Sequins and the Farandole Dancers – Folha de S. Paulo, June 21, 1978

 

by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira

 

There are both realistic and folkloric views of the United States. Undoubtedly, these views do not contrast on all points, but above all, they do not align with each other on everything.

The folkloric view seems composed of sequins floating on the broad avenues of the cities of Babel. Tourists see these sequins and believe that the whole of American reality, even its deepest layers, is authentically reflected in them. Returning to their homelands, they take this image with them and spread it.

In turn, this image attracts tourists to the US who appreciate folklore and sequins. Once they arrive in America’s Babel-like cities, they set out to find “souvenirs” to bring back to their relatives and friends. Naturally, these “souvenirs” feature sequins and the inevitable tourist exaggerations.

In a highly commercialized society such as the American one, demand immediately awakens supply. If tourists seek images of sequins to take home, merchants find a thousand ways to sell them. And since tourists always seek what is most characteristic, merchants emulate each other, selling what is most exaggerated.

Folklore thus becomes detached from reality, at least to a considerable extent.

Because it is picturesque, this folkloric vision is widely publicized and reaches the world’s farthest corners through television, radio, and the press. It leads countless millions of naive people to believe that this is the nation that remains at the forefront of the world, massive and compact, through its wealth, labor, and strength.

In reality, just below the “glittering” and apparent layer of American society, folkloric aspects become scarce, giving way to more serious and consistent realities worthy of analysis. The world knows little about these realities, and what it does know is wrong.

In my view, with his noisy, agitated team of secretaries, spokespeople, and ambassadors who, amusingly, contradict and disagree with one another, President Carter is a highly representative figure in modern American folklore. From the group that appears with the president in public, I cannot omit his brother, who appeared at a party promoting a product dressed in a full turkey costume, or his mother, who made a fool of herself on television while answering questions about the underwear she was wearing.

With hilarious nonchalance, Carter favors all of America’s enemies (for example, initiating a super-concessive “opening” toward tiny Cuba, which first responded with a smile, then turned its back on him, and finally employed its operetta troops to mask the “proxy war” that Russia is waging victoriously in Africa; initiating a socialist and confiscatory land reform in California; calmly allowing the communist world to take the lead in armaments; allowing a wave of moral degradation to sweep unchecked across the US, mixing exacerbated criminality, insolent and aggressive homosexuality, and the relentless “killing of innocents,” fomented to paroxysm by pro-abortion organizations; treating with utter disregard the widespread infiltration of leftist elements into various sectors of American life). Against this backdrop, the president creates the impression that the entire American nation is watching this folklore with good-natured indifference, that is, lazy complicity.

The leaders of international communism are intelligent and, therefore, subtle. Incidentally, I would not extend the same praise to Brazilian communists, who are short-sighted, sullen, and clumsy in everything except their infiltration of Catholic circles.

But, as I was saying, international communism is quite different from its Brazilian counterpart. It is impossible for its mentors not to recognize how much the distorted image of North America around the world facilitates its expansion. Many average people worldwide will inevitably imagine that such a nation is doomed to collapse, especially when the potential and disciplined energy of military barracks nations, forced labor camp nations, and prison nations behind the Iron Curtain are inexorably at work against its prestige, influence, and interests on all continents.

Here is the reflection that inevitably follows from this contrast: the day the folkloric American carnival begins to collapse, Russia will conquer the free nations before launching its final assault on the dying colossus.

In this case, what defense will these nations have? Will their cause, our cause, be lost?

The mere emergence of this thought in the minds of countless Westerners is a remarkable success for Russia’s revolutionary psychological warfare, further weakening their already scarce will to resist the communist onslaught.

It is true that, from time to time, the news about the uninterrupted cadence of the Carter clan’s tragic antics is interrupted by a newspaper report of indignant protests by one American group or another against all this. But such news is not enough to dispel the impression among the general public that the American farandole is rushing toward the abyss, kicking the smaller free nations ahead of it into catastrophe.

Some may say I am being gloomy. On the contrary, I am excited and even hopeful. I am writing this article to help my readers free themselves from the discouragement that all this is likely to plunge so many of them into.

This is a kind of preface to the abundant information I intend to share with you in a subsequent article about the magnificent right-wing, but mostly centrist, reaction spreading throughout the US against the farandole and its dancers.

Readers can probably expect this information, which I have been so happy to gather from the American press, as early as next week. It will also make you happy, as long as you are not a communist, socialist, crypto-communist, useful idiot, or anything else of that terrible ilk, of which there are so many species.