Copyrighted Material
158 THE GREAT SECRET
could be started at a word and sent marching across the world to carry out by all possible means the intentions of the engineer. It must be admitted that his invention is far greater than Pascal’s computing machine.
But is such a work moral? Yes, ofcourse, in the thought of its author and of all those who are so devoted that they think they are doing the right thing to become blind cogs like this and automatons without autonomy. Evil will never work men up to this point, nor will reason or even ordinary common sense inflame them in such a way. Philosophy will never have such soldiers. Democracy may have its partisans and martyrs, but never its veritable apostles capable of sacrificing their self-respect and their entire personality on its behalf. 1 have known and 1 still do know worthy democrats, and each of them represents the strength of one isolated individual. The name of the Jesuit is Legion. Why are men so cool when reason is involved and so warm when it comes to fighting for some figment of their imagination? It is because man, in spite of all his pride, is defective; he does not have a sincere love of the truth, but on the contrary worships illusions and lies.
‘Seeing that men are foolish,’ said Saint Paul, ‘we have endeavoured to save them even by foolishness, imposing what is good on the blindness of their faith.’ Here the great secret of Saint Paul’s Catholicism grafted on the Christianity of Jesus awaits completion by the Jesuitism of Saint Loyola. The masses thrive on absurdities. Society is made up of a small number of wise men and a great herd of stupid people. Now the government of the stupid by the wise is what is desirable.
How can this be managed? As soon as the wise man shows that he is wise, he is repulsed, slandered, exiled and crucified. People do not want to be convinced, they want someone to impose on them. Hence the apostle must seem to be dealing in imposture in order to revive, that is to say to regcncratc truth in the world by giving it a new veil. How can we define a revealer? He is a disinterested imposter who, in order to turn them in the direction of good, is prepared to deceive the common masses. So who are these common masses? They are the immense crowd of dolts, imbeciles and fools whatever their titles, their place in society and their wealth.
I am aware that there is much talk of indefinite progress, but I
Copyrighted Material