I am in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for carnaval - the biggest party
in the world. Drums and costumes, imagination and dance, pervade the
megalopolis. Taking part in this celebration
has provided me with some valuable culturist insights.
Culturism is the science and art by which nations protect,
promote their traditional majority cultures. It is the opposite, therefore, of multiculturalism, where
nations are to deny they have a majority culture and promote other cultures
within their borders.
Carnaval is a great culturist tool. The costumed drum and dance troupes,
usually including over 3,000 people, are largely drawn from poor neighborhoods;
this creates community cohesion. Ultimately,
people of all races and classes get involved. In the end, this televised explosion of light, color and fun,
unites all Brazilians by making them proud of their vibrant culture.
Art can help bind a nation. When possible, culturism should be fun!! And, to be
effective, it should invite wide participation.
Walking home from one of the massive carnaval-related events
tonight, I stopped at a food cart.
A 30-something brown-skinned woman took dough and cut it way too slowly,
then she put meat on it, wrapped it, and dropped it in a frying vat. While waiting I spoke with a local man
in Spanish.
He probed, “The US is very capitalistic, eh?” “Well,” I replied, “you couldn’t just
set up a stand like this in the US.
You’d need a business license and the food server would need certificates. We couldn’t be drinking beers on the
street like this.”
We regulate street-level economic activity far more than
other nations. Allowing more sidewalk
shops and street food vending in the US would give people easy access to
self-employment. This would make
the transition from welfare to work much more feasible.
My walk home from the carnaval street party took me between neighboring
wealthy homes and ghettoes called ‘favelas.’ Favelas consist of improvised brick mountainside homes
stacked on top of each other. In
America building homes means adhering to byzantine codes. The favela homes can
be rented and sold. Loosening building codes could raise levels of home
ownership.
Rio’s favelas are safe now, but they used to be ruled by brutal
drug gangs. These same drug gangs
launder money through supporting carnaval. The police and military battled these forces and won. Brazil’s heavily armed police still
have a heavy presence in the favelas.
Governments must forcefully combat bad people for good people
to have a decent quality of life. Sometimes
this requires armored cars and heavy artillery.
These culturist proposals run against our
Protestant-Enlightenment culture, from which well-built homes, food served in
proper restaurants, and self-policing naturally stem. But, as we import millions who value babies much more than
education, whose culture is rife with gangs, as we increasingly embrace carnaval-style
commercialized sensuality, Rio offers culturist tools with which to soften the
downfall.
