Re: [evola_as_he_is] Re: "Social and Political Thought of Julius Evola" (P. Furlong)
I purchased and read this book. It was useful insofar as it more or less confirmed (from a mainstream scholarly perspective) the statements in H.T. Hakl's introduction to Men Among the Ruins regarding Evola's political involvements, which was previously the only detailed treatment of Evola's political involvements available in the English language. Although the author made, IMO, a fantastic effort in attempting to grapple with the more subtle and/or deeper points in Evola's metaphysical thought, it was equally clear that, despite the effort, the subject remained somewhat elusive -- a fact that haunts virtually all English translators of Evola's more complex works.
In other words, it should now be clear to the Anglophone world that Evola remained a fringe figure whose thoughts, despite being appropriated briefly and opportunistically by the Italian Fascist regime, were derivative of a highly sophisticated metaphysical system which was, in the statement of Evola, entirely consistent with the European intellectual tradition prior to the French revolution, if not to any of the popular movements of this past century.
The fact that this contains "racialist" or even "racist" elements by the scholarly standards of today is noted by the author, although, as typically, it is easier to wag a scholarly finger and label something "racist" than to deal in a sophisticated and comprehensive way with the various currents and theories of race which were expounded in the wake of the pioneering work of Indo-European linguists (in this case, I do not fault the author, since this itself, if neglected in the academy today, is a specialist subject). On this note, one hopes that eventually the priestly caste which governs the humanities at present will be forced again to yield to science -- although there will probably be need of more than one Bruno or Galieo to go to the stake before the priestly power is broken.
From the eternal city,
On Thu, Feb 2, 2012 at 6:48 PM, Evola
<evola_as_he_is@...> wrote:
As far as we can judge from the available excerpts, this descriptive study can hardly be considered priceless, but at least it reflects an understanding of the Italian author's key ideas that can hardly be found in most traditionalist circles, let alone in far-rightist ones. The author's view on J. Evola's work is less limited than the view. At least, it seems to be devoid of cheap shots. Leaving aside its price, the imputation that a social thought is to be found in Evola, and the risqué title of the seventh chapter, it sounds like a decent publication for the general readership.