Sometimes, the right and the wrong are hard to identify with clarity. What is ethical in a society cannot be in another.
The culture and the moral values from each society will be a guide to analyze if an individual behavior is ethical or is not. Likewise, the individual is influenced by the culture of society which he is inserted. The culture varies from one society to another. But, what is culture? Culture is a set of values that guide the thought and the behaviors of society members.These values are transmitted from generation to generation by formal and informal education: family, rituals, school, friends, and the general community. Thus, the culture is the most valuable asset of a nation.
The culture identifies the people in the world. In Brazilian culture, we can identify a peculiar trace present in the social relationship: "O Jeitinho Brasileiro" (Brazilian Way). “O Jeitinho Brasileiro” being a phenomenon that occurs in Brazilian society and affects the ethical question in the relations deserves a deeper analyzes. My proposal is to analyze “O Jeitinho Brasileiro” trough the theory of Ethical Relativism.We know by definition that within the theory of Ethical Relativism we must not judge the moral values relative to a particular culture because there is not an absolute and universal moral truth. In the same way, the truth of moral judgments is relative to the opinions, feelings and preferences of each individual (Ethical subjectivism).
“O Jeitinho Brasileiro”– Brazilian Way“O Jeitinho Brasileiro” is an expression often used by Brazilians to define the ability to solve certain tasks, situations, or even problems. It is an exclusive feature of Brazilian people. “O Jeitinho Brasileiro” can be defined like a creative and improvised form to resolve an unexpected problem. It is a fast solution; however the strategies can be used by the right or wrong way. When we use the strategy by the right way “O Jeitinho Brasileiro” is defined as “creativity” and “ability to innovate to compete.” When we use the strategy by the wrong way “O Jeitinho Brasileiro” is defined as “cunning by the wrong way” and “corruption.
” It is not from today that Brazil is suffering an ethical crisis. We saw in social and political fields deep changes in important values to collective relationship. The individualism was and is the main feature of our society where the difference between the opulence and waste of few is a contrast to the hunger and misery of the majority. The crisis is in all segments of Brazilian society because this dramatic issue has a relationship with the economic and educational underdevelopment of the country.
We can say that the Brazilian ethical crisis is resulting from a historic process.Our country was colonized by the Portuguese and their character had a historic corruption tolerance. In “Interpretation of the Brazilian Reality” (1973) João Camilo de Oliveira Torres analyzes an aspect of the Portuguese character: the lack of "liability,” which is summarized in the strong emphasis on personal relationships of friendship where the obligations are imposed above the impersonal, abstract, and legal rules. Hence the well-known adage: "To our friends all, the indifference to everybody, and for the enemy the rigors of the law" (p.22).
Also, we can associate the fact that Catholicism had been and remains the main religion in Brazil where the device of confession and forgiveness reinforces this more malleable social practice that characterized the Catholicism. For example, in the case of Protestantism, the person should have a consistency in the values applied at home, on the street, at work, in other words the social practice implies in a more uniformity of conducts, actions and laws. The sense of punition is clear and objective. This can explain why the Anglo-Saxon people have a social sense of the rights and the duties to the society.
The absolution and the penance existing in the Catholicism mitigate the guilt; it means the person doesn't need to have a uniform and permanent conduct.Since its discovery, Brazil was a stage of informal irregularities. The Portuguese gave trinkets to the native Indians by the natural wealth. The black slaves adapted their beliefs for practicing them because of the Catholic oppression. The laws were used just with the poorest strata of the Brazilian Society. “O Jeitinho Brasileiro” was a simple mechanism of adaptation and survival by the perverse situations of the relationship between the dominant and the dominated.
In anthropological terms, "O Jeitinho Brasileiro" can be attributed to a supposed emotional character of the Brazilian, described as "cordial man" by anthropologist Sérgio Buarque de Hollanda. In the book Raízes do Brazil (Roots of Brazil), this author states that the individual had developed a historical propensity to informality. It is because the Brazilian institutions have been designed so coercive and unilateral, with no dialogue between rulers and ruled, but only the imposition of a law and order considered artificial. The law was just convenient to the interests of political and economical elites (Hollanda).
In everyday life, it became common to ignore the laws in favor of friendships. The laws were demoralized and unable to impose because they did not have much value as, for example, the word of a "good" friend. Moreover, the fact of removing the laws and their punishments was a typical test of goodwill and a gesture of confidence, which favored good relations with trade and influence peddling. This means that in Brazilian way there a reinterpretation of the law and a creation of an own jurisprudence from the common sense.After clarify the meaning of “O Jeitinho Brasileiro" and its features, is important analyze this Brazilian moral behavior by the Ethical Relativism theory as proposed in the start of this essay.
We know that in the Ethical Relativism there is no universal moral code, only different cultural morals where the moral are relative to a particular person. In other words: each person must decide what is or is not ethical with a base in his convictions about the right and the wrong. Each culture defines what is right and wrong and a value cannot be evaluated. It just can be observed and tolerated.
The problem is that "O Jeitinho Brasileiro" reveals aspects that cannot be ignored about the personal and social character. Is it possible to live in a society where the most of people agree with flexibility of rules, thereby creating an environment of permissiveness that weakens the institutions? In my opinion sometimes in our greatest virtues (cordiality, friendship) are our greatest weaknesses, and the Ethical Relativism with its tolerance only reinforces my view.Over the view of the Ethical Relativism there are no common values, the situation changes the Ethics. It is negotiable, fluid and personal. Thus, opens the assumption that we can do everything than we want without hesitation.
This creates a social chaos. In conclusion, if we will agree with everything that is socially acceptable in our culture, we would lose any critical sense about the society rules. The ethical relativism in our culture tolerates the corruption and the impunity. This means that the theory disables the individual to propose changes in his own culture by understand it as a static and unchanging system.
