Why Revolutionaries are pacifist and anti-militarist

by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira

Photo by Adambro

The pacifist, and therefore anti-militarist, character of the Revolution is easily understood.

1. Science will bring an end to war, the military and the police.
In the technological paradise of the Revolution, peace has to be perpetual, for science has shown that war is evil, and technology can overcome all its causes.

Accordingly, there is a fundamental incompatibility between the Revolution and the armed forces and these will have to be abolished. In the universal republic there will only be a police force, which will be abolished as soon as scientific and technological advances have completed the eradication of crime.

2. The doctrinal incompatibility between the Revolution and the uniform.
The mere presence of the uniform implicitly testifies to truths that, although undoubtedly somewhat generic, are certainly of a counter-revolutionary character:

• The existence of values that are greater than life itself, and for which one should be willing to die and this is contrary to the socialist mentality, wholly characterized by the abhorrence of risk and pain and by adoration of security and utmost attachment to earthly life.

• The existence of morality, for the military condition is entirely based upon ideas of honor and force placed at the service of good and turned against evil.

3. The temperament of the Revolution is contrary to military life.
Lastly, there is a temperamental antipathy between the Revolution and the military spirit. Before it has full control, the Revolution is verbose, declamatory and scheming. The resolution of matters in a military way is direct, drastic and straightforward, which displeases what we could call the present temperament of the Revolution.

We stress present in allusion to the current stage of the Revolution among us because there is nothing more despotic and cruel than the Revolution when it is omnipotent. One can see that Russia has provided an eloquent example of this, but even there the divergence remained, since the military spirit is quite different from that of the executioner.

Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, Revolution and Counter-Revolution (York, Penn.: The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property, 1993), Part I, Ch. XII, pp. 69-70.