The Eclipse of Reason

The separation of church and state was one of the great legacies of the French Revolution,  and the reason why, along with many others, I am so deeply alarmed by the rise of religious militants who would once more merge god and government. In Brasil as in the United States, the politically powerful evangelical wing of the Christian church firmly believes that biblical scripture should be ingrained in the constitution and rule of law. It is a disturbing vision of the future whose historical roots can be traced back to the early religious legitimation of colonial occupation.  In a wonderful clip doing the rounds on social media a besuited Frank Zappa regales his censorial critics with a prophetic warning about the descent of America into a fascist theocracy. Meanwhile in Brasil, one of the scarier slogans  doing the rounds, is ‘Brasil above everything, God above everyone,’ a fetid marriage of nationalist fervour and religious submission.[i]  The bronze ensemble above, my second entry into the 2024 Exhibition of Scandalous Art, depicts exactly what the holy right would have us return to; an idealised past when all were united under the word of god and blasphemy was punishable by excommunication. In this case however it is not just ‘savages’ who are required to submit to the cross, but animals as well. It is of course unlikely that the moral guardians of the future will wear cassocks, more likely the suits and uniforms of the misogynist priestly caste that rules over Margaret Atwood’s theocratic hellscape in The Handmaid’s Tale. There is a reason why the book along with others like Orwell’s 1984, and Arthur Miller’s Crucible, is never out of print. Narratives about the delusions of democracy, the abuse of language, and willing subjection, are all too believable and close to home.

[i] Brasil acima de tudo - Deus acima de todos.