For The Sake of a Dissoluble Union
It is illogical, illegitimate, and inefficient to perpetuate, defined unilaterally, a “compulsory association” of different groups concerning beliefs, worldviews, ways of living, and property rights; that is, culturally distinct.
The first article of the 1988 Brazilian Federal Constitution:
The Federative Republic of Brazil, formed by the indissoluble union of states and municipalities and of the Federal District, constitutes a Democratic State of Law and has as its foundations (…)
People of all ethnic groups must fight together against separatist forces. Efforts should be made to build a new modern socialist Tibet that is united, prosperous, culturally advanced, harmonious, and beautiful.
Chinese dictator, Xi Jinping, speaks during a senior meeting of the Communist Party of China on the future governance of Tibet. The information was published by the CGTN agency.
If it is possible to resort only (exclusively) to the government for justice, then it (justice) will be distorted for the government’s sake, regardless of the constitutions and supreme courts.
HOPPE, HANS-HERMANN — Democracy, The God Who Failed: About Monarchy, Democracy, Public Opinion, and Delegitimization, 2014.
Canudos didn’t surrender. A unique example in history, it resisted until complete exhaustion. Won hand in hand, in the full accuracy of the term, fell on the 5th, at dusk, when the last defenders fell, who all died. There were only four: an old man, two made men, and a child, in front of whom 5,000 soldiers roared angrily.
CUNHA, E. Os Sertões. Rio de Janeiro: Francisco Alves, 1987.
“Decentralism is, first of all, a fort”. In Brazil, there is no shortage of examples of attempts at liberation. The Farroupilha Revolt of 1835, that of Canudos, 1896, and Praieira, 1848. All these movements were driven by individual desires for self-segregation. Thus, a federative association that prohibits separation is therefore not configured as anything but a fruit of authoritarianism.
In 1861, the American C̶i̶v̶i̶l War of Secession spontaneously materialized the right to separate. From this, the type of innate nature to the Republic, that of centralizing; the existence of a central body superior to the others, which controls the economy, defense, education, transport, energy, justice, etc. Therefore, the monopoly “of things” is guaranteed not only in Republican-Democratic environments, but also in monarchical, aristocratic, and oligarchic — in which coercion cannot be fought:
Things, however, change radically — permanently compromising the process of civilization — whenever violations of property rights take the form of government interference. The distinctive mark of government violations (…) is that they are considered legitimate not only by government agents (…), but also by the general public. Thus, in this situation, the victim cannot legitimately defend himself from such violations.
HOPPE, HANS-HERMANN — Democracy, The God Who Failed: On Temporal Preference, Government, and the Process of Decivilization, 2014.
Nature is empirical evidence of the success of decentralism. Since the human body, for example, has no central organ — and even the brain is composed of neurons — , the efficiency of the various biological processes is still assured. Through a mutualistic and evolutionary mechanism, cellular structures work to specialize in certain tasks. This event may be related to David Ricardo’s Theory of Comparative Advantages:
At absolute advantage, each country focuses on a niche based on these advantages, benefiting from specialization in sectors in which it is most efficient, and marketing its products with other countries. [2]
By the theory of comparative advantages, even if a country does not have absolute advantage, it can specialize in sectors in which it has comparative advantage. A related concept is competitive advantage.
Therefore, the organizational challenges of the Federative Republic of Brazil, and any other form of “compulsory association”, are: those of guaranteeing the local autonomy of the smallest national entities, and of recognizing the sovereignty of each citizen in the face of external action. Therefore, each individual must foster decentralizing means, ideas, and technologies; and, at the same time, that it does not tolerate any thoughts that are associated with totalitarians natures, which destroy liberty through power control.
Ideas, and only ideas, can illuminate the darkness.
Ludwig von Mises
