I am Brazilian and I think that we have quite a lot of baggage that we keep without questioning nearly enough.
Many of those are consequence of our slightly singular history. Very few generations ago we were a slaver monarchic society with a lot of intentional internal segregation, despite not having all that clear an ethnic division. Just a few decades prior we were a colony with low status, with a very brief period in a curious state of seat of a refugee European court while also formally raised to member of an "Empire".
We have a mixed and very confused cultural ancestry, and our cultural unity - such as it exists - is to a considerable extent based on the confusion itself.
The end result seems to be a culture that has no discernible core even as it attempts to value that core and even take pride on it. A common enough, perhaps even typical or even inevitable situation. That is nationalism for you. But there are some specific colors to the shape that it takes here.
One is our own form of "manifest destiny". Brazil is large and perceives itself as inherently "rich", no matter what the actual economic performance metrics say. Having monarchic expectations all around us did not help. It may be difficult to notice from the inside, but Brazilians tend to over-value wealth to the point of making it the dominant moral value even in what is supposed to be Christian churches and other environments that are theoricially supposed to impose other values, incompatible instead. At some level, Brazilians have learned for generations that their personal dignity is essentially the same thing as their material wealth yet refuse to admit it quite openly.
This trait reflects even on external politics. Brazilians rarely care much about other nations much beyond vague notions on how likely they are to "steal our riches". It is really shocking how far that brought us. It is actually commonplace for politicians to elect themselves due to direct promises of decreeing previously illegal settlements - even whole illegal condominiums - magically legal. Our people don't really think in terms of whether there will be enough infrastructure, investiment or jobs; we just expect politicians to be available to interfere or else be blamed.
Many of those are consequence of our slightly singular history. Very few generations ago we were a slaver monarchic society with a lot of intentional internal segregation, despite not having all that clear an ethnic division. Just a few decades prior we were a colony with low status, with a very brief period in a curious state of seat of a refugee European court while also formally raised to member of an "Empire".
We have a mixed and very confused cultural ancestry, and our cultural unity - such as it exists - is to a considerable extent based on the confusion itself.
The end result seems to be a culture that has no discernible core even as it attempts to value that core and even take pride on it. A common enough, perhaps even typical or even inevitable situation. That is nationalism for you. But there are some specific colors to the shape that it takes here.
One is our own form of "manifest destiny". Brazil is large and perceives itself as inherently "rich", no matter what the actual economic performance metrics say. Having monarchic expectations all around us did not help. It may be difficult to notice from the inside, but Brazilians tend to over-value wealth to the point of making it the dominant moral value even in what is supposed to be Christian churches and other environments that are theoricially supposed to impose other values, incompatible instead. At some level, Brazilians have learned for generations that their personal dignity is essentially the same thing as their material wealth yet refuse to admit it quite openly.
This trait reflects even on external politics. Brazilians rarely care much about other nations much beyond vague notions on how likely they are to "steal our riches". It is really shocking how far that brought us. It is actually commonplace for politicians to elect themselves due to direct promises of decreeing previously illegal settlements - even whole illegal condominiums - magically legal. Our people don't really think in terms of whether there will be enough infrastructure, investiment or jobs; we just expect politicians to be available to interfere or else be blamed.
