Aristocracy and Grandeur

TFP-Student Action in front of the Iwo Jima Memorial.

The aristocrat will only fulfill his vocation when he has a clear idea of the grandeur of his country and is willing to represent it in his person.

Many historical facts serve to symbolize American grandeur. One is the famous flag-raising at Iwo Jima. We may also point to such embodiments of grandeur as generals George Patton and Douglas MacArthur.

George S. Patton III

However, to fully realize the ideal of grandeur to which the United States is called, the families of her traditional elites must develop the distinctive features and aristocratic profile of this grandeur.

In principle, in every elite family there exists a “dream” that contains a germinative idea of the grandeur their nation is called to achieve. It is their duty to realize this “dream,” a quest gravely hindered by the pressures of the egalitarian myth. Thus, we witness the telling division between those Americans enthralled with quantitative grandeur (economic productivity) and those inspired by qualitative grandeur (the honor and glory of the nation).

General Douglas MacArthur

Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, Nobility and Analogous Traditional Elites in the Allocutions of Pius XII: A Theme Illuminating American Social History (York, Penn.: The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property, 1993), American Appendix, p. 195.