Gathered around their vanities, an engineer, a priest, a doctor and a lawyer argued over who among them would be most important to society. The conversation revolved around a buzzword on the stock market in the daily news: chaos.
The logic was simple. The winner would be the one who best demonstrated to control this chaos. The engineer, very practical, hurriedly took the floor: “We control the chaos of nature, that is the most important thing”. “No way,” came the doctor, convinced of the superiority of his moods. “Most important are we, those who control the chaos of the human body. Without it, humanity would not exist.” The indignant priest breaks into a believing trance, brandishing his faith. “The most important are us, those who take care of the chaos of the soul, without a serene soul everyone will burn forever in hell.”
In the end, using the age-old wisdom that advises to always speak last, the lawyer calmly waited for the heated discussion to end. Then he rose solemnly and, with the most formal dignity, said: “We are the most important. Since we invented chaos, only we can control it.”
A student at the university, I heard this story countless times from the mouth of a master, Professor Avelãs Nunes, professor at the historic Faculty of Law of the University of Coimbra, demonstrating, a contrariu sensu, the advantage of using words over action and intelligence. about strength.
The lawyers! Although we are often cursed, blamed for the bureaucracies we despair of, the truth is that without them, whenever conflict — that more than frequent quality of being human — erupts in our lives, we would be lost. We as individuals, but above all society as a whole.
Tomorrow, August 11, Brazil celebrates Lawyers’ Day in a very special context. Similar to what happened in 1977, Largo São Francisco, right in the center of São Paulo, appears again as an important place for Brazilian democracy.
Everyone hopes that, as in that very important moment in the redemocratization process, 45 years ago now, since Arcadas do Largo, in the Free Territory of the São Paulo Law Academy, lawyers will once again address to all Brazilians a proclamation of principles of his political conviction.
That, once again, as heirs of the patrimony received from their parents, on the occasion of the 195th year of legal courses in Brazil, bear witness to future generations that the ideals of the Rule of Law, despite the current situation , live and act, today as in the past, in the vigilant spirit of nationality.
Tomorrow, August 11th, Brazilian lawyers, historic defenders of democracy, will once again be at the forefront, and their example will have international visibility, showing the world that, despite bureaucracy, or perhaps because of it, the OAB is a powerful guarantor of freedom and a mark of modernity in Brazil.
In this hyperconnected, volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world, polluted by uncontrolled whatsapps, hate offices and fake news, and where chaos takes on new and unexpected forms daily, lawyers will once again be the class best prepared to help society to find new balances that guarantee the survival of democracy in the future.
