The Mobile Immobility of Chaos
by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira April 12, 1993 tfp.org/the-mobile-immobility-of-chaos
If there is one common denominator in the public and private lives in so many nations today, it is chaos. Chaotic perspectives seem to be multiplying as we head down the road to chaos, which no one really knows where it leads.
The enigmatic forces of chaos produce explosions and eruptions that give the impression that the world will collapse. Foolish optimists—excuse the oxymoron—do not greatly fear this chaos because they think that eventually “everything will go back to square one.” Those who consider themselves farsighted become alarmed, thinking the world will soon “turn upside down.”
However, both are mistaken since what ends up dominating is a situation where “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose” – the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Indeed, we witness and suffer a chaotic process that moves yet is immobile. We see disagreements break out here and there. Situations become so tense and critical that it seems a world war could suddenly break out anywhere.
However, in this whirlwind of chaos, everything ends up immobile.
Thus, an increasing number of countries plunge into this fixed immobility amid continuous mobility. Situations neither improve nor worsen but create great drama.
This tragedy is a kind of psycho-social AIDS spreading throughout the world. It is a disease that does not kill but weakens everything healthy and organic within nations.
In the face of multiplying catastrophes, moral decay and material devastation, humanity languishes and issues the lament, “Everyone must submit to brokenness as the rule of life. Everything is broken; nothing has any meaning!”
The underlying message seems to be: “Get used to it and understand that nothing has any reason to exist anymore! Human reason is dead, and nothing reasonable will happen ever again! This may not be affirmed explicitly, but world events will increasingly appear absurd and unreasonable. Everyone should get used to the idea that absurdity rules the world!”
Thus comes the conclusion: “Begone, reason! Human thought, be still! Let humanity reflect no more but rather be carried away by events like animals!”
From the depths of this abyss, astute Catholics can discern a deceptive glimmer in this message. It appears like a song at once sinister and attractive, soothing and delirious that comes from that abject being who is the personification of irrationality, absurdity and the foolish, hate-filled revolt against the Almighty: the devil. The father of evil, error and lies groans and gasps in despair, shouting his eternal and nefarious cry of revolt: “Non serviam” – I will not serve!
These are perspectives theologians can and should discuss—the few but genuine theologians who still believe in the existence of the devil and Hell.