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3. THE COUNTER-REVOLUTION IS AN ESSENTIAL CONDITION FOR AUTHENTIC
PROGRESS
Does
the Counter-Revolution favor progress? Yes, if the progress is authentic. No,
if it is the march toward the revolutionary utopia.
In
its material aspect, genuine progress consists in the rightful use of the
forces of nature according to the law of God, for the service of man. For this
reason, the Counter-Revolution makes no pads with today's hypertrophied technicalism,
with its adoration of novelties, speed, and machines, nor with the deplorable
tendency to organize human society mechanistically. These are excesses that
Pius XII condemned profoundly and precisely. 41
Nor
is the material progress of a people the main element of progress in Christian
understanding. The latter lies above all in the full development of the powers
of the soul and the ascent of mankind toward moral perfection. Thus, a
counter-revolutionary conception of progress supposes the prevalence of
spiritual values over material considerations. Accordingly, it is proper to the
Counter-Revolution to promote, among individuals and the multitudes, a far
greater esteem for all that has to do with true religion, philosophy, art, and
literature than for what has to do with the good of the body and the
exploitation of matter.
Finally, to clearly differentiate between the revolutionary and
counter-revolutionary concepts of progress, it is necessary to note that the
counter-revolutionary takes into account that the world will always be a valley
of tears and a passageway to heaven, while the revolutionary considers that
progress should make the earth a paradise in which man lives happily with no
thought of eternity.
From
the very notion of rightful progress, one can see that the revolutionary
process is its contrary.
Thus,
the Counter-Revolution is an essential condition for the preservation of the
normal development of authentic progress and the defeat of the revolutionary
utopia, which has only a facade of progress.
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