The Reactionaries

Plínio Prado*

Would you mind to be called reactionary? In order to answer this question, here is another one: Do you know what being a reactionary means? If you know it, would you accept this qualification? Or would you feel ashamed or embarrassed or inclined to say: No! I am not a reactionary.

Whatever may your answer be, I say to you: May be it is really necessary for us to be reactionaries. Being a reactionary means not to be submissive. Being a reactionary means to react. Being a reactionary means not to accommodate yourself. Not to submit yourself.

Being a reactionary means to be free to make your own choices. Being a reactionary means to have your own opinion and that you are able to disagree of what you feel you should not agree with.

If being a reactionary means to set your own path, rather than following the path imposed on you, then I can say you are a free person, endowed with the capacity to make your own mind and adopt your own decisions.

Hail to the reactionaries!

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Plínio Prado (Plinio G. Prado-Garcia) is a Brazilian lawyer; member of the Committee for the Defense of the Republic and Democracy of the Brazilian Bar Association, São Paulo Chapter; senior partner of Prado Garcia Advogados – Attorneys and Consultants (www.pradogarcia.com.br); e-mail: plinio@pradogarcia.com.br; Master of Comparative Law (G.W. University, Washington, D.C.)