Blog Marcos L. Mucheroni Filosofia, Noosfera e cibercultura

In the previous post we talked about peace and freedom, peace is not the Pax Romana that meant the submission of the defeated, those who practice injustice need to divert life from its natural course in the lives of people, they need to change humanism by transforming it into something perverse , transform ancient cultures into a strange culture, remove from it what is most original and true, disrespect the poor and helpless by confusing it with desires for power and greed typical of oppression.

Few men try to avoid these traps, with this the idea that a “successful” person means that they were lucky, “blessed” or through strategies they knew how to accumulate wealth, but there are also perverse structures that benefit from power, and many of them are in the power structure, which is why it is a source of influence.

But there is another path, that of inheritance, throughout history only the winners tell their glories, “to the Vencedor the potatoes” says the character Quincas Borba (figure) in Machado de Assis’s novel (brazilian writer) with the same name, where he develops the idea of humanitas, which sees war as a form of selection of the fittest, thus justifies the oppression and impoverishment of the wronged.

The character Quincas Borba is a kind of atheist philosopher, who became rich after inheriting the assets of an old uncle, a resident of Barbacena, State of Minas Gerais, where he stayed in this city for a while before dying.

The one who will enjoy the fortune left by Quincas Borba will be Rubião, a modest inhabitant of the interior of Minas Gerais, who receives his fortune and decides to go and live in Rio de Janeiro, thus speaking of migration from the interior to the big cities, not from the perspective of the poor. who go in search of work, but the rich who go in search of a good life.

Rubião goes to the city and will try to apply the Humanitas philosophy developed by Quincas Borba and this is actually the theme of the book.

In addition to the literary and historical aspect of the novel, characteristic of the time (the novel Quincas Borba was published for the first time in 1891), Rubião, at the same time that he enjoys an easy fortune, is a victim of his provincial credulity, of which his friends who welcome him in the “big city” they will enjoy it.

The theme is universal, even if painted with historical Brazilian colors, in addition to the injustices towards the poor and helpless, the tricks and machinations that also take away the possessions of people who, having earned easy money, don’t know how to use it well and get lost in traps set by greedy false friends.

Thus, freedom cannot be conditioned by perverse structures or autocratic forms of power, it must actually contemplate the justice of the simple and humble, the trap of liberalism is also present in Balzac’s novel Eugenie Grandet.

Assis, Machado. Quincas Borba. Rio de Janeiro, 1891. (see pdf in portuguese)