Fascism as a religion and elections in Brazil in 2018

Abstract

In an article entitled “The new aspects of the fascist battle”, by José Carlos Mariátegui, written in 1925 and published in the Brazilian version in the collection The origins of fascism (2010), the Peruvian intellectual writes that “fascism wants to be a religion” ( Mariátegui: 2010, p. 322). Affirmation not at all unreasonable and that allows us a strong criticism in a complex and sometimes unexplored field: political theology. In this field, we understand Žižek's notation when affirming that at the same time the “old 'political-theological' phrase takes on a new importance: not only is all politics based on a 'theological' view of reality, but all theology is inherently political” (2012, p. 2018). Thus, our hypothesis and what we intend to demonstrate is that the religious or theological characteristics analyzed by Mariátegui in Italian fascism make it possible to critically understand a certain dimension of the rise of a radical conservative campaign in the Brazilian general elections and 2018. To do this, we will first present the main points raised by the Peruvian regarding the characteristics of the fascist movement at the beginning of the 20th century and, then, using contributions from Latin American critical thinking in the second half of the same century, to point out possible conclusions regarding the Liberal Social Party , its flags and candidate for the presidency of Brazil, whose slogan is "Brazil above all, God above all".