The petropolitan tragedy and ignorance as a strategy of capitalist discourse

Abstract

The text seeks to analyze the tragedy of the rains in the municipality of Petrópolis (RJ), not as a natural disaster or worsening of climate issues, but through ignorance as a strategy of capitalist discourse. The situation in Petrópolis is thought of as a form of violence articulated with the concept of necropolitics, described by the philosopher Achille Mbembe. Political power appropriates death as an object of management, that is, power not only establishes norms about how we should live and act, but also decides and takes measures regarding how we should die and who should die. Using the thinking of sociologist Linsey McGoey who formulates the concept of strategic ignorance, the article approaches the passion of ignorance described by Lacan, to describe one of the strategies of capitalist discourse, which in the Imperial City can be translated by the expression widespread there: amnesia of the blue sky. A strategy of erasing knowledge about public policies that should be implemented to avoid new disasters. To demonstrate the enjoyment of ignorance mediated by the capitalist discourse, a clinical vignette of an intervention made during the emergency period in the 2022 tragedy is presented. Finally, the article bets that the discourse of psychoanalysis can subvert the capitalist discourse by criticizing him.