Military operation: a cultural reading of the concept for today

Abstract

This essay seeks to understand the ongoing process of militarization, in its cultural dimension, in terms of an effort to reposition the influence of the Armed Forces over Brazilian society, in large part with the agreement of Brazilian society. Using the concept of a military operation, formulated in a specific Army manual, as a heuristic key, the article observes that broadening the scope of the concept makes it possible, ad extremum, to subsume the whole of civil society in a military operation. In order to understand the vocation of the Armed Forces to act beyond their typical dimension and, conversely, the social demand for this action, the article describes the constitution of the military ethos and its specificities, where the image of the hero (of a peacetime Army) seems to represent a
certain symbolic capital (prestige) that is negotiated today. In order to prove the relevance and materiality of the heroic ethos, the text presents three examples of this cultural militarization: the permanence and growth of civic-military schools; the improper use of ranks and grades before the names of candidates for public office; and the request for greater participation by the Army in Indigenous Lands.