Theology of History

Note: Prof. Plinio gave this series of classes in 1957; today in 2025 we see how the egalitarianism in each of the fields he points out has increased and come to dominate almost completely. TIA

The egalitarian tendency is as powerful today as the Catholic Church was in the Middle Ages We are, so to speak, in the “12^th century” of egalitarianism (the 12^th century is considered by many historians as the height of the Middle Ages).

How can this be proved?

Medieval Civilization

What characterizes a fervent soul regarding the spiritual life is that he holds the Catholic Religion as his supreme value. He understands that all the values of life are only good insofar as they serve the Catholic Religion. Further, he takes each thing that exists and transforms it – adapting and conforming it to the Catholic Religion.

An example is the Catholic missionary. Let us consider a missionary who is going evangelize a pagan people. How does he act among these people?

• Since the supreme value of life is the Catholic Religion, everything must be ordered toward this end. Thus, among these people he will evangelize, his goal is to order everything in this way.
  
  
• Of the things that already exist among them, only those that can be ordered in this way are good.
  
  
• They are good insofar as they are transformed in this way.
  
  
• That which cannot be ordered in this sense should be rejected. This is the complete subjection of all things to the Catholic Religion, which is demanded by a truly Catholic soul.

When a people or a civilization is ardently Catholic, it takes the same attitude. This is exactly what characterizes medieval civilization: Everything was ordered to Religion; the things that existed were increasingly transformed to adapt to Religion; everything that was not adaptable to Religion was rejected as being contrary not only to the good of society but to what is the essence of society, which is the realization of its end. The Middle Ages reached an apogee because of this. (1)

How is civilization today?

Now, let us return to our days.

We are demonstrating. with many examples we have given in the past articles, that our century regards Egalitarianism as the prevailing value in all things. Everything that exists is being transformed to conform to an egalitarian conception, and things that are insusceptible to fit into this conception are being rejected, destroyed or not spoken about, when there is no other way to avoid them.

For example, it cannot be denied that all the faces of men are unequal, but this fact is passed over without comment and no conclusions drawn from it. That is, the same service and ordering of all values to Religion made by the 12^th century, we are doing today with regard to ordering everything to Egalitarianism. Thus we could say that Egalitarianism is the supreme value of our times.

The upper classes promote Egalitarianism

We need to know the worth of today’s supreme value with regard to Catholic doctrine. What does the Catholic Church think about this supreme value of Egalitarianism?

One might protest that it is not true that our era tends to Egalitarianism in everything. After all, it is an epoch of profound economic transformation. Some rise, others fall. And so it is natural that envy will make those below seek to be on an even keel with those above. Thus, the egalitarian revolution is a revolution of envy.

I think that envy plays a role in this, but it would be childish to reduce everything to envy. Envy is not the essence of this transformation.

Note that in this Egalitarian Revolution those who would have the most to lose from this leveling process are actually strongly collaborating with it. For example, I was a professor at the University Law School, and soon after was a professor at the State College. At the University there were persons from the middle and upper bourgeoisie. At the State College, there were persons from the middle and lower bourgeoisie, and at times from a very recent petty bourgeoisie.

I found, in general, an incomparably better welcome for counter-revolutionary ideas at the State College than at the University. There is a much greater tendency towards egalitarianism in the upper class than in the middle and lower classes.

How can that be explained? Should not the persons most interested in Egalitarianism be the middle and lower classes? It should, but they are not.

The entire upper and traditional society of São Paulo in my time is egalitarian in its ideas. It may not be a mental habit, but it is profoundly egalitarian in its ideas. I find it much easier to talk about inequality to people of the humbler class today.

In the clergy, is it envy of authority that leads the clergy to try to make themselves equal to the laity? This is nonsense. The princes and nobles – with what gusto do they level themselves! It is the opposite of what one might suspect. And a historical demonstration of this would not be difficult to make.

In fact, the egalitarian movement is not only aided, but led, by those who have influence and who have everything to lose. If it were not for this, the movement would not go forward. And what motivates this? It is the taste for equality for equality’s sake; it is a hatred for inequality simply because it is inequality. This is really what it is.

In the next article we will pass on to the philosophical part of this commentary.

To be continued

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