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 Ambiences,
Customs, and Civilizations
Was Youth Made for
Pleasure or Heroism? by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira With
the guitar hanging around his neck and the microphone in his hand, Elvis Presley
is shown in the photo singing and dancing before a frenzied public. In
man, the intelligence ought to direct the will, and both of them should in turn
enlighten the sensibility, guiding it and supporting it to the extent that is
required by the weakness proper to it. Where the human faculties (intelligence,
will, and sensibility) are concerned, it is precisely the sensibility that is
most frequently in disorder, crisis and confusion. On
the contrary, everything about the bearing, gestures, and physiognomy of this
poor, young man indicates the total unchaining of the sensibility so as to bring
the will entirely in subjection to it. To allow the intelligence and will to be
directed by the sensibility is to reverse the natural metaphysical order of the
soul and to produce chaos. Accordingly, the unleashing of the sensibility in the
performer causes movements in which one absolutely does not find any equilibrium,
good sense or composure, all of which are inherent to the directive action of
the intelligence. In the present case, we are
not even considering the hypertrophy of the sensibilities. Undoubtedly, their
excessive emotionality in relation to certain artistic, political, social or literary
matters, or in face of certain personal situations such as orphanhood, widowhood,
or loneliness, etc., was censurable. It was an error without a doubt, and a grave
one, which produced in the history of Western culture tragic consequences, but
it was an error which at least still presupposed a truth, that is, that the sentiment
is one of the integral elements of the intellectual process. Here,
on the other hand, there is a mere vibration of nerves, of nerves which are ill
and over excited and which vibrate without any reason, without any point of departure
and without any objective other than the morbid pleasure of vibrating and whose
frenzy in its turn calls forth continuously greater vibrations. In this way, one
arrives rapidly at extreme manifestations, delirious rhythms, disorderly gestures,
contorted expressions of the face, and finally a total of disorders typical of
those who according to the incisive expression of Dante "have lost the light
of the intellect." In short, if a drunkard
were to sing and dance, he would do it in an agonizing way like this. And this
contagious drunkenness, which spreads like a new St. Vitus's dance to millions
of person, is much more dangerous than that of alcohol because it indicates a
fundamental disorder in the soul which does not pass away like the effects of
wine. Such rock and roll singers by putting millions in delirium have helped to
make the light of reason wane in the general public and have stimulated the growth
of hippyism which passes easily into nudism, arbitrary terror and Satanism. Below
the photograph of this lamentable manifestation of the interior indiscipline of
so many youths of our day, the German Catholic students who participated in the
Katholikentag of 1954 present a shining contrast, as shown in the photo at the
lower left, and are for us a fine standard and beautiful example of youth. The
physiognomies here express the habit of concentration and study, created by a
profoundly serious intellectual formation beginning in the primary school. There
is a physical vigor resulting from the training of the body, contained within
its just limits, and without the exaggeration of "sportism" so frequent
among us. The frame has a bearing from which every kind of softness is excluded
and which makes us see in these young men not only future intellectuals but also
men disposed for action and combat.
The traditional attire of these
German students corresponds completely to this concept
of youth. On one hand, their clothing is multicolored,
cheerful, varied and practical as is suitable for young
men. On the other hand, it has the distinction proper
to students who know to respect themselves and the things
of the spirit to which they dedicate themselves. The
sword medievally reminiscent of the heroic combat, adds
a note of militant idealism, and simultaneously perpetuates
the tradition of fencing, the intellectual sport par
excellence since it is admirably apt in forming attention,
astuteness, initiative, and panache at the same time
that it puts the whole body into action. In this picture,
everything makes one think of the great truth enunciated
by Claudel: "Youth was not made for pleasure, but
for heroism." In contrast, everything in the first
picture seems to say to us that youth was not made for
heroism but for pleasure -- or worse yet, for sensuality.
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