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evola_as_he_is · EVOLA AS HE IS

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  • Members: 121
  • Category: Spirituality
  • Founded: Nov 19, 2004
  • Language: English

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It his Audodifesa, Evola wrote:

The position that I have defended and continue to defend, as an independent man … should not be called “fascist”, but traditional and counterrevolutionary. In the same spirit as a Metternich, a Bismarck, or the great Catholic philosophers of the principles of authority, de Maistre and Donoso Cortés, I reject all that which derives, directly or indirectly, from the French Revolution and which, in my opinion, has as its extreme consequence bolshevism; to which I counterpose the "world of Tradition." … My principles are only those that, before the French Revolution, every well-born person considered sane and normal.

In order for us well-born men to understand what is sane and normal, we need look no further than such thinkers as the Spaniard Don Juan Donoso Cortés and the Frenchman Joseph de Maistre. Although Evola wrote no extended commentary on either of these thinkers, we have his own testimony that they all share the same spirit. As can be seen in Evola’s brief review of de Maistre’s “Soirées in St. Petersburg”, sharing the spirit is not the same thing as agreement on dogma or points of doctrine. Yet a reading of those philosophers of authority is worth the effort, if for no other reason than to dispel the persistent impression that Evola advocated anarchy or some sort of secular antinomianism.

For example, consider these ideas from Donoso Cortes (all quotes from “Donoso Cortes: Cassandra of the Age” by R. A. Herrera):

First of all, can this famous imagery from Donoso eliminate any and all doubts about the shared spirit with Evola? “[in Defense, lecture 10, Donoso exalts] the strong man who defends truth even among the ruins.” And we know that Evola read Donoso.

“Donoso predicted the advent of a debased chattering mass, a humanity leveled beyond discussion.”

“Incapable of grandeur or heroism, liberalism is the breeding ground of socialism … Both liberalism and socialism ignore the organic character of society, its historical building up through sedimentation, and any connection between past and future.”

“What makes all the difference is ideas, not material force.”

“[The dictator is a strong man who] appears as a divinity … At his appearance … the tempests are pacified. The dictator transcends written law and philosophical theory: he is a living protest against both law and philosophy.”

“Donoso cites Helen, Ulysses’ siren, and other femmes fatales to prove that classical man regarded woman as the harbinger of ill fortune and a major obstacle to the performance of great and heroic deeds.”

“Donoso considers war to be a universal phenomenon which begins in heaven and ends on earth. War between individuals spreads to war between nations, between races, and between man and nature. War reflects the exigencies of human nature. War per se is necessary.”

“When inner restraint disappears, a civilized society becomes impossible.”

“Imagined paradises generate real hells.”

“Donoso was fascinated by order and hierarchy … Any disturbance in the spiritual world will unfailingly produce parallel disturbances in the moral and physical worlds.”

“Socialism is a bizarre hybrid not yet wholly detached from its Christian origins. It is a semi-Catholicism, a malevolent doppelganger of Christianity.”

“The age of the masses will be generated by a process combining galloping democratization, mechanization, and centralization.”

Donoso thought that infallibility is an essential characteristic of authority. Authority is synonymous with infallibility. The power to command behavior and impose beliefs is not subject to error and must not be seen as subject to error. Without the exercise of and belief in infallible authority, Donoso thought that people and societies would sink into a morass of confusion, doubt, and error. (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

At a time when Europe dominated the world politically, culturally, and economically and when the percentage of Europeans in the world population was at its highest, Donoso made this prediction: “Because it is no longer Christian, Europe will assuredly die. The greatest catastrophe in all of history is fast approaching. … Europe will be depopulated and regress to barbarism.”

Even if the cause is rejected, the prediction is right on target. It is difficult to envision either a reinvigorated Christianity, or a renaissance of heathen imperialism, as Evola wanted, that will reverse this trend.

 



Thu Apr 5, 2007 5:08 am

hyperborean
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It his Audodifesa, Evola wrote: The position that I have defended and continue to defend, as an independent man … should not be called “fascistâ€, but...
Toni Ciopa
hyperborean Offline Send Email
Apr 5, 2007
10:20 am

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