Abstract

DUARTE, Newton; ALVES DOS SANTOS, Silvia  and  MELO DUARTE, Elaine Cristina. Bolsonarist obscurantism, neoliberalism and academic productivism. Rev. Elet. Educ. [online]. 2020, vol.14, e4542134.  Epub Sep 29, 2020. ISSN 1982-7199.  https://doi.org/10.14244/198271994542.

The implications of Bolsonarism for the production and diffusion of knowledge in Brazilian public institutions of higher learning are analyzed in this article through the development of three theoretical arguments. The first one is that Bolsonarism is part of a broader sociocultural phenomenon that is obscurantism, which therefore requires an understanding of the processes that feed obscurantism worldwide and particularly in Brazil. The second is that obscurantism is connected in a non-accidental way with neoliberalism, taken here to mean the contemporary form of organizing not only the economy but all social practice and, consequently, the different dimensions of human life. The central political and ideological vector of neoliberalism is that the freedom of individuals can only be ensured by a society that is commanded by the spontaneity of the market. The neoliberal defense of freedom is, in reality, an imprisonment of society to a perspective that removes from human beings the possibility for making choices about the future of humanity. In this sense, the fight against Bolsonarism may not achieve significant results if it is not part of the struggle for the liberation of society from its entrapment by market logic. The third argument presented in this article is that productivism, as an academic expression of neoliberalism, configures the production and dissemination of knowledge in public institutions of higher learning in a way that favors the penetration of obscurantism into academic life.

Keywords : Bolsonarism; Obscurantism; Neoliberalism; Academic productivism.

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