Since last Saturday, I've been watching discussions regarding the current affairs in Syria regarding the uncertainty after the fall of a 53 years old tyrannical regime, where the greatest concern was a new regime even more tyrannical than the previous one. It's a valid concern when we talk about a society that was living under the same dictatorship for over half a century, therefore they have no stable social foundation to become an institutional democracy.
I'm not saying it is impossible to build an institutional democracy in Syria, but that they would require a lot more effort from their society to do so. Specially considering the fact that without their common enemy Assad, the rebel factions might start to disintegrate and fight among themselves like mobsters fighting for turf. Just look at histories of the French Revolution replacing Louis XVI with Robespierre, the Cuban Revolution that replaced Batista with Castro and the Russian Revolution(s).
| Mas não basta, pra ser livre Ser forte, aguerrido e bravo Povo que não tem virtude Acaba por ser escravo | Is not enough, to be free Be strong, tough and brave People without virtues Ends up becoming slave |
At first I thought their complaints were just another aspect of so-called "woke" culture. Specifically the part where they signalize virtues by accusing other people of being racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, etc. But then it occurred to me that there's another plausibility.
According to leftist groups, represented in our state assembly by our three Socialism-and-freedom Party(aka. "Woke Party") representatives, this lyric represent the idea t6hat black people where enslaved because they have no virtues. That conclusion seems pretty idiotic when you consider the historical fact that our mid-19 century culture among intellectuals in our province was heavily influenced by the French Revolution and its aftermaths.
For my understanding since my teenage years, those lyrics are a warning about revolutions made from angry mobs without institutional democratic goals, where they end up replacing one tyrant with another. In other words, the leader of their freedom fighting movement against a tyrant might end up becoming another tyrant afterwards.
To quote from the movie Batman: the Dark Knight
You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.
Regarding the socialist hostility towards the lyrics, the fact that all socialist revolutions end up in tyranny makes the warning quite insulting to them as it makes them all look like fools fighting for a cause that never delivers its utopic promises and always ends up in tyranny. This time Socialism will work.
Spoiler alert: it wont.
@perfilbrasil are rewarded here.