Idealism, Nobility of Soul, V – A Few Non-Idealistic Types
“Instead of wielding the sword to defend his motherland, he played the violin while his fellow countrymen died fulfilling their duty.” [Legionário, no. 184, Nov. 10, 1935]
Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira
In This Chapter
Don Quixote de la Mancha, the dreamy caricature created by Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes, was always looking for unattainable fantasies and never remembered the demands of real life. He was a false idealist.
In contrast to Don Quixote, by his side was the glutton, his squire Sancho Panza, who worries only about everyday life. He is a typical non-idealist, while the fiery and unbalanced knight is a false idealist.
This Chapter examines various characters, from Che Guevara, a typical false idealist with abominable goals, to today’s head-in-sand ostriches who refuse to see the dangers threatening them. It also passes over several other types contrary to true idealism.
Don Quixote, Ridiculous and Deranged
There is a vast difference between chivalry novels published at the apex of the Middle Ages and those in the late Middle Ages.
The knight of its heyday was a crusader. He always fought for a cause related to the Catholic Church.
Now, he was a knight errant traveling through valleys and hills to defend widows and orphans to do a work of mercy; now, he is a knight on his way to fight in the Crusades to liberate the Sepulcher of Christ.
His mentality is always characterized by abnegation and renunciation.
He fights but for the sake of the Cross.
Gradually, chivalry novels were transformed. The knight ceases being an idealist and becomes vain. Absurd fables are told, such as a knight who pierces five Moors as if they were five sausages or another who fought against a rock and crushed it with a single blow.
This is the mentality Cervantes ridicules in the person of Don Quixote.
At the same time, the ideal is no longer to serve the Cross but to show strength and courage; another figure appears in the novels: the lady. While still very pure and diaphanous, she is now the romantic lady for whom he has bouts of enthusiasm and fights to satisfy his love.
The knight’s cause is no longer that of Christ but that of sentimentality and sensuality. The lady replaces the Cross. Chivalry becomes a tool to enjoy life.[Circular 1-3 (out of print)]
At a supremely high level, it is evident that the sacrosanct ways of Christian heroism stand beyond the alternative posed by Cervantes. Yes, Christian heroism, as the Church has always taught and to which history owes its wisest and most splendid episodes, as well as those most conducive to men’s spiritual and temporal welfare.[Folha de S. Paulo, Oct. 16, 1983]
As Lepanto [In 1571, the Christians, led by Dom John of Austria, won a naval battle against the Muslims near Greece] produced a massive revival in the spirit of chivalry, they ordered Cervantes’ Don Quixote to break Lepanto’s spirit.[Sept. 1, 1989]
Cervantes is a kind of Spanish Voltaire.[Jan. 21, 1990]
Sancho Panza, More Dangerous than Don Quixote
When writing the story of Don Quixote, Cervantes placed a secondary character next to him who never abandoned the hero of La Mancha. His name was Sancho Panza.[“O Crime de Sancho Pança,” Legionário no. 186-2, Dec. 8, 1935]
What a surprise Cervantes would have if a prophetic telescope were to unravel before him future events and show him that while the valiant Don Quixote definitely would join the gallery of the harmless demented with his spear, breastplate and skeletal Rossinante, the timid, mediocre and despicable Sancho Panza would in a few centuries affect a great nation and cast it all by himself on the brink of the darkest abyss.[Legionário n.º 186-2, Dec. 8, 1935]
Yet, this is what happened with Brazil. If our country were not under the special protection of Our Lady Aparecida, there could not be much doubt that one could dig her a grave in this fertile land. How appropriate an epitaph it would be to write on that grave these sad words: Here lies a nation founded by heroes, civilized by saints and destroyed by the improvident self-indulgence of some of her children.[Legionário n.º 186-2, Dec. 8, 1935]
Some readers may ask, “Sancho Panza?” But didn’t he die? What does he have to do with the Brazilian crisis?
No, Sancho Panza did not die. Sancho Panza’s spirit remains alive, inspiring thousands of mentalities and dictating the attitudes of his spiritual children in parliaments, university chairs and benches, and senior cabinet posts.[Legionário n.º 186-2, Dec. 8, 1935]
Sancho Panza lives again in the sloth of the improvident who closes their eyes to today’s gathering clouds, which will become storms tomorrow. He closes his eyes not because he trusts in Providence or has serious reason to deny the danger but to enjoy this passing moment in peace. He figures the threat does not exist simply because it has not yet touched his skin.[Legionário n.º 186-2, Dec. 8, 1935]
Sancho Panza lives again in the indulgent neglect of many citizens to whom Brazil had entrusted the sacred mission of defending Religion, Family, and Property and who shamelessly appointed to top positions of responsibility the bitterest enemies of the principles whose custody was their sacred duty.[Legionário n.º 186-2, Dec. 8, 1935]
Hear, Sancho Panza!
Ah! Sancho Panza! You who wear uniform, gown, robe or coat play with fire and flee before the adversary; you who symbolize improvidence, recklessness, self-indulgence, instant greed, and fear: You have profoundly infected Brazil.
Today, you play; tomorrow, you will weep. But listen here: those same revolutionaries whose path you paved, because you are an indulging coward will now tell you through the mouth of a leading anarchist the future that awaits you if you don’t straighten out.[Legionário, n.º 186-2, Dec. 8, 1935]
When danger roars, you run away and brand our effort to organize a resistance chimerical. But if you are not impressed with the voice of those fighting for God, listen to the voice of someone who fought for evil, listen to Proudhon:[Pierre-Joseph (1809-1865): French socialist publicist, promoter of class struggle and author of the famous phrase, “Property is theft”]
We’ve already seen this…
“When the first crop has been looted, the first home invaded, the first church desecrated, the first torch lit, and the first woman raped;
“When the first blood has been shed;
“When the first head has rolled;
“When the abomination of desolation reigns throughout France;
“Oh, then you will know what a social revolution is!”
Proudhon.
We’ve also seen…
“A rampaging, armed crowd, drunk with vengeance and fury, wielding rods, axes, swords and hammers; police inside households; suspect opinions, denounced words, observed tears, counted sighs, spied silence, denunciations, inexorable requisitions, forced and progressive loans, depreciated currency, civil war and foreigners on the borders; relentless commissars, a steel-hearted committee for ‘public salvation.’
“Behold the fruits of the so-called democratic and social revolution.”
Proudhon.
Behold, Sancho Panza, the future you are preparing for us. But you will not defeat Brazil. A cohort of myopia can’t tear a great nation apart.[Legionário, nº 186-2, Dec. 8, 1935]
In our view, Hitler has nothing heroic except for the looks he puts on according to the moment’s needs as a skillful comedian. He is a Sancho Panza who plays the role of Don Quixote well.[Legionário, 44-2-13]
Let’s leave aside Hitler as we see him in the nakedness of his tiny and crafty psychological personality.[Written when Hitler was still alive]
As a Catholic, I dispute the fact that the human race is reduced to a set of Quixotes and Sanchos and that only two roads are open to men: that of the gaunt and haggard “hero” of La Mancha and that of his abdominal and vulgar squire.[Legionário, 44-2-13]
The Ostrich, Blindness in the Face of Danger
I disdain the ostrich’s behavior of sticking its head into a pile of sand when the enemy approaches.[Folha de S. Paulo, Dec. 14, 1982]
The twentieth-century ostrich is fundamentally selfish.[Folha de S. Paulo, Feb. 7, 1971]
Ostriches that ‘fail’ to see the danger will eventually take their heads out of the sand pile with frightened, wide-open eyes and say: “All is lost; it’s bad business to resist.”[Folha de S. Paulo, Feb. 7, 1971]
So the ostrich will keep his head tucked in the sand, living his sweet little life and reciting his creed: “I believe in one god, money almighty, creator of abundance and tranquility,” etc.[Folha de S. Paulo, Jan. 31, 1971]
Therefore, the sectors of opinion dominated by the ostrich syndrome are a country’s weak point, the ideal mental zone for an adversary to penetrate, exploit and drag his victim to defeat and capitulation.[Folha de S. Paulo, Feb. 7, 1971]
The majority gradually enters this new world with goosebumps, fascinated and mesmerized like a bird entering the mouth of a snake.[Folha de S. Paulo, Mar. 20, 1969]
Luiza Sprains Her Ankle…
Among his Notes from Paris, Eça de Queiroz wrote one titled “Catastrophes and the Laws of Emotion.”
In it, Eça de Queiroz argues that the greater the distance in time and space, the less emotion an event elicits. The author provides many examples to prove his thesis.
The most characteristic is the case of Luíza Carneiro’s ankle.
He says a lady read a newspaper filled with dire news to a circle of people one night. She reported on the catastrophes slowly. First, an earthquake in Java destroyed twenty villages and killed two thousand people. Nobody took an interest in such a faraway misfortune. Then, closer to home, a flood destroyed Hungary’s villages, crops, men and cattle. Someone murmured, in a languid yawn: “What a catastrophe.” Then she reported on some riots in Belgium, in which four women and two children were killed. A bit more interested, some people exclaimed softly: “How horrible.”
The reader turned the page and looked for another column. Suddenly, she cried out, raised her hands and exclaimed: “Good God!” Everyone stood up, startled, and asked what had happened. The reader stammered: “Luiza Carneiro, from Bela-Vista! … she sprained her ankle this morning!”
The ladies dropped their sewing, men left their cigars and armchairs, and all pored on the bitter piece of news, wallowing in sorrow: “Poor Luizinha Carneiro! She sprained her ankle.”
A servant rushed furiously to Bela-Vista, seeking news. When the newspaper was opened on the table, it appeared all black with that piece of news, which filled and blackened it entirely.
Two thousand Javanese were buried in an earthquake; Hungary flooded; soldiers killed children; famines, plagues and wars; everything was gone, a slight and remote shadow.
But Luiza Carneiro’s sprained ankle crushed their hearts. No wonder! Everyone knew Luizinha, who lived a stone’s throw from there, right at the beginning of Bela-Vista, in a house with walls covered by a flowery ivy that gave the street shade and perfume.
The “Center of the Universe”
To give in to the spontaneity described by Eça is to place oneself at the center of the universe; it is to say that things matter to the degree that they have to do with us and not since they refer to God. With such a mentality, there would have been no crusades or missions.
Indeed, no one would feel moved by such a faraway issue as liberating the Holy Sepulcher or converting American natives. These things were done because people’s concerns were unrelated to sensitive emotions.
We are liable to take that same attitude before international events if concerned about our little things and unimpressed by the chastisement announced at Fatima, also inferred from historical and theological arguments that no one sees palpably and immediately.
This is such a mental disorder and inability to give things their proper value that our formation and perspectives become entirely distorted.
A person with this defect must rectify himself and acquire a second nature to judge things according to their value, not to the degree that they touch his selfishness.[Aug. 27, 1971]
“Che” Guevara or a Mask to Hide Violence
Ernesto “Che” Guevara, the Argentinian transplanted to Cuba, authentically expresses the Marxist character of the Cuban Revolution.
His hair, which apparently has not been cut or washed for a long time, a thin mustache with frayed ends whose points end by joining a goatee with uncertain contours, all this form a frame of disarray and disorder for his face and cause instinctive revulsion, but they are aimed at awakening a sense of naturalness and unpretentiousness taken to an extreme.
His unusually bright gaze and smile give an idea of bonhomie and a somewhat mystical affability.
Che Guevara’s physiognomy represents one of the Revolution’s latest masks: an insincere bonhomie that hides the most heinous violence.[Catolicismo, January 1961]
A Violinist, Improvidence and Inertia
It is said that when Turkish troops invaded Byzantium, they found in a sumptuous building a Byzantine citizen who, instead of wielding his sword in defense of the motherland, played the violin while his compatriots died in the line of duty. He was killed with a sword amid his adversaries’ sarcastic laughter and went down in history as a symbol of improvidence and inertia.
In any case, the violin seems to attract more than the sword.[Legionário n.º 184, Nov. 10, 1935]
On Pentecost, a day of fire and love, supernatural affection flared up and inspired attitudes so vehement and radical that they even suggested the idea of drunkenness.
Lukewarmness’ Deserves Vomit
While many men follow a uniform direction, upward or downward, many cling forever to an intermediate situation borderline between good and evil. They neither catch fire and come alive under the action of grace nor turn entirely cold in the death of sin.
The particular scorn one has for a softie, fearful and cowardly person one does not have for a son of darkness who is a terrorist. While we are naturally hostile to terrorists, it is also true that Our Lord said: “I would thou wert cold or hot. But because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth.” [Apoc., 3:15,16.] A lukewarm man causes vomiting, not a manly one.
We must be yes or no men. Our Lord says in the Gospel: “Let your speech be yea, yea: no, no.” [Mt. 5:37] We must not be men of “perhaps” or “come on…”[Circ. 4-07 (out of print)]
The numbing of the principle of contradiction in the soul generates a taste and craze for intermediate solutions, which I would almost say is a servitude to intermediate solutions. Given two paths, many people see choosing the middle way – neither meat nor fish — as the epitome of wisdom.
A person addicted to intermediate solutions is the ideal victim for all rogues. The ability of rogues is precisely to make the naive accept, with some disguise, what he would repudiate naked and without makeup.[Catolicismo nº 37, January 1954]
No love of the Good is effective if, in the face of egregious actions against that Good, the person fails to rise in protest, filled with a redoubtable incompatibility with evil.[June 9, 1983]
Adhesion to principle is not only a firm conviction about a certain truth; it is such a [strong] conviction that we reject what is opposed to it because we turn it into a good of our own, into our thing. We reject what contradicts it because it offends us.
We become so dedicated to that principle, so combative on its behalf because it becomes an asset that is part of our very being. To cut it off is like taking our being away.[Circ. 3-05 (out of print)]
But there are many ways to be lukewarm.
Lukewarm are not only those who now live in sin, now in virtue.
Also lukewarm, though somewhat less severely, are those who habitually live in virtue but drag it painfully, like a burden, taking a strictly minimalist attitude [the proverbial path of least resistance, or preserving the comfort zone] and firmly resolved not to raise their concerns beyond the realm of merely fighting mortal sin.
There are many such lukewarm in the moral order.
Piddlerism is not goodness. Stupidity is not generosity. Being innocent like the dove does not mean we should not be astute like serpents. Our Lord Himself clearly imposed it on us.[Mt. 10:16] Do we perhaps wish to be better than Him?
Mediocrity has the illusory charm of tranquility and security but also implies the absence of any progress. That is indisputable.
When the time comes to engage and do something for Our Lady, the mediocre man’s attitude of soul is this: He is pleased when She does something for him but steps back from doing something for her.
We do not want to sacrifice. This is the misery of the human spirit; the human soul is continually like this.
On Pentecost, a day of fire and love, supernatural affection went ablaze and inspired such vehement and radical attitudes that people even likened it to drunkenness. Let the lukewarm and tepid ask for a bit of that spark. It will resurrect them to the fullness of grace and truth.[Legionário, May 24, 1942]
