From
internationalized enterprise to biocentric society
by
Leonardo Boff
There are classical
interpretations about the forming of Brazil as a nation, but the one
by the political analyst Luiz Gonzaga de Souza Lima is surely unique,
and helps us understand Brazil in the present process of world
globalization: The Refounding of Brazil: towards a bio-centric
society (La refundación de Brasil: rumbo a una sociedad biocentrada
(Rima, São Carlos 2011). His starting point is the brutal fact of
the invasion and expropriation of Brazilian lands by the "colonizers"
based on slavery and the super exploitation of nature. They came here
not to found a society, but to create a large international private
enterprise, a true agro-industry, in order to supply the world
market. It was built by kingdoms, churches and big private companies
such as those of the West Indies, the Oriental Indies, the Dutch of
Mauritius and Nassau, with navigators, merchants, and bankers, who,
without forgetting the modern vanguards, had new dreams, and sought
quick wealth.
Once the land was
occupied, they brought in sugar cane, then coffee, technologies which
were modern for the time, capital, and African slaves. The slaves
were considered "things" to be bought in the market, and
like coal, to be consumed in the sugar mills. With reason Souza Lima
affirms: "the outcome was the appearance of a new social
configuration, unknown by humanity until that moment, created solely
to serve the economy; in Brazil was born what can be called the
"social enterprise formation."
Modernity was born in
Brazil and in Latin America, in the sense of the utilization of logic
of production, of the desire for unlimited accumulation and the
systematic exploitation of nature, of the creation of immense towns
of marginalized people. In this sense, Brazil has been new and
modern, ever since her origins.
Europe could have her
revolution, called modernity, with rights and democratic
institutions, only because she was sustained by the brutal robbery
carried out in the colonies. With Brazil's political independence,
the nature of the social enterprise formation did not change. All the
impulses for development that arose did not undermine the dependent
and subordinate character that resulted from the business orientation
of our social structure. Even now, global world capital tends to try
to shape our eventual future into our known past: it would behoove
Brazil to be the great provider of raw materials for the world
market, with little added value.
Enterprise-Brazil is the
key, according to Souza Lima, to understanding the historical
formation of Brazil and the place assigned to her in the present
process of unequal globalization. The challenge lies in creating a
society that suits us, and leads to a different future for us. The
inspiration comes from something that is our own: Brazilian culture.
Our culture was born of the slaves and their descendants, of the
indigenous that remained, of the mamelucos, the sons and daughters of
poverty and crossbreeding. They created something singular, not that
desired by the holders of power, who always rejected them and never
recognized them as the subjects, and sons and daughters, of God.
What matters now is
re-creating Brazil, "to build for the first time a human society
in this immense and beautiful territory, something that never
happened in all the modern era since Brazil was founded as an
enterprise; to create a society with the sole objective of saving our
people." It is about moving from Brazil as an economically
internationalized state, to Brazil as a biocentric society.
As a biocentric society,
the Brazilian people will transcend modernity, corrupted as it is by
injustice and greed, that is leading humanity to the abyss. Still,
for better or worse, our modernity helped us forge a physical
infrastructure that can support building a bio-civilization that
loves life in all its forms, where all differences peacefully
coexist, and that has the capacity to synthesize the most diverse
factors.
In this context, Souza
Lima links the refounding of Brazil to the promises of the new world
that must succeed this agonizing one, that is incapable of projecting
any horizon of hope for humanity. Brazil could be the niche that
generates new dreams, with the real possibility of carrying them out
in harmony with Mother Earth, and in a manner open to all peoples.
Leonardo
Boff is a Brazilian theologian and an Earthcharter Commission member
