If something can sink, the idealist faces the danger head on
Failure to form a judgment or suspicion when a case presents itself can be a fault or even a severe defect.[Legionário n.º 476, Oct. 26, 1941]
Plinio Corêa de Oliveira
In This Chapter
“He is an idealist. He lives with his head in the clouds.”
Despite this often-heard criticism,
a genuine idealist is the opposite: no one outdoes his sense of reality.
He also has that nobility of soul characteristic of an idealist.
Caesar’s Tribute. Engraving by Lucas Vorsterman the Elder on a painting by Peter Paul Rubens – 1621 – Achenbach Foundation – Holland
Idealism and Perspicacity
Many Catholics are amazed when they hear us saying that the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ is a unique school of energy and heroism in the most belligerent sense of the word.
Their surprise will not be smaller if we tell them that the Gospel is a unique school of perspicacity and that Our Lord Jesus Christ repeatedly instilled this virtue.
What is perspicacity? It is the virtue by which our gaze, piercing the deceptive appearances put on by people we deal with, penetrates the innermost reality of their mentality.
A civil or ecclesiastical person in a position of authority is said to be perspicacious when he knows how to discern truth from error in the flood of information he receives and consequently adopts a conduct consistent with the interests at hand.
In the same vein, a perspicacious doctor discerns the existence of disease through the slightest evidence. A shrewd detective knows how to
interpret seemingly insignificant circumstances and safely figure out who perpetrated a crime.
It would be difficult to imagine a profession or social status in which perspicacity would fail to provide man with the most invaluable resources to fulfill his duties.
The father of a family, a teacher, or a director of conscience must discern the mildest symptoms of looming crises in his students or children to forestall something that might become impossible to remedy.
A statesman cannot fail to distinguish sincere friends from insincere friends among the many manifestations of friendship that his high office elicits. The whole success of his political career depends on this ability.
Lawyers, soldiers, industrialists, traders, bankers, journalists, etc., cannot properly exercise their duties or avoid grave harm to their clients if they are devoid of perspicacity, which is needed now more than ever.
Our Lord did not merely preach perspicacity but gave outstanding and memorable examples.
When the Divine Master denounced the Pharisees, what else did He do but encourage his listeners’ perspicacity by debunking the whited sepulchers, white on the outside and full of rot inside? [Legionário n.º 475, Oct. 19, 1941]
St. Joseph (Giuseppe) Moscati (Benevento, 7-25-1880 – Naples, 4-12-1927), third from the left (seated), a young and brilliant doctor-teacher with his first students.
The Intellect’s Abulia
Abulia [medical term] is a complete inability of the will to act or to make decisions. There is an abulia of the will, but another type seldom mentioned is the abulia of the intellect.
It is the laziness of the intellect to grasp reality and form an architectonic judgment about it.
It is the laziness of realizing how reality is rich with living, magnificent colors and invites to grand states of soul. [Oct. 20, 1974]
Objectivity Is Seriousness
Entire objectivity consists of seeing reality without veils, bias, ‘rooting’ or distortions.
Objectivity of mind is the position of the soul whereby, out of honesty and rectitude, one seeks to see things absolutely as they are, without any weakness, such as not facing reality head-on.
I remember how shocked I was when, just before falling away from religion, a person complained to me about [the journal] Legionário [O Legionário, originally a small parish newspaper in Santa Cecília, São Paulo (capital), became, under Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira’s direction until 1947, the unofficial newspaper of the Archdiocese of São Paulo, receiving numerous contributions from him and many future members of the TFP.]: “It is a paper one opens and finds no joyful or encouraging piece of news. You end up losing heart.” I was flabbergasted because if things are bad, I say they are bad.
He says, “Reading this paper, one becomes discouraged.” This is something else. There is a medicine called “Calm-it.” Take “Calm-it” or something else, but don’t come and say that facing a serious situation, I must write: The British Empire has fallen, and the Queen of England has been killed, but on the bright side, there is a slight compensation: Queen Fabiola’s poodle has had puppies.
This is a cretin’s fundamental lack of seriousness!
Seriousness is the disposition of the mind to see the truth head-on, entirely as it is, and in its hierarchical nuances. Therefore, attaching greater value to things that are higher than those that are not. [April 29, 1967]
Neither an Optimist nor a Pessimist, but a Pessimologist
I am not a pessimist, properly so-called. I am a “pessimologist,” which is something different. [Catolicismo, nº 501]
Unconcern does not suppress or solve problems but often tragically exacerbates them, for it is the lullaby of sentinels.[Folha de S. Paulo, Oct. 28, 1978]
First, weak and easy optimism, such as “everything is great, in the best of worlds,” is not true; secondly, it softens, breaks down and dissipates everything. [June 15, 1995]
The Clamor of Glaring Evidence
Justice is to reward each according to his merits rather than equally reward geniuses and the mediocre, heroes and the pusillanimous, the well-deserving and the selfish.
A man with a strong and manly character feels an interior dissonance every time he sees things happening in a way contrary to God’s glory, the exaltation of the Holy Church, and Catholic doctrine. Failure to form a judgment about something evident and hear the clamor of glaring evidence shows either stupidity or weak principles. There is no way out.
Failure to form a judgment or suspicion when a case presents itself can be a serious defect.[Legionário n.º 476, Oct. 26, 1941]
Marquis of Comillas II, Claudio Lopez Bru (1853-1925), an ardent Catholic, businessman and promoter of great works such as the Comillas Pontifical University.