Culture Wars: A Ameaça Fantasma

Brazil's aspirations to the exalted cultural status of Bozza's Brexitannia or the Trumpster's MAGA-Murca have suffered a setback with the sacking of Jair Bolsonaro's culture secretary. A religious lunatic who not only believes that rock music encourages abortion and Satanism but appears to find something undesirable in the idea, Roberto Alvim spouted some right-wing platitudes about culture which echoed similar platitudes by Goebbels. The fact that he spoke to the music of Lohengrin, "said to be Hitler's favourite opera," didn't help matters, even though Hitler's favourite opera is also said to be Rienzi. Alvim was announcing an arts prize for exhibitions in which "virtues of faith, loyalty, self-sacrifice and the fight against evil will be raised to the sacred territory of works of art," which proved too much even for other right-wingers. Presumably works of art was the phrase that made them release the safety catch on their Brownings; if Alvim had only thought to say children's stories instead, he might not only have kept his sinecure but raised Brazilian culture to the heights of George Lucas and James Bond.