Young Men and Women at Risk – Folha de S. Paulo, April 2, 1972

by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira

The “widespread communism” I have sometimes discussed in this newspaper is now reaching its peak.

This peak coincides with the complete stagnation or even decline in the number of voters registered with the various communist parties in the West.

There is a clear correlation between the rise of the more recent, diffuse forms and the decline of the classic party form. Because the classic system proved definitively incapable of enabling communists to win over the masses in free countries, the mysterious architects of the Red Strategy launched a new form of communism: vaporous, intangible, and almost impossible to stop.

When did this innovation begin? Only today has it come to light. However, let us not imagine it was born in recent days. For about ten years now, the failure of communism in the West has become increasingly evident. For about ten years now, the new communist tactic has been communicated to initiates and gradually implemented by well-trained grassroots activists. In this case, the absence of haste is an indispensable factor for success. For diffuse communism to move and spread, it must do so naturally, without attracting anyone’s attention. This must be achieved slowly because everything that runs causes stir and surprise.

In fact, there is evidence that diffuse communism was conceived at least ten years ago. I found valuable excerpts from a 45-point list of communist objectives and plans in Vers Demain (July–August 1971), the vibrant and highly topical publication of the Institute for Political Action, linked to the Canadian Catholic movement, Pilgrims of Saint Michael. The list was drawn up by N. Skousen, Director of Operations for the American Security Council, and was first published on January 10, 1963, by the United States Congressional Archives Service.

One need only examine a few points on this list to see how, from 1963 to 1972, the new tactics outlined therein were implemented. Here are a few examples of these points:

1. “Degrading all forms of artistic expression.”

2. “Removing all good sculptures from parks and buildings and replacing them with shapeless, dull, and meaningless forms.”

3. “Abolishing all laws that restrain obscenity in books, illustrated newspapers, cinema, radio, and TV.”

4. “Supporting any socialist movement to establish a central authority over any section of cultural education, social services, assistance programs, etc.”

5. “Infiltrating churches and replacing revealed religion with a social one.”

6. “Treating all problems of personal conduct as psychiatric disorders, which only a psychiatrist can understand and treat.”

7. “Discrediting the family as an institution by promoting free love and easy divorce.”

The reader needs only open their eyes to see how much there is a discreet but incessant pressure to introduce all this into customs and, as far as possible, into laws as well.

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As is easy to see, the dominant feature of this new style of propaganda is not to preach communism explicitly but to create an environment in which people adhere to it spontaneously. Incidentally, this spontaneous adherence is produced by circumstances that are anything but spontaneous.

In other words, this type of propaganda artificially creates a peculiar collective state of mind from which a communist mentality spontaneously and almost irresistibly emerges within families and across social, ethnic, religious, or cultural groups everywhere.

In my view, it is impossible to deny that the infamous page O São Paulo published on March 11 about Our Lord Jesus Christ contributes to creating this environment, which I would call “communistogenic,” thereby “begetting” communism.

My veneration for the Man-God prevents me from describing the “poster” from O São Paulo. Moreover, it would be unnecessary, as it is already very well known.

Just imagine, dear reader, this page circulating among all kinds of young men and women who are dazzled, hypnotized, and drawn to terrorism. To me, it seems inevitable that it will persuade them that Our Lord Jesus Christ was the great precursor and supreme model for modern subversives. Thus, the last remaining objections of conscience that still hold them back from the precipice will vanish.

In effect, to compile a “police profile” identical to the one modern police forces use to denounce and capture terrorists, and to fill it with evangelical quotations suggesting that the Divine Savior bears striking similarities to today’s terrorists: Isn’t all this implying that the 20th-century terrorist is a modern reincarnation of Jesus Christ?

On that deplorable page, I can see cleverly worded phrases that can be interpreted either innocently or in a communist sense.

Thus, when challenged by an exegete, the authors can still claim entitlement to a more lenient interpretation, “in dubio pro reo.”

I have neither the time nor the desire to delve into the intricacies of this exegetical chicanery. I simply ask those who wish to defend O São Paulo on the basis of these sophistries whether they imagine that the young men and women for whom this page is intended will dwell on these exegetical exercises, or will interpret everything on it in its first and most natural sense, encouraged by Religion, and will happily surrender to the terrorist movement, which awaits them with open arms.

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Could a communist article be as effective at recruiting members as the page in O São Paulo, where the words “socialism” and “communism” are not mentioned even once? If working for “diffuse communism” was the intention of “Marmo” and “Sílvio,” who present themselves as responsible for the page, they can be happy. They have fully achieved their goal.