“I feel, mandatory”, on prohibitions, obligations and freedoms

In the first semester of 1989, in Jornal do Brasil, the brilliant Millôr Fernandes had been addressing the subject of “Seat Belts”, in such a way that, besides defending the non-mandatory use of the belt, he seemed to advance toward defending non-use itself, which in my view made the position not very sustainable.

But then a gentleman named Robert appears, resident in Rio de Janeiro, in a letter published in JB on Jun 2, 1989, identifying himself as president of a multinational company (but without identifying it), who made known a worrying novelty: he “requires, as a condition of employment or contract, the use of the seat belt”, while criticizing Millôr in an inconsistent way.

Now, there was an excellent topic for journalistic investigation that JB and Millôr let pass. Did they?

What else would Mr. Robert require in order to “grant” jobs or contracts in “his” multinational company, so concerned with the safety of “employees, family members and contracted personnel”?

Use of contraceptives? Limitation on the number of children? Standardized diet? Decent housing and schools for all his “employees, family members and contracted personnel”? Not going hungry? I am curious.

Would there be, in his employment contracts, limits on physical and mental efforts? Limits so as not to have “stress” and die before a car accident? It would be regrettable to die before having a car accident with a belt that protected him, proving Mr. Robert’s theses.

Certainly one will not be able to smoke in Mr. Robert’s company, nor eat fatty foods or drink alcoholic beverages. Going more than a year without vacation or doing overtime, even if the company needs it, not even to think about it, so concerned is Mr. Robert with the lives of his “employees, family members and contracted personnel”.

By the way, why would Mr. Robert have differentiated “employees” from “contracted personnel”? Castes? Slaves?

Nothing against multinationals: they provide my cigarette, my Scotch, my food (the cholesterols from McDonald’s!), which I smoke, drink and eat when I want, and do not smoke, do not drink and do not eat when I do not want.

Multinationals like Mr. Robert’s also provide the cars and the polluting fuels. The same cars without which we would not be here philosophizing about whether seat belts should be mandatory or not....

Now, people like this gentleman, regardless of nationality and employer, who want to force others to comply with rituals originated from their truths and their “neuroses”, bother me because they give the feeling that they want to take away our individual freedoms. Teachers of God.

Individual freedoms, which affect no one besides the person concerned, are sacred freedoms. And we are witnessing things like this seat-belt issue and the campaign against smoking, which demonstrate the theses of Goebbels in Germany and Orson Welles in the USA: with the media and “propaganda”, one can manipulate the collective, whether toward hysteria, toward ridicule, toward good or toward evil. Lynchings, physical or moral, only happen with groups feeling themselves to be in the majority (even if they are not). It is the psychology of crowds, whether gathered in squares or dispersed in different homes but watching and listening to the same announcer or the same commander, resulting in “pack”, “herd” behaviors that frighten me, whatever the pretext may be.

A poor comparison, but only to expose the absurdity, it seems they will end up wanting to forbid suicidal people from committing suicide. How far are we from George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”?

Does Mr. Robert extend his convictions and concerns also to his clients? Have you thought of that? “If the client does not put on the belt or does not brush his teeth in the morning, I do not sell to him”...

How about Mr. Robert identifying his company, so that we can check the coherence of his concerns?

Let us react against those who want to chain us. Domesticate us. Condition us. I begin to understand Millôr better: “let us begin to defend the non-use of the belt, at least to balance things out”.

In time: I use a seat belt, out of conviction, but I will defend (not to the death, because it is not that much!) the right of whoever does not want to use it not to use it. Even because the world is very full and a few little deaths more may do the planet some good.

But perhaps the day is nearer when we will all be “tracked”, equipped with belts, blinkers, harnesses, saddles... and happy to be in the herd, the school, the flock or the retinue.... whoever lives will see.

Jun 1989, Miguel Fernandez

Rio de Janeiro, in a letter to Jornal do Brasil, in June 1989, never answered, nor published.

Miguel Fernández y Fernández, engineer, chronicler and columnist, member of the National Academy of Engineering and of the Institute of Engineering # written in Jun 1989, 9,054 characters.

P.S. In 2020, gathering material that I had written and kept throughout life, I found this text, searched on “Google” and learned that this Mr. Robert (Robert A. Broughton, it was in the newspaper clipping I had kept) was the president of Shell in Brazil, Shell of all companies, which made money burning hydrocarbons and harming our little lungs.... and advertising in Jornal do Brasil. I took the opportunity to change the title of the chronicle a little... it used to be Seat Belt...