Hello,
As you have noticed, this list is not meant to be a 'Evola fan-club',
but will try to show Evola, precisely, as he was, avoiding to fall in
a trap against which he once warned his readers with respect to the
character of Mussolini: that of 'mythologising' historical
characters. To judge the character of Evola, it should be obvious
that one has to be possession of much more documents than those which
are currently available to the Anglo-Saxon readers of Evola who
cannot read Italian. Our aim is to provide, at our rate, this
documentation in English, so that they can make up their mind about
him in the most objective and serene way. Until all items are added
to the file, we invite people, at least those who are not driven on
exclusively by a spirit of controversy and, therefore, blinded, not
to jump to conclusions. This is one of these items, relating to
Evola's judgement on the character of Hitler, taken, precisely,
from 'Hitler e le società segrete': Evola did not write in it that
Hitler was "a man of a very extraordinary kind, and extremely
gifted". This is a mistranslation. The Italian sentence is as
follows: "Proprio quando egli fanatizzeva le folle, dava
l'impressione che un'altra forza lo trasportesse avendolo, appunto,
come un medium, anche se di un genere tutto particolare e
eccezionalmente dotato": "(...) and made him as a medium, even if of
a most special and exceptionally gifted kind". In other words, Evola
was not saying that Hitler was "a man of a most special and
exceptionally gifted kind", but "a medium of a most special and
exceptionally gifted kind".
Mediumnistic qualities are the opposite of an initiatory
qualification, indeed. In various writings, of which 'Heathen
Imperialism' and 'Sintesi di dottrina della razza', he points out
that, in this day and age, in the strictly political field, only a
man able to lead and to carry away the masses can become a leader,
behind which an invisible true elite should be found, to which the
former would be subordinated. To be this kind of leader, doesn't a
man need to have a charisma enhanced by mediumnistic qualities? This
is why we said that we didn't think that Evola was critical of Hitler
for being an exceptionally gifted medium. To each one his place and
his function, in a traditional order.
As to know whether Hitler was a medium or not, this is another
question, which we should let those who attended his speech and/or
knew him decide. Savitri Devi seemed to think that he was one. One
can play hysteria at will to act on one's surrounding at given
moments, and, in this connection, you are right to remind us of
Irving's accurate considerations on Hitler's so-called "hysteria". It
just seems to us that one cannot pretend to be a medium: one is a
medium or one is not.
The penultimate sentence of the article you mention is as
follows: "Only the future will tell us which direction the German
reconstruction will end up taking". It was written in November 1933,
that is only a few months after Hitler had come to power.
In "Fascismo e terzo reich", 20 years or so after the tragic end of
the National-Socialist experience, Evola was able to provide a
definitive assessment of this regime, considering in a critical and
detailed analysis of it, as he had always done, its positive from its
negative aspects from a traditional standpoint, and not – this cannot
be emphasised enough - from the democratic one.
Thompkins&Cariou
--- In evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com, "skyegamble89"
<skyegamble89@y...> wrote:
> First, thank you kindly for your response to my original inquiry.
> Regarding
> what I said about Evola's possible "admiration" for Hitler, perhaps
> the more
> correct word would be "respect". I understand that, unlike Evola's
> definite
> "admiration" for Codreanu and his Legion, Evola took both National
> Socialism
> and Hitler with great reserve. It appears, however, that although
> Evola was
> critical of the "parts" of National Socialism, he accepted it as a
> whole, in the
> hope that it could be moved towards Tradition in the future. So,
> while Evola
> was highly critical of Hitler, he also acknowledged that he was a
man
> "of a
> very extraordinary kind, and extremely gifted".
>
> Regarding Hitler's "mediumistic" qualities- as Evola emphatically
> repeats,
> these are the exact opposite of an initiatic qualification.
> Throughout his work,
> Evola emphasizes that the medium belongs to the level of the
> "subhuman"-
> below even the "human". This would be the case- but I think Hitler
> seems to
> have fooled even Evola in this regard. It is my belief that Hitler
> was less of a
> "medium" than simply a great and convincing orator. In addition to
> this, Hitler's
> famous "rages", as we learn in Irving's "Hitler's War", were very
> much put on- "I
> need tea, gentlemen- they think I'm furious!" says Hitler to his
> entourage while
> taking a break from scaring the life out of Austrian emissaries.
>
> For anyone who is interested and who can read Italian, there is an
> interesting
> text which you (Thompkins&Cariou) may or may not be aware of,
> entitled
> "Osservazioni critiche sul "razzismo" Nazionalsocialista", published
> in "La Vita
> Italiana" in November of 1933, in which he discusses a (then) recent
> speech
> by Hitler. It can be found here:
http://www.juliusevola.it/documenti/
> template.asp?cod=283
>
> Thank you and kind regards,
> Skye J. Gamble