Panel: ENGAGING IN THE WORLD: SOCIAL JUSTICE AND RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS IN DIALOGUE



141_2.3 - THE SUPERIMPOSED ENEMY: A BUDDHIST HERMENEUTICS OF SOCIAL JUSTICE AS A THREAT TO INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM IN BOLSONARO'S NEOLIBERAL DISCOURSE

AUTHORS:
D'Ottaviano G. (Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo ~ São Paulo ~ Brazil)
Text:
This article investigates elements of Jair Bolsonaro's political discourse in which Social Justice is presented as hostile to individual freedom, proposing a hermeneutical key drawn from the Indian Buddhist philosophy of the Abhidharmakośa, mediated by the Theory of Inter-Relational Network. The hypothesis is that such discourse is favored by a linguistic structure grounded in the projection (samāropa) of the ontologized identity of the individual, which assumes, in the specific context of Bolsonaro's political discourse, characteristics of the neoliberal conception of the free subject. The methodological path unfolds in three stages: (i) the exposition of the samāropa mechanism in the Abhidharmakośa, articulated through the Theory of Inter-Relational Network, as a basis for understanding hostility as a construct elaborated in the language manifested by the discourse; (ii) the application of these references to the interpretation of Bolsonaro's political discourse, in which the figure of the enemy ("communist," "socialist") functions as the articulator of hostility in language; (iii) the analysis of Hayek's critique of Social Justice, in order to assess the affinity between this philosophical concept and the superimposition of the enemy's identity elaborated in Bolsonaro's discourse. The conclusion is that political hostility in Bolsonaro's discourse projects the identity of the "communist" or "socialist" enemy as a rhetorical device whose function, in continuity with the neoliberal flow of thought, may be to remove the element of Social Justice from the network that constitutes the identity of the free individual in Brazilian culture. Thus, the elaboration of hostility in language may operate as a political propaganda strategy, strengthening neoliberal ideology in Brazil through the mobilization of public opinion that impacts political and legal spheres. Keywords: Buddhism; Individualism; Neoliberalism; hostility; Politics; Social justice; Hermeneutics; Vasubandhu.