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The Minister of Education, Milton Ribeiro, said on Thursday (10) that a part of the young Brazilians turned into “existential zombies” who no longer believe in God.
In an act to launch policies against mutilation and suicide, the minister, who is also a Presbyterian pastor, assessed that the world is experiencing a moment of “deconstruction of everything”, which leaves the young public without reference or motivation.
“We have today in Brazil, motivated I think, my diagnosis, by this rupture of absolutes and certainties, true existential zombies. They no longer believe in anything, from God to politics. They have no motivation,” he said.
In his speech, the minister also affirmed that the youth have lived an “existential emptiness”, which, in his opinion, encourages adolescents to live without purpose and take “their own lives”.
Suicide prevention experts warn that there is no evidence of a relationship between religiosity and suicide and urge the population to be careful not to spread what they call harmful myths.
“We live in a time of deconstruction of everything. Of everything that is worth, of everything absolute. Of all the certainties of life,” he said. “There is no longer a young man who believes in things like God, religion, politics and family. They totally miss the point of reference,” he said.
According to him, the “great fashion of sociologists and philosophers” is to deconstruct values and ideas and not to put “anything in its place”, “to leave a void”.
In his speech, the minister also criticized the content of the teaching materials that, in his opinion, offer points of view that are not suitable for the indicated age group.
“When I look at the books of the Ministry of Education, old books, I see some criticisms that would be appropriate, perhaps, for an almost young person, not for a sixth year child,” he said. “They are discussions and historical deconstructions that, for me, are not suitable for that age group,” he emphasized.
Ribeiro was chosen by President Jair Bolsonaro in a nod to both the Evangelical Bank and the ideological core of Esplanada dos Ministérios.
In the past, before taking over the portfolio, he advocated educating children with “pain.” “Correction is necessary for healing. It will not be achieved by just means and gentle methods,” he said.
The use of physical punishment in children was prohibited by the ECA (Statute of Childhood and Adolescence), after the enactment of the Spanking Law, in 2014, which amended the law that provides for the statute.
Thus, it was established that children should be educated and cared for without resorting to physical punishment or “cruel or degrading treatment, such as forms of correction, discipline, education.”
