Angolan writer José Eduardo Agualusa warned on Sunday of the consequences of the “global stupidification” promoted by the world’s extreme right, considering that these movements are legitimising crimes such as racism and xenophobia.
“There is a movement of global stupidification. Racism and xenophobia are some of the expressions of human stupidity. So what these movements are doing all over the world is trying to legitimise what is most despicable about humanity’s way of being,” said José Eduardo Agualusa in an interview with Lusa in Maputo.
For the Angolan writer, the legitimisation of these arguments by political movements, sometimes with parliamentary space, means that this type of crime is increasing in society, pointing to the Portuguese context as an example.
“It’s not that there were fewer racists in Portugal in the past. There were already racists. Probably the same number or the same percentage. What’s happening now is that these same racists have lost their shame (…) Now they feel legitimised and express themselves openly,” observed the author of “O Vencedor de Passados”.
Agualusa believes that politically, the world is going backwards, criticising a supposed collective inertia in the face of the rise of these movements.
“In the same way that we can’t accept paedophilia or cannibalism, we can’t collude with it. Tomorrow, someone comes along defending cannibalism […], And suddenly, everyone who was hiding is defending cannibalism. This can’t happen. So I think that society as a whole should stand up when something appears that is clearly wrong,” the Angolan writer emphasised.
Agualusa criticised the rise of the extreme right in Brazil and the United States, warning of the loss of “spiritual values”.
“We see a Trump or a Jair Bolsonaro. They are, first of all, rude and crude people. How did these people get a stage? How did we give such people a stage and expression? I can’t understand it,” he declared.
“My father was a man of the right, but my father would never identify with bad manners, with rudeness. And that’s what these right-wing parties are today. They are parties that despise women, that treat women badly. How is this possible?” the author asked.
Lusa
