The First Kingdom We Must Conquer if the Counter-Revolution is to Succeed
Ignoring this will become the Achille’s heel of our cause.
(Note: This month’s final short essay also serves as the Radical Roundup for May)
Much of which we are busy with as faithful Catholics at this stage of salvation history concerns itself with defending Tradition, resisting modernism, opposing false ecumenism, exposing liberalism, rejecting doctrinal confusion and preserving the little that is left of Catholic civilization.
The aim: Instaurare omnia in Christo. To restore all things in Christ is indeed the very essence of the labor of the counter-revolutionary Catholic. This is a legitimate and noble cause to live and die for.
But I am often concerned about an insidious danger that could profoundly undermine not only my own efforts, but also the efforts of those flanking me in the trenches: that we can become so occupied with fighting revolution outside ourselves that we forget revolution began somewhere much closer.
Before there was revolution in states and in Mother Church, there was revolution in souls. Before the hierarchy collapsed in society, hierarchy collapsed within man himself. Therefor the first hierarchy we need to fix is not political hierarchy, ecclesiastical hierarchy, or social hierarchy but this interior hierarchy within our own souls.
The great counter-revolutionary Dr. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira repeatedly insists in his explosive little work Revolution and Counter-Revolution that revolution is not merely a political phenomenon but a metaphysical one. According to his analysis, revolution rests principally upon two great errors: egalitarianism and liberalism. According to Dr. Plinio these are not simply political doctrines but ways of seeing reality itself.
Egalitarianism is fundamentally the hatred of hierarchy and the refusal to accept that reality itself possesses distinctions, gradations, superiors and inferiors, rulers and subjects, teachers and students, fathers and children, clergy and laity. Liberalism, meanwhile, is fundamentally the hatred of restraint and seeks freedom detached from truth and authority. Liberalism thus desires liberty not for excellence but liberation from limitations.
These principles extend far beyond politics because revolution ultimately seeks to destroy hierarchy everywhere. In its most satanic manifestations, it seeks equality between God and man through secularism or pantheism.
Furthermore, to achieve this, it seeks equality between religions through indifferentism and in society it seeks it through the destruction of organic distinctions and natural authority.
Most disturbingly, the Horned First Revolutionary even seeks equality between the various faculties of man himself. Satan knows that the revolutionary mind rejects hierarchy because hierarchy reminds man that he occupies a particular place within an order he did not create.
Dr. Plinio identifies two passions as chiefly responsible for this revolutionary spirit: pride and sensuality.
Pride produces egalitarianism because pride cannot tolerate superiority. The proud man does not merely dislike being corrected, he vehemently resents the existence of anything above himself. For the proud man authority becomes offensive because authority reminds him that obedience is required.
Just so excellence becomes a focal point for his hatred. Excellence becomes offensive because excellence reminds him that inequality exists. Hence idiotic modern practices such as “participation certificates” for school children instead of awarding their merits, or even the sad state of modern art as examples of how excellence must be destroyed in order to put everyone on equal footing.
Eventually, this resentment expands beyond authorities toward authority itself and thus ultimately towards God as the source of all legitimate authority. Pride therefore naturally produces rebellion against hierarchy because hierarchy continuously humiliates the autonomous self.
Sensuality produces liberalism because sensuality desires satisfaction without restriction. The sensual man, without fail, eventually always experiences moral law as an obstacle and discipline as oppression. Traits, that the great men of yore prided themselves in, such as self-denial, becomes unreasonable for modern man. Even rules become intolerable and are seen as transgressions against their diabolical “human rights” or “human dignity”. Gradually, liberty ceases to mean freedom to pursue the good and instead becomes freedom from restraint itself. Until man resembles nothing more than a filthy wild beast in a designer suit and a high-tech cage.
These two passions, pride and sensuality, reinforce one another. Pride rejects authority, while sensuality rejects discipline, and together they create the psychological conditions necessary for revolution.
This becomes especially important when we examine the hierarchy God placed within the human person.
Dr. Plinio explains that God has impressed hierarchy upon all creation and that this hierarchical principle exists within the soul itself. Here he is largely following the anthropology of Saint Thomas Aquinas who argued that man possesses various powers ordered toward one another according to their dignity and function.
The intellect exists to know truth, the will exists as the rational appetite, choosing what reason presents as good, and the sensible appetites and passions exist as lower faculties which should be governed and directed by the higher powers.
In simple terms, intelligence should guide the will and the will should govern sensibility.
For us as counter-revolutionary soldiers in Christ and the Blessed Virgin’s army against apostasy, this is extremely important. Ignoring this will become the Achilles’ heel of our cause. It matters such a great deal because man acts according to whichever faculty dominates him. When reason illuminates the will and the will properly governs the passions, the soul possesses order as God intended. When passions dominate the will and cloud the intellect, disorder appears. And we know who the architect of that situation is ultimately.
Original Sin introduced precisely the condition in which the lower powers no longer effortlessly obey the higher. As Saint Paul writes, there exists another law in our members fighting against the law of our minds. Fallen man therefore experiences constant interior conflict where the passions attempt to usurp authority and weaken the will. This is best achieved when the revolutionary forces can obscure reason.
This is precisely why Dr. Plinio describes revolution within the soul as a kind of egalitarianism or leveling. Within man, this leveling appears when what should be doing the “obeying” starts to do the “commanding”.
Despite what the world wants to tell you (“follow your heart”, “you only live once”, etc.), the passions were never intended to govern. Modern man’s demonic obsession with feelings as the arbiter of truth is the very reason for societal, ecclesial, and moral collapse. Desires were never intended to become sovereign.
One of the greatest dangers facing those attempting to defend the rights of God and His Church is failing to recognize that this revolutionary inversion can survive comfortably within externally orthodox individuals. A man may correctly identify every error of the age while remaining personally governed by pride. In the same way he may passionately reject liberalism while remaining incapable of self-denial. Or he may defend hierarchy and condemn revolution while allowing passions to govern his daily decisions. You get the picture.
External orthodoxy does not automatically produce interior order.
It is possible to oppose revolutionary institutions while remaining internally revolutionary. This danger becomes particularly acute because revolutionary disorder often disguises itself beneath religious language. Pride may disguise itself as zeal, anger as courage, vanity as defending truth, and sensuality as merely appreciating legitimate pleasures. There exists a minefield with a myriad of traps we could possibly step into in this regard.
The result is that one ends up fighting revolution externally, while unconsciously preserving its first principles within oneself. If you find yourself in this position, where your passions rule you, you remain partially conquered territory regardless of how many external battles you fight. And we know what Holy Scripture says about a little yeast (Galatians 5:9).
If this hierarchy must be restored, how is it accomplished?
First, reason itself must be properly formed. The intellect cannot govern if it lacks truth and therefore serious formation becomes non-negotiable. Philosophy, theology, history, spiritual reading, and careful study is the antidote to the poison of a poorly formed intellect.
Second, the will must be strengthened through practice. The will is indeed a spiritual muscle and just like a bodybuilder’s muscles will not strengthen by the mere intention to go to gym, so the will does not become strong merely through good intentions. It becomes strong through repeated acts of self-command. These acts of self-command, to which modern man has such an aversion, includes duties fulfilled promptly, sacrifices accepted willingly, disciplines embraced consistently, and unpleasant tasks performed voluntarily.
Third, the passions themselves must be disciplined rather than obeyed. Modern society frequently treats authenticity as spontaneous self-expression, but according to Catholicism true freedom consists not in obeying impulses but in governing them. Remember that the passions themselves are not evil but only become dangerous when they cease being servants and begin acting as masters.
Finally, none of this remains possible without grace. Dr. Plinio himself emphasizes that the will possesses the means to prevail provided it does not resist grace. Interior hierarchy cannot be sustained through human effort alone because fallen man does not naturally preserve order. Prayer, sacramental life, penance, examination of conscience, and continual dependence upon God remain critically essential.
The crisis surrounding us, the destruction of Catholic culture, and the revolutionary transformation of the Church and secular institutions remains real. Therefore, every counter revolutionary effort must begin somewhere more immediate. Before restoring hierarchy in civilization, hierarchy must be restored within us.
We will not defeat the wicked men who occupy Rome and our countries’ governments, if we do not reclaim the first kingdom entrusted to our rule: our souls.
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At Radical Fidelity:
SSPX Announces Names of Four Priests to be Consecrated as Bishops
Fernadez Defends Marxist Theology While Prevost Advances the Anti-Christ Spirit on Pentecost
Welcome to the Pariah State of Grace
Heterodox Theologians Once Again Accidentally Admits the Synodal Abomination is a New Religion
A Friendly Reminder that the Synodal Church is a Big Club, and Catholics Aren’t Part of it!
Planned Futuristic “Monastery” Is Nothing but a Monument to Rebellion Against God
The Sin That Not Only Damns Souls but Also Undermines the Catholic Counter-Revolution
Breaking Announcement! A New Chapter for the Catholic Counter-Revolution Dawns
Rome Betrays Christ for Muhammad and Buddha in Latest Acts of Treason
Another “Theologian” Attacks the Blessed Virgin Mary
The Most Insidious False Virtue of the Antichrist Religion
Latest Synodal Report Cunningly Sneaks in Attempt to Normalize Perversion
Transalpine Redemptorists Say the Not-so-quiet Part Out Very loud
Leo XIV’s Communist Petticoat Hangs Out in New Book
Faithful Polish Catholics Outraged Over Betrayal of Christ in Bishops’ Heretical Letter
At Integrity Magazine:
Bishop Antonio de Castro Mayer: Faithful lion of doctrine and tradition
Vatican II’s religion of man on full display in Leo’s AI encyclical
Is the post-Vatican II Church the Catholic Church?
Conservative Catholic complaints about the crisis in the Church ignore its root cause
Taylor Marshall is wrong: Vatican II actually did create a new religion — here’s proof
The Vatican’s eco-crusade just suffered a massive setback with new UN report
How Synodality flows from the same wicked font as gender ideology
One year of Leo XIV: 365 days at the Conciliar Circus
The Synodal Church’s teaching on proselytism contradicts the Gospel
Our Lady, Co-redemptrix, pray for us…
Our Lady, Mediatrix of all Graces, pray for us…
Viva Christo Rey!
This was a great read, we need more thinking about improving ourselves instead of constantly pointing out how bad the Synodal/Modernist is ( even though it IS an abomination).
Funny how most trouble comes from pride 😀
In my past I have confused pride , with self respect.
It’s only in more recent times that I have ….understood.