The article argues that the 2022 Brazilian elections are a critical juncture, presenting a choice between civilization and barbarism, with a focus on the detrimental impact of Bolsonaro's government. It outlines the increasing barbarism characterized by socioeconomic neglect, attacks on democracy, and the potential for a coup. The author calls for unity among all democratic forces to ensure the triumph of civilization over authoritarianism in Brazil.

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CIVILIZATION OR BARBARISM ARE THE CHOICES OF THE BRAZILIAN
PEOPLE IN THE 2022 ELECTIONS
Fernando Alcoforado*
This article aims to demonstrate that the 2022 elections are decisive for the future of
Brazil because the Brazilian people will have to decide between the values of civilization
and democracy or those of barbarism and fascism defended by candidates for the
Presidency of the Republic. It should be noted that Civilization is considered the most
advanced stage that a human society can reach from a political, economic, social, cultural,
scientific and technological point of view. The opposite of civilization is Barbarism,
which is the condition of what is savage, cruel, inhuman and coarse, that is, who or what
is considered barbaric that attacks political, economic, social, cultural, scientific and
technological progress. Barbarism has always been characterized throughout human
history by groups that use force and cruelty to achieve their goals.
There are some generally accepted elements of what would make a civilized society: 1)
provide guaranteed security for all citizens who should not fear loss of life or physical
harm; 2) provide the best possible medical care for all members of society; 3) grant access
to food and water to all citizens so that no one goes hungry or thirsty; 4) provide basic
housing conditions for all citizens; 5) have a democratic legislative system whose laws
are established to preserve the well-being of the population; 6) provide an educational
system that guarantees equal access to high-level education for all people with a view to
making its population highly educated; 7) defend the environment; and, 8) ensure the
population's freedom of thought, belief, religion, affiliation and expression and the right
to participate in government decisions. The term barbarism means a break with the moral
standards that regulate life in society and social controls based on the foundations of
civilization, giving way to unbridled violence and contempt for democracy and for the
human being. The great challenge for Brazil in the contemporary era is to ensure that,
after the 2022 elections, civilization imposes itself on the barbarism of Bolsonaro in
which the country finds itself at the present time.
In Brazil. year by year, decade by decade, barbarism and contempt for human beings have
increased and there seems to be no limit to this phenomenon. Barbarism has increased
enormously during the Bolsonaro government because its economic policy has been
disastrous in adopting the principles of the most radical neoliberalism seeking to
dismantle the Brazilian developmental state built since 1930 by Getúlio Vargas and
maintained by other rulers, its employment generation policy is not its main concern by
doing nothing to reactivate the economy of this resulting in the highest level of
unemployment with more than 14 million unemployed and 27 million underutilized
workers already recorded in the history of Brazil, its environmental policy is responsible
for the growth of fires and deforestation in the Legal Amazon and by disobedience to the
Paris Agreement to combat global climate change, its science and technology policy
promoted the destruction of the National System of Science, Technology and Innovation
(SNCTI) built over the last 60 years, its education and culture policy is characterized for
an ultra-conservative holy war of neo-fascist character against progressive and
democratic ideals, its social rights policy is characterized by disregarding the fundamental
rights provided for in the 1988 Constitution and demonstrating its detachment to
democracy and the lack of respect with which it addresses broad social sectors and its
disastrous policy of the public health that failed to combat the spread of the new
Coronavirus by rendering the Ministry of Health inoperative, in addition to sabotaging all
the measures put in place by governors and mayors to combat the spread of the virus.

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For these reasons, Bolsonaro needs to be defeated in the 2022 elections because the
barbarism and fascism he defends are the great threats to the future of Brazil, not only
because of the disastrous government he carries out, above all with the neglect for public
health, but also for the systematic attacks on democratic institutions. In the 2022 elections,
Brazil needs the union of all the Brazilian people to make civilization overcome the
barbarism of Bolsonaro. Brazil needs to rescue the ideals of pursuit of human happiness,
justice and social equality advocated by the Enlightenment during the Middle Ages in
Europe. The confrontation between the forces defending civilization and those defending
the barbarism of Bolsonaro can result in the maintenance of representative democracy in
Brazil or its end with the victory of fascism. In the same way that the Enlightenment was
the political and ideological response to barbarism, it should be considered in Brazil to
unite, at the present time, all citizens who defend democracy, political emancipation,
freedom of thought and social justice aiming to promote the improvement of the human
condition in the country. Everything indicates that Bolsonaro will not accept the result of
the 2022 elections because, according to electoral polls, he will lose to all likely
candidates, especially to former president Lula, and that an eventual coup d'état would be
planned by him that would have the support from certain sectors of the Armed Forces,
militaries polices and militia. The coup d'etat would be Bolsonaro's attempt to avoid being
taken to the bars of various courts to answer for the crimes he has been committing. The
barbarism of the coup d’état could occur before or after the elections. Given this
perspective, the forces defending civilization should prepare for this confrontation and
not just for the 2022 elections. In this moment lived in Brazil, there should not be a
division of the political forces in opposition to the Bolsonaro government, but there
should be a union around a common minimum program that unites everyone in the
struggle to defend civilization. This minimum program must ensure the union of all to
wipe out the barbarism of our country.
* Fernando Alcoforado, 81, awarded the medal of Engineering Merit of the CONFEA / CREA System,
member of the Bahia Academy of Education, engineer and doctor in Territorial Planning and Regional
Development by the University of Barcelona, university professor and consultant in the areas of
strategic planning, business planning, regional planning and planning of energy systems, is author of the
books Globalização (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova (Des)ordem
Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2000), Os
condicionantes do desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado. Universidade de
Barcelona,http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e Desenvolvimento (Editora
Nobel, São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX e Objetivos Estratégicos
na Era Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of the Economic and Social
Development- The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Müller Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG,
Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe Planetária (Viena- Editora e Gráfica,
Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e combate
ao aquecimento global (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011), Os Fatores
Condicionantes do Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012), Energia no
Mundo e no Brasil- Energia e Mudança Climática Catastrófica no Século XXI (Editora CRV, Curitiba,
2015), As Grandes Revoluções Científicas, Econômicas e Sociais que Mudaram o Mundo (Editora CRV,
Curitiba, 2016), A Invenção de um novo Brasil (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2017), Esquerda x Direita e a sua
convergência (Associação Baiana de Imprensa, Salvador, 2018), Como inventar o futuro para mudar o
mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2019) and A humanidade ameaçada e as estratégias para sua sobrevivência
(Editora Dialética, São Paulo, 2021) .