The document summarizes how Brazil has plunged into a new "Age of Darkness" under the Bolsonaro government across several policy areas: 1. Economic policy has embraced radical neoliberalism, privatizing state companies and dismantling the state. 2. Environmental policy has led to increased deforestation and Brazil withdrawing from the Paris Agreement on climate change. 3. Education and culture policy has attacked universities and cut budgets in a "neo-fascist" manner. 4. Public health policy failed to combat the spread of COVID-19, leading to hundreds of thousands of deaths. The conclusion calls for uniting all opposition to the Bolsonaro government under a program of

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BRAZIL IN THE BOLSONARIST AGE OF DARKNESS AND THE RESCUE OF
ENLIGHTENMENT
Fernando Alcoforado*
This article aims to demonstrate that the time has come to oppose the Bolsonarist Age of
Darkness with its opposite, light, the Enlightenment, to wipe out those responsible for the
darkness that exist today from the structures of power. The term "darkness" was used to
characterize backward practices that prevailed from the 4th to the 15th century in Europe
in the Middle Ages. The label "age of darkness" is used in the traditional clash between
light versus darkness to contrast the "darkness" of this period with the periods before and
after of "light". The Age of Darkness is a historical period characterized by the worsening
of the demographic, cultural and economic problems that occurred in Europe after the
decline of the Western Roman Empire. From the 4th to the 15th centuries, darkness was
characterized by extremely negative facts and events, such as wars, barbaric invasions,
agricultural crises, the bubonic plague pandemic, the tyranny exercised by the Church,
the inquisition in relation to heretics, the centralization of the economy restricted to feuds,
social inequalities, among other aspects.
The Age of Darkness in Europe were a troubled time. Wandering invaders on horseback
attacked the fields. Religious conflicts arose between Catholics and Protestants, Muslims
conquered land, scarcity of good literature and cultural achievements and barbaric
practices prevailed. The Age of Darkness period was also seen as a time of faith. Men
and women sought God. Some through the most serious rituals of the Catholic Church,
others in Protestant forms of worship. Intellectuals, for their part, saw any religion, in
itself, as a kind of "darkness". These thinkers claimed that religious beliefs alienated
people by creating a false reality because they were dominated by emotions, not reason.
Religion was seen as contrary to rationality and reason, and this mentality was what
started the Enlightenment - a departure from "darkness". Science and reason gained
ascendancy, progressing steadily during and after the Protestant Reformation and the
Enlightenment.
Brazil plunges into a new Age of Darkness with the Bolsonaro government because its
economic policy has been disastrous in adopting the principles of more radical
neoliberalism. The Ministry of Economy, led by Paulo Guedes, was structured to
dismantle the Brazilian State, built since 1930 by Getúlio Vargas and other government
officials. The Partnership and Investment Program - the name given to the Bolsonaro
government's privatization plan - includes a list of companies with distinct economic
activities, some of strategic nature, leading in the technology area and others that operate
in areas sensitive to democracy and inclusion that Jair Bolsonaro wants to privatize and
that can bring serious economic losses and to the country's sovereignty. State-owned
companies like Eletrobras were privatized, the Petrobras system was dismantled with a
view to privatizing it in the future and denationalized companies like Embraer.
Brazil is plunging into a new Age of Darkness with the Bolsonaro government because
its job creation policy is not its primary concern. Since taking office in the presidency of
the Republic, the Bolsonaro government has been working to dismantle the Brazilian state
and 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 ever recorded in the history of Brazil. In 2020, the pandemic of the new
Coronavirus further aggravated the terrible situation of the Brazilian economy, which has
already stagnated since 2014. The challenge of reactivating the Brazilian economy

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increased with the pandemic and the Bolsonaro government remained inert in the sense
of reactivating it. The incompetence of Bolsonaro and the presence of Paulo Guedes, a
fundamentalist of neoliberalism, in the Ministry of Economy, make it difficult to take
action to reactivate the Brazilian economy.
Brazil plunges into a new Age of Darkness with the Bolsonaro government because its
environmental policy is responsible for the growth of fires and deforestation in the Legal
Amazon and for disobedience to the Paris Agreement to combat global climate change.
The Bolsonaro government has taken a series of measures that contribute to the increase
in deforestation. Bolsonaro's speech works as a incentive of deforestation. This is a major
catastrophe produced by the Bolsonaro government whose action could lead to the
destruction of the Amazon Forest with the manifest intention of paving the way for
mining, agriculture, livestock and timber activities. The Bolsonaro government is
committing an environmental crime and also a major humanitarian crime in the Amazon
that affects indigenous populations and needs to be vigorously combated. Bolsonaro
admitted to leaving the Paris Agreement to fight climate change. Bolsonaro has become
an international pariah, an environmental villain in the eyes of the world.
Brazil plunges into a new Age of Darkness with the Bolsonaro government because its
science and technology policy has led to the destruction of the National System of
Science, Technology and Innovation (SNCTI), built over the last 60 years. In these 60
years of investments in CT&I, Brazil has developed the production of energy from
renewable sources, high-tech medicine, the launch of startups, the development of a
diversified industrial base, among other actions. The Bolsonaro government excluded
thousands of scholarships from the CNPq and Capes system, and CNPq scholarship
holders struggled to receive funding for their research. The situation is deplorable because
industry, science and national technology have been scrapped, contributing to increase
Brazil's scientific, technological and industrial dependence on the outside world.
Brazil is plunging into a new Age of Darkness with the Bolsonaro government because
its education and culture policy is characterized by an ultraconservative holy war of a
neofascist character against progressive and democratic ideals. Under the discourse of
defense of the family, the country and against “cultural Marxism”, the Bolsonaro
government attacked the educational and cultural structure on several fronts, with cuts
and contingencies in budgets, proposals for changes in the functioning and direction of
the Ministry of Education and the extinction of the Ministry of Culture. Universities and
federal education institutes were targeted for budget cuts, for coercive measures such as
the appointment of rectors not respecting the order of the triple list to ensure the
possession of leaders ideologically and politically aligned with the government, the use
of ideological criteria for selection of fellows and directing resources to federal
educational institutions, harassing teachers with the opening of investigations and
encouraging complaints through lines created by the government for this purpose. In
addition to manifestations of a neo-fascist character, the area of Culture is also the victim
of inoperative, incompetent, anti-intellectual management and, above all, that preaches
hatred of democracy.
Brazil plunges into a new Age of Darkness with the Bolsonaro government because its
social rights policy is characterized by disregarding the fundamental rights set out in the
1988 Constitution and demonstrating its detachment from democracy and the lack of
respect with which it addresses broad social sectors. Brazil, as of January 2019, witnesses
the institutionalization of violations of civil liberties and fundamental rights. Government
initiatives (bills, provisional measures, decrees), added to the declarations and attitudes

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that come from Bolsonaro and his ministers, create a serious environment that encourages
violence and authoritarianism. The attacks on teachers, universities, science and
technology, the media and journalists, to the right to manifest and organize society and
social participation in discussions, decisions and monitoring of public policies all have
the same meaning: restricting democracy and carry out a coup to consolidate a dictatorial
state in Brazil.
Brazil plunges into a new Age of Darkness with the Bolsonaro government because its
disastrous public health policy failed to combat the spread of the new Coronavirus by
rendering the Ministry of Health inoperative, in addition to taking action against all
measures put in place by governors and mayors for fight the spread of the virus. If the
federal government had adopted the “lockdown”, that is, strict and total isolation at the
beginning of the pandemic in Brazil with at least 75% of the entire population in
quarantine, with tests for all suspected patients and their isolation from the rest of the
population, the number of deaths by Covid-19 in the country would not exceed 44.3
thousand, according to Imperial College in London, and would not reach the current 450
thousand deaths.
Nowadays, it is imperative to end the Age of Darkness in Brazil. Brazil needs to rescue
the ideals of the search for human happiness, justice and social equality advocated by the
Enlightenment. In the same way that the Enlightenment was the political and ideological
response to the Age of Darkness, the same should be considered in Brazil to unite, at the
present time, all citizens who defend democracy, political emancipation, freedom of
thought and social justice to promote the improvement of the human condition in the
country. Offering these ideas, the 18th century enlightenment motivated the bourgeois
revolutions in France and throughout the world that brought about the end of the Old
Regime and the installation of liberal doctrines that prevail until today in the world. The
Enlightenment provided the motto of the French Revolution (Freedom, Equality and
Fraternity) and fertilized it as its followers opposed injustices, religious intolerance and
the privileges of absolutism. Yes to the Enlightenment and no to the darkness in Brazil.
The time has come to oppose the darkness with its opposite, the light, the Enlightenment,
to wipe out those responsible for the darkness that exist today from the structures of
power. For this reason, the Bolsonaro government is unable to continue to govern Brazil
because it commits crimes, spread fake news, lies and encourages chaos, taking advantage
of the population's despair, above all, of the most vulnerable. Bolsonaro urgently needs
to be removed from power and answer for the crimes he is committing against the
Brazilian people. Brazil needs the union of all who are against the darkness that dominates
the country and want its opposite, the Enlightenment.
In this moment lived in Brazil, there should not be a division of the political forces of
opposition to the Bolsonaro government, but there should be unity around a minimum
program that unites all, which is the Enlightenment program. This minimum program
must ensure the unity of all to sweep the Age of Darkness in our country. The first step
in the struggle to sweep the Bolsonarist Age of Darkness is to demand that the National
Congress open impeachment proceedings against Bolsonaro and the Attorney General's
Office Republic for him to answer criminally for the countless crimes committed.
* 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

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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, em co-autoria) and Como inventar o futuro
para mudar o mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2019).