Abstract

It is constantly said that Brazil is not a country for amateurs Our thriving industrial parks and boldly designed cities our technology-dependent lives and the big city frenzy all give the impression that we live in modern society because this is the image produced and confirmed by rhetoric that boasts our post modernity However that is merely a mirage which we believe because we intend and want to be a modern and civilized country even though the heavy burden of our colonial and slavery past which bequeathed us misery inequality violence and backwardness remains intact Only breaking free from this rubbish that binds us to the past and constr inges us will lead us into the group of modern societies into the club of the so-called civilized countries Getting a passport to gain such admission implies banishing backwardness that perverse inequality embodied in the privileges enjoyed by few which challenge and compromise our democracy the very essence of modern societies However abolishing privileges and abandoning cultural practices that are incompatible with any idea of civility finds resistance in several layers of the fabric that comprises Brazilian society and not only within privileged groups because after all being modern has a price What is not clear is how much we are willing to pay