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Unperceived Ideological Transshipment
and Dialogue
by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira
Chapter III
The Talismanic Wors, A Stratagem
Of
Unperceived Ideological Transshipment
In the previous chapter we studied the process
of unperceived ideological transshipment. Now we turn to the
talismanic word.
Contents:
1. A Most Effective
Stratagem
The stratagem we refer to as the talismanic
word9
is one of the most efficient means to carry out unperceived
ideological transshipment.
It essentially consists in acting over the minds of individuals,
groups, or large communities in a very sui generis
way, by applying certain elastic words with a very astute
technique.
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2. Method of
Utilization
The method of carrying out unperceived
ideological transshipment through the talismanic word can
be described in general terms, even though it necessarily
requires adaptations to each concrete case.
For convenience's sake, we will present
this method as applied to a small group. Naturally, this method
can be applied by a person acting individually over another
or by a small group acting over a possibly much larger group.
This method's application is developed
processively as follows.
A. A Point of Impressionability
To begin with, this method presupposes
that those to whom it will be applied have a special sensitivity
to a certain subject.
* As far as social problems are concerned,
this sensitivity could react to, for instance:
- a notorious injustice, such
as can happen with certain privileges associated with class;
- a particularly dreadful risk, like that of a social revolution;
- a disaster like famine or disease.
* Regarding ideological problems -
philosophy, religion, etc. - the sensitive point could be:
- the misfortune of those
who are in error such as heretics, Jews, pagans, and other
separated brethren,10
and the urgent need to enlighten and teach them;
- the possibility of an imminent victory, on a local or
global scale, of an erroneous ideology such as Marxism,
with the whole sequence of religious, cultural and moral
consequences that it entails;
- the risk that the growing clash of opposed ideologies
and regimes may aggravate the dangerous tensions tormenting
the contemporary world to the point of causing a thermonuclear
war.
B. A Point of Apathy
This method also
presupposes a point of apathy or indifference symmetrical
to the point of impressionability in those to whom it will
be applied.
* Regarding
social questions, the symmetrical point can be, for example:
- insensitivity to injustices
no less notorious or numerous than those of certain rightly
detested privileges. To illustrate, we here recall the most
serious and widespread injustices caused by the gradual
but systematic grinding away of the rights of persons, families,
social groups, and regions, brought about by the massification
of contemporary societies (or, as Pius XII put it in his
celebrated Christmas Radio Message of 1944, by the transformation
of people into masses, cf. Discorsi e Radio-messaggi, Vol.
VI, p. 239).
This massification can happen by the transformation of customs,
by the action of socialist laws that are becoming more numerous
in non-communist countries, or by the implantation of the
so-called dictatorship of the proletariat. Thus, not only
legitimate and invaluable personal, familiar, or regional
peculiarities are mercilessly destroyed, but also harmonious,
organic, cultural or social inequalities based on just motives
of the intellectual, patrimonial, or moral order are sacrificed
to what many call "socialization;"
- insensitivity to the consideration that, if a social revolution
is a very grave evil, it is usually so above all because
of unjust and pernicious objectives. Nothing is more absurd
than wanting to avoid the revolution at any price, making
the revolution therefore from top to bottom and thereby
reaching precisely the destructive and unjust objectives
one was trying to avoid.
In other words, it is absurd to bring about from the top,
through the initiative of the natural defenders of order,
the "reforms" communism would make from the bottom
since this would mean, for the whole social body, propter
vitam, vivendi perdere causas - to lose the reasons
for living for the sake of life itself (Juvenal, Sat. VIII,
84).
- Insensitivity to the fact that, if one should do everything
possible against hunger and sickness - considered here as
social evils - in no way should one try to do the impossible,
the utopian, since this would only sooner or later aggravate
the very same evils one desires to vanquish. In many instances,
profound and lasting solutions for this kind of social evil
are slow. This does not mean that one should not hasten
to apply them. But it is necessary to apply these solutions
with redoubled concern in order to prevent the natural delay
of the cure from being added to the censurable slowdown
resulting from our negligence. But one must frequently give
up the impatient desire for immediate results. This desire,
in effect, exposes us to the risk of preferring, rather
than authentic solutions, the violent panaceas extolled
by demagogy and effective only in appearance.
* As far as ideological problems
are concerned, the symmetrical points can be:
- Insensitivity to the risks
of intemperate apostolic zeal. Since knowing the true Religion
is the greatest happiness, those who do not know it are
certainly to be greatly pitied. And those who use all means
to bring our separated brethren to the unity of the Faith
are to be praised. Therefore, we would run a serious risk
if any action to this end were wanting on our part because
of indifference or ignorance. However, we must not be insensitive
to possible risks from the other side, that is, from the
disorderly ardor of the apostle and from the naturalistic
character of his methods. Disorderly zeal and naturalism
can inspire the use of illegitimate techniques to attract
non-Catholics, techniques such as confused terminology,
implicit or explicit doctrinal concessions, etc.
Considering only the apostolic efficiency of these illegitimate
ruses, we should point out that the keenest and most consistent
minds among our separated brethren observe them carefully.
The best and most approachable non-Catholics are the very
ones who most carefully watch us in order to judge us according
to our sincerity and consistence in the faith we profess.
To see that we confide more in morally doubtful techniques
than in the supernatural in our eagerness to obtain conversions
can only cause them sadness and turn them away. We should
not be insensitive, then, to these many risks.
Finally, and above all, we cannot be indifferent to the
risk of exposing our own Catholic brethren to doubts about
their faith, persuading them - under the guise of peaceful
coexistence with our separated brethren - to attend conferences
and lectures, and to read books or participate in meetings
in which heresy, schism, atheism, or moral corruption might
enter their souls.11
We should be even more vigilant about the preservation of
Catholics than about the conversion of infidels, since in
the hierarchy of the love of neighbor, no one deserves more
love than the brother who participates in the same faith,
as Saint Paul says: "Then while there is time, let
us do good to everyone, but principally to our brothers
in the faith" (Gal. 6:10);
- Insensitivity to the illicitness of renouncing some supreme
and undeniable principles, and of accepting some Marxist
errors, to prevent a total Marxist victory.
The victory of Marxism is undoubtedly the cause of catastrophic
misfortunes. But our worst risk is not to be conquered by
it in the military or political fields, but to kneel before
the conqueror. To accept a modus vivendi that might
mean renouncing principles to avoid the fatal consequences
of our defeat, to renounce expressly or tacitly the institution
of private property, for example, in order to obtain freedom
of worship (cf. The Church and the Communist State: The
Impossible Coexistence, in Crusade, Vol. VI,
July-Oct. 1976) - is a thousand times more lamentable than
suffering the persecution brought on by a noble and virtuously
faithful position on orthodoxy.
- Insensitivity to the risk of communism dominating the
world before the silence and inertia of Christians. If the
communists brutally present us with the alternative of giving
up the battle against their errors or accepting the risk
of war, they implicitly require us to choose between the
fulfillment of our duty as Christians or real apostasy.
In that case, we must say like St. Peter that, whatever
the cost, "It is more important to obey God than men"
(Acts, 5:29).
C. A Talismanic Word
At this initial position, in which the
patient is at the mercy of his one-sided state of mind and
already prepared for the psychological action that he is about
to undergo, the use of a well-chosen word can produce surprising
effects. This word is the talismanic word.
This is a word whose legitimate meaning
is congenial and, at times, even noble; but it is also a word
that has some elasticity. When it is used tendentiously, it
begins to shine with a new radiance, fascinating the patient
and taking him much farther than he could have imagined.
Twisted out of shape and distorted,
wholesome and even dignified words have been used to label
a number of mistakes, errors and blunders. We could even say
that the effects of this technique are more harmful when the
word being abused is more elevated and dignified - corruptio
optimi pessima. Some words with a dignified connotation
that have been transformed into deceitful talismans and placed
at the service of error are: social justice, ecumenism, dialogue,
peace, irenicism, and coexistence.
D. Stirring Up a Network of
Sympathies and Phobias
Thus charged with a new spirit, each
of these words raises up a network of impressions, emotions,
sympathies, and phobias in persons with the states of mind
described in items A and B. As shown below, this network orients
the victims toward new ideological directions: philosophical
relativism, religious syncretism, socialism, the policy of
the extended hand, open cooperation with communism and finally,
the acceptance of Marxist doctrine.
E. Great Propaganda Qualities
The prestige of propaganda leads the
victim of the transshipment process to become more and more
attracted to these new ideological paths. The talismanic words
correspond to what the media generally considers modern, pleasant
and attractive. Thus, the lecturers, speakers, or writers
who use these words do so for the sole reason of seeing their
chances of a good reception in the press, radio, or television
considerably enhanced. For this reason the person listening
to the radio or the television or reading the newspaper will
find these words used everywhere in every possible way, with
growing repercussion in his soul.
F. Whose Elasticity Is Used
for Propaganda Effects
The propagandistic quality of the talismanic
word leads the writer, speaker, and lecturer to the temptation
of using it with increasing frequency for every application,
and even when it is not applicable, thus making himself more
easily applauded. And in order to increase the opportunities
of using such words, he uses them in analogous and successively
broader ways, stretching their natural elasticity almost to
absurdity.
G. Susceptible to Being Radicalized
With such a great range of uses for
the talismanic word, the bolder uses cause the more moderate,
sensible, and current ones to fall into disuse. Those who
formerly would use the talismanic word with a slightly deformed
meaning, or applaud its use as if it were a new plaything,
will begin to applaud and use it in more and more exaggerated
senses, until it reaches a climax. This is the phenomenon
of the radicalization of the talismanic word.
H. Thus Achieving Unperceived
Ideological Transshipment
This very process of radicalizing the
talismanic word causes the unperceived ideological transshipment
of those who use it. Fascinated by the word, they quickly
accept as supreme and ardently professed ideals the successively
more radical meanings that it assumes.
With the force of values accepted
as supreme, these ideals in turn gradually produce in the
victim of the transshipment process all the interior and exterior
changes of attitude toward his former adversary, described
in the previous chapter (item
4).
This is how the talismanic word is
used to unleash the process of unperceived ideological transshipment
and bring it to a close.
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3. How to Prevent
the Success of this Stratagem
The reader will naturally ask if there
is any way to prevent the success of the stratagem we just
described.
There is a way. It is easily understood,
provided that one keeps in mind some characteristics of the
talismanic word.
A. The Talismanic Word Resists
Being Made Explicit
The radicalized talismanic word resists
being made explicit. Its real power lies in the emotion which
it excites. Reflection, drawing towards the talismanic word
the analytic attention of whoever uses or hears it, would
disturb and impede ipso facto the sensible and imaginative
fruition of the word. By keeping its meaning obstinately implicit,
the talismanic word continues to be a vehicle and a hiding
place for its increasing emotional content.
B. Analysis "Exorcises"
the Magic Power of the Talismanic Word
The action of the talismanic word can
be "exorcised" through its analysis. Thus, one understands
the utility of this study, which is to make available to those
who are interested the means of arresting the process of unperceived
ideological transshipment by exorcising the talismanic word.
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4. An Exception
About the Use of the Word Charged with a Talismanic Meaning
We are not suggesting here that one should
never use the word with talismanic meaning, but simply that
it be used properly and always in its natural and legitimate
sense.
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