the Cross and the Triple Dark Night of Our Times (Available for pre-order.)
Creativity: Where the Divine and Human Meet
Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society
Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth
6 thoughts on “Brazil on the Edge”
I have been watching presidential elections in Brazil for years. Sadly, I don’t think many Americans understand the significance. Yet Brazil’s elections matter a lot to the rainforest and thus climate change. That the U.S. president should throw his support behind Bolsinaro (since at least 2019) instead of de Silva makes my heart ache. Two hideously corrupt individuals. As for your question, I don’t know another musical composition that depicts evil, but I do know one that fills me with peace, and I recommend it in times of stress like these and on winter evenings when one wants to imbibe the beauty of the season. I’ve listened to it in full several times. Copilot describes it like this: “a seasonal journey, an arc of songs that conjure the season of spirits, the eerie silences of the snow; days of solitude and reflection for some, a time of re birth and celebration for many.” Here you go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd6CwG_FId0&t=3918s
Of course I’ve seen many movies and tv shows about the struggle between good and evil but I can’t recall any of them at the moment.
I did meditate on this a bit and here’s what came up. I don’t think we need to address evil directly. Maybe evil exists as a gift to us, a force to empower our choices. We can choose our path – one of love and unity or one of separateness and hate, or somewhere in between.
For thousands of years we have been collectively making bad choices. It’s not evil’s fault – it’s ours for making choices which manifest and empower evil energies and archetypes. If we made different choices, evil would subside.
Jesus told us all how to do this – as have MANY others – but people ignore this. We are simply repeating patterns and will continue to do so until we make different choices. We keep choosing evil. It’s us. The call is coming from inside the house! Nothing is being done to us – we are doing it to ourselves.
I don’t believe we can vanquish evil any more than we can vanquish night time. We have to learn to live with it and appreciate what it’s doing, and also keep it at bay and under control. We are not doing a very good job.
The real question is that evil causes astronomical suffering and destruction and cruelty and it has to be stood up to. Truth has to be named and its lies relentlessly exposed. Evil has to be said no to with solidarity. Professor Timothy Snyder’s “On Tyranny” is required reading for anyone who wishes to resist, these days it is a practical and crucial manual. Bullies have to be stood up to. If we accept them, we become bystanders allowing the cruelty to happen.
Great DM today GG about the recommended documentary about Brazil and the risk of losing its democracy and world wide/planetary consequences in their presidential elections this Sunday. As Americans, we and the world are still suffering the negative consequences of having elected twice the authoritarian Trump and his regime. I’m also reminded how history repeats itself by the military coup of the democratically elected socialist president Allende in 1973, and the consequent socially destructive dictatorship of Pinochet, backed up by Nixon and Kissinger.
America has a deep destructive imperialistic racist patriarchal spiritually unbalanced shadow history from its very beginning with the genocide of Indigenous native peoples, slavery, and capitalistic ecocide of Sacred Mother Earth. We are still definitely evolving as a human species with many past and present Lightworkers struggling for social justice and maintaining the Light of Faith, Hope, Truth, Peace, Justice, Strength, Creativity, Beauty, Joy, and Compassion such as represented by the young orchestra in the enclosed YouTube video by The Netherlands Bach Society.
I do not think that sounds adequately depicting evil would be bearable and would deserve the name of “musical or artistic work,” although some chaotic noises miscalled “music” could serve as samplers. I also believe that the surest help to recognize and confront evil is inner silence because, as the saying goes: when I point one finger, there are three fingers pointing back at me. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (who knew one thing or two about evil) wrote: “If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”
I completely agree with Mark when he writes: “For thousands of years we have been collectively making bad choices. It’s not evil’s fault—it’s ours for making choices which manifest and empower evil energies and archetypes. If we made different choices, evil would subside.” I would only add that “collectively” is the synergy of billions of “individually,” and that individually making good choices is a full-time occupation called “life.”
I agree with Daniel. So very well said.
Musical works that come to my mind that reflect evil and it’s implied separation of darkness from light include Mahlers 6th symphony. It was said that Bruno Walter a young associate of Mahler conducted it only once, finding it devoid of hope.
Schostakovich 8th symphony written during world war 2 another stunning work in time of pain and darkness.
Also who can walk away from Picasso’s Guernica unaffected ?