Observations on Hayekian neo-feudalism
In Brazil the binarism imposed by the permanent ideological war promoted by the defenders of neoliberalism did not raise the white flag or cease hostilities during the pandemic. On the contrary, fascist Bolsonarists occupy the streets to force workers to evict the security of their homes.
The explanation for this phenomenon it is not very complex. In the period when Keynesianism occupied a central position, as a dominant economic theory, Friedrich August von Hayek's theses were considered theoretical impostures and, as such, were left out of the public debate.
In the 1970s, Hayek's theory began to move to the center of the stage because economic policies based on Keynes's theses were no longer able to prevent the decline in capital profitability. In the following decades, neoliberalism became dominant.
From the moment that most political leaders, journalists and bankers (not necessarily in that order) began to demand an automatic adherence to neoliberal policies, Hayek's theses became the foundation of true theology.
In the Middle Ages, going against the dominant theology was dangerous. Potentially deadly. When Pope Innocent III ordered the Albigensian Crusade, military commanders made a plausible objection: it would not be possible to distinguish between Christians and heretics.
The Pope's answer was exemplary: kill them all, God will know how to choose his own. The solution suggested by the president of the Central Bank of Brazil to the dilemma imposed by COVID-19 is very reminiscent of the words of Pope Innocent III: reducing deaths from coronavirus is worse for the economy.
There is no other alternative. The neoliberal postulate explains the Brazilian Central Bank president's contempt for human life. Brazil have to let the virus kill everyone it wants to kill, the money god doesn't care. The preservation of theological orthodoxy is more important than anything.
Using Hayek's theses as a vector, feudalism has returned so overwhelmingly that people are unable to perceive what is really going on. Democracy was murdered, because it is incompatible with the social hierarchy of the feudal State.
Citizens are divided into two classes: feudal business lords and servants of finance. Anyone who challenges the daily banking neo-feudalization is summarily expelled from feudal society. Anyone staying outside the walls does not deserve any legal protection.
See, they cannot enter our castle. They are dangerous. They are the others. Irreducible enemies of the security that we enjoy. We are loyal to capital. They are heretics, Cathars, communists, possibly sodomites... And so a new "high tech" Albigensian Crusade began to preserve Hayek's hegemonic theology.
Bolsonaro said he would modernize Brazil. Trump has ensured that the USA will be great again. But both treat private capitalist companies as medieval fiefdoms that must be protected by the King. American and Brazilian citizens are only servants of finance who can be condemned to die abandoned to their fate.
The Law as we knew it (general and abstract norm, originating from the State and produced according to previously defined legislative procedures, whose validity depends on respect for the Constitution) did not exist in the Middle Ages.
In Brazil and the USA, the Society without Law (I am obviously referring to the book by Brazilian jurist Rubens Casara) is characterized by the existence of private corporations with protective walls built by the State. Business castles cannot die. They are the guarantee of perpetuating the power of capital royalty.
The bond between the sovereign and the feudal business lords is more important than that which links the servants of finance to the King. Power does not respect any limit and its exercise is independent of popular approval. Royal sovereignty is bestowed by the money god and cannot be contested.
Our Post-Democratic State is a "high tech" clone of the feudal state. COVID-19 will be our "bubonic plague". The restoration of democracy will occur when citizens return to having more political value than "business as usual" and the death of companies due to competition is desirable.