Authoritarian Thought: The Integralist Imaginary

Abstract

Approaching texts in which authoritarian thought in Brazil is expressed is always a thankless task. Even for readers who are rarely surprised, inevitable questions arise: how can a thought whose theoretical weakness is so striking be counterbalanced by its practical efficacy? Or, how can efficient domination give rise to such incoherent theoretical expressions? However, if we do not want to reduce Brazil’s authoritarian discourses to the status of “a bad rhetoric” born of the idiosyncrasies of its intelligentsia or the injustice of its power holders, it is worth considering these questions seriously. An initial clue in dealing with them may be discerned from observing that one of the most pronounced characteristics of this ideology consists in asserting a coincidence between the idea of truth (of thought) and the idea of efficacy (of action), which entails reducing social and political praxis to a set of techniques of action supposedly appropriate for obtaining specific ends. It is, therefore, not peculiar but necessary that authoritarian thought’s theoretical weakness go hand in hand with its practical efficacy.