Organic Society
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Good Dreams, Revolutionary Dreams
We have seen that in the Middle Ages each century realized the dream of the previous century. It was a type of continuity of a great dream that was coming to fruition. Thus did the Romanesque move forward to the Gothic, and from there to the Gothic in its various forms. After that dream the Revolution came.
Humanism was a bad return to the Roman dream; Cartesianism was a bad dream in itself; Rationalism and the Enlightenment fulfilled a revolutionary dream as well.
In the Ancien Régime there was still some aspects of the good dream of the past that were moving forward, such as the progress of courtesy, but this was something very fragile, while the progress of the bad dreams of Absolutism, Rationalism and the Enlightenment were becoming increasingly stronger until it produced the French Revolution.
I mentioned the Ancien Régime, but here I should speak about something that had a tremendous effect in this sense. It is one of the most harmful and well-planned dreams instilled by the Revolution. I am speaking of Romanticism.
Although a precursor movement of Romanticism was already present in the Naturalism of Rousseau with the myth of the bon sauvage or noble sauvage (the good or noble savage), it was the 19th century when Romanticism attained its greatest influence in society.
I encountered Romanticism in relatively innocent forms when I was a boy reading the books for children written by Abbot Schmidt. They were marked by the German Romanticism with the tone of innocence that the Germans gave to things, but it was still Romanticism.
Rose, one of the daughters, is sent to a far away convent where she is not understood. The convent is near the ocean where the roar of the sea is often heard. Rose catches a pigeon and treats it with such tenderness that the bird becomes attached to her. She writes a message to her sister Rosalyn and rolls it around the leg of the pigeon and then releases the bird with in the hope that it will fly out and randomly arrive at the place where her sister is.
So, this would be the text of Rose’s letter: “O Rosalyn my dear sister or any other person with a sensitive heart who will collect my tears. If you are insensitive to them, please, burn this letter. If, however, your heart is moved by my sorrows, then keep it in a sacred place. I will not know it, but perhaps one day an angel will tell me that my message was not lost. Unknown soul, I greet you as I would greet my incomparable Rosalyn.”
Then, we are shown Rosalyn at 6 pm in another convent: The church bells is tolling for the Angelus, the nuns are chanting the Office, outside the birds chirp seeking a tree of shelter, night is falling. The repose of night – but also its uncertainty – is falling over men. Rosalyn thinks about her sister and exclaims: “Repose and uncertainty, oh my Rose, these are what the convent where I reside gives me. Oh, what repose, oh, what uncertainty…”
Romanticism is a dream based upon an error which posits that one person can inhabit another person; two souls can unite in a way that they become one. This is the dream of Romanticism. This cannot happen. We can only have this union with God; only He can inhabit a soul in this way.
Another error is the conception that the dreamer makes of the other as a perfect creature. This perfect creature to whom the dreamer opens his soul does not exist. It is a chimera, foolishness. It is a moral deviation from the goal for which we were created. We were created to be inhabited by God. The romantic person, deep down, removes God from his life and replaces Him with another person.
From fantasy to the practical
Romanticism took this torch whose light in the past shone with a just ideal in the soul of man and lit a wrong ideal in it, an erroneous goal, a false fantasy.
At the turn of the 20th century when the era of the progress was affirmed, there was a complete change in the culture. In the 19th century the expositions of Paris celebrated the advances of science and technology. This reached an apex in the 1900 Paris Exposition.
Today, we cannot have an idea of the influence of the 1900 Paris Exposition at its time. It was the affirmation of the many new discoveries, but also the beginning of tourism. Everyone who visited the Paris Exposition would go to pavilions presenting the different cultures – Chinese, Japanese, Annamite, Mayan, Incan etc. So, first it was fashionable to visit Paris; then, to visit other countries to know different peoples.
Deviations of this dream started to manifest themselves in a practical way. Instead of sitting in a chair or lying on a bed reading a novel and dreaming, people started to travel; they started to look for the dream everywhere. In the next phase, the dream faded and the practical note preponderated. This was the mission of Hollywood: to promote sentimentalism, science and the practical sense of things.
Worse than Hollywood was the communist world where ugliness dominated. The next step is the appearance of the Devil.
In the Catholic formation pulchrum (beauty) and the good dream are not taught in catechism classes. The child receives it through fairy tales, which have nothing to do with religion properly speaking. With the purely practical, however, souls are deviated away from having a good dream.
To think that the revolutionary phenomenon is only a matter of something like monarchy versus republic is to not understand what really counts. What counts at depth is the play between the good dreams and the revolutionary dreams.
The Hall of the Reign of Mary is a hall of a dream that invites us to the good dream, and this is the reason why it is not visited very much. The Reign of Mary Hall exists not so much to go there to pray but rather to let us be captivated and taken by that atmosphere.
Posted February 12, 2025
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In a certain phase of History a collective revolutionary dream was born. It was no longer the dream to bring a society to fruition according to virtue, but rather a dream to flee from virtue and realize a society by following vice.
The stained glass windows of the Sainte Chapelle:
a dream fulfilled
Humanism was a bad return to the Roman dream; Cartesianism was a bad dream in itself; Rationalism and the Enlightenment fulfilled a revolutionary dream as well.
In the Ancien Régime there was still some aspects of the good dream of the past that were moving forward, such as the progress of courtesy, but this was something very fragile, while the progress of the bad dreams of Absolutism, Rationalism and the Enlightenment were becoming increasingly stronger until it produced the French Revolution.
I mentioned the Ancien Régime, but here I should speak about something that had a tremendous effect in this sense. It is one of the most harmful and well-planned dreams instilled by the Revolution. I am speaking of Romanticism.
Although a precursor movement of Romanticism was already present in the Naturalism of Rousseau with the myth of the bon sauvage or noble sauvage (the good or noble savage), it was the 19th century when Romanticism attained its greatest influence in society.
I encountered Romanticism in relatively innocent forms when I was a boy reading the books for children written by Abbot Schmidt. They were marked by the German Romanticism with the tone of innocence that the Germans gave to things, but it was still Romanticism.
..
So, for example, there was the story of Rose von Schönberg in the Castle of Tannenburg: Tanne is the type of pine used for Christmas trees. The setting for the story can be imagined as a mountain filled with these pines. Atop the mountain are some houses and the Castle, a castle more in a 19th century Gothic style than properly medieval Gothic. This Castle is under siege and the family has to leave it.
Rose pines for her sister & sends her a note by pigeon
Rose, one of the daughters, is sent to a far away convent where she is not understood. The convent is near the ocean where the roar of the sea is often heard. Rose catches a pigeon and treats it with such tenderness that the bird becomes attached to her. She writes a message to her sister Rosalyn and rolls it around the leg of the pigeon and then releases the bird with in the hope that it will fly out and randomly arrive at the place where her sister is.
So, this would be the text of Rose’s letter: “O Rosalyn my dear sister or any other person with a sensitive heart who will collect my tears. If you are insensitive to them, please, burn this letter. If, however, your heart is moved by my sorrows, then keep it in a sacred place. I will not know it, but perhaps one day an angel will tell me that my message was not lost. Unknown soul, I greet you as I would greet my incomparable Rosalyn.”
Then, we are shown Rosalyn at 6 pm in another convent: The church bells is tolling for the Angelus, the nuns are chanting the Office, outside the birds chirp seeking a tree of shelter, night is falling. The repose of night – but also its uncertainty – is falling over men. Rosalyn thinks about her sister and exclaims: “Repose and uncertainty, oh my Rose, these are what the convent where I reside gives me. Oh, what repose, oh, what uncertainty…”
.
This Romanticism built a world that was imagined in an entirely artificial way without a serious analysis of how human nature is. In it a man turns completely toward himself, wildly seeking a heaven where he should not seek it; he it is always looking for it and will never find it. Further, he becomes addicted to looking for it. He despairs because he cannot find it and thus keeps hitting his head on the wall his entire life.
Romantantism: A dream for two to become one in love
Romanticism is a dream based upon an error which posits that one person can inhabit another person; two souls can unite in a way that they become one. This is the dream of Romanticism. This cannot happen. We can only have this union with God; only He can inhabit a soul in this way.
Another error is the conception that the dreamer makes of the other as a perfect creature. This perfect creature to whom the dreamer opens his soul does not exist. It is a chimera, foolishness. It is a moral deviation from the goal for which we were created. We were created to be inhabited by God. The romantic person, deep down, removes God from his life and replaces Him with another person.
From fantasy to the practical
Romanticism took this torch whose light in the past shone with a just ideal in the soul of man and lit a wrong ideal in it, an erroneous goal, a false fantasy.
.
Then, after an era of much fantasy, the Revolution began to promote practicality.
The Paris Exposition 1900, a studpendous presentation of the dream of technology
At the turn of the 20th century when the era of the progress was affirmed, there was a complete change in the culture. In the 19th century the expositions of Paris celebrated the advances of science and technology. This reached an apex in the 1900 Paris Exposition.
Today, we cannot have an idea of the influence of the 1900 Paris Exposition at its time. It was the affirmation of the many new discoveries, but also the beginning of tourism. Everyone who visited the Paris Exposition would go to pavilions presenting the different cultures – Chinese, Japanese, Annamite, Mayan, Incan etc. So, first it was fashionable to visit Paris; then, to visit other countries to know different peoples.
Deviations of this dream started to manifest themselves in a practical way. Instead of sitting in a chair or lying on a bed reading a novel and dreaming, people started to travel; they started to look for the dream everywhere. In the next phase, the dream faded and the practical note preponderated. This was the mission of Hollywood: to promote sentimentalism, science and the practical sense of things.
Worse than Hollywood was the communist world where ugliness dominated. The next step is the appearance of the Devil.
In the Catholic formation pulchrum (beauty) and the good dream are not taught in catechism classes. The child receives it through fairy tales, which have nothing to do with religion properly speaking. With the purely practical, however, souls are deviated away from having a good dream.
To think that the revolutionary phenomenon is only a matter of something like monarchy versus republic is to not understand what really counts. What counts at depth is the play between the good dreams and the revolutionary dreams.
The Hall of the Reign of Mary is a hall of a dream that invites us to the good dream, and this is the reason why it is not visited very much. The Reign of Mary Hall exists not so much to go there to pray but rather to let us be captivated and taken by that atmosphere.
.
The Hall of the Reign of Mary
Posted February 12, 2025
Organic Society was a theme dear to the late Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira. He addressed this topic on countless occasions during his life - at times in lectures for the formation of his disciples, at times in meetings with friends who gathered to study the social aspects and history of Christendom, at times just in passing.
Prof. Plinio
Atila S. Guimarães selected excerpts of these lectures and conversations from the transcripts of tapes and his own personal notes. He translated and adapted them into articles for the TIA website. In these texts fidelity to the original ideas and words is kept as much as possible.
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