Fatalism in poverty’s daily life: from a forged individualism to a collective horizon

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze how fatalism manifests itself in the daily life of those who live under poverty conditions. Ten semi-structured interviews were conducted with subjects who were attended at a Social Assistance Reference Center (CRAS) at a city in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. Based mainly on Ignacio Martín-Baró’s elaborations, this study reflects on the way in which the predominant fatalistic resignation is forged through unequal structures and through ideologies established and deepened in poverty’s daily life. Social reality’s naturalization processes, reinforced by the immediacy and precariousness of everyday life, suppresses feelings of revolt, indignation and collectivity, which, in general, are channeled by a meritocratic, individualistic and religious logic. Thus, it is important to adopt a historical and dialectic perspective to understand the possibilities of breaking off with Brazilian society’s fatalism, in order to overcome subjective and material problems produced in and by the current social order.