Livraria Cultura exposed the make-believe of electoral campaigns – 02/11/2023 – Frederico Vasconcelos

Under the heading “Public works“, I wrote the following essay in 2004. It deals with the contribution of Livraria Cultura, during the electoral period, to the debate on corruption and the art of candidates and government officials who deceive voters.

The text was exceptionally published on p. 2 am Sheet, on August 24, 2004, replacing the article by Roberto Mangabeira Unger.

Every election period is rich in releases of political marketing works. These are those treatises that, roughly speaking, mix futurology and political ventriloquism: experts interpret opinion polls and guide candidates to speak in debates and electoral programs, appearing to be very convinced, what voters would like to hear.

The Cultura bookstore, on Avenida Paulista, in São Paulo, made an inspired contribution to this make-believe. He displayed in the window, alongside half a dozen new books on political marketing, classic works on the old arts of candidates and rulers: how to deceive unwary taxpayers and how to better use the public machine to fatten private fortunes.

Next to a republished work on electoral persuasion, one could see the “Sermão do Bom Thief”, by Father Antônio Vieira (1608-1697). The book transcribes a text by Saint Augustine in which a pirate (“little thief”) says to Alexander the Great: “To steal a little is guilt, to steal a lot is greatness”.

It is recommended that candidates meditate on the various interpretations of these texts. There are passages dedicated to the responsibility of the one who steals and to the one who appoints the one who steals. What is practiced “in all the kingdoms of the world” is quoted. That is, “instead of kings taking thieves with them to paradise, thieves are the ones who take kings with them to hell”.

Assuming that the virtual candidate really believed that he could “get there”, the bookshop silently proposed the reading of “How to Take Advantage of Your Enemies”, by Plutarch (66-12 BC). Long before the Christian era, there were already manuals teaching how to distinguish enemies and thwart the snares of flatterers.

Perhaps thinking of voters who were bored with television advertising and timed debates, the bookseller discreetly suggested reading the “Code of Honest Men”, by Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850). The book is also known as “the art of not being deceived by thieves” (and by bureaucrats and lawyers, as some versions add).

Between one and another brochure on strategies to win elections, the window offered “The Art of Furtar”, a classic of Portuguese literature from the Baroque period (18th century) dedicated to current forms of expropriation, such as bribery, overbilling and corruption (the edition The exhibition has a presentation by the writer João Ubaldo Ribeiro).

And, speaking of virtual corrupts, the literary selection highlighted “On Generation and Corruption”, by Aristotle (384-322 BC), committing, perhaps, a peccadillo. Apparently, the book made the selection more by title than by content. The philosophical work deals with corruption and generation as elements of continuous movement in the study of physics and composition of the universe. However, just as candidates generally do not deliver what they promise, the bookseller should not be required to be rigorously consistent in all the speeches presented.

Unfortunately, the fun and didactic exhibition lasted a few days. It was replaced by the trivial offer of bestsellers, the best-selling books of the week. It is not known whether there was a lack of public interest in the strategies of political marketers. Or if corruption and deceit, which are so widespread, no longer arouse the curiosity of readers and voters.

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