The Jesuits’ Totalitarianism as a Prototype
Some sources, above all Christian, claim that Weishaupt’s ideological
prototype was Plato’s “Republic”. These claims are misleading. Weishaupt (despite his hatred of them) admired the Jesuits’ tactics, discipline
and skill at organisation, their ability to put talents to good use and their
devotion to their cause. Since Jesuits educated Weishaupt, he was familiar
with their experiences of creating totalitarian societies and his prototype
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was above all the totalitarian and theocratic rule, which the Jesuits
enforced, in spite of the Spanish central power, in Paraguay in 1609. This
slave state existed officially for 159 years, up to 1768 when Weishaupt
was a twenty-year-old student. The Jesuits called this serfdom encomienda, meaning mission or protection.
The facts I found in Carl Morner’s dissertation “An Account of the
History of Paraguay and the Pertaining Jesuit Missions from the
Discovery of the Country to 1813″ (Uppsala, 1858, pp. 92-102) call for
consideration. According to Morner, every mission had a municipal
council, which carried out the Jesuits’ orders. The Jesuits followed a kind
of communist method, using cunning and violence. Guarani Indians of
both sexes and all ages were put to forced labour for the mission. The
Indians did not have any personal property. All the produce was gathered
in communal storehouses. Whatever food and clothing the Indians needed,
as well as the general needs of the commune, were distributed from these.
The Jesuits oversaw the work in a factory manner.
The Jesuits had introduced work duty. The supply of food and other
necessities to the Indians depended on the results of production. The
power structure was centralised and work was performed in groups. The
commune even organised entertainment. When punishment was meted out,
the Indians were made to kiss the hand of their executioner, thank him and
express their remorse.
The commune leadership was comprised of Jesuit priests from Italy,
England and Germany. They had cordoned off the area in a manner reminiscent of a ghetto or Eastern Europe behind the iron curtain. All this
strengthened the idea that the Jesuits aspired to create an independent
state.
“Savage” Indians from nearby areas were tempted into the enclosed
communes with good food, kindness, parties and music. There was no
suggestion of the coercion and servitude to come. Then the trap closed
around them. The Jesuits distributed the “savages” among the missions on
the Parana River. Many fled home into the jungles only to be enslaved
again later.
The Indians were turned into helpless, dependent creatures. Their
chances for spiritual development were curbed. Special Jesuit priests (like
politruks) indoctrinated the Indians not to express their dissatisfaction.
Christianity, originally a religion intended for slaves, was used cunningly.
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At the same time, they tried to accustom the Indians to a militarist attitude
and in this way they became the tools of their masters without any thought
or will of their own. Paraguay was an example of standardisation, the
“right of co-determination”, the factory mentality, communist methods, an
iron curtain (the area was turned into a ghetto), politruks, servitude, violence, propaganda and militarism. An interesting fact is that primarily
Central European Jesuits (of Jewish stock) were chosen as leaders of the
Paraguay missions.
Information about the real conditions eventually reached the outside
world despite all hypocrisy and double-dealing. In 1759, the Jesuits were
ordered to release the Indians and abolish their isolation system. Naturally,
the Jesuits claimed that all the accusations brought against them were false
but they still admitted that something should be done and offered to help
the Indians to gradually become independent again. They had no intention
of keeping their promise.
Meanwhile, in Europe, the animosity against the Jesuit Order grew and
King Carlos III of Spain expelled the Jesuits from all his provinces in
- The Jesuits in Paraguay shared the fate of their brothers. One year
later, in 1768, they officially left their missions without resistance –
missions, which had, through their communist way of life, stifled the
spiritual development of the Indians. Thereby, the Jesuits had gathered
experience of indoctrinating the exceedingly freedom-loving Indian
nations, and of changing them into obedient slaves in their “commune”.
Within only eight years, in 1776, the Jesuit defector Adam Weishaupt
formed the Order of the Illuminati. In actual fact, the Jesuits kept their
ghettos until well into the nineteenth century. Slavery was abolished in
The Illuminati’s First Coup d’Etat