Freedom on the Road in Brazil

Diogo Costa, editor of Atlas Global Initiative’s OrdemLivre.org, gives an update, below, on the 17 university speaking tour that ends this weekend in Brazil.

The route Atlas Global Initiative's OrdemLivre.org took throughout October for Liberdade na Estrada, the 13 city Brazilian speaking tour.

For the past 23 days, OrdemLivre.org has been crossing Brazil in an unprecedented educational enterprise: to present an introduction to the philosophy of freedom to university students throughout the country.

The whole project, called Liberdade na Estrada [Freedom on the Road], has consisted of one-school-day seminars (a school day in Brazil lasts about 4½ hours) to 70+ students per city in 13 different cities. We have travelled by car, bus, and plane over a distance of about 4,520 miles — that’s comparable to driving from Vancouver, BC to Miami, FL and then to Washington, DC!

Bruno Garschagen, Lucas Mafaldo, Rodrigo Constantino and I (Diogo Costa) kicked off the tour in Porto Alegre, back on October 5. We did not know what reaction to expect from the audiences, but were already mildly optimistic, because we had been able to identify individuals or groups committed to liberal ideals in every university included in our itinerary. Each school had its own procedures in arranging such an event, and without local information and support this strenuous logistic effort would not have been possible. Our cooperation with these local organizers (mostly students) included deciding the best overall structure for the seminars and sending them formal letters for their departments and standard material in print to advertise our event.

One of these organizers was Jonathan Costa (no relation), a former student at the Federal University of Alagoas (UFAL), who is currently training to be a restaurant chef. While in other places there were at least a few individuals working together, at UFAL Jonathan was a one-man team. He had not only scheduled the event at his former university, but also personally made announcements in classrooms, arranged a car to be used at our disposal, and even prepared T-shirts with our logo on them.

In a reference to Mises and Hayek, Jonathan complains that in Brazil “universities are taken by the anti-capitalistic mentality — in which I include Keynesianism — and by the fatal conceit.” He greeted us after the event, saying that “an initiative such as Liberdade na Estrada demonstrates who the true champions of freedom are.”

Jonathan is not alone. The understanding that in Brazil universities are one-sided is shared by most of the students whom we’ve met. “You are going into the ‘snake’s nest,’” economist Adolfo Sachsida told us when we invited him to take part in our tour.

Surely there was some poison dripping. There were professors who explicitly told their students not to attend. In Natal, all of our posters were removed. In Vitoria, classrooms were told “a fascist group” was coming. Mídia Independente, one of the most popular leftist websites, asked students to “watch out if your university is on the [Liberdade na Estrada] list and sabotage the event!”

However, intellectually speaking, there wasn’t much challenge. Even the most radically opposed professors restrained themselves to asking questions relevant to our themes, from market failures to labor regulation to the financial crisis.

Our tour is helping shift the intellectual tide towards classical liberalism. Raduan Melo, an economics student from Fortaleza, told us that the students with whom he talked afterwards displayed “a mix of surprise and acceptance of the libertarian ideal.” Bernardo Quintão, from Curitiba, was enthusiastic: “Liberdade na Estrada should receive a standing ovation as the best initiative of the year, sharing with Forum da Liberdade the position of the best channel to spread the liberal philosophy in Brazil.”

The level of interest in the liberal message could be clearly felt in the great number of students interested in following up our seminar with other activities. Over 250 students provided us with their contact information to be part of the OrdemLivre.org coordinated Studies Circles at their universities. It is part of our project to create a national network of libertarian students.

Our lecturers and topics follow:

• Bruno Garschagen (M.A. in international relations) spoke on globalization and culture.
• Gabriel Gallo (lawyer and student leader from Venezuela) spoke on 21^st century socialism.
• Lucas Mafaldo (M.A. in philosophy) spoke on Robert Nozick and principles of justice.
• Rodrigo Constantino (M.B.A. in finances), Helio Beltrão (M.B.A. in finances) and Adolfo Sachsida (Ph.D. in Economics) alternated appearances speaking about the current financial crisis.
• Diogo Costa (M.A. in political science) spoke on the philosophy of liberalism.