The Council, the Lighthouse, and the Sailor (1) – Folha de S. Paulo, June 30, 1987

by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira

My role in the country’s public life has always been nonpartisan. No one has ever seen me run for political office or endorse a political party. And while it is true that I served as a representative for São Paulo in the 1934 Constituent Assembly, it is equally true that I did not represent any particular faction within the electoral slate on which my name appeared — the “Single Slate for a United São Paulo.”

This slate was the product of a coalition of São Paulo’s principal political and social forces at the time. Among these forces, two were typically partisan in character: on one side, the Democratic Party, which best represented the urban intelligentsia and certain emerging left‑leaning labor groups; and on the other, the old PRP (São Paulo Republican Party), more inclined to the right and comprising the vast majority of the farming class — the famous colonels of the National Guard, often the sons, and in any case almost always the successors, of the barons of the Empire. The principal social movements were the Commercial Association, the Federation of Volunteers — representing the youth who rose up against Getúlio Vargas during the epic events of 1932 — and the Catholic Electoral League.

In response to the honorable invitation of that pastor — a figure of such sacred, solemn, and even somewhat patriarchal stature — the unforgettable Archbishop Duarte Leopoldo e Silva, I agreed to run as a candidate for this latter entity, a typically nonpartisan organization, which gave me a resounding vote. Despite being only twenty‑four years old, I was the most‑voted candidate in Brazil.

I recall all these facts — over which a long and enigmatic silence still hangs — solely to ensure there is no misunderstanding about the apolitical and nonpartisan nature of my long and continuous presence in Brazilian public life.

And I say this so that no suspicion of partisanship may cast doubt on what I am about to state and propose in this article.

There is no record of Brazil ever facing a situation as full of contradictions as this in its nearly five-century-long history.

We are the world’s eighth-largest economy, and yet find ourselves in the most humiliating state of insolvency. Our communications network has largely covered our entire continental territory, providing clear evidence of the immensity of our current and potential resources. Yet, even so, we have not found a way to escape the quagmire into which we are sinking deeper day by day.

In the latest elections, the two tiny communist electoral groups — the PCB and the PC do B — despite enjoying overwhelming support from the mainstream media, received only a tiny share of the vote. Yet communism has never posed a greater threat to Brazil. To add to this list of paradoxes, every Brazilian is aware of the crushing burden that public administration expenses place on the national budget — a terribly bloated bureaucracy staffed by countless civil servants generally regarded as ineffective and sluggish. Additionally, the heavy burden of the state-owned enterprises, which the government, with its incompetence and shortsightedness, acquired and established during the final decade of the military regime.

However, they find no solution for any of this. Instead of paying off our debts, we are only increasing our expenses. Inflation is soaring. Both the rich and the poor are tightening their belts, and no one knows what tomorrow will bring.

Worse still, the government, most of the PMDB and PFL, and the leftist blocs in the Constituent Assembly are paving the way for a full cycle of excessive public spending, driven by the implementation of destructive socio-economic reforms like agrarian reform, urban reform, and corporate reform.

On the other hand, despite the internal crisis fueled by liberation theology and the progressive storms sweeping through the Holy Church in Brazil and around the world, the CNBB enthusiastically cheers these outrageously expensive reforms. And it becomes genuinely furious with the New Republic when it seems to be moving too slowly toward disaster.

Meanwhile, the Constituent Assembly is trying to reform Brazil in an almost chaotic environment, characterized by a rush of insults, the sound of slaps, and arguments sparked by the inadequacy of statutory deadlines.

Reforming… There is no sector of national life in which people are not trembling at the prospect of these reforms, which threaten everything from the security and integrity of the Judiciary — which should be sacrosanct — to the integrity and very existence of the family itself, now at risk of ceasing to be a reality and being reduced to a mere literary fiction in poor taste.

Those who know me personally are aware that I am neither a complainer nor a pessimist. If, a few lines above, I gathered into a single tableau — one that can only be described as grim — so many facts known to all, it was not to add yet another fruitless lament to the many that echo today in every corner. I have a concrete suggestion to present to the public. It has, at least, the modest merit of not pretending to be a panacea. Yet, once accepted and put into practice, it could change a great deal. We shall see it in the next article.