eu cá

By the time the Maastricht Treaty was approved in Portugal a TV crew was sent to the countryside to get people´s views about the Treaty. Not surprisingly, few people could even pronounce its name, much less know what it meant. In a remote village of Tras-os-Montes, a rural worker in his sixties was asked by the journalist: "What do you think about the Maastricht Treaty?". His expression was unmoved as if the subject was quite familiar to him. Then, pausing for a moment and after some thoughtful consideration, he said: "Well... if everybody likes that thing ... I like it too (here)". ("Bem... se toda a gente gosta dessa coisa...eu cá também gosto").

This episode is revealing of Portuguese culture in more than one aspect. First, when they talk in public, the Portuguese like to display conformity with social norms and authority. That is why public events and speeches, such as conferences, are so boring in this country (see post below). The Portuguese like to be part of the crowd and they hate feeling excluded. Actually, this is one of the great features of their culture. In their all-inclusive society there is a place for everybody and for every newcomer. Nobody is excluded or left behind provided he or she is ready to join the crowd. Thus, their first, instintive reaction in public is one of social conformity. To an external observer this might seem, at first sight, an extremely homogeneous society where everybody plays by the rules and displays public conformity with authority.

There is one important qualification, though. Their conformity is mostly public and rather dubious. For, once they have shown public respect for norms and authority they feel free, if the opportunity arises, to do as they wish trespassing norms and corroding authority. This is a people who, seeming so conformist when speaking in public, is overly individualist in practice to the point that it is no simple matter to bring two of them to agree on any single issue.

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In the Maastricht episode mentioned above, the man´s answer contains a subtle meaning in the adverb cá, strategically placed in his sentence. The view he expressed about the Treaty is actually his view cá (here), that is, under those special, public circumstances of place and time. He does not feel compelled to hold the same view lá (there), that is, under different circumstances of place and time - and he usually won't. Upon discussion with family and friends, or mostly by hearsay, starting from a position where he knows nothing about the Treaty, he might end up either agreeing or disagreeing with it. But his final veredict on the Treaty, with the usual qualification cá, will be punctuated by so many qualifications of his own making that it is virtually impossible to find any other person in the country, if not in the World, sharing his views on the subject.

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Modern Portuguese liberal intellectuals who follow in the steps of Hayek, Mises and others believe that social norms can emerge spontaneously from the free interplay of people and their interests in society. This is a serious mistake because it does not take into account history and culture. You cannot get any two Portuguese agreeing on a single social issue, certainly not on its details. How could you get them to agree broadly on the multiplicity of social norms that are required to keep a society working? In this country, if you leave the making and enforcement of social norms to the free intercourse of people in society you will end up with anarchy and chaos.

Social norms in this country, to be effective, must come from above without discussion and must be supported by authority and power. This is the only way people will be ready to show some public conformity to them. Even when norms are abusive, people will be quite glad, even proud, to be shown in company of the politicians who made the norms for them. This is a society that is fascinated by power and at the same time is afraid of it. For, in this society, power is usually synonymous with impunity.