To be clearer, Plinio and the TFP embrace the traditional Catholic view of reality as hierarchical. To cut off the head is thus to kill the body.
In R & C-R, he traces the erasure of this reality to the Revolution - one revolution - which consists of these stages: 1) the pseudo-Reformation, 2) the pseudo-Enlightenment and the French Revolution, 3) Communism. With the 1976 and 1993 additions to the book, he speculates whether we're now in the fourth phase, tribalism. Fascinating reading.
Matthew, this is a counter-revolutionary site. As you're its father, I think you'll like that book a whole lot.