by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira
A letter:
Dr. Plinio, I am not what you call a ‘toad’ or N-L-N-F, but I recognize I have traits of both. Still, I see myself primarily as an impartial reader, and sometimes I notice traces of the TFP mentality surfacing in me. My husband told me that the coexistence of these three aspects in me—the “toad,” the N-L-N-F, and the ‘tefepista’—is not actual impartiality but three partialities that cycle through me. However, my husband has two alternating partialities: one for me and one against me. So, I am somewhat unsure whether I am truly impartial, given the question I will ask you. Anyway, let me get to it.
I see clearly what the TFP has done against progressivism. Could you explain precisely what it does against communism? After all, the communist threat lies in the fact that Communist Party members unite to impose their chosen regime by force. One fights force with force by opposing communism, spying on it, exposing and arresting communists, and dismantling their cells and networks.
If that’s the case, then what purpose does an organization like yours serve, which is purely civic, never uses force except in self-defense, and acts solely based on doctrine?
I thank you in advance for your answer. I am not signing my name because I fear my husband’s moments of evil partiality. At some moment of good partiality, I will tell you everything.”
Dear reader, I am responding by defending your husband. You judge him unfairly, because no matter who he is or how difficult his moments of partiality might be, he cannot fail to recognize the lightness of soul and style in your letter.
Since you are anonymous, I will be frank in my reply. I see a singular contradiction in your character. How can you be so smart and reduce the solution to the communist problem to the mere use of physical force?
This makes me think that you have a very pleasant conversation but only rely on strong methods in daily life. Having made this guess, I sympathize with your good husband…
I have been straightforward and will be concise given my limited space. I will present three series of points for reflection.
- For an ideological movement, whatever it may be, to impose itself on a country with 90 million people, it must have a large number of supporters, even if it’s a minority. A small group of people with strong ideological passion cannot dominate 90 million.
- This minority movement must be convinced and unified, or it will likely disperse or split before it even gains power.
- Once in power, this current won’t last unless it earns the support of a larger segment, though still a minority of the population.
- Therefore, material force isn’t everything. It plays a significant, always essential role, but it’s never enough on its own — especially for major social or political revolutions. Aside from material force — I emphasize — persuasion is crucial. It is persuasion that unites people to wield weapons; it is persuasion that keeps them committed and unified. It is persuasion that maintains their stability at the helm.
Denying all of this, my kind and witty reader, is to deny the very evidence of the facts.
Now, let me introduce another series of theses:
- If communism can’t succeed without recruiting and uniting, and can’t recruit or unite without persuading, those who try to block its persuasion do a lot to make its success impossible.
- Persuasion is primarily an ideological task. It involves convincing others to accept one’s ideas.
- This can’t be achieved without ideological action. Therefore, the ideological foundation on which the TFP stands is crucial in the fight against communism.
This too, my reader, is clear, don’t you think?
Finally, bear with me for one more set of theses, and I hope to have convinced you completely.
- In a country where 95% of the population is Catholic, for every 100 people exposed to communist propaganda, 95 will be Catholics. What a huge obstacle for an inherently materialistic and atheistic sect like Marx’s!
- Skilled in various maneuvers, the top communist leadership cannot help but try to weaken and undermine such a formidable obstacle rather than confront it head-on.
- To weaken the obstacle is to soften the religious spirit of the population, which can be achieved by infusing the national environment with religious indifference, secularism, and sensuality. Just observe how many magazines, newspapers, broadcasters, professors, fashion houses, and entertainment venues are devoted to this task, and you’ll understand the enormous benefit that communists gain from this effort of subtle, implicit, omnipresent, tireless infiltration, which influences us at every moment.
- Weakening the obstacle is undermining religion itself. This is done by training priests and laypeople who dream of a “New Church,” where authority and hierarchy are rejected. God, yes. But a puppet God who does not impose commandments, reward, or punish: the opposite would be an insult to human dignity. The pope, yes, but as a puppet pope controlled by a world congress of bishops, priests, and laypeople elected by the people. Yes to bishops and parish priests, but puppet bishops and parish priests governed by local elected boards. As a spiritual monarch who rules by a power derived from God without human delegation, the pope, like a bishop or parish priest, violates human dignity.
- Why does it violate it? Because, according to progressives, modern man views any submission to authority as an outrage.
- If this principle is taken seriously, political, economic, social, and family submission are also offensive to man. Therefore, every genuine progressive must support the anarchic society envisioned by Marx.
- If religion is the greatest obstacle to communism, its strongest ally is the progressivist sect, which tries to lead Catholics to destroy religion. Therefore, by fighting progressivism, the TFP provides a vital and indispensable service in the fight against communism.
“Indispensable” does not mean “sufficient by itself.” For—and in this, you are absolutely right—it is unrealistic to think that communism can be defeated without force used in accordance with morality and the law.
Furthermore, no nobler or more sacred use of legitimate force exists than the fight against communism.
That said, my reader, it only remains for me to send my regards to you and your good husband.