Suzana Herculano-Houzel’s opinion column, “The Fugitive’s Brain,” follows a political aspirant whose ambition grows from watching his father hold the highest office he can imagine. Although the father was later imprisoned, the columnist writes, his followers continued to absolve and praise him. Sharing his surname and strongly resembling him, the son pictures himself in the same position and turns that image into a goal.
The aspirant then becomes a strategist, seeking to persuade his father’s supporters that he is the family’s strongest candidate. As he enters the race, he secures backing from wealthy donors and funds three successive marketing campaigns. Their aim is to associate his opponent with the problems in voters’ lives, even when those problems stem from the candidate’s own father, the column says. The campaigns help distract attention from scandals surrounding the candidate.
Convinced that victory is within reach, the candidate begins to reveal his plans. But a grassroots campaign, driven by opposition to the future he represents, mobilizes more than 10 million people to vote for the possibility of a different outcome. The candidate loses.
Herculano-Houzel describes his response as a calculation rather than a sense of injustice: he recognizes that public revulsion toward him contributed to his defeat. Facing doors closing around him at home, including the prospect of a prison cell, he sees the airport as his remaining route out. The column ends by calling him a fugitive.
Sources: Folha Ciência.