Of all the electoral laws that I have called stupid here, none is more stupid than the one that prohibits polls without proper registration. Strictly speaking, you can’t even do polls on social media. Because that would somehow unfairly influence the voter. Look at what the TSE website says: “from August 15 onwards, the exercise of police power against the dissemination of polls, through the issuance of an order so that they are removed, under penalty of disobedience, without prejudice to any appropriate representation.”
Therefore, the title of this chronicle is mere provocation. I know the story goes around the mouth that the title was an attempt to give my editor a heart attack – but it’s all just a rumor. In any case, I thought it best to clarify possible and probable misunderstandings. And I take the opportunity to ask the question that will set the tone of the chronicle from now on: “in an electoral poll, what kind of people answer (x) I DON’T KNOW nowadays?”
I have never answered electoral polls because I’m always honest when the interviewer asks me if I work in the press. I don’t know if this is a technical impediment, linked to the very complicated laws of statistics, or if it is a question of ethics. All I know is that journalist can’t answer. But I keep imagining the interviewer mentioning the candidates one by one, from Bolsonaro to Leonardo Péricles, until I hear a shy (x) I DON’T KNOW.
In the interviewer’s place, I would probably hold the interviewee by the collar. What do you mean you don’t know who you’re going to vote for?! Today is September 18 day. Elections are in two weeks. Two weeks!! What planet do you live on?! What do you eat?! How does it reproduce?! And finally: what do you talk about with your coworkers, friends, family?!
The (x) I DON’T KNOW is a mystery of the Universe. Does he not know through legitimate ignorance? It is a reasonably high possibility – as long as you believe what a survey carried out in 2016 by Datafolha says and which pointed out that, at the time, 33% of Brazilians ( attention!) did not know the president’s name. Although, at the time, the confusion was justified: the president was Michel Temer, who had just replaced Dilma Rousseff, the queen of pedaling. An older survey, from the time when President FHC, said that this number was 20%.
Is it out of sincere doubt? In this case, I imagine (x) I DON’T KNOW answering the question in the midst of a deep existential and intellectual crisis. The (x) I DON’T KNOW really doesn’t know whether he is an individual or a society, whether he prefers Mises or Marx, whether he is against this or in favor of that (quite the opposite). He has no idea whether he prefers one or the other. You know that friend of yours who takes hours to decide between Brahma and Antarctica? Because I’m imagining him.
Finally, there is the option in which I would easily fit: the one of the (x) I DON’T KNOW insincere. Some out of a mocking spirit. Those who love to see the circus burn – back when there were circuses. Others, because of laziness to think. There is also the (x) I DON’T KNOW who wants to end the interview once and for all because it started to rain and he needs to take his clothes off the line. There are also those who want to disrupt the search. And, finally, there is what sneezed, but the interviewer understood (x) I DON’T KNOW.
I wrote, wrote, wrote and, however, I still haven’t said what I wanted: my dream is to be a part of it. (x) I DON’T KNOW more sincere. Which, of course, excludes the (x) I DON’T KNOW liar of the closeted PT members. I’m talking about (x) I DON’T KNOW pure and naive. The (x) I DON’T KNOW art. The (x) I DO NOT KNOW floodplain. The (x) I DON’T KNOW who can afford to profess their self-government. The (x) I DON’T KNOW whose faith you have. The (x) I DON’T KNOW who is free not because the Constitution says so, but because he experiences freedom on a daily basis.
