In their biggest act of thumping their noses at democracy, to date, far-right supporters of former President of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro, nicknamed Trump of the Tropics, who lost his bid for another term last October — despite an endorsement from his ventriloquist Donald J Trump — went on a crazed rampage, last Sunday.

Reports from credible media in Brazil say rioters looted, defaced, and did significant damaged to the main buildings of all three branches of Brazil’s government. Some media reports estimate that the cost of the vandalism will run into hundreds of millions.

An article, entitled ‘Videos of Brazil attack show striking similarities to Jan 6’ in last Monday’s The Washington Post noted, among other things: “The insurrection, which took place over several hours, was the most serious threat to Brazilian democracy in more than half a century. It came a week after Bolsonaro’s successor — President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva — was inaugurated. Consequently, unlike at the US Capitol on January 6, rioters in Brazil could not attempt to stop the transfer of power, nor could they target specific lawmakers, as the complex was largely vacant on a weekend day. Bolsonaro denounced the rioters’ actions in a tweet hours after the attack began.”

I have seen several news reports coming out of Brazil that the authorities were caught unawares. This is shocking to me since the signs of last Sunday’s insurrection were evident from the announcement of the election results last October. The numerous and sometimes very violent demonstrations around Brazil against the outcomes of the election was a dead giveaway. Bolsonaro’s refusal to concede defeat was another telltale sign that something rotten was on the boil. These political red flags were commingled with incendiary statements about vote rigging by key far-right lieutenants of Bolsonaro.

These are strategies from Trump’s sordid political play book. Then perhaps the two biggest political alerts were Bolsonaro’s deliberate absence from the inauguration of his successor, and his fleeing to the sunny shores of Miami, Florida, USA — only miles away from the Mar-a-Lago hide-out of his political godfather/benefactor Donald J Trump.

Expensive stupor

“What’s the point, Higgins?” some with deliberate political blinkers on, and others as a consequence of genuine innocence, might ask. The ability to recognise the symptoms of a disease is one of the surest ways to spot its onset. That is the point.

Make no mistake: Far-right and far-left politics are a clear and present danger to democracy globally.

On January 6, 2021, and in the four years preceding it, millions in the United States of America and globally discovered that ignorance of the corrosiveness of the far-right is severally injurious and literally deadly.

Far-right extremism is fuelled by a specific ideology characterised by anti-democratic opposition towards equality. The inner core of its primary narrative is founded on racism, xenophobia, exclusionary nationalism, conspiracy theories, authoritarianism, and worse.

Far-right extremism has more than passing relationships with violence as a conduit to power. Its enemies are often targets of violence. Yes, enemies! Far-right extremists seldom think opponents. They see those who stand in their way as enemies. Their enemies are usually minorities, immigrants, and all who they see as a threat to their objective of power at all cost.

Please Google speeches of Trump and Bolsonaro for your own edification.

Here at home we need to keep our eyes wide open for political wolves in sheep’s clothing. Extremists on the far-right or the far-left are equally dangerous. It is in our best interest that we are in the know, because ignorance is an expensive stupor that must be shunned.

I am steadfast in my belief that propagators of ignorance are scourges. The late Isaac Asimov, American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, famously said: “Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge’.”

This warning is relevant to us too.

Narcissists are dangerous

Experts in psychology and related fields generally agree that narcissists are selfish, vain, and are gluttons for power and attention. Narcissists lack empathy. Experts say that extreme narcissism is a personality disorder.

Far-right and far-left extremists are narcissists. They are fuelled by praise. They thrive on a constant stream of flattery and admiration. The instance the streams begin run dry they begin to behave like wounded animals.

Those who were caught in that regrettable stupor, which culminated in January 6 in the USA and last Sunday in Brazil, plus those here at home, who close their eyes to the red flags of far-right and far-left extremism had better wake up and smell the coffee.

“Higgins, why should Jamaicans be concerned about what type of government is in place in the USA and Brazil,” some may bellow.

The USA is still our largest trading partner. Most of our tourists come from the USA. Tourism is a mainstay of our economy. Militarily, the USA is the still believed to be the most powerful country on Earth. Politically, the president of the USA is still the most powerful political leader in the world. Technologically, the USA still leads in far more areas than China. More people from more countries want to become citizens of the USA than any other country in the world. The judicial system in America is believed to be one of the most developed in the world. Institutionally, America is one of the strongest countries in the world. And opportunity-wise, America is still number one globally.

Brazil has the ninth-largest economy in the world and the largest in Latin America with a nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of US$1.85 trillion. Brazil is the largest and most populous country in Latin America. Brazil also has the Amazon Rainforest, which is described by scientists as “the lungs of the world”.

If Brazil were to become stuck in the clutches of the far right democracy we in Latin America and the Caribbean would be plunged into a steep political spiral. Does the Caribbean at present have the institutional resilience to withstand such a descent?

It ain’t over

Narcissists do not let go of their attention-seeking deficit without resentful and revengeful backlash. I was not surprised to see this headline ‘Bolsonaro eyes return to Brazil as US stay pressures Biden’ by the internationally reputable and credible Associated Press (AP), last Wednesday.

The AP item said among other things: “The Biden Administration is under growing pressure from leftists in Latin America, as well as US lawmakers, to expel Jair Bolsonaro from a post-presidential retreat in Florida following his supporters’ brazen attack on Brazil’s capital over the weekend.

But the far-right ex-president may pre-empt any plans for such a stinging rebuke. On Tuesday he told a Brazilian media outlet that he would push up his return home, originally scheduled for late January, after being hospitalised with abdominal pains stemming from a 2018 stabbing. His visit to the Sunshine state went largely unnoticed in the US until Sunday’s attack by thousands of die-hard supporters who had been camping for weeks outside a military base in Brasilia, refusing to accept Bolsonaro’s narrow defeat in an October run-off. Their invasion of Brazil’s Congress and presidential palace left behind shattered glass, smashed computers, and slashed artwork.

Almost from the moment the images of destruction were broadcast to the world, Democrats voiced concern about Bolsonaro’s continued presence on US soil, drawing parallels between the rampage in Brazil and the January 6, 2021 insurrection by allies of Donald Trump who stormed the Capitol to try to overturn the US presidential election results.

I believe Bolsonaro, like Trump, will continue to delude himself that he is the political head of State. Like Trump’s, Bolsonaro’s far-right supporters will continue to interrupt, derail, and destabilise his successor’s Administration. Like Trump, Bolsonaro will continue to maintain that he did not lose the election of last October. Bolsonaro, like Trump, will try to tighten his grip on power within his party. It simply, ain’t over.

Those who fell asleep at the wheel in Brazil last Sunday had better keep their eyes wide open. We here should do the same too.

Dangerous games

Political extremists like Trump and Bolsonaro have been playing dangerous games with democracy. One does not need a magnifying glass to see that, among other things, they are complete hypocrites. They accuse their opponent of what they are. They become what they say publicly they despise. Their public political persona is an elaborate web of distraction/deflection for what they are really doing. Their ultimate objective is to blindfold the undiscerning to march with then into authoritarianism.

I hate to quote a wretch and mass murderer like Joseph Goebbels, Nazi propaganda minister, but for accuracy’s sake I will. It was Goebbels who prescribed, among other things: “Accuse the other side of that which you are guilty.”

Democracy works best when people have a healthy respect for the rule of law. The oxygen of democracy is institutions that are effective guardrails against the whittling away of a society’s social and physical adhesives. Misleaders like Trump and Bolsonaro have repeatedly advocated the ripping to shreds of the cornerstones of democracy.

Fear prophets

The Washington Post, in an insightful article entitled: “Brazilian conservatives condemn riots, remain loyal to Bolsonaro,” delivered these among other percipient comments, last Wednesday: “Bolsonaro spent years sowing mistrust in Brazil’s democratic institutions, stoking the anger that exploded on Sunday. Thousands of his conspiracy-driven, misinformation-spewing loyalists, insisting without evidence that Lula stole the election, stormed the congress, presidential palace and supreme court, smashing windows, splintering furniture, slashing.”

The cornerstones of democracy can be severely damaged if they are not constantly reinforced and protected against political and related extremists. Trump and Bolsonaro, latter-day prophets of fear have proven this.

Jamaica is still a very young democracy. I believe young democracies like ours are especially vulnerable to the poisons being spewed by political insurrectionists. Therefore, the sanitising light of sustained public scrutiny must be kept on their every move.

Pay yuh ticket!

Consider this: “This time I will be personally engaged in the demonstration if Audley Shaw doesn’t replace the bus stops on Constant Spring Road. We are giving Audley until the middle of February to ensure that those bus stops are replaced or else no bus will pass tax office on Constant Spring Road. Take my word! (Nationwide News Network, January 9, 2022)

This statement by Egeton Newman, president of the Transport Operators Development Sustainable Services (TODDS), sounds like a threat to create massive public disorder.

Up to the time of writing I did not hear a retraction and/or apology from Newman. He needs to understand that there is very little public support for another amnesty for taxi operators. In fact, there is much public upset with the levels of leniency that the Government has apportioned to operators of public passengers vehicles. Newman would do well to remember the Jamaican saying “humble calf suck the most milk”.

Ray Ray, again

The frequency with which the Ray Ray Market goes up in flames has not escaped my notice. It should not escape yours either.

Check this: ‘Everything gone’… Fire destroys Ray Ray Market in downtown Kingston’. The Gleaner news item noted these and more: “Moments after heavy gun fire erupted in a section western Kingston last night a blaze engulfed the popular ‘Ray Ray’ Market destroying everything in its path. (June 9, 2020)

Consider this: ‘Ray Ray Market on fire, again’. The Gleaner news item of February 22, 2022 also said: “In April 2019 there was also a fire at the market, resulting in extensive damage and significant financial losses.”

Last Monday fire again gutted the Ray Ray Market. Something is severely rotten here!

Garfield Higgins is an educator, journalist, and a senior advisor to the minister of education & youth. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or higgins160@yahoo.com.