It's carnival

I used to love Carnival. Especially watching the samba schools. For 20 years, I frequented the Sambadrome, captivated by that spectacle of colors and sounds, hypnotized by the beating of the drums, which accelerated our hearts, and by the opportunity to witness one of the greatest shows on Earth. However, that magic has faded for me, and I will explain why.

Today, Carnival has become a festival of excess, accompanied by violence, filth and degradation. The beautiful costumes have given way to vulgarity and nudity, the devil has come to be revered by several groups in their parades, drugs are consumed freely, even becoming an excuse for everything to be allowed. The streets have become dangerous and people feel vulnerable, as many crimes are committed with impunity.

If the parades at the Sambadrome feature artists and celebrities, the street parties portray the degradation of ordinary human beings, who get drunk until they fall over and urinate anywhere (even on top of another human being, in an act known as golden showers). In these same parties, people are robbed and some are even raped.

All of this saddens me. Modernity has normalized excesses, justifying many of the aberrations that surround us with clichés that have no connection to reality. So, the criminal who steals, beats and rapes is a product of “social inequality”. The couple who has sex in the street is “living sexual freedom”. The use of drugs everywhere comes from the “policy of drug decriminalization”. The artist who parades naked or plays the Devil is “representing his art”.

There is a justification for everything. However, the excuses created to explain social chaos and disorder are not capable of preventing the terrible consequences of these behaviors that we often have to deal with.

The return of many people to religion and moral and family values ​​has to do with the other side of this coin, a form of natural reaction to what one does not want to experience, to the place where one does not want society to go. Everything has a limit.

There is a resurgence of strong conservatism all over the world, in the literal sense of the word: preserving what has worked for civilization, preserving moral values ​​and attitudes, which we cannot allow to perish, because what we are witnessing is a horror show that seems to have no end. We have advanced so much in knowledge, education, and technology, but we have regressed in values ​​and customs.

It turns out that many societies have succumbed due to the loss of their most important values. Greek society. Ancient Rome. We have several examples of what we should not do, under penalty of perishing as a civilization. However, for better or for worse, human beings are always testing limits, stretching the rope, wanting more.

There is nothing left that one can desire that is not legitimized in today's society. However, although we are free to do whatever we want, not everything that is allowed to us is suitable for us. It is urgent that we change the direction of the rudder of this boat we are all on, so that it does not sink.

I no longer attend Brazilian Carnival for a simple reason: the values ​​that are being praised at this popular festival do not represent me. There we have the disorder and chaos of civilization at their maximum potential. In this tragic scenario that we find during the days of revelry, no one is spared. However, we are still given free will to decide whether we want to take part or not.

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Article published in the Journal Conhecimento & Cidadania  Vol. IV No. 51, February 2025 edition – ISSN 2764-3867