I create this topic in order to gather documents about the unfamiliar non-white influences which participated in the creation of the alleged "white" civilization, and the inventions which are commonly attributed to Whites but are originally not. Any document which has not already been posted on this forum or at http://elementsdeducationraciale.wordpress.com/ and http://critiquehistorique.blogspot.fr/ is welcomed, from small articles to books, passing by chapters from books, quotations, studies, essays, websites, etc. It would be good to have the documents preceded by at least three lines to understand what they are about.-Various Arab-Muslim influences and books Dante "could" have been inspired by are reviewed, particularly "Book of Muhammad’s Ladder". Note that the Jews were nearly systematically the translators of these books. The hypothesis of the influence of the Jewish “seven floors of hell” on Dante’s “infernal circles” is mentioned at the end. This study ends with an additional note on the importance of Arabic philosophy in shaping the thought of Dante.
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/rhr_0035-1423_1951_num_140_2_5833
-“As early as the 9th century A.D., a Muslim scholar named ‘Abbas Ibn Firnas pioneered the study of aviation.Ibn Firnas invented a gliding device which managed to be airborne for a short duration of time. Although he was badly injured during a bad landing, he successfully pioneered the theory on the structure of ornithopter which is a vital component for aircraft stability during landing. This article unveils the early history of aviation beginning from the early period of Islamic golden age to the 20th century A.D. that has witnessed Western effort in introducing machine in aircraft. This research employs a qualitative method via library research and document analysis. It argues that the invention of ornithopter by ‘Abbas Ibn Firnas has inspired the West to further develop the aviation technology thus influenced the modern method of flying. Therefore, naturally ‘Abbas Ibn Firnas should be recognised as ‘the father of the aviation field’ for his invaluable contribution to the contemporary field of aviation technology of the world.”
- In the last few years Black and Muslim supremacists have published a number of books in which it is argued that it is their own peoples, religions and traditions that have shaped the modern Western world (for example, http://books.google.fr/books?id=odtaAgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Nas+E.+Boutammina%22&hl=fr&sa=X&ei=GdXwU-3iAqOu0QXU5ICYBw&ved=0CDUQ6AEwAjgK#v=onepage&q&f=false). They are doing the same, but to a higher degree, as some "White" leftist/marxist historiographers.While these books may bring deep - and very interesting - revisionist results, the claims in it may be also exaggerated as their authors are not known for their fairness.It would be very good to critically analyze these claims and write a synthesis in the light of Evolian racial and historical theories. Assessing firstly the origins of the various technologies would perhaps be the easiest part, while the history of literature is much more complicated to reconstruct as it is demonstrated by the "recentist" writings.PS: You will find at http://www.ihaal.com/articles/A%20chronological%20revolution%20made%20by%20historical%20analytics.pdf an interesting passage on the Chinese "Great Wall" which seems to be much more recent than what is alleged.
Well, the actual origin, if not that of various modern technologies, at least that of the formulae which enabled their appearance and their development has been quite well documented, included by works you have quoted yourself. It is great to see that some people have started to trace them back to the source ; note that, while research is gaining momentum among coloured people, the impetus was given by white scholars. Of course, some of the related claims of African or Asian scholars may be exaggerated, when it comes to this or that invention. Yet, the fact remains that the very notion of technology was not born in the minds of people of White race, minds which, however, turned out to be a breeding ground for it.
It is important to understand exactly why coloured people are allowed and even encouraged to boast about their scientific discoveries now, as their tide keeps rising: now that Whites have become worshippers of technology, they will worship those who devised it.
- It is indeed documented but a synthesis from "our" viewpoint would not be redundant.Coloured people have been allowed to boast about their achievements because it constitutes another move in the occult war against Europeans. However, as the masses are now more dumbed down than ever and have no idea on history in general, it is doubtful if it is going to be effective. For them, "technology" means "Microsoft", "Apple", "Iphone", etc., which are equated in their mind to the USA or the West. Perhaps on the long term this will change if the indoctrination is not stopped. In France, whole parts of the nation's history have been removed from the academic curriculum and replaced with elements of non-White history.
Neurosyphilis and the Church put apart, it would be interesting to determine exactly, during the alleged “Middle Ages” and “Renaissance”, the racial pedigree of the Europeans for whom their mind was a breeding ground for Science and Technology. It would also be interesting to determine their inner sex and to see if, like probably a large part of the philosophers of Antiquity - of any racial origins whatsoever -, they were not sexually attracted by people of their own sex.
- As you know, some insights are offered into the first question in J. A. Rogers, Sex and Race, Negro-Caucasian Mixing in All Ages and All Lands, Volume I : The Old World. New York, J. A. Rogers, which in turn contains quite a lot of related references. As far as Western European peoples are concerned, research should focus on those with a long history of colonisation.---In evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com, <rouesolaire@...> wrote :
Neurosyphilis and the Church put apart, it would be interesting to determine exactly, during the alleged “Middle Ages” and “Renaissance”, the racial pedigree of the Europeans for whom their mind was a breeding ground for Science and Technology. It would also be interesting to determine their inner sex and to see if, like probably a large part of the philosophers of Antiquity - of any racial origins whatsoever -, they were not sexually attracted by people of their own sex.
- A study on hidden messages in A. Dürer's work:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qE4GPXPlhcc
http://www.amazon.com/Crimes-Art-Secret-Cipher-Albrecht-ebook/dp/B00FNWKYMO
http://www.jewishledger.com/2011/10/q-a-elizabeth-maxwell-garner-accidental-art-detective-discovers-durer%E2%80%99s-jewish-roots/
From: evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com
To: evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com
Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 14:25:55 -0700
Subject: [evola_as_he_is] Re: Non-white influences on the alleged "white" civilization
Neurosyphilis and the Church put apart, it would be interesting to determine exactly, during the alleged “Middle Ages” and “Renaissance”, the racial pedigree of the Europeans for whom their mind was a breeding ground for Science and Technology. It would also be interesting to determine their inner sex and to see if, like probably a large part of the philosophers of Antiquity - of any racial origins whatsoever -, they were not sexually attracted by people of their own sex.
Do we have to regard this article as a proof for the claim that Albrecht Dürer was covertly Jewish (which seems somewhat preposterous against the background of the social conditions of that time) or rather as an example of the Jewish tendency, here shown by Elizabeth Maxwell-Garner, to usurp and adapt achievements of others? The assertion that the Nuremberger Patricians of the 15th century "were also hidden Jews" is more than ludicrous.
In general we should be very cautious with theories and arguments of most different kinds claiming that mankind and/or the white peoples actually owe everything they have to Jews. This is (for reasons which would need further explanation) applicable to a considerable extent to the "accomplishments", which are characteristic of modernity *), but certainly - and obviously - not to any cultural feature.
*) The central thesis of the book "The Jewish Century" by the liberal Jewish-Russian-American scholar Yuri Slezkine is the equation of Jewishness with the quintessence of modernity.“… the ‘Jewish’ element, J. Evola points out in ‘Three Aspects of the Jewish Problem’, cannot be, purely and simply, separated from the general type of civilisation that formerly spread throughout the whole Eastern Mediterranean area from Asia Minor to the borders of Arabia – noteworthy though the differences between Semitic peoples may be.” It has been at least half a decade since this point has been fully incorporated into our examination of the roots of the crisis of the White modern world, and, judging by the content of the messages posted by active members, so it is in their own contribution to this investigation. Yuri Slezkine, as do most Jews, tends to downplay the hereditary influence of the Yellow blood and of the Black blood which run in his veins.
Why exactly should ‘we’ be cautious "with theories and arguments of most different kinds claiming that mankind", a term which is not part of our vocabulary, and a notion we find hard to grasp, "and/or the white peoples actually owe everything they have to” coloured peoples ? Do you fear an epidemic of suicide among Wasps and similar white Negroes ?
What exactly would be, in Western countries, where the word ‘culture’ has become some sort of pathetic mantra, the cultural features which may still be considered as typically white ?
What exactly would be, in civilisational terms, Dürer’s achievements ?
---In evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com, <integral_tradition@...> wrote :Do we have to regard this article as a proof for the claim that Albrecht Dürer was covertly Jewish (which seems somewhat preposterous against the background of the social conditions of that time) or rather as an example of the Jewish tendency, here shown by Elizabeth Maxwell-Garner, to usurp and adapt achievements of others? The assertion that the Nuremberger Patricians of the 15th century "were also hidden Jews" is more than ludicrous.
In general we should be very cautious with theories and arguments of most different kinds claiming that mankind and/or the white peoples actually owe everything they have to Jews. This is (for reasons which would need further explanation) applicable to a considerable extent to the "accomplishments", which are characteristic of modernity *), but certainly - and obviously - not to any cultural feature.
*) The central thesis of the book "The Jewish Century" by the liberal Jewish-Russian-American scholar Yuri Slezkine is the equation of Jewishness with the quintessence of modernity.- Only a short comment for now: have you noticed the Moor's head in Dürer's coat of arms? Just like, for example, the emblem of Corsica and and that of numerous noble families throughout Europe. Needless to say that such an element may indicate the origins of its bearer, as I will write in an article examining the origins of the noble families in the Languedoc region, France, which, due to its proximity with the southern and oriental coasts, has been for centuries a cesspit which has been continuously receiving massive oriental immigration.This page is highly interesting: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohr_(Heraldik), as would be an investigation on the racial makeup of the families and places who bore this emblem.Le Mercredi 20 août 2014 18h22, "'G. van der Heide' g.vdheide@... [evola_as_he_is]" <evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com> a écrit :
A study on hidden messages in A. Dürer's work:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qE4GPXPlhcc
http://www.amazon.com/Crimes-Art-Secret-Cipher-Albrecht-ebook/dp/B00FNWKYMO
http://www.jewishledger.com/2011/10/q-a-elizabeth-maxwell-garner-accidental-art-detective-discovers-durer%E2%80%99s-jewish-roots/
From: evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com
To: evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com
Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 14:25:55 -0700
Subject: [evola_as_he_is] Re: Non-white influences on the alleged "white" civilization
Neurosyphilis and the Church put apart, it would be interesting to determine exactly, during the alleged “Middle Ages” and “Renaissance”, the racial pedigree of the Europeans for whom their mind was a breeding ground for Science and Technology. It would also be interesting to determine their inner sex and to see if, like probably a large part of the philosophers of Antiquity - of any racial origins whatsoever -, they were not sexually attracted by people of their own sex. - There are some interesting clues in the author's material (aside from the inevitable vulgar tone in the writing). See for example:http://www.albrechtdurerblog.com/sex-in-the-nuremberg-bathhouse/
From: evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com
To: evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com
Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2014 00:35:12 +0100
Subject: Re: [evola_as_he_is] Re: Non-white influences on the alleged "white" civilization
Only a short comment for now: have you noticed the Moor's head in Dürer's coat of arms? Just like, for example, the emblem of Corsica and and that of numerous noble families throughout Europe. Needless to say that such an element may indicate the origins of its bearer, as I will write in an article examining the origins of the noble families in the Languedoc region, France, which, due to its proximity with the southern and oriental coasts, has been for centuries a cesspit which has been continuously receiving massive oriental immigration.This page is highly interesting: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohr_(Heraldik), as would be an investigation on the racial makeup of the families and places who bore this emblem.Le Mercredi 20 août 2014 18h22, "'G. vander Heide' g.vdheide@... [evola_as_he_is]" <evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com> a écrit :
A study on hidden messages in A. Dürer's work:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qE4GPXPlhcc
http://www.amazon.com/Crimes-Art-Secret-Cipher-Albrecht-ebook/dp/B00FNWKYMO
http://www.jewishledger.com/2011/10/q-a-elizabeth-maxwell-garner-accidental-art-detective-discovers-durer%E2%80%99s-jewish-roots/
From: evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com
To: evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com
Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 14:25:55 -0700
Subject: [evola_as_he_is] Re: Non-white influences on the alleged "white" civilization
Neurosyphilis and the Church put apart, it would be interesting to determine exactly, during the alleged “Middle Ages” and “Renaissance”, the racial pedigree of the Europeans for whom their mind was a breeding ground for Science and Technology. It would also be interesting to determine their inner sex and to see if, like probably a large part of the philosophers of Antiquity - of any racial origins whatsoever -, they were not sexually attracted by people of their own sex. Obviously I haven't made myself clear enough. It was not my intention – and I assume it isn’t yours either – to discuss Dürer’s achievements in “civilisational” or any other terms. I was questioning the propositions made in this interview with a jewish hobby art historian.
The ‘Jewish’ element, “which cannot be … separated from the general type of civilisation that formerly spread throughout the whole Eastern Mediterranean area from Asia Minor to the borders of Arabia”, “the centre from which the ferment of decomposition above all spread”, is concerning - first and foremost - the “Semitic spirit” (TAOTJP, page 8), the spirituality of Semitic civilisations. In the first instance Semitism is a typical attitude towards the spiritual world. Evola speaks of “a typical Jewish world-outlook or view on life an the sacred” (“una visione del mondo, della vita e del «sacro» specificamente semitica”) and concludes, that “the people possessed of this soul are more or less the Semitic people.” In this sense of a typical attitude towards the spiritual world Semitism “can be identified even where, in a ciilisation, there is no clear and direct ethnic connection with Semitic races and Jews”. Hence also the necessity of going beyond the strictly racial aspect of anti-Semitism.
Since this spirit – carried by the faith that has come to predominate among Western peoples – came to possess the White populations of Europe, one could describe them in this particular sense as “Semitic”. This however does not imply that the peoples of Europe or at least their ruling classes were materially by and large replaced by Jews as early as the Middle Ages. (While considering the obvious fact that the Jews cannot be seen as a race - but rather represent an element of anti-race - it still has to be recognized that they represent a biological stratum which is decidedly different from the genetic stock of the Aryan peoples. This demands a discrimination of the spiritual and the psychological spheres from the mere biological one.) I do not have to explain here that Evola himself points out that these observations are concerning a level beyond a purely biological racial theory. The undeniable fact that Jews (in the full, i.e. “racial” sense) have come to dominate Europe and America is in all likelihood pertaining to a more recent period in history. (This later development is a necessary consequence pursuant to the principle of the primacy of the spiritual sphere.)
I do not fear “an epidemic of suicide among Wasps and similar white Negroes” but I tried to suggest that pretensions like the one made by this jewish lady are part of a stategy.
I also reject the concept of “mankind” in so far as it is supposed to denote more than a term for a biological species. (Carl Schmitt said: "Wer Menschheit sagt, will betrügen", „Whoever says mankind intends to deceive.”) In fact, what I tried to indicate is that notions and concepts like “mankind” are part of a terminology, which belongs to this very ideology which regards the Jewish people as the chosen one not only in “religious” and “moral”, but also in materialistic and biological terms. This is exactly what presentations like this one are doing, which try to demonstrate that a disproportionaly high part, if not virtually all leaders, artists, philosophers and so on were really Jews in a “biological” sense or, to be more precise, Jews according to the relevant Jewish laws.
The siginificance, however, does not lie in this particular question if Albrecht Dürers ancestors and the Patricians of Nürnberg were from jewish stock, which I still venture to doubt, but in yet another strategy to support the Jewish claim to dominate every aspect of life.
- The distinguished Austrian genealogist Otto Forst de Battaglia( http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Forst_de_Battaglia ) wrote a short, but well-founded study concerning some questions regarding the ancestry of the ruling houses of Europe titled "Das Geheimnis des Blutes" ("The Mytstery of Blood"). In it, he comes to the conlusion that virtually every European ruling house verifiably also has some sporadic extra-European ancestors (Jews, Arabs, Mongols). For example he can prove (i.e. provide evidence according to the rules of genealogy by making use of historical pedigrees) that Mohammed and Genghis Khan belong to the ancestry of most royal houses. A sort of "pure race" neither exists in the nobility nor in the populace of Europe. However, he also comes to the conlusion that the nordic-Germanic blood strongy prevails in the dynasties and the higher nobility of all European countries. This predominace decreased with the upheavals all over Europe following the French Revolution.Should anyone be interested in further details of the content of this book I would be willing to provide.
You sort of moved us in that direction. Our question was just a way of suggesting that we do not care whether this or that artist or scientist of the past was or was not Jewish when it comes to perceived ‘achievements’. An artist or a scientist’s racial origin becomes relevant insofar as his work has an influence on his environment and on the minds of his contemporaries. So-called profane art, which for centuries remained the property of patrons, could not become a conditioning tool before it was made easily accessible to all, before most conditions were met to give it visibility.
Part of our afterword to the second edition of ‘Three Aspects’ examines and discusses the statement that Semitism “can be identified even where, in a civilisation, there is no clear and direct ethnic connection with Semitic races and Jews”. It was made by an author who did not take seriously the possibility that “the early anti-traditional, critically minded, anti-religious and ‘scientistic’ upheavals within ancient Greek civilisation were favoured or initiated by Jews.” The evidence was still there for him to realise that most philosophical schools in Greco-Roman antiquity were founded, if not by Jews, at least by Middle Easterners. Even though no particular civilisation is specified by J. Evola, there are grounds for thinking that the reference was at Scandinavian and Germanic countries, as well as at Great-Britain. Here, we are not going to repeat what we have already pointed out regarding Evola’s view, drawn from Günther, that “the Germans, since the times of Tacitus... appeared to be very similar to the Achaean, paleo-Iranian, paleo-Roman and Northern-Aryan stocks that had been preserved, in many aspects (including the racial one), in a state of `prehistoric' purity”, a view which, in ‘Revolt’, is partially qualified by the acknowledgement "that during the period in which they appeared as decisive forces on the stage of European history these stocks lost the memory of their origins, and that the primordial tradition was present in those stocks only in the form of fragmentary, often altered, and unrefined residues," (message 1435). Let us bear in mind that, due to the present lack of archaeological data, the reconstruction of the whole past of ‘Aryan’ people, including on the European soil, is largely speculative. As far as we can see – we have just skimmed through it – ‘Culture and kultur race-origins; or, The past unveiled; being lectures delivered at the Calcutta University in 1919’
(https://archive.org/details/culturekulturrac00hannuoft) is a thorough and well-informed critical study of the various related theories ; maybe a member will have time to read it before we do, and can review it. Here, we just want to take the opportunity which was given to us by http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohr_(Heraldik) to ask a simple question : had you had to design your own coat of arms, would you have incorporated a black head into it?
According to Tlefranc research, 20% of the coats of arms of (French) noble families bear features which are not part of the Nordico-Aryan symbolism, such as stars and crescents. More de Maine, More (de) Beauvoisis, More de Paris, Morelet des Forges Bourg, etc., there are ten pages of patronyms, mostly aristocratic ones, with a root in ‘mor’ in the ‘Armorial Général’(available at google.books) Not to mention countless similar patronyms in other European countries : Moor de van Immerzeel, Mordeysen – Saxe, Moor de Gand Middelbourg, Morelli, Moorman, Moore, Moreau, Moorrees, etc. Pushkin had a blackamoor figurine on his desk to remind him of his great-grandfather, Abram Petrovich Gannibal.
Numismatics, too, testifies to the Negroid features of quite a few aristocrats, kings and queens, from Mary of Burgundy, Mary of Spain to Frederic III, elector of Saxony, James I, and the Habsburgs.
Finally, there is, as reported by Tlefranc, a Moor's head in Dürer's coat of arms. Of course, most scholars or researchers who claim that this or that artist or scientist is of Jewish ancestry have an agenda, but, irrespective of the actual racial origin of the artist of scientist in question, the strategy you mention is only going to work, if Whites, whether in the full sense of the term or not, take for granted that this or that artist or scientist is biologically white and that his/her work conveys a typically white vision of the world, and, precisely, if they feel threatened in their ancestral integrity, and that an essential supra-individual part of themselves is taken away from them, by aforementioned claims.
Let us quote again C. Labo “What prevails [in ancient Hellenes] is the disdain for infinity, this rebellious, shapeless, notion. Hellenic thought finds it perfect that which is complete, defined, and, therefore, bounded, that which forms a harmonious and organic whole. Only a few isolated thinkers, such as [the mixed-race] Anaximander [of Milet] spoke reverently of the sanctity of infinity. But Eastern influences soon imposed this view, which, with the advent of Christianity and also with some progress of modern science, has become ours: for us, it is infinity which generates the finite ; it is the finite which is a pure negation and limitation of infinity. This is not the only time that religious superstitions, whether social or scientific, put modern thought squarely at odds with [the Hellenic spirit].” (Aristote, 1922)
God, to Aristotle, is essentially finite (see ‘L'infinité divine depuis Philon le Juif jusqu'à Plotin : avec une introduction sur le même sujet dans la philosophie grecque avant Philon le Juif’, 1906). This equation between perfection and the finite is found in the Aryan mythological symbols, taken from the bright sky ; “the supreme Aryan ideal is the ‘Olympian’ ideal of unchanging, perfect essences, removed from the lower world of destiny, bright as the sun and sidereal natures,” while “the Semitic gods are essentially gods that change…” Perfection and the infinite ceased to be conceived of as opposed at some point in Antiquity and their union began in Plotinus. The Bible, Philo the Jew, and Numenius had paved the way to this change. Nowadays, on the contrary, infinity is seen as the highest level of perfection and as the divine attribute par excellence. The whole of what is called ‘modern civilisation’ is entirely based on the quest for the infinite, on the exploration and on the mercantile quantification of the infinitely small and the infinitely big. http://www.usdebtclock.org/ might be the best illustration of the spirit of modernity, with its “mathematically-based contemplativeness”.
- Of course, we are interested in further details.The book is listed at google.books, but no excerpts are available, and, as to Otto Forst de Battaglia – Wikipedia, it is not very informative.
---In evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com, <integral_tradition@...> wrote :The distinguished Austrian genealogist Otto Forst de Battaglia( http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Forst_de_Battaglia ) wrote a short, but well-founded study concerning some questions regarding the ancestry of the ruling houses of Europe titled "Das Geheimnis des Blutes" ("The Mytstery of Blood"). In it, he comes to the conlusion that virtually every European ruling house verifiably also has some sporadic extra-European ancestors (Jews, Arabs, Mongols). For example he can prove (i.e. provide evidence according to the rules of genealogy by making use of historical pedigrees) that Mohammed and Genghis Khan belong to the ancestry of most royal houses. A sort of "pure race" neither exists in the nobility nor in the populace of Europe. However, he also comes to the conlusion that the nordic-Germanic blood strongy prevails in the dynasties and the higher nobility of all European countries. This predominace decreased with the upheavals all over Europe following the French Revolution.Should anyone be interested in further details of the content of this book I would be willing to provide. - Some internet pages provide far-fetched explanations for the use of Moor's heads in European heraldry (e. g. that it is a sign of victory against the Moors in the crusades (http://celticowboy.com/Moors%20Head.htm); but would you really use the face of your enemy in your own emblem, even more when there is nothing indicating victory or subjugation?). Also heraldry itself seems to have emerged at the times of the crusades (http://critiquehistorique.blogspot.fr/2014/08/une-origine-extra-europeenne-aux.html). Perhaps it was even borrowed from the Moors. So it is quite imprecise to say that "The use of the 'moor's head' as a heraldic device dates from the 13th century" (http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/a/africans-in-medieval-and-renaissance-art-moors-head/). Finally, heraldry as a means to foster vanity is not quite "Aryan".In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the "British" aristocracy was thoroughly made up of Jews. That is a fact (http://www.big-lies.org/jews/jews-thorkelson.html). The question that remains to be answered is whether such race change in the British (and European) nobility may have occured earlier, for wedding with someone of a different race means having little race consciousness unless the two parties are closer than one supposes. I would be of the advice that there were several layers of non-White blood influx.I do not know if this book written by a Catholic could be of interest: Ascendances davidiques des rois de France (http://www.histoireebook.com/index.php?post/2012/02/29/Le-Sage-de-La-Franquerie-de-La-Tourre-Andre-Ascendances-davidiques-des-rois-de-France).
- Sure. And we all know that the American administration had a Swastika printed on the Union Jack in the early 1930's.We did not bother to mention this gloss.We have already argued that it was in the interest of the Church to assume a low profile the day it became too obvious that its ideology had triumphed in the form of humanitarian democracy. In the same way, with such external signs, it is not surprising that the aristocracy receded into the background at some point in history.
---In evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com, <tlefranc10@...> wrote :Some internet pages provide far-fetched explanations for the use of Moor's heads in European heraldry (e. g. that it is a sign of victory against the Moors in the crusades (http://celticowboy.com/Moors%20Head.htm); but would you really use the face of your enemy in your own emblem, even more when there is nothing indicating victory or subjugation?). Also heraldry itself seems to have emerged at the times of the crusades (http://critiquehistorique.blogspot.fr/2014/08/une-origine-extra-europeenne-aux.html). Perhaps it was even borrowed from the Moors. So it is quite imprecise to say that "The use of the 'moor's head' as a heraldic device dates from the 13th century" (http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/a/africans-in-medieval-and-renaissance-art-moors-head/). Finally, heraldry as a means to foster vanity is not quite "Aryan".In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the "British" aristocracy was thoroughly made up of Jews. That is a fact (http://www.big-lies.org/jews/jews-thorkelson.html). The question that remains to be answered is whether such race change in the British (and European) nobility may have occured earlier, for wedding with someone of a different race means having little race consciousness unless the two parties are closer than one supposes. I would be of the advice that there were several layers of non-White blood influx.I do not know if this book written by a Catholic could be of interest: Ascendances davidiques des rois de France (http://www.histoireebook.com/index.php?post/2012/02/29/Le-Sage-de-La-Franquerie-de-La-Tourre-Andre-Ascendances-davidiques-des-rois-de-France).Le Samedi 23 août 2014 19h01, "evola_as_he_is@... [evola_as_he_is]" <evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com> a écrit :
Of course, we are interested in further details.The book is listed at google.books, but no excerpts are available, and, as to Otto Forst de Battaglia – Wikipedia, it is not very informative.
---In evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com, <integral_tradition@...> wrote :The distinguished Austrian genealogist Otto Forst de Battaglia( http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Forst_de_Battaglia ) wrote a short, but well-founded study concerning some questions regarding the ancestry of the ruling houses of Europe titled "Das Geheimnis des Blutes" ("The Mytstery of Blood"). In it, he comes to the conlusion that virtually every European ruling house verifiably also has some sporadic extra-European ancestors (Jews, Arabs, Mongols). For example he can prove (i.e. provide evidence according to the rules of genealogy by making use of historical pedigrees) that Mohammed and Genghis Khan belong to the ancestry of most royal houses. A sort of "pure race" neither exists in the nobility nor in the populace of Europe. However, he also comes to the conlusion that the nordic-Germanic blood strongy prevails in the dynasties and the higher nobility of all European countries. This predominace decreased with the upheavals all over Europe following the French Revolution.Should anyone be interested in further details of the content of this book I would be willing to provide. - The Racial Origins of the Nobility in Languedoc (Part I: Heraldry)The Languedoc region in France is quite close both to North Africa and the East. Because of this geographical location, waves of oriental immigrants have been pouring on its shores for centuries. The impact of such migrations is confirmed by a number of modern genetics studies. For example, it has recently been found that the haplogroup J2 could be found in almost 100% of the people inhabiting this location, while it can be found in only about 7% of the whole French people. The explanation is that interracial mixing occurred to a large extent.The goal of this study is to examine the racial composition of the Languedoc nobility. We will begin by an analysis of the heraldic coats of arms of the some 800 noble families, according to the exhaustive lists given in Armorial de la noblesse de Languedoc (de la Roque). Below are a few dozens of coats of arms which bear features alien to the Nordico-Aryan tradition and symbolism, namely stars and crescents. We have found that about one coat of arms in five bore such elements (note that not all of them are shown in this article because in some cases no pictorial representation was available).Such a proportion is a lot. There are two valid explanations as to why a noble house would choose to use these features in its coat of arms. It could be a way for a noble house to remind its non-White origins; it could also indicate that, by selecting alien symbols, the noble house which chose to bear these features had lost the memory of its origins and had become alien in its spirit.We dismiss at once far-fetched theories such as the one which argues that a Moor’s head was chosen as a sign of victory against the Moors in the crusades. Would you really use the face of your enemy in your own emblem, even more when there is nothing indicating victory or subjugation?The book mentioned above contained several other elements worth mentioning and reflecting on:Firstly, most of the noble houses in Languedoc, when they were required to present proof (authentic documents) of their noble ancestry before a royal committee at the end of the seventeenth century, could not provide documents coming before the fifteenth century, precisely at the time when registers were being introduced for the commoners by the Church.Secondly, the first ancestor of a number of noble houses had a suspect occupation (physician, something linked to money or trading, nobility of the robe, etc.).Thirdly, most of the names and surnames are thoroughly French. So almost nothing can be found by simply reading names. Interestingly, one house has the name of "De Sarrazin".We will in a next part analyze the faces (from the portraits which have come to us) of some of the Languedoc noblemen.http://critiquehistorique.blogspot.fr/2014/08/the-racial-origins-of-nobility-in.html___Go to the link to see the pictures. Without the text, you would bet that these coats of arms were those of some Islamic and Jewish tribes living in the desert!Le Dimanche 24 août 2014 21h54, "evola_as_he_is@... [evola_as_he_is]" <evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com> a écrit :
Sure. And we all know that the American administration had a Swastika printed on the Union Jack in the early 1930's.We did not bother to mention this gloss.We have already argued that it was in the interest of the Church to assume a low profile the day it became too obvious that its ideology had triumphed in the form of humanitarian democracy. In the same way, with such external signs, it is not surprising that the aristocracy receded into the background at some point in history.
---In evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com, <tlefranc10@...> wrote :Some internet pages provide far-fetched explanations for the use of Moor's heads in European heraldry (e. g. that it is a sign of victory against the Moors in the crusades (http://celticowboy.com/Moors%20Head.htm); but would you really use the face of your enemy in your own emblem, even more when there is nothing indicating victory or subjugation?). Also heraldry itself seems to have emerged at the times of the crusades (http://critiquehistorique.blogspot.fr/2014/08/une-origine-extra-europeenne-aux.html). Perhaps it was even borrowed from the Moors. So it is quite imprecise to say that "The use of the 'moor's head' as a heraldic device dates from the 13th century" (http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/a/africans-in-medieval-and-renaissance-art-moors-head/). Finally, heraldry as a means to foster vanity is not quite "Aryan".In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the "British" aristocracy was thoroughly made up of Jews. That is a fact (http://www.big-lies.org/jews/jews-thorkelson.html). The question that remains to be answered is whether such race change in the British (and European) nobility may have occured earlier, for wedding with someone of a different race means having little race consciousness unless the two parties are closer than one supposes. I would be of the advice that there were several layers of non-White blood influx.I do not know if this book written by a Catholic could be of interest: Ascendances davidiques des rois de France (http://www.histoireebook.com/index.php?post/2012/02/29/Le-Sage-de-La-Franquerie-de-La-Tourre-Andre-Ascendances-davidiques-des-rois-de-France).Le Samedi 23 août 2014 19h01, "evola_as_he_is@... [evola_as_he_is]" <evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com> a écrit :
Of course, we are interested in further details.The book is listed at google.books, but no excerpts are available, and, as to Otto Forst de Battaglia – Wikipedia, it is not very informative.
---In evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com, <integral_tradition@...> wrote :The distinguished Austrian genealogist Otto Forst de Battaglia( http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Forst_de_Battaglia ) wrote a short, but well-founded study concerning some questions regarding the ancestry of the ruling houses of Europe titled "Das Geheimnis des Blutes" ("The Mytstery of Blood"). In it, he comes to the conlusion that virtually every European ruling house verifiably also has some sporadic extra-European ancestors (Jews, Arabs, Mongols). For example he can prove (i.e. provide evidence according to the rules of genealogy by making use of historical pedigrees) that Mohammed and Genghis Khan belong to the ancestry of most royal houses. A sort of "pure race" neither exists in the nobility nor in the populace of Europe. However, he also comes to the conlusion that the nordic-Germanic blood strongy prevails in the dynasties and the higher nobility of all European countries. This predominace decreased with the upheavals all over Europe following the French Revolution.Should anyone be interested in further details of the content of this book I would be willing to provide. - It is a common to assume that symbols such as the "lion" in heraldry, names (e.g. Richard the Lionheart) and other elements are "European". Actually, there was a great change in "European" symbolism during the time of the "crusades". Many oriental elements were incorporated into the "European" life. In symbolism, the bear was more and more discarted in favour of the Oriental lion. A French historian, M. Pastoureau, in "Une histoire symbolique du Moyen Âge occidental", argued so effectively and gave numerous examples, which I cannot quote here as I do not have the book at hands.Le Vendredi 29 août 2014 23h20, Thomas Lefranc <tlefranc10@...> a écrit :
The Racial Origins of the Nobility in Languedoc (Part I: Heraldry)The Languedoc region in France is quite close both to North Africa and the East. Because of this geographical location, waves of oriental immigrants have been pouring on its shores for centuries. The impact of such migrations is confirmed by a number of modern genetics studies. For example, it has recently been found that the haplogroup J2 could be found in almost 100% of the people inhabiting this location, while it can be found in only about 7% of the whole French people. The explanation is that interracial mixing occurred to a large extent.The goal of this study is to examine the racial composition of the Languedoc nobility. We will begin by an analysis of the heraldic coats of arms of the some 800 noble families, according to the exhaustive lists given in Armorial de la noblesse de Languedoc (de la Roque). Below are a few dozens of coats of arms which bear features alien to the Nordico-Aryan tradition and symbolism, namely stars and crescents. We have found that about one coat of arms in five bore such elements (note that not all of them are shown in this article because in some cases no pictorial representation was available).Such a proportion is a lot. There are two valid explanations as to why a noble house would choose to use these features in its coat of arms. It could be a way for a noble house to remind its non-White origins; it could also indicate that, by selecting alien symbols, the noble house which chose to bear these features had lost the memory of its origins and had become alien in its spirit.We dismiss at once far-fetched theories such as the one which argues that a Moor’s head was chosen as a sign of victory against the Moors in the crusades. Would you really use the face of your enemy in your own emblem, even more when there is nothing indicating victory or subjugation?The book mentioned above contained several other elements worth mentioning and reflecting on:Firstly, most of the noble houses in Languedoc, when they were required to present proof (authentic documents) of their noble ancestry before a royal committee at the end of the seventeenth century, could not provide documents coming before the fifteenth century, precisely at the time when registers were being introduced for the commoners by the Church.Secondly, the first ancestor of a number of noble houses had a suspect occupation (physician, something linked to money or trading, nobility of the robe, etc.).Thirdly, most of the names and surnames are thoroughly French. So almost nothing can be found by simply reading names. Interestingly, one house has the name of "De Sarrazin".We will in a next part analyze the faces (from the portraits which have come to us) of some of the Languedoc noblemen.http://critiquehistorique.blogspot.fr/2014/08/the-racial-origins-of-nobility-in.html___Go to the link to see the pictures. Without the text, you would bet that these coats of arms were those of some Islamic and Jewish tribes living in the desert!Le Dimanche 24 août 2014 21h54, "evola_as_he_is@... [evola_as_he_is]" <evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com> a écrit :
Sure. And we all know that the American administration had a Swastika printed on the Union Jack in the early 1930's.We did not bother to mention this gloss.We have already argued that it was in the interest of the Church to assume a low profile the day it became too obvious that its ideology had triumphed in the form of humanitarian democracy. In the same way, with such external signs, it is not surprising that the aristocracy receded into the background at some point in history.
---In evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com, <tlefranc10@...> wrote :Some internet pages provide far-fetched explanations for the use of Moor's heads in European heraldry (e. g. that it is a sign of victory against the Moors in the crusades(http://celticowboy.com/Moors%20Head.htm); but would you really use the face of your enemy in your own emblem, even more when there is nothing indicating victory or subjugation?). Also heraldry itself seems to have emerged at the times of the crusades (http://critiquehistorique.blogspot.fr/2014/08/une-origine-extra-europeenne-aux.html). Perhaps it was even borrowed from the Moors. So it is quite imprecise to say that "The use of the 'moor's head' as a heraldic device dates from the 13th century" (http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/a/africans-in-medieval-and-renaissance-art-moors-head/). Finally, heraldry as a means to foster vanity is not quite "Aryan".In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the "British" aristocracy was thoroughly made up of Jews. That is a fact (http://www.big-lies.org/jews/jews-thorkelson.html). The question that remains to be answered is whether such race change in the British (and European) nobility may have occured earlier, for wedding with someone of a different race means having little race consciousness unless the two parties are closer than one supposes. I would be of the advice that there were several layers of non-White blood influx.I do not know if this book written by a Catholic could be of interest: Ascendances davidiques des rois de France (http://www.histoireebook.com/index.php?post/2012/02/29/Le-Sage-de-La-Franquerie-de-La-Tourre-Andre-Ascendances-davidiques-des-rois-de-France).Le Samedi 23 août 2014 19h01, "evola_as_he_is@... [evola_as_he_is]" <evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com> a écrit :
Of course, we are interested in further details.The book is listed at google.books, but no excerpts are available, and, as to Otto Forst de Battaglia – Wikipedia, it is not very informative.
---In evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com, <integral_tradition@...> wrote :The distinguished Austrian genealogist Otto Forst de Battaglia( http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Forst_de_Battaglia ) wrote a short, but well-founded study concerning some questions regarding the ancestry of the ruling houses of Europe titled "Das Geheimnis des Blutes" ("The Mytstery of Blood"). In it, he comes to the conlusion that virtually every European ruling house verifiably also has some sporadic extra-European ancestors (Jews, Arabs, Mongols). For example he can prove (i.e. provide evidence according to the rules of genealogy by making use of historical pedigrees) that Mohammed and Genghis Khan belong to the ancestry of most royal houses. A sort of "pure race" neither exists in the nobility nor in the populace of Europe. However, he also comes to the conlusion that the nordic-Germanic blood strongy prevails in the dynasties and the higher nobility of all European countries. This predominace decreased with the upheavals all over Europe following the French Revolution.Should anyone be interested in further details of the content of this book I would be willing to provide. There is the wolf too, an animal which, like the bear, was sacred to the “Indo-Europeans” and which, like the bear, was demonized by the Church, this parasitic Negro-Asian pack of worms whose aim has always been to destroy everything which is White and to replace it by everything which is Non White. The wolf, contrary to what has been falsely peddled by the Church, is not at all hostile to men (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1cGqJaiTAo).
Of course, in order to perform its destructive credo, this pack of worms had to demonize everything which was related to the Aryan’s worldview, so that the “ignorant barbarians of our race” would be persuaded that this destructive credo is suitable and justified. After all, 70 years after the destruction of Germany, does the “Western” populace, christianized to the bones as it is, not believe that the goal of national-socialists was to manufacture Jewish shrunken heads, soaps and lampshades?
In this regard, it is truly pathetic that some of the so-called contemporary “far-rightists”, whose remarkable nullity is matched only by their lack of race, their childishness, their stupidity, their inconsistency, their ignorance, their bigotry, their mental instability, their bad faith, their schizophrenia and their arrogance, continue to claim that there was a “White” Catholic Church, this alleged bulwark against the “East”, which is a mere product of their Negroid imagination and which they were taught by the school, Catholics, Hollywood and the video games. It is also interesting to note that most of these individuals are also zealous advocates of the « Aryan » (sic) Putin and of the Christian “White” Russia and that they have a magic word, “Vatican II”, like the Jews have their own, “Shoah”.
To be sure, this notion of « White Church » is a legacy of the late XXth centuy, which Chamberlain’s claim, dismissed as “nonsensical” by J. Evola in ‘Il Mito del sangue’, that “Christ had not a drop of genuinely Jewish blood in his veins… (It) is almost a certainty.” only contributed to disseminate.
“Jesus, claimed Renan, professor of Semitics at the College de France, may have been born into a Jewish milieu, but he managed to purify himself of Jewish influences and emerge an Aryan. Burnouf, professor at the University of Nancy and the cousin of Renan's teacher, Eugene Burnouf, offered a similar pattern, noting that the gospels gradually aryanized Jesus as the texts moved from Matthew to Luke to John; Christianity was an Aryan religion. Bunsen, a German philologist serving in London as ambassador from Prussia, argued similarly that Christianity arose from Semitic foundations but transcended them to become the religion not of Semites but of Aryans, whom he identified, in contrast to Max Miiller, not as South Asian but Germanic.” (The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany, p. 32)
This process of Aryanisation occurred at the same time within the theological literature known as “the quest for the historical Jesus Christ”. The theologian Arthur Bonus (1864 – 1941) argued that « Jesus marks the transition from God as transcendent to God as immanent within us, and such inner presence of God is proof of Jesus's Germanic identity.” Although, or perhaps because, the logic behind this reasoning statement is quite perplexing, his colleagues set out on a mission to revise the New Testament in an attempt to demonstrate that Jesus was not a Jew but an Aryan. They were recapturing the authentic Gospel, that had been falsified by Jews. Esoteric milieux were not spared. Without going as far as to claim that Jesus was Aryan, “In an article, "Moses as Darwinist," for example, Lanz (von Liebenfels) provided a mystical interpretation of the Bible ... He wanted "Aryans" to adopt the Bible "as the hard, racially proud, and racially conscious book, which proclaims death and extermination to the inferior and world domination to the superior.” (Jewish Tradition and the Challenge of Darwinism, p. 109)
The Institute for the study and eradication of Jewish influence on German Church Life was established in 1939, its members were all firm believers in the non Jewishness of Jesus-Christ, as well as theologians. Rosenberg himself recognised an “Aryan Christ”.
- One the one hand, the University, this entity which originates from the Arab-Muslim world and which has always falsified "History", has never ceased to dismiss the existence of matriarchies throughout "History". On the other hand, given that the social structure of the modern demo-gynaecocratic "West" tends to be more and more clearly a matriarchy, it is usefull to give concrete examples of clearly matriarchal societies among coloured people, to show that it originated among them.
The following website has already been mentionned, but it is reported one more time because its "historical" section seems to have been updated: http://matricien.org/geo-hist-matriarcat/ . - I found this book in french which seems according its table of contents to be quite complete, concerning the semitic origin of the alleged "european" "Science". Of course, it would be fully complete if the Yellow's contribution to it was appended. On this side, Joseph Needham is to be studied.
http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/146359223X/rdlfr-21#reader_146359223X - "Allah's Sun Over the Occident" by Sigrid Hunke, who at one time studied under L.F. Clauss, seems to be a curious book, even when one takes into account the particular agenda of the author.
"Besides Hunke's Paganism, her contribution to the ideology of the New Right is related to two other important issues. First, a women's movement which originates in the old voelkish 'feminism' of the German Faith Movement. The second, and for our context more interesting, concerns her activity for a rightist Arab nationalism. Hunke represents the philo-Arabic wing of the New Right, such as Alain de Benoist and François Genoud. She wrote highly influential books about the Arabic culture and its relations with Europe. Without mentioning her former teacher, Hunke continued the racial studies on the Semites of Clauss and took up the research program that she had already begun in her dissertation. The topics and examples given there return in many variations in her books written after the war. Yet Hunke's interest is not purely directed to the Arabic peoples themselves. She wants to show the Arabic influence on Europe as a step in Western history on its way to gain independence from Christianity. Hunke glorifies the policy of Frederic II in the 13th century who had enlarged the German Reich to a European size, reaching from Burgundy to Sicily. This strong Europe under German dominance was based, to some extent, on the relationship with Arabic culture and goods and Hunke is interested in a resurgence of this 'philo-Arabic' tradition. Utilizing nationalist Arabism together with the old strategy of the Third Reich to form an alliance with the Arabs against Western (British) imperialism, it becomes clear that Hunke's intellectual grounding and her love for the Arab culture is embedded in the ideology and political scenery of National Socialism.
Due to the enormous success of her books about Arabic themes in the sixties, Hunke was esteemed as an expert on oriental affairs. Although lacking any scholarly accomplishment or even the necessary knowledge of the Arabic language, the German government sent her on a good will tour through several Arabic countries after the war of 1967. Hunke held lectures at the universities of Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, Aleppo, and became Honorary Member of the Supreme Court for Islamic Affairs in Cairo. The Arabs were glad that somebody from Europe showed a real interest in their great Islamic culture not only intending to exploit their oil fields. The fact that Hunke's friendship originates in National Socialism did not irritate them. Even the leaders of an Arabic Socialism agreed with this background and the mistake of giving faith to such kind of German anti-imperialism was repeated once again." (https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070324082959AAlKxVE)
The premises of this specific work are outlined here, on the French wikipedia, http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigrid_Hunke#Le_Soleil_d.27Allah_brille_sur_l.27Occident
The original work in German is accesible trhough http://de.scribd.com/doc/111968968/Sigrid-Hunke-Allah-s-Sonne-uber-dem-Abendland
The index of the French edition is available here, and could give an impression of the subjects treated in it http://www.unc.edu/depts/europe/francophone/Muslim_women/fren/soleildallah.pdf
From: evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com
To: evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com
Date: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 12:33:14 -0700
Subject: [evola_as_he_is] Re: Non-white influences on the alleged "white" civilization
I found this book in french which seems according its table of contents to be quite complete, concerning the semitic origin of the alleged "european" "Science". Of course, it would be fully complete if the Yellow's contribution to it was appended. On this side, Joseph Needham is to be studied.
http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/146359223X/rdlfr-21#reader_146359223X
- A book which could be of interest. "The Knights Templar of the Middle East: The Hidden History of the Islamic Origins of Freemasonry".
http://books.google.fr/books?id=4uaP92JtH1gC The Mystery of Blood
Otto Forst de Battaglia
I would like to present here an abstract of a short study titled "Das Geheimnis des Blutes" ("The Mystery of Blood") published in 1932 by the Austrian genealogist Otto Forst de Battaglia ( http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Forst_de_Battaglia ) dealing with some questions regarding the ancestry of the ruling houses of (old) Europe. Since this survey basically deals with matters, which were repeatedly addressed by Evola, in particular race (blood) and nobility, it might be of interest for the members of this list. It must be emphasised however that some of the conclusions drawn by this author significantly differ from what Julius Evola would have deducted from the material. It also has to be pointed out that Forst does not tackle the fundamental problem, which in the first place would establish the theoretical basis for the subsequent investigations of the historical data, namely the definition of "race", which after all is the subject matter. In this regard it has to be taken into account that, obviously, Forst did not have any DNA data at hand. This limitation of method, however, might be regarded as favorable in this regard since it entails an abstraction from the mere biological sphere.
It is, by the way, interesting that Forst does not mention the "Semi-Gotha", a historical-genealogical handbook published in 1912 trying to trace Jewish blood in German noble families, or the preceding catalog "Geadelte jüdische Familien" (Entitled Jewish Families).
In general, this short study seems to be well-founded by data, since Forst can resort to hundreds and thousands of pedigrees of members of all classes and nations of Europe, which he does (and can) not present in detail. Instead of exhibiting a vast quantity of material this study is presenting the essential results of these investigations and a number of conclusions from them in a condensed manner. Only a few, not very extensive pedigrees of royal houses are reproduced.
Forst starts from the fundamental fact of genetics, namely that the characteristics of the ancestors will – or more precisely, can - be found in their offspring. He then explains some basics of genealogical study in general, namely the nature and function of genealogical tables and pedigrees for the display of the ancestry and the progeny of an individual. In this context he points out that conventional genealogy has often neglected maternal ancestry, which, from a pure biological viewpoint, is of the same if not even higher importance as the paternal one. [Evola presumably would have voiced some objections here, at least as far as "traditional" societies are concerned. Forst himself later suggests a substantially differentiated view, see below.]
The author then presents some issues particulary pertaining to the genealogy of the higher nobilty, namely 'pedigree collapse' (implex) induced by endogamy. (explained here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedigree_collapse ). Thus, just according to mathematical principles, the influence in terms of heredity exerted by some ancestors is higher than that of others. For this phenomenon Forst suggests the term „intensity of heredity" ("Erbsintensität"). He also sees that some characteristics have a higher potential of being transferred by inheritance and sometimes are inherited by overleaping one generation. Thus, the question of „lines of force" (Kraftlinien) is raised, but has not been sufficiently investigated at the time of writing this booklet.
Pedigrees in general show the national and racial composition of the blood of an individuum and a picture of social stability, rise and fall. Since the relevant research material, namely not only accurate genealogical tables, but also detailed personal data of the ancestors shown in them, is by far the most comprehensive regarding the highest borns, such an investigation can be restricted to this group.
Following these considerations Forst is particularly investigating the pedigrees of Archuduke Franz Ferdinand von Österreich-Este, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary and of Rupprecht, the last Crown Prince of Bavaria, then head of the Wittelsbach dynasty.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archduke_Franz_Ferdinand_of_Austria
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupprecht,_Crown_Prince_of_Bavaria
For both, whose situations are representative for the catholic royal houses of Europe, Forst has very comprehensive, unrefuted and complete material available, which has been produced by archive studies over years. Based on that materil the author analyses the nationalities and the social composition of their respective ancestry. The results, which are quite similar for both, can not be reproduced here in detail, but lead Forst to the conclusion that the catholic princes of modern times (Habsburg, Bourbon, Wittelsbach, Wettin) share by and large all the same ancestry.
The author then examines the ancestry of the European higher nobility in general and its national and social composition. All so-called 'extinct' dynasties of the middle ages (Carlovingians, Franconian and Saxon Kings, Hohenstaufen, Luxembourg, Piast, Árpád, Přemyslid and Rurik dynasties, the Byzantine Komnenos and Palaiologan dynasties, the Laskaris, the house of Kantakouzenos, the Angelos and the Doukas families) live on through their female issue in the present higher and lower nobility. The intermarriage of the European royal houses throughout the centuries led to a close relationship between all of them. There are even links to the far east and antiquity. Through the Palaiologues of Montserrat, the serbian despotes and the Komnenic offshoot of the Emperors of Trapezunt, Georgia and the Persian Sassanides there is a link of all European royal houses to ancient Chinese and other Asian dynasties.
Through Zaida of Seville, daughter of Abu-Amr Abbad al Mu'tadid, concubine of Alfonso VI, King of Leon and of Castile (died 1109) and mother of Theresa of Portugal, the Prophet Mohammed is progenitor of all royal houses.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaida_of_Seville
There seem to exist several links to Genghis Khan through Russian dynasties and Tatar Khan families. For example, the daughter of the Khan Mengu-Timur (a descendant of Genghis Khan), who became wife of Theodore the Black Rostislavich, is ancestor of the princes of Yaroslavl and, consequently, of the Romanovs, then the house of Saxony and, for example, Wilhelm II, German Emperor as well as of the whole European royalty including the British kings. Other links to Asian blood lead through the Jagiellonians via the Rurikids and Tatar princes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodor_Rostislavich_Black
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mengu-Timur
Forst shows that popes, military commanders, saints, scholars, revolutionaries, poets and even peasants and proletarians (in the social sense) belong, even though very distant and scarce, to the ancestors of the highest nobility.
Forst then analyses the general preconditions, the extent and the result of consanguine marriage/inbreedig/incest and pedigree collapse (implex) in history. Extreme examples are the mexican inka kings, the egyptian pharaos and hellenistic kings, who were the product of marriages among siblings as ordered by their respective (constitutional) laws.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_intermarriage
In contrast to what is usually expected, inbreeding and even incest, according to Forst, do not seem to be per se destructive. Their chances as well as their dangers lie in the intensification of certain hereditary features. For Forst, positive examples are Prince Eugene of Savoy, Frederick the Great, the Seleucids and the Ptolemaic dynasty. On the other hand, the Spanish Habsburgs, in which the qualities of individuals like Joanna the Mad (Juana la Loca) from the House of Trastámara were bred, constitute a negative example.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_II_of_Spain#Ancestry
http://xenohistorian.faithweb.com/europe/images/Charles_II_Inbreeding.jpg
Regarding the question of the intensity of heredity it shows that not each ancestor of the same generation has the same. In general, the male (paternal) line seems to have a stronger effect in terms of inheritance. In this context Forst introduces the hypothesis that inheritance of a hereditary feature depends firstly on the individual intensity of heredity ("Erbsintensitä"t) of this particular feature/ancestor and secondly on the place of the particular ancestor within the pedigree. In this respect a place is more privileged if it lies closer to a line, which leads to the progeny in the strict male line or in the strict female line.
With regard to the national and racial composition it can be stated that in general regarding all social strata the degree of intermixture is higher the closer it comes to present time. Since the start of the 18th century everywhere the previously absent russian and the jewish blood invades the West, even to circles of which it was generally unexpected. Forst brings some examples for jewish (from Safirov, vicechancellor of Peter the Great), yellow and negro (through Pushkin, Alexandre Dumas) blood.
However, it would be wrong to conclude from the undoubtedly frequent mixture with foreign races that Europa including its most noble circles constitute a complete mix of races. Negro, Mongolian and Jewish blood are exceptions within the genealogy of the upper class and even more so in the lower nobility and in peasantry. According to Forst the cadre is [when this study was issued] constituted by indigenous people.
The Catholic and the Protestant royal houses are almost without intermarriage since the 16th century. Since the difference in the religious denomination has also separated the nations, the ancestors of the Catholic and the Protestant high nobility differ in terms of nationality. The predominance of German blood is higher in Protestant than in Catholic princes.
Until the 12th century the members of the ruling houses are virtually of pure Germanic blood. [Unfortunately Forst does not explain the derivation of this assertion.] A slight admixture of old roman, byzantine-greek, russian-slavic and mongolian genetic material can hardly be noticed. Since the 13th centry, an increasing share of slavic, in particular western slavic and only few south slavic, old latin (from France and Southern Italy), celtic (from Scottish and Irish dynasties) and relatively much greek (trough the byzantine Emperors and magnates) and Armenian and finally Mongolian (Hungarian, Tartar, Kumano-Turkish, Old Bulgarian) blood has been adding.
All in all, Forst comes to the conclusion that the European ruling class is almost in total Nordic-Germanic. This thesis, intuitively captured by racial theorists like Gobineau, Woltmann and Günther, is reflected by the results of the Schmidtian doctrine of cultural cirlces (Kulturkreis; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kulturkreis ) and is now confirmed by undeniable data. Consequently, in most European countries there is a contrast between a Germanic upper class and the lower classes of different blood. Clearly and with overwhelming weight a fundamental fact becomes visible: European history since the Migration period is characterized by a contrast of a homogenous ruling class to the subject classes, which, outside of Germany and Scandinavia, sharply differs from the rulers in terms of blood. For Forst, this shows the greater ability of the Nordic race to rule but does not say anything about an ethical or spiritual quality of a nation or a race.
The political predominance of the Nordic ruling class has been decreasing since the French Revolution and since that time the racial homogeneity of the high nobility is shattered. For example, the share of Germanic blood in the Habsburg dynasty was constantly decreasing since centuries. The (then) present head of the dynasty (Otto von Habsburg, 1912 – 2011) already is, according to Forst, of mainly non-German and non-Nordic blood.
Another result Forst draws from this study is that there is no strict segregation between the classes. Proletariat, bourgeoisie and nobility are not strictly separated in genealogical terms. There is no proletarian, who does not have kings and no king, and no king who does not have proletarians under his ancestors. Absolute purity of blood is a fiction, relative purity and the separation of classes and nations by different compositions of their blood is a fact caused by natural borders and natural bridges between classes and nations. Forst concludes that we are, so to speak, prisoners, but not slaves of our blood. There still remains a certain amount of freedom.
Brilliant (that is, your presentation).
Now, before developping some reflexions, on de Battaglia’s findings, it is obviously safe to assume, as a preliminary matter, that the author used in his research all the types of primary and secondary sources available to a genealogist of his time, such as land and property records, tombstones, cemetery records, Church records, vital records, etc. It would be interesting to know whether he came across forged records, or even forged genealogies, which medieval monks were so fond of. There is no need to give examples here. In modern times, more precisely in XIXth centuy England, it is well-known that people with quickly-made non-landed fortunes tried to cloak their lowly origins beneath forged genealogies, as well as purchased titles.
Those, still preminilarily, who are not familiar with genealogy were probably not aware that maternal ancestry tended to be “neglected” in early genealogical researches. A layman would think that a genealogist, in reconstructing a family tree, would explore both lines, the maternal as well as the paternal, as far as possible, but, now that we think of it, it is true that it is not rare to find a family tree representing only the paternal line, when it comes to the higher nobility. Since a person's Jewish identity is based upon the maternal line, this might account for the indifference of conventional European genealogy towards the latter. It is indeed very interesting that de Battaglia does not mention the “Semi-Gotha” (‘Jüdischer Adel: Nobilitierungen von Juden im Europa des 19. Jahrhunderts’ by K. Drewes is a rather enlightening study on this subject, yet, as indicated by its title, it deals only with the XIXth century. As to the ‘Semi-Gotha, see http://semigotha.blogspot.fr/). As to J. Evola, none of his racial works call into play the distinction between paternal and maternal line.
The title of de Battaglia’s work suggests that his study was meant to be more than of the genealogical order, and, in this regard, he was indeed expected to first give a definition of race. However, while raciology and genealogy are obviouslty complementary fields of study, the latter being one of the instruments of the former, genealogical research is primarily concerned, by definition, with biological lineages. On the other hand, it seems that his concept of “Erbsintensität” might be compared to the mendelian notion of dominant and recessive genes.
Then, failing a clear-cut definition of the concept of race, if we try to reconstruct it from his considerations on the matter, what we arrive at is a characterisation loosely connected to blood. Rather, it seems to be based on national and social factors. “... popes, military commanders, saints, scholars, revolutionaries, poets and even peasants and proletarians (in the social sense) belong, even though very distant and scarce, to the ancestors of the highest nobility”, but this leaves unanswered the question of the racial origin(s) of this “highest nobility”. (*)
This leads us to conclusions of his that appear as rather contradictory. According to him, the “European ruling class [of his time] is almost in total Nordic-Germanic”. How is that supposed to fit with the statement that “The political predominance of the Nordic ruling class has been decreasing since the French Revolution and since that time the racial homogeneity of the high nobility is shattered”? Would this gradual loss of political leadership be the fatal result he mentions of the perverse impact of the admixture of “slavic, in particular western slavic and only few south slavic, old latin (from France and Southern Italy), celtic (from Scottish and Irish dynasties) and relatively much greek (trough the byzantine Emperors and magnates) and Armenian and finally Mongolian (Hungarian, Tartar, Kumano-Turkish, Old Bulgarian) blood...”, on the Nordic one, from the XIIIth century onward? Since an “ admixture of old roman, byzantine-greek, russian-slavic and mongolian genetic material can... be noticed”, however slight, “the members of the ruling houses” could be said to have been “virtually” “of pure Germanic blood”, if, as you point out, this assertion was grounded.
Finally, how could the European ruling class prior to the XIIIth century possibly be “virtually of pure germanic blood”, since “Through Zaida of Seville, daughter of Abu-Amr Abbad al Mu'tadid, concubine of Alfonso VI, King of Leon and of Castile (died 1109) and mother of Theresa of Portugal, the Prophet Mohammed is progenitor of all royal houses”?
Charlemagne's ancestry is shrouded in mystery. As we once pointed out, “Very few filiations of the period are proved for many generations ; for lack of comprehensive primary sources and because of their often conflicting content, actual genealogists acknowledge that they are often reduced to using guesses, the most convincing of which are often based on onomastics, in reconstructing the family tree of the Carolingians”. Failling the means of deciding the race of the body of Charlemagne, the Dutch author Los once attempted to find out the race of the soul and the race of the spirit which was his, based on a careful study of his character, of his policies, of his readings, of his style, of his religiosity, of the imagery he promoted, etc. Beyond the obvious non European character of the biological race of some of the main crowned heads of the past, a similar investigation should be carried out for these.
(*) By the IVth century , the ‘Syrians’ had taken control of trade in France, and they gained it in Italy a few centuries later. “Under the Merovingians in about 591, Cumont states in ‘The Oriental Religions In Roman Paganism’, they had sufficient influence at Paris to have one of their number elected bishop and to gain possession of all ecclesiastical offices. » (2) From the 1st to the mid-8th century, there were nine ‘Greek’ popes and two ‘Syrian’ popes. Saint Evaristus, the fifth Pope, is said to have come from a family of Hellenised Jews. Victor I, the 14th Pope, is described as African. Between 687 and 752, 13 of the 15 pope elected were Greek-speaking: two were ‘Sicilians’ (one of them, Sergius I, was actually the son of a Syrian), four Syrians, and five ‘Greeks’ (that is, Easterners). In 685, a Syrian-born archdeacon had become pope as John V. In fact, at the begiining of the 8th century, “the leaders of the Roman clergy were Easterners” (‘Europe in the Middle Ages’, p. 144).
As to crowned heads, what are we to make out of all those members of the high nobility from the XIIth century onwards, with Negroid features, at least as portrayed on coins and medals ? (the possibility occurred to us that those published on afrocentric websites were altered, especially as no reference is provided in most cases. However, some of them can also be found on mumismatic websites. See, for example, John Frederic I, duke of Saxony 1532 – 1554, at http://www.coingallery.de/KarlV/JoFried_E.htm, particularly the lower coin, or Albert Alcibiades, Margrave of Brandeburg-Bayreuth 1527/41-1554 at http://www.coingallery.de/KarlV/Alcibiades_E.htm, or even Joachim I, Elector of Brandenburg 1499-1535 at http://www.coingallery.de/KarlV/Zollern_E.htm. In fact, this material is even more edifying than that which is published on most afrocentric websites)
With regard to the United Kingdom, the work of the Scottish folkorist David MacRitchie, who pointed out that the best proof of the Negro origin of some noble Brittish families is the thick-lipped Moors on their coat-of-arms, is worth reading, as well as W.H. Turton’s study on the Plantagenet ancestry. In Elizabeth, “daughter of Edward IV of England, mother of Henry VIII, direct ancestor of the present royal family”, he found, “in only 7000 of her millions of ancestors, several Moorish kings, an Arab born in Mecca, an ex-Moorish slave, named Mujahid, and Leon, a Jew, all peoples known for their Negroid ancestry.” (The Crisis, Vol. 47, n° 2, 1940)
What are we to make out, in still earlier times, of references to “Black Vikings”, “Black Danes”, “Black heathens”, in chronicles – in his ‘Brittish History’, Geoffrey of Monmouth relates that “160,000 Africans”, under one Gormund,”an inhuman tyrant”, “came over to Britain”, possibly from Ireland, to help the Saxons drive the Britons out of the country. In this context, these testimonies should not be dismissed as sheer romance.
- It would actually be interesting to know the experiences Forst de Battaglia made with forged genealogies. Not only forging genealogies and fake nobility, but also the trade with titles and even cases of self-assumption of noble titles is a phenomenon known throughout all history. As it is known, today even some royal houses officially come from low origins, for example Sweden (Bernadotte) und the Netherlands (Amsberg).In this respect we also have to consider that knighthood and (higher) nobility within the Holy Roman Empire are to a very great part originating from the ministeriales, who are people raised by their liege lords up from serfdom to be placed in positions of power and responsibility to constitute a special group, who with time and over generations became accepted as belonging to the aristocracy.This problem of forged genealogies is not tackled in Forsts study. The author propably regarded the question of the correctness of genealogies as a general preleminary question for genegological investigations, lying outside of the object of this research. Since this study is focused on the presentation of some results, questions of methodological nature are left aside.I agree that, generally speaking, raciology and genealogy are complementary fields of study. Dependent on the definitions of the respective terms one might question however, which one is constituting an instrument for the other, since genealogical research is not necessarily concerned with racial studies. This is only true if the determination of the „race“ (in whatever meaning) of an individual is considered at least one of the objects of genealogical study. Here we touch the cardinal point of this matter: The subject of historical genealogy of noble families was to determine/prove the ranks of their ancestors – in contrast to the investigations which for example led to the production of „ancestor passports“ (Ahnenpässe) in National Socialist Germany.Proving noble origins - in particular a descent from Charlemagne - and feudal ranks were the main objects of historical genalogy. Thus it provides very few material concerning issues of race. (Here we find also the reason why the marriage of a member of the royal houses with an individual of a completely different nation and even race was often deemed appropriate, even favorable provided that this individual belonged to the respective ruling class.) However, the thesis that the European aristocracy is mainly of Nordic origin and thus, nobility and race are related issues is very old, but was treated in a scientific manner only when racial issues themselves became the field of systematic studies. (For example, the term “Blue blood” for nobility purportedly stems from the fact that superficial veins appear blue through bright Nordic skin.) In „Adel und Rasse“ (Nobility and Race) Hans F.K. Günther deals with very similar questions. This book, which tackles the question of race in a much more direct manner, would be worth a closer examiniation in this context.Forst does not explain his assertion that the European ruling class prior to the XIIIth century is almost totally Nordic-Germanic. It seems that he simply starts from the assumption that the Germanic tribes (Goths, Vandals, Angles, Saxons, Lombards, Suebi, Frisii, Franks etc.) including their leaders, who conquered Europe during the migration period, were of pure Germanic blood. In this respect it has to be taken into consideration that the conquering tribes were not only Germanic, but also Asian, namely huns, Eurasian Avars, Alans, Bulgars and other Eurasian nomads.Furthermore, Forst and other genealogists seem to simply and idealistically have presuppossed that the ruling class in early medieval Europe originating from the Germanic conquerors primarily (if not exclusively) married among itself and is therefore essentially self-contained in genealogical respect. The given name of an individual may be seen as one of the few references to his/her national/racial origin. This assumption of intermarriage however is falsified by such important examples as William the conqueror, the progenitor of the entire British aristocracy, who was the son of the Robert, Duke of Normandy and his mistress Herleva, the daughter of a tanner named Fulbert from the town of Falaise, in Normandy. Obviously successors in some cases were the sons of mistresses. In this regard the frequent concubinage and the concept of the Germanic “Friedelehe” have to be taken into consideration. Here, again, the example of Charlemagne with his several wifes and cobcubines is illuminating. Since early genealogical researches tended to negelect maternal ancestry, we come to the conclusion that the genetic composition of the European aristocracy is largely unclear.If we find, for example, that not only is Charlemagnes ancestry „shrouded in mystery“, but that there are reasonable indications that this progenitor of the entire nobility of Europe (if not of all Germans/middle Europeans) has non-European anceors, Forsts starting point is seriously questioned.Furthermore, Forsts assertion that the ruling class of Europe is almost in total Nordic-Germanic is qualified in two ways: First, this (assumed) predominance stems from the migration period (as explained above) and has been constantly diminishing since. In particular the French Revolution and the subsequent upheaval all over Europe (Napoleonic wars etc.) brought about a serious change in this respect. Secondly, Forst obviously thinks in proportions and does not regard a person as being himself of foreign (or even mixed) blood if some distant ancestors – for example one or two out of 1024 – are. Absolute purity is, according to him, simply non-existing these days. (In Sintesi di Dottrina della Razza Evola stated that today it would be hard to find in any European nation a core of a type of actually pure race.) For him, the fact that pratically all members of the higher aristocracy are descended from Mohammed does not mean that they are essentially Arabic.
- Generally speaking, it is very difficult to have certainties on the authenticity of any document which, supposedly, comes before the late fifteenth century. That is all the more true for genealogies which were of interest only to a limited group of people, unlike literary writings, and thus easier to falsify. Besides, it should be remembered that registers of births, marriages and deaths are of a relatively recent origin, about 1540 in France. In the seventeenth century in France, there was a great mess with the noble and ecclesiastical ranks, everyone calling himself count, baron, abbot, etc. And it seems that it had been going on for a long time.As you say, genealogical studies had become at a certain point a matter of personal and family vanity. Before proving one descends from Charlemagne, it would be necessary to know who he was really and whether he even existed. We must remember that family trees often started from a mythical ancestor.As shown at http://critiquehistorique.blogspot.fr/2014/08/elements-expliquant-la-decadence-de-la.html and in G. de Lapouge’s brilliant work “Les sélections sociales”, the nobility, who had died in masses during the crusades and other wars, was replaced as early as the thirteenth century by rich traders or even commoners, who acquired the estates of the nobility. Knighthood also seems to have been a means of “climbing the social ladder”.It is plausible that an influx of non-White blood in the European nobility kept occurring throughout the centuries. If the “British” nobility was thoroughly Jewish in the nineteenth century, it may have been only the final layer (it is only a detail but I find it astounding that, still today, the name of K. Middleton’s mother is Goldsmith). As I wrote elsewhere, following the assertion of some Black supremacists, “blue blood” might mean “black blood”.You are quite right when you write that it is wrong to assume the Aryan invaders were of pure Aryan blood. Archeological evidence hasshown that they used to take brides of very low racial quality. G. de Lapouge, in his book on the Aryan, talks of a female type called “homo contractus”, a name in reference to her small stature and head probably not far from the Pygmy, who can be found in the Aryan grave sites in France and Germany.In a book on the conquests of the Arabs in Europe, I have found numerous occurrences of racial-mixing (some extracts are at http://critiquehistorique.blogspot.fr/2014/09/massacres-colonisation-et-metissage.html and http://critiquehistorique.blogspot.fr/2014/09/le-metissage-en-espagne-au-neuvieme.html). Here it is a local lord who has his daughter married to an Arab to make peace, there it is whole cities which cohabit and mix with the Arabs. Did you know the word “mulatto” comes from an Arab word, “moallad”, used to designate biracial people? Even if some revisionists argue that the Muslim occupation of Spain could not have lasted seven centuries, the biological impact of the Arabs cannot be dismissed.The seeds of today’s situation were already planted one, two or three millennia ago. The time of racially-ordained marriages is long foregone.PS: it would be interesting to determine exactly how many Jews converted by force.
- Below is an account of the fable surrounding "St. Germain":"The ecclesiastical interest is apparent in all this violent contempt for the palinest truths which are impressed upon human experience. One of our earliest Tudor chronicles tells in English, after the Benedictines, how St. Germain came into England to reform “King Vortigern” from the Arian heresy. It was a snowy evening, passing cold. He was denied lodgings with the king, and took refuge with the king’s herdman, whose wife killed the fatted calf fot the bishop’s supper. The holy man bade her gather the bones, and wrap them in the skin, and place them in the stall. The calf was shortly restored to life, and ate hay. On the morrow the bishop repaired to the king, denounced his want of hospitality, bade him and his depart from the palace, resigning it to the herdman, from whom all the subsequent British kings descended."The particulars are fictitious but the gist (in the boldened part) is interesting as it indicates that the early ecclesiastical power, strong as it was, may have disrupted royal and noble lineages.
Once Christianity was established, the forces at work in it were left free to further the process of undermining of the kinship system.
Marriage laws were dramatically changed, and this change had momentous consequences at both ends of the social scale.
« At both ends of the social spectrum, the Christian emperors introduced laws that modified the ways in which people married. For the highest classes, the new legislation further restricted the groups within which marriage was permitted, thus narrowing the choice of marriage partner. » (37) .
« The traditional system was concerned with the provision of an heir to inherit family property. It allowed marriage to close kin, marriages to close affines or widows of close kin, the transfer of children by adoption, and concubinage, a form of secondary union. Gregory [I] banned all four practices. » (38) Later, in 720, pope Gregory II forbade all marriages with consanguineal or affinal kin. In 732, Gregory III instructed Boniface that marriages were not to be contracted within the seventh degree.
Of the four main aspects of traditional marriage and family, that is close marriages, union with affines, adoption and concubinage, the fate of the widows, which were targeted by medieval Christianity, the devastating effects brought about by and the underlying reasons behind the changes in the treatment of the latter merits special attention : « From its inception the Church had grown as a temporal power through gifts and donations, particularly from rich widows. So much wealth had the Church acquired in this way that in July 370 the Emperor Valentinian addressed a ruling to the Pope that male clerics and unmarried ascetics should not hang around the houses of women and widows and try to worm themselves and their churches into the women's bequests at the expense of the women's families and blood relations. The early Church's extolling of virginity and its discouragement of second marriages helped it to increase the number of single women who would leave bequests to the Church.
« This process of inhibiting a family from retaining its property and promoting its alienation accelerated with the answers that Pope Gregory I gave to some questions posed in 597 A.D. by Augustine, the first Archbishop of Canterbury, concerning his new charges. » (39) « It is clear that from the beginning the interests of the new religious community lay in a reorganization of the laws of inheritance, and especially in a loosening of die old legal family ties. Here the aim of the Church was in the direction of individualism, making the individual independent of his kinsmen. » (40) Since the marriage policies introduced by the Church made it more likely that it would inherit property from wealthy people, insofar as they could not longer use interfamilial marriage alliances to keep full control of family estates within their kinship group, it is arguable that these policies benefited the Church financially.
« One result of Christian influence on Roman marriage law was to make bigamy for the first time a crime in the Empire. The classical concept of consensual marriage, which depended upon the continuing consent of both parties to remain married to each other, had made it nearly impossible for a Roman to contract a bigamous marriage. Under the Christian emperors, however, divorce became the sole procedure for terminating a marriage between living partners, and the grounds for divorce became more restricted. As a result of these changes, bigamy for the first time became a legal problem. In addition, Constantine made it legally impossible for a Roman subject to have both a wife and a concubine simultaneously. This alteration marked a break with earlier practice and illustrates, as does the development of the bigamy problem, the gradual enactment of Christian sexual teachings into public law. » (41)
The legal enforcement of monogamy as the only form of marriage by the Church had long-term devastating side-effects. To be sure, monogamy « was mandated in the late Roman empire as the only proper form of sexual expression and family organization. » (42) In the old days, however, formal monogamy could be reconciled with effectively polygynous relationships in the social and sexual spheres. Greek and Roman societies accommodated multiple sexual relations for married men ; monogamous norms were even relaxed in times of serious crisis : near the end of the Peloponnese War, massive male casualties justified a temporary exception that allowed men to father legitimate offspring with one woman other than their own wife. Christianity maintained and reinforced monogamous norms in their most rigid form. Had it limited itself to reinforcing monogamy, it would have been a lesser evil, especially for the Germanic kinship group. What made it particularly destructive for the clan social, mental and emotional balance and also for the whole social fabric was that it was hardened, on one hand, by the radical condemnation of extra-marital sexual congress, and, on the other hand, by the consideration of love as the only foundation of marriage and as the only element likely to sustain it, thus causing the two separate aspects of parenthood and sexuality to be considered as inextricable. A recipe for disaster was that, to quote A. de Benoist, « Marital relationship became the only legitimate context for erotic involvement, which amounts to not being able to distinguish between Venus and Juno anymore. »
Generally speaking, the imposition of social monogamy on the aforementioned basis and, what's more, the legal acknowledgment of only one type of marriage - namely that which was distinguished by marital affection, as opposed to the several types of marital unions which existed both in the organically hierarchical ancient Roman and Germanic society -, coupled with the enjoinment of one ethic upon all people, irrespective of wealth, status and sex, were part of the levelling policy of the Church, in keeping with Christian egalitarianism, that is, with the subversive propensity to lower the noble whilst raising the humble. « the enactments of the Christian emperors made marriage for the first time legally available [to the low-born] : successive laws transformed the informal couplings of slaves (contubernium) into legitimate matrimony, with all its rights and consequences. » (43)
« With the gradual imposition of monogamy, the number of marriageable women increased. More poor men could find mates and raise families. They were given a stake in settled society, and the numbers of wandering outlaws decreased. » (44) From a racial and eugenic standpoint, it must be pointed out that the decrease of the numbers of wandering outlaws only resulted in the increase of the numbers of settled outlaws : a married criminal certainly does not ceased to be a criminal.
Strict monogamous marriage, too, would have been a lesser evil, had it not been pushed to its extreme consequences by the sanctification of the consensual marriage and its implicit promotion of the sophism of the equality of men and women, as reinforced by the claim that, if the husband has authority over his wife's body, the wife, too has authority over her husband's body (1 Cor. 7:4). (45)
If it was extremely difficult for Christian marriage to gain ground, since it was in stark contrast on several essential points with the pattern of married and family life in ancient Rome and in ancient Germany, whose laws allowed in certain cases repudiation or divorce, the indissolubility of the Christian marriage meant the primacy of the logic of the couple on that of the line. « This feature was further accentuated by the emphasis laid by the Church on the freedom of the personal consent of the couple. In the context of those times, this attitude amounted, by instituting a new form of autonomy of the subject, to considering the interests of families and clans, that is, the transmission of inheritance, of secondary importance. By institutionalising an autonomous conjugality to the detriment of broader forms of adherence and of solidarity (community, lineage, and extended family), Christian marriage initiated a long process of individualisation, whose final result was love-based modern marriage (today, it is the main cause of divorce). » (46)
Engels pointed out that monogamy « does not by any means make its appearance in history as the reconciliation of man and woman, still less as the highest form of such a reconciliation. On the contrary, it appears as the subjugation of one sex by the other, as the proclamation of a conflict between the sexes entirely unknown hitherto in prehistoric times » ; (47) he was just too-narrow-minded to realise, or too cunning to reveal, which one would end up being subjugated. For, since there is no such thing as equality between men and women, this is what consensuality would really mean in the long run : « The fact that both the man's and his future wife's consent was necessary for marriage meant that it was a contract between `equals' since neither one could impose consensus upon the other partner. This means that in principle the bargaining position of women in such a marriage pattern is relatively strong : a woman could (try to) select the kind of husband that suited her. » (48)
So, to crown it all, the ratification of consensual marriage by Alexander III in the decretal veniens ad nos (sic) was a deadly blow at the root of the European traditional patriarchal authority. It instigated a family revolution which can be considered as « largely responsible for the individualism that characterizes the West. » (49) From a social and economic standpoint, through its precepts for marriage, child bearing, sexuality and family roles, Christianity fostered the rise of the actual nuclear family, a `social' unit which, nota bene, was in turn a precondition of the industrial revolution. (50)
As has been seen in'The Jewels of the Papacy', the whole Germanic tradition was twisted and assimilated into a Christian world-view by the act of euhemerisation and by the use of various literary devices, so that the Christian message imposed itself upon the Germanic tradition in the heroic epic poems of the `Middle-Ages`. Whether or not the « The fatherhood of God appeals with peculiar force to the German, » (51) the fact remains that the Christian glorification of the almighty Father with a capital F was paralleled by a twofold process of disempowerment of the German warrior as a father and of consequent empowerment of the German woman, and an increasing glorification of feminine values. (52)
The passage from Antiquity to the Christian era, besides altering the structure of the family architecture, altered the system of relationships between women, men and children. It is by religious assertion that women put a distance between their will and that of their family, their father, and their husband. The rules of marriage dictated by the Church and the indissolubility of marriage hindered the will of the fathers in their choice of alliances, because they could no longer form and break up alliances whenever they wished. The man lost the power to become a father as he wished. The position of the Church, which did not approve of divorce, refused to consecrate remarriages, and discouraged the remarriage of widows, made it more difficult to find a wife and, hence, female infanticide was attenuated. However, Christian ideas were not anchored to the same extent in all walks of life. Heathen traditions were still present. The place of the child was still determined by the will of the father. Yet, the influence of Christianity and of its morality brought about a difference in the legal situation of legitimate children and illegitimate children ; as early as in the late Roman empire, that is in the Christian Roman empire, any child born out of illicit sexual unions was legally a bastard and an outcast.
Besides, prior to the conversion of the Germanic tribes, women, through marriage, appeased conflicts, and, by recognising their illegitimate children, encouraged the harmony of the kinship group. Therefore, it is not difficult to understand how devastating the canon laws on illegitimate children were to be for the organic structure of the traditional Germanic kinship group, once, through these laws, women lost the regulatory role they had as subjects of alliances within it, nor is it difficult to fathom the new role she was spurred to play within it. (53)
« Bearing children, which might have been done by a succession of wives or simultaneous wives in an earlier period, and supervising domestic activities, which had been previously shared by all female members of the family, were now the exclusive duty of one wife. Further, a married woman had greater responsibility for land management than her Merovingian ancestors. She was thus expected not only to produce children but also to administer a complex family economy. » (54) It may be that « The introduction of the Christian model of marriage did not alter the role of the wife », yet « it increased her responsibilities » in the economic sphere, the sphere of conflicts, and empowered her as an individual.
Now, if there is some evidence that the shift from polygamy to monogamy which occurred in Carolingian times resulted in an emphasis on the domestic responsibilities and duties of the aristocratic wife, there is every indication that the imposition of monogamy addressed the needs of the lower estates, that is, the peasantry and, above all, the (upper) middle class. Kautsky accurately notes : « The individual household, and also a certain degree of monogamy, were economic necessities for the artisan and peasant As his business [the merchant's] was independent of a household, it was of little importance whether he had a housewife or not. Marriage and a household became a luxury for him, whereas it had been an economic necessity. If he were frugal, he need not marry at all, unless he took a wife not as a housekeeper, but as an heiress. If his trading profits were large enough, he could transfer the management of his household to hirelings. Thus, in consequence of the unlimited profits of trade, the wives of merchants, and to some extent of professional men, were freed from household duties, as well as from work generally, in the course of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. They found time to interest themselves in questions outside their former mental horizon. But concomitant with this emancipation, the traditional form of marriage tended to become an article of luxury in mercantile and Humanist circles, resulting in a loosening of sexual ties, above all in Italy, the home of Humanism. With the impetuosity of youth the upper middle class burst the bonds of the patriarchal family, of monogamy... » (55)Quoting from ‘From Freedom to Feedom’ (message 1573):A book entitled “Bridging the Medieval-Modern Divide: Medieval Themes in the World of the Reformation” (http://books.google.fr/books?id=JbBvZYBszdIC&printsec=frontcover&hl=fr#v=onepage&q&f=false
) was recently published. This book, written of course from a non racial standpoint, deals with a theme - coming from the academic catechism - which is dear to traditionalists as well as it was to R. Guénon and J. Evola: that of a clear split between the so-called “Middle Ages” and the alleged “Modernity” – and more particularly Reformation in this book. It shows that, in some domains, rather than a scission, there has been a continuity between these two periods. The reading of the introduction is strongly recommended.
In the fourth article, “Purgatory and Modernity”, particularly interesting is the sentence according to “[i]t [Purgatory] helped transform an economy based on the possession of land into an economy in which capital was the primary source of wealth and in which the pursuit of profits and interest through long-distance trade and manufacturing were the primary driving forces.”, since currently - in France - agents of the second type of economy are now rounding off their destruction of the first one. These agents are now viciously expropriating landowners by imposing an increasingly huge tax on them (http://reinformation.tv/explosion-impots-foncier-non-bati-france-assassinee/). Why would these agents want to expropriate landowners? To find places to build new housing in order to establish colonies for colored peoples in rural areas. Indeed, it is now acknowledged that there are too many white people in rural areas – in England (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/11240700/School-marked-down-by-Ofsted-for-being-too-white.html).
Traditionalists, that they like it or not, can one more time thank their Church - theirs - given that the idea of a purgatory finds its roots in Judaism. “The view of purgatory is still more clearly expressed in rabbinical passages, as in the teaching of the Shammaites: "In the last judgment day there shall be three classes of souls: the righteous shall at once be written down for the life everlasting; the wicked, for Gehenna; but those whose virtues and sins counterbalance one another shall go down to Gehenna and float up and down until they rise purified; for of them it is said: 'I will bring the third part into the fire and refine them as silver is refined, and try them as gold is tried' [Zech. xiii. 9.]; also, 'He [the Lord] bringeth down to Sheol and bringeth up again'" (I Sam. ii. 6).” (http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/12446-purgatory).
P.S.
Unrelated to the above, a scurrilous paper written by a minion of a handsomely subsidized rag about Heidegger’s antisemitism. It would be interesting to know what A. Dugin thinks of it.
http://www.rpdroit.com/images/stories/presse/MC_LIVRES_Heidegger.pdf
A book written by a Christian, “Usury in Christendom: The Mortal Sin that Was and Now is Not”, may be of interest because, according to it “Unforgettable revelations abound in this indispensable study of the rise of the Money Power.
Usury in Christendom provides the reader with a detailed understanding of how a den of thieves robbed the followers of Christ of their patrimony. It is grounded in an extensive study of rare and primary sources and represents a landmark revisionist history of how the breeders of money gained dominion over the West.
For most of the first 1500 years of Christianity usury, the lending of money at interest, was unanimously condemned by the Fathers of the Early Church, and by popes, councils and saints, as a damnable sin equivalent to robbery and even murder. Any interest on loans of money, not just exorbitant interest, was defined de fide as a grave transgression against God and man.
Hoffman confronts the reader with a startling datum: the overthrow of magisterial dogma and the approval of scripture-twisting heresy occurred inside the Church centuries before the Enlightenment and the dawn of the modern era, culminating in the overthrow of divine truth; an epochal act of nullification.
Usury in Christendom: The Mortal Sin that Was and Now is Not resurrects the suppressed biblical, patristic and medieval Catholic doctrine on interest on money, provides new information on the record of early Protestant resistance to the usury revolution, and the discernment, by Dante and other visionaries, of the sub-rosa connection between usury and a host of abominations that continue to plague us today.
Western civilization was profoundly disfigured by the ecclesiastic exculpation of the charging of interest on debt. The result has been a pursuit of usurious profit unconstrained by the Word of God, the dogma of His true Church, and the consensus patrum of fifteen centuries.“ (http://www.amazon.com/Usury-Christendom-Mortal-Sin-that/dp/0970378491/)
It was impossible to find extracts of the book, but hereafter are the table of contents and a comprehensive list of contents.
“Table of Contents: Introduction. Biblical, Patristic and Magisterial Teaching. Precursor: Usury banking in Catholic Florence. Usury and Simony in Catholic Germany. The Reformation: Usury Pro and Contra. A Faithful Irishman Persecuted by the Hierarchy. Agents of the Money Power. Quality of Life. “Jewish” Usury. St. Anthony of Padua at the Usurer’s funeral. John Jewel Smites Usury. Timeline of Papal Usury. Dogma of the Council of Trent. Glossary of Terms. Bibliography.
Comprehensive List of Contents: Double-Talking Encyclical. King Edward’s Act Against Usury. Critical Distinction Between Ger and Nokri. Christ’s Parable of the Talents, and the Mammon of Unrighteousness. Leviticus Jubilee. Root and Branch of the Money Power. Escape Clause for Mortal Sin. Usury and the Fathers of the Early Church. Unanimous Medieval Struggle Against Interest on Money. The Dogmatic Third Lateran Council. Council of Lyons II. Council of Vienne. Usury in Medieval Canon Law. Magna Carta’s Bishop. Confessors’ Manuals Classifies Usury as Mortal Sin. Christian Economics of Thomas Aquinas, Dante Aligheri, Ezra Pound, Wendell Berry, Arthur Penty, Vincent McNabb, John Ruskin. The Canker that Consumes the Conscience. The Unholy Trinity of Florence. The Usurer’s Dilemma. The Usurer’s Fire. The Usurer’s Indulgence. The Ciompi Insurrection. Manifest and Occult Usury. Mortal Sin for a Worthy Cause. The Den of Thieves Returns to the House of God. Catholic Origins of Usury Legalization. Usury Unites With Simony. The Catholic Roots of Protestant Capitalism. Casuistry and Usury. Early Years of the Protestant Campaign Against Usury. Biting and Profitable usury. Some Myths of Max Weber. Early Puritan Resistance to Economic Secularization. Permission for Usury in Late Stage Puritanism. A Capitalist Summa: Ludwig Von Mises & Ayn Rand. Misdirection from the Right. Judaizers and Judaizing. Primacy of Gentile Usury. Breeding of Money. 1917 and 1983 Codes of Canon Law, and much more.” (http://revisionistreview.blogspot.fr/2012/10/book-usury-in-christendom-pre.html)The author, as a good Christian and thus an individual at least partially mentally Semitic, feels the need to make a binary distinction between a True Church and a Church that would no longer really be the Church, because it would have been subverted by undercover. This view is obviously an illusion given that from the beginning the role of the Church was to spread Judeo-Christianity as far as possible at a worldwide scale and to perform its subversive activities in Europe. On the one hand, its subversive activities were the destruction of the ”Indo-European” civilizations and peoples; on the other hand, the enforcement of elements of Negro-Asian civilizations and the denordification of Europe. So, from a White standpoint, this progressive tolerance of the loan with interest rate should be placed in the continuity of the subversive activities of the Church in Europe and considered as a supplementary step of them.
P.S.
Here is a refutation of the message of one commentator: http://revisionistreview.blogspot.fr/2013/06/another-challenge-to-hoffmans-thesis-on.html
- There exists Spanish equivalents of the "Semi-Gotha" book which look quite interesting:-El libro verde Aragon-El tizon de la nobleza en EspanaSee: http://sefarad.org/lm/067/html/page4.html - http://www.hispanista.org/libros/alibros/15/lb15.pdf - http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libros_verdes - http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libro_Verde_%28Arag%C3%B3n%29
- According to http://www.redmoonrising.com/Ikhwan/MB.htm, Mohammed Abduh was installed as Grand Mufti of Egypt by the ‘English’ in 1899 because of his ability to “use a very liberal and creative interpretation of the Quran to fabricate a loophole that allowed the forbidden practice of usury.” This view is simplistic.
It is common knowledge that ‘ar-riba’ is strictly prohibited by the Koran and so it is under the Sharia. However, it is necessary to understand what this term ctually means. The proponents of Islamic finance argue that it means ‘interest’, whatever its rate, while, for a number of Muslim scholars, al-riba simply means “usury”, that is to say, “the lending of money at exorbitant interest rates”, and this is precisely its meaning in the first translation of the Koran into an Indo-European language. Originally, it simply meant “the lending of money with an interest charge for its use", regardless of the rate, whether exorbitant or not. It is only recently that it took on the special meaning of “lending of money with an exorbitant interest charge for its use”.
In practice, the Muslim banking system has always found ways to circumvent the prohibition of “usury”. In fact, Islamic banks “keep interest but just call it another name, such as ‘commissions’ or ‘profits’ (rhiba).” (Clement M. Henry, the Politics of Islamic Finance, 2004, Edinburgh University Press, p. 2), at rates which, in some cases, could be considered usurious (See http://archive.thedailystar.net/forum/2010/april/islamic.htm).
The Templars are regarded rightly as those who laid the foundations of modern banking and, in general, the “great operations of international capitalism” (P. Boissonnade, Le Travail dans l’Europe chrétienne au Moyen Age, p. 206-7, Alcan Paris, 1921), introducing in Europe, in their eagerness to make surplus value, the letter of credit, the letter of payment, the bill of exchange and the ‘lettre de foire’ and, in addition, the deposit and discount bank ; and some authors have speculated that they were introduced to these financial instruments by Arabs and / or Jews during the Crusades. There is strong evidence that they brought back one of them from the East, without which the financing of commerce, especially inter-continental trade, would not have been feasible: the cheque. “Cheque, in Arabic Saqq, is....`functionally and etymologically the origin of our modern checks.’The use of saqq was borne out of the need to avoid having to transport coin as legal tender due to the dangers and difficulties this represented; the bankers took to the use of bills of exchange, letters of credit, and promissory notes, often drawn up as to be, in effect, cheques. At the city of Basra, in Iraq, by the mid-11th century, anybody could deposit their assets with a changer or banker who handed over a receipt. Any subsequent purchase was then made by means of a draft on the banker, who honoured it when presented by the vendor. `Such drafts on bankers were the merchants' exclusive curency.” (http://alfutuhat.com/islamiccivilization/Trade/Fundamentals.html#_ftn20) The more trade mechanisms in force in the ‘medieval’ Islamic world are known, the more it becomes clear that the whole modern banking system originated there: “ Long before the West, Udovitch adds, Muslim merchants had at their disposal accepted legal mechanisms for extending credit and for transferring and exchanging currencies over long distances. The `Hawala’ (in Arabic), suftaja(in Persian), or letter of credit, allowed a merchant to advance or transfer a sum of money to a business associate at some distant place with `the full confidence that the transfer would be expeditiously accomplished.’ The letter of credit was regularly used to avoid carriage of large amount of capital over large stretches of land. Chance, Braudel holds, has preserved letters of Jewish traders of Cairo from the times of the first Crusade (1090s), which show that all methods of, and instruments of credit, and all forms of trade associations were known already, and were not invented subsequently in Europe as was asserted by many.” (ibid.)
What’s more, as highlighted by Udovitch ("Trade", in The Dictionary of the Middle Ages, vol 12, Scribner's Sons, New York, 1989, p 105-8, 106) Islamic law and customary practice in the Muslim world provided merchants and traders with the commercial techniques that structured and facilitated trade and exchange, technical refinements which would be responsible for the development of stateless financial capitalism. According to Margoliouth, “[a] dissertation has been written on the commercial language of the Koran, showing that the tradesman Prophet could not keep free of metaphors taken from his business. 'God' he repeatedly says,’ is good at accounts’. The believers are doing a good business, the unbelievers a losing trade. Those who buy error for guidance make a bad bargain. The shake of the hand which closes a bargain became with him and his followers the form by which homage was done to a sovereign. Even when he was sovereign at Medinah he did not disdain to buy goods wholesale and make a profit by selling them retail ; while occasionally he consented to act as auctioneer.” “From the Sunna of Muhammad, the interest of the Prophet in international trade and commerce becomes self-evident. It is well established that he had travelled and conducted business as a merchant in various countries. He chose his first wife Khadija, the wealthy business woman and financier, and established his reputation as an honest and committed trader. Subsequent Islamic practices reinforced these principles of international trade. International commerce and trade acted as important tools for the expansion of the frontiers of Islam. Islamic ideals of commerce as well as commodities were exported from Arabia to the West to China and the Far East.” (Javaid Rehman, Islamic State Practices, International Law and the Threat from Terrorism, p. 47) According to the “Western” University, Adam Smith would be the founding mother of modern economics and among one of economic liberalism. However, “[t]here was a particular hostility [in medieval Islam] to anything that smacked of price-fixing. One much-repeated story held that the Prophet himself had refused to force merchants to lower prices during a shortage in the city of Medina, on the grounds that doing so would be sacrilegious, since, in a free-market situation, “prices depend on the will of God.” Most legal scholars interpreted Mohammed’s decision to mean that any government interference in market mechanisms should be considered similarly sacrilegious, since markets were designed by God to regulate themselves. If all this bears a striking resemblance to Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” (which was also the hand of Divine Providence), it might not be a complete coincidence. In fact, many of the specific arguments and examples that Smith uses appear to trace back directly to economic tracts written in Medieval Persia. For instance, not only does his argument that exchange is a natural outgrowth of human rationality and speech already appear both in both Ghazali (1058–1111 ad), and Tusi (1201–1274 ad); both use exactly the same illustration: that no one has ever observed two dogs exchanging bones. Even more dramatically, Smith’s most famous example of division of labor, the pin factory, where it takes eighteen separate operations to produce one pin, already appears in Ghazali’s Ihya, in which he describes a needle factory, where it takes twenty-five different operations to produce a needle. (*)” (David Graeber, Debt: The First 5,000 Years, Melville House Publishing, 2011, p. 279)
It can be added that Adam Smith also drew a considerable number of his notions in the work of Ibn Khaldun. On this subject, see http://muslimheritage.com/article/ibn-khaldun-and-adam-smith-contributions-theory-division-labor-and-modern-economic-thought, http://www.alazhar.edu.ps/journal123/attachedFile.asp?seqq1=565 and http://faculty.georgetown.edu/imo3/ibn.htm.
(*) ”Hosseini 1998, 2003. Smith says he visited such a factory himself, which may well be true, but the example of the eighteen steps originally appears in the entry “Épingle” in Volume 5 of the French Encyclopedie, published in 1755, twenty years earlier. Hosseini also notes that “Smith’s personal library contained the Latin translations of some of the works of Persian (and Arab) scholars of the medieval period” (Hosseini 1998:679), suggesting that he might have lifted them from the originals directly. Other important sources for Islamic precedents for later economic theory include: Rodison 1978, Islahi 1985, Essid 1988, Hosseini 1995, Ghazanfar 1991, 2000, 2003, Ghazanfar & Islahi 1997, 2003. It is becoming more and more clear that a great deal of Enlightenment thought traces back to Islamic philosophy: Decartes’ cogito, for example, seems to derive from Ibn Sina (a.k.a. Avicenna), Hume’s famous point that the observance of constant conjunctions does not itself prove causality appears in Ghazali, and I have myself noticed Immanuel Kant’s definition of enlightenment in the mouth of a magic bird in the fourteenth-century Persian poet Rumi.”
- The following two documentaries are proposed for those who do not understand very well how the current financial system, from Asian origin and managed by Jews, works. What is not said is that the alleged "productive economy" is in the "West" less and less productice with the virtualization and disappearance of the primary and secondary sectors and the ongoing hegemony of the virtual(ized) third sector.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqvKjsIxT_8 Below, links to important documents are provided.
"As part of a new three-year 'History of Capitalism' course, historian and former banker Benedikt Koehler, delivered an inaugural lecture based on his forthcoming book, Early Islam and the Origins of Capitalism.In his lecture, Benedikt Koehler proposed a strikingly original thesis; that capitalism first emerged in Arabia, not in late medieval Italian city states as is commonly assumed."
http://www.li.com/events/early-islam-and-the-birth-of-capitalism
http://islamicommentary.org/2014/04/benedikt-koehler-early-islam-and-the-birth-of-capitalism/
This lecturer has, since his conference, had a book entitled Early Islam and the Birth of Capitalism published and whose extracts are readable at https://books.google.fr/books?id=mqbcAwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover.
"As part of the Legatum Institute's 'History of Capitalism' series, David Abulafia, Professor of Mediterranean History at the University of Cambridge, delivered a lecture exploring how European trade, and distinctive business practices, spread westwards along the coasts of the Mediterranean, both Christian and Islamic, to become a global phenomenon."
http://www.li.com/events/a-global-transition-from-the-mediterranean-to-the-atlantic
Finally, a lecture from "David Abulafia, Professor of Mediterranean History at the University of Cambridge, will discuss the role of merchants from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance and the ways in which they fostered the roots of global trade.
In his lecture, Abulafia will focus on traders around the world, explaining the challenges they faced and how they battled against imperial concepts of tribute as the mechanism for exchange. He will also describe the ways in which merchants created networks between the Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean and the Japan Sea which later became the foundations of globalisation.”
http://li.com/events/global-trade-the-beginnings
The lecture happened on 4 March 2015. Neither the video nor its transcription have yet been released.
"Machiavelli's Arab Precursor: Ibn Zafar al-Siqilli
Virtually unknown to contemporary Western scholars and most Arab intellectuals is the political thought of Ibn Zafar al-Siqilli, a distinguished Arab philosopher and political activist of the twelfth century. First discovered in mid-nineteenth century by an Italian Arabist, Ibn Zafar was considered a worthy precursor to Machiavelli by Gaetano Mosca. This paper presents an analysis of Ibn Zafar's theories of power and leadership and draws relevant parallels between Ibn Zafar's magnum opus, Sulwidnal-Muta', and Machiavelli's Prince. Written in the genre of 'advice to theprince', Ibn.Zafar's book offers an empirical analysis of power and a set of maxims and strategies to be used by a virtuous ruler in order to preserve his power and secure his realm. It will be shown that Ibn Zafar's maxims, likeMachiavelli's, transcended his historical milieu and therefore, deserve attention by modern students of Arab political thought."
http://fr.scribd.com/doc/62119731/Ibn-Zafar-Arab-Precursor-to-Machiavelli
Particularly interesting is the following passage: "Hila.The employment of Hila (ruse or artifice) or a stratagem based on guile and trickery, is proposed by Ibn Zafar as a possible alternative to the use of force. Indeed, it was Ibn Zafar's advocacy of artifice that prompted Mosca to view the Sicilian Arab as a precursor of Machiavelli. Clearly, for Ibn Zafar, who so often preached truth and morality, the use of artifice is a contradiction. But he resolves it by stating that the end justifies the means, i.e.the use of falsehood is permitted, but only for raison d'état:
Falsehood is like unto poisons, which cause death if they are used alone, but when mixed in the compounds of the apothecary, may be of service. A king may not permit falsehood except in those who use it for the good of the state. As for example: to deceive the enemy, or to conciliate the disaffected."
Particularly interesting because this is the motto of any democratic regime.
Joseph Needham, whose bibliography is available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Needham#Bibliography, was the founder and main scholar of the history of Chinese science. His works are more than of interest in the research of the origins of what can no longer be considered as being only a mere “crisis” of Europe.
His magnum opus, Science and Civilisation in China, consists of seven volumes in twenty-seven books listed at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_and_Civilisation_in_China#Volumes. All of them are available at http://monoskop.org/index.php?title=Special:Search&limit=50&offset=0&profile=default&search=Needham+Joseph+Science+and+Civilisation+in+China.
Another of his works is The Grand Titration: Science and Society in East and West which in its introduction asserts that “the West had been profoundly affected not only in its technical processes but in its very social structures and changes by discoveries and inventions emanating from China and East Asia. Not only the three which Lord Bacon listed (printing, gunpowder and the magnetic compass) but a hundred others-mechanical clockwork, the casting of iron, stirrups and efficient horse-harness, the Cardan suspension and the Pascal triangle, segmental-arch bridges and pound-locks on canals, the stern-post rudder, fore-and-aft sailing, quantitative cartography-all had their effects, sometimes earth-shaking effects, upon a Europe more socially unstable.” It is readable at https://books.google.fr/books?id=5WD_AQAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false.
- Those who are interested in the Asian origins of the modern "Western" civilization should take a look at the notes of http://www.palgrave.com/resources/sample-chapters/9780230393202_sample.pdf, particularly the eighth.
A chapter of 'The Road of Cinnabar', to be translated into English with the precious help of Anthony Blackford, will require serious footnoting. I am referring to the chapter dedicated to the author's encounter with the East, where he says, about Tantrism, that « Although it presupposes an adequate psychological and mental training, it takes the body as the basis and instrument: not the body as known by Western anatomy and physiology, but the body in relation to its deepest, transbiological, energies, which are usually not seized by ordinary consciousness - especially by that of the man of today –, and which correspond to the elements and the powers of the universe, studied by that thousand year-old hyperphysical physiology whose development was no less systematic in the East than the study of the human organism was in the West. »
The first attempts at systematic description of the organisaation and working of the body goes back to the VIth century BC, when the Pythagorean Alcmaeon of Croton in South Italy examined and described the internal structure of the eye and of the ear ; in Sicily, in the Vth century BC, Empedocles of Akragas wrote of digestion and respiration ; in the same century, Diogenes of Apollonia, said by Clement of Alexandria ('Strom.') to have visited Persia, Babylonia and Egypt, essayed an account of the vascular system ; Democritus of Abdera (460 – 361) formulated a wide range of medical theories on topics such as conception and embriology (Michael Gagarin, 'The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome', vol. 7, « Anatomy and Physiology »). From Hippocrates of Cos (460- 370 ) (the medical knowledge of the Hippocratic corpus derived in large part from Egyptian sources, as well as from the beliefs of the priest-healers from the Asklepieion of Cos [Calvin W. Schwabe, 'Cattle, Priests, and Progress in Medicine', p. 119) to Praxagoras of Cos (see Glenn R. Bugh, 'The Cambridge Companion to the Hellenistic World', p. 250), most early 'anatomists' were either greatly influence by Egyptian medicine, or lived in the outer periphery of Greece.
The medical science that developped there under the influence of Eastern knowledge underwent later « a metamorphosis at the hands of the Syriac and Arabic scholars of the East », who, in turn, acquired much from India, (Donald Campbell, 'Arabian Medicine and Its Influence on the Middle Ages', vol. 1, p. 3), and, as is well-known, it is owing to these scholars that Hippocratic and pseudo-Hippocratic writings entered the West in Arabic translations (the originals, once again, have been lost) in the XII/XIIIth centuries, at a time when anatomy was completely unknown to 'Westerners'. Their impact was huge. For example, « the first autopsy performed in Europe (quite ironically enough, it was forbidden in dar-al-Islam) took place as soon as the books of Arab and Greek medicine and philosophy translated into Arabic were made available in Europe — in Bologna between 1266 and 1275. » (see Hidemitsu Kuroki, 'The Influence Of Human Mobility In Muslim Societies'). Some Arab anatomists travelled to Dar-el-Harb, to conduct dissection.
More broadly, the main Islamic discoveries and contributions to the field of medicine include:
« 1) The introduction of new fields of medical research and clinical practice such as maternity, gynecology, embryology, pediatrics, dietary medicine, public health, and psychic medicine.
2) The diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of many new diseases such as smallpox and measles.
3) The qualitative development of the field of pharmacology beyond the comparatively limited earlier state of knowledge (whatever this subjective evaluation means... [Author's Note])
4) In contrast to the Greek tradition which excluded it, Muslims incorporated surgery into the study of medicine, and developed its practice and techniques.
5) The structure and organization of modern hospitals follows patterns established as early as the ninth century. Islamic hospitals had open admission policies for patients of all economic background, and regardless of sex, religion, or ethnicity. They were run by large administrative staff and could accommodate as many as 8,000 patients. They were separated into different wards by sex and nature of illness. Moreover, hospitals had their own pharmacies and facilities in which medicines were prepared, and each hospital had its own apprenticeship program where students obtained practical experience under the guidance of a physician.»Evola acknowledged straightforwardly in 'The Road of Cinnabar' that some of the views he held on the East in the late 1920's were mere « fisime » (« whims »). What he never realised, convinced as he was, influenced in this by R. Guénon's prejudices, of the validity of the view that science is a typical product of the 'West', of 'Western' minds, was that this very view is also a whim. Admittedly, not much information was available on this influence before, if I am not mistaken, the early 1980's. 10 out of the 11 references given in the note in question concern books published in the 2000's, and that which was available in the early 1900's was scattered.
"Capitalism in Medieval Islam" (The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 29, Issue 1, March 1969, pp. 79-96) by S.Y. Labib is based on secondary sources dating from the XIXth century and the first half of the XXth, as well as on primary ones. Some of the interesting points it raises are that, as also shown by Clement M. Henry ('The Politics of Islamic Finance, 2004', p. 2), despite being 'ḥarām' (« illegal »), « usury and excessive profit played an important role in Islamic capitalism ». Even more importantly, « business activity typical of the modern commodity exchange, i.e. the trading in wares not present at the marketplace but to be delivered later. Dates were legally sold at auction before they were ripe and harvested. Even the wholesaling of many kinds of tuberous vegetables... took place before the products were out of the earth – that is, before the merchant ever saw the harvested product. According to many a jurist this was legal. » In other words, virtual business was widespread in the Arab world centuries before it developped in the 'West'.
- Some books whose reference is given in the notes of http://www.palgrave.com/resources/sample-chapters/9780230393202_sample.pdf, the first chapter of "The Role of the Arab-Islamic World in the Rise of the West" (https://books.google.fr/books?id=wSBDMB3-1nYC), are available online:
1001 Inventions: The Enduring Legacy of Muslim Civilization : https://archive.org/details/1001Inventions-TheEnduringLegacyOfMuslimCivilization
The Eastern origins of Western civilization : http://jozefdarski.pl/uploads/zalacznik/7134/optimtheeasternoriginsofwesterncivilization1.pdf
Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance : http://m.friendfeed-media.com/27b6d8e5743af5b2bc03c77ef79aadb2c8c01e95
Lost History: The Enduring Legacy of Muslim Scientists, Thinkers, and Artists : https://archive.org/details/04isart
Islamic Contributions to the West : http://www.lssu.edu/faculty/jswedene/FULBRIGHT_FILES/Islamic%20Contributions%20to%20the%20West.doc
Allah's sun shines over the Occident : https://archive.org/details/HunkeSigridAllahsSonneUberDemAbendlandUnserArabischesErbeFischerFrankfurtAmMain1965
The Theft of History : http://sex.ncu.edu.tw/members/Ho/study/2012spring_WesternCivilization/the%20theft%20of%20history%20JACK%20GOODY.pdf
Before European Hegemony : http://fr.scribd.com/doc/284342102/Abu-Lughod-Janet-Before-European-Hegemony-pdf
Why Europe? The Rise of the West in World History, 1500-1850 : http://sex.ncu.edu.tw/members/Ho/study/2012spring_WesternCivilization/Why_Europe_The_Rise_of_the_West_in_World_History_1500_1850.pdf
Arabic Thought and Its Place in History : https://archive.org/details/arabicthoughtits00olea - The three chief texts about the racial change in ancient Rome are:
http://www.giveshare.org/babylon/racechange.html
https://archive.org/details/jstor-1835889
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1601-5223.1921.tb02635.x/pdf - "Greek" religion and mythology. Two of them are The Mycenaean Origin of Greek Mythology and Minoan-Mycenaean Religion, and Its Survival in Greek Religion. Both are readable at http://sacred-texts.com/cla/mog/index.htm and http://dli.serc.iisc.ernet.in/handle/2015/103433.
Another book by Walter Burkert whose abstract is "The splendid culture of the ancient Greeks has often been described as emerging like a miracle from a genius of its own, owing practically nothing to its neighbors. Walter Burkert offers a decisive argument against that distorted view, pointing toward a balanced picture of the archaic period “in which, under the influence of the Semitic East—from writers, craftsmen, merchants, healers—Greek culture began its unique flowering, soon to assume cultural hegemony in the Mediterranean.” is available at http://fr.scribd.com/doc/115695188/Burkert-Walter-1992-The-Orientalizing-Revolution-Near-Eastern-Influence-on-Greek-Culture-in-Archaic. The previous book by Walter Burkert, The Orientalizing Revolution: Near Eastern Influence on Greek Culture in the Early Archaic Age, is worth reading for the reason that the Greek civilization is often presented as being the basis of the European civilization. From there, the reading of the book can be justified in order to better discriminate what is Aryan and what is not in the first, and so what can be considered as a benchmark. Knowing what is from Semitic origin can also allow criticizing it and to eventually show its nocuous influence. For instance, the chapter “Writing and Literature in the Eighth Century” introduces the transmission of writing to the Hellenes and asserts that “It is the practice of the subscriptio in particular that connects the layout of later Greek books with cuneiform practice, the indication of the name of the writer/author and the title of the book right at the end, after the last line of the text; this is a detailed and exclusive correspondence which proves that Greek literary practice is ultimately dependent upon Mesopotamia. It is necessary to postulate that Aramaic leather scrolls formed the connecting link.” Regarding the alphabetic script from Phoenician origin, "With the alphabetic script, for the first time a system of writing had come which was so simple that it could be used by all people of normal intelligence even outside the circles of learned professional scribes."
A review of the book is available at http://garyrumor.com/?p=1415.
Walter Burkert wrote another book entitled Babylon, Memphis, Persepolis: Eastern Contexts of Greek Culture, whose abstract is “At the distant beginning of Western civilization, according to European tradition, Greece stands as an insular, isolated, near-miracle of burgeoning culture. This book traverses the ancient world’s three great centers of cultural exchange—Babylonian Nineveh, Egyptian Memphis, and Iranian Persepolis—to situate classical Greece in its proper historical place, at the Western margin of a more comprehensive Near Eastern–Aegean cultural community that emerged in the Bronze Age and expanded westward in the first millennium B.C.
In concise and inviting fashion, Walter Burkert lays out the essential evidence for this ongoing reinterpretation of Greek culture. In particular, he points to the critical role of the development of writing in the ancient Near East, from the achievement of cuneiform in the Bronze Age to the rise of the alphabet after 1000 B.C. From the invention and diffusion of alphabetic writing, a series of cultural encounters between “Oriental” and Greek followed. Burkert details how the Assyrian influences of Phoenician and Anatolian intermediaries, the emerging fascination with Egypt, and the Persian conquests in Ionia make themselves felt in the poetry of Homer and his gods, in the mythic foundations of Greek cults, and in the first steps toward philosophy. A journey through the fluid borderlines of the Near East and Europe, with new and shifting perspectives on the cultural exchanges these produced, this book offers a clear view of the multicultural field upon which the Greek heritage that formed Western civilization first appeared.“
It is partly readable at https://books.google.fr/books?id=rQKxV6rFRtYC.
The first chapter begins with “Among oriental imports in Greece, by far the most important was the alphabet. If modernization and democracy seem to be linked to literacy up to the present day, the Greeks were among the first to achieve such a state, thanks to their Eastern neighbors.”
A detailed review is available at http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2005/2005-07-03.html.
With its user friendly tone and emphasis on ideas and interpretation, this slim book makes good on the author's promise to stick to the spirit of its origins in a 1996 lecture series at the Università Ca Foscari of Venice on the now popular subject of cultural exchange in the ancient Mediterranean. Well before Bernal there was Burkert, who here speaks with the authority of one who has devoted a lifetime to once unpopular alliances of Classics with, inter alia, anthropology, evolutionary psychology, and the Near East. Unlike Bernal, Burkert's impeccable classical credentials have made him harder to dismiss, except as a maverick, who like most mavericks with patience, now occupies a sane and centrist position in debates on influences and interactions.
Of the Bernal controversy, Burkert remarks: "Vigorous debates have ensued: yet while many details of Bernal and his followers' statements are open to argument, polemics are not worthwhile. One ought to look for further evidence and new perspectives, and to work out more equitable judgments"(5). In this elegantly written, meticulously argued, and honest book, Burkert not only summarizes and adds to our knowledge of the how, why, and what of cultural influences on Greece from the Near East, Egypt, and Persia, mainly during the Archaic and Classical Periods, but also demonstrates to his readers the right way to study this fascinating topic. In other words, the work provides a methodological model for all who wish to pursue its subject.
Among the book's most valuable contributions is its attention to the historical and geographical contexts of cultural transmission: trade between Greece and the East (a push fueled by the Greek search for metals), politics (diplomacy, war, and conquest), of course, but also factors such as roads, libraries, schools, and writing materials (e.g., the switch from clay tablets to perishable materials with the Greek import of the Semitic alphabet). Burkert's understanding of the process of cultural transmission is nuanced, never a simple cause-effect phenomenon, but a complex array of responses "including possible progress by misunderstanding," as well as both positive and negative input by peaceful transfer or invasion or exploitation (5).
The detailed discussions of the nature and limits of the sources, especially for Persia, are also of great value, especially when taken together with the Appendix of "Ancient Sources in Various Translations" covering English translations of Mesopotamian, Hittite, Egyptian, Iranian and Persian texts. Each chapter opens with a helpful survey of the history and state of scholarship on its topic.
Equally impressive is the author's meticulous distinction between the degrees of probability for hypothesized instances of influence so that reader easily can distinguish between an intriguing suggestion and overwhelming proof. Thus, a learned, fascinating, and (to me) highly persuasive etymological discussion of the ultimate derivation of the Greek Titans from the Semitic Tit (clay) concludes with a modest disclaimer: "This daring hypothesis still lacks evidence for verification, but even possibilities suggest context" (34). Alternatively, of an Akkadian epic parallel to Iliad 15.190-193 (the tripartite division of the world between Poseidon, Hades, and Zeus), Burkert writes "No other passage in Homer comes so close to being a translation of the Akkadian epic. Actually it is not really a translation but a resetting, yet in a way that shows the foreign framework. One might still believe this to be a deceptive coincidence, were it not for the special context of the Dios Apate where many different clues come together to point to the oriental tradition; in this case the coincidence hypothesis becomes the most improbable one" (37).
Taken as a whole, the work draws our attention to two critical and related methodological truisms of this line of inquiry. First, the search for evidence of cultural interactions that occurred at the dawn of history is a damnably difficult, perhaps quixotic enterprise, since the survival of the evidence to a great extent turns on accidents of preservation and discovery. Second, the fact that today we cannot yet (and perhaps never will) come up with sufficient evidence for any water-tight "proof" of influence does not "prove" that such evidence or influences did not exist, simply that we cannot prove their existence one way or the other. This "positivist fallacy" is particularly frustrating when the hypothesis in question seems quite likely in light of both common sense and comparative history.
The book's five chapters cover much terrain familiar to readers of Burkert's earlier work (especially his The Orientalizing Revolution: Near Eastern Influence on Greek Culture in the Early Archaic Age, translated by Margaret E. Pinder & Walter Burkert. Cambridge, Mass and London: Harvard University Press, 1992; originally published in German in 1984) with the welcome additions of chapters on Egypt and Persia.
A brief first chapter covers alphabetic writing. Burkert accepts an 8th century BCE date of transmission and suggests Cyprus as a plausible locus. Chapter Two's treatment of orientalizing features in Homer not only offers a comprehensive reexamination of Mesopotamian parallels to the Homeric poems (epithets, repetitions, reported speech, verbal and thematic correspondences, etc.) but also offers suggestive comments on how these parallels may have come into being. Especially intriguing is his observation that many of the most striking echoes of Mesopotamian literature in the Homeric Epics come from the opening passages of the texts of the Enuma Elish and Atrahasis--precisely the sections that a Greek seeking education would be likely to recall.
Burkert privileges cuneiform literature as a source of literary transmission in light of the continuous routes of contact between Mesopotamia and Greek speakers; these contacts reached an apogee in the 8th and 7th centuries BCE. He also raises an intriguing paradox: Mesopotamian Epics share striking similarities with the Homeric poems in both content and style, although the former were based on a fixed tradition of writing, while the latter were orally composed and transmitted. This chapter's centerpiece is a detailed discussion of the Dios Apate (the scene of Hera's deception of Zeus in Iliad14), explaining the many peculiarities of language and content that long troubled commentators on the basis of parallels with the Atrahasis, Gilgamesh, and Enuma Elish. Burkert's Chapter Three, "Oriental Wisdom Literature and Cosmogony," presents an interesting taxonomy of the ideas that gave rise to and shaped the creation stories and wisdom literature that comprise the earliest speculative literature from the East. The modes of thinking that engender these cosmogonies, as Burkert demonstrates, also appear in Homer, Hesiod, Orphic writings, and the Presocratics. Thus, Burkert sees no reason to isolate the mythological cosmogonies of the Greeks from their oriental counterparts: "They evidently belong to the same family, and it is no less evident that the Presocratics still follow in their steps" (61). In the realm of more rational fields such as mathematics and astronomy, where Greek dependence on continuous and extensive contacts with the East is incontrovertible, the Presocratics like their contemporary Eastern counterparts can be shown attempting to square observed facts of the natural world with existing theologies: "Certainly we should keep in mind that Eastern cultures do not represent only the prerational, the mythical stage, leaving it to the Greeks to march the whole way from mythos to logos" (66).
Still, there is no question about the primacy of a Greek foundation for philosophy as we know it today. Burkert likens the Presocratic transformation of Eastern wisdom to a process of building on an oriental scaffolding and explains the Greeks' philosophical achievements by their different social structure (more freedom, mobility, and risk taking) and the exceptionally flexible medium of their language. These factors enabled Greek philosophers to formulate an abstract fundamental category of "being" or disinterested and decontextualized "truth" that can be revealed by rational argument, and, after Plato, through mathematics. On the last point, Burkert permits himself a rather touching personal coda: "Philosophy has largely tried to follow such an ideal of truth. It threatens to become obsolete, though, with the onset of relativity and deconstruction within the more modern trends in the social sciences and humanities. It is still to be hoped that the Greek heritage will not be totally lost" (70).
Burkert's Chapter Four, "Orpheus and Egypt," focuses on Graeco-Egyptian religious contacts, which intensify in the 6th century BCE with extensive Greek settlement and mercenary activity in Egypt and are reflected even earlier in the undisputed Egyptian influences on Archaic Greek art and temple architecture.. Among the few documented cases of instances of religious syncretism for the 6th century BCE, most notable is the Greek identification of Dionysus with Osiris; mystery rites promising a blissful afterlife provide the strongest basis for the association of the two gods. From Dionysus it is a short hop to Orpheus. For the rest of this chapter, Burkert takes on the topic of putative Egyptian influences on Orphic religion, a question made very difficult by the fact that despite tantalizing new discoveries, 1) we still know so little about Orphic religion; 2) inevitably, those who think they know something about Orphism are hotly challenged by those who are sure they know better. This sorry state of affairs leave the rest of us -- those nonspecialists among whom I count myself -- a miserable silent majority, not knowing what to think, and surely in no position to enter the fray with any substantive criticism.
In a nutshell, Burkert argues the following: Orphism can be contextualized within a general family of teachings guaranteeing renewed life after death through the performance of ritual; such rituals or mysteries were associated with Orpheus as well as Dionysus and taught by itinerant teachers. Egyptian influences in the 6th century BCE were probably of prime importance for the transformation of the Mycenaean Dionysus into the Dionysus of mystery rites.
The Derveni papyrus, with its Presocratic commentary on an Orphic theogony, provides Burkert's main evidence for Egyptian influences on Greek Orphism. In his reading, the detail of "the god [Uranus] who first had ejaculated the brilliance of heaven (aither)" is a mainstream Egyptian cosmogonic tradition which has the primal god Amun masturbating and ejaculating twin children. The Derveni text has Zeus swallow the phallus [of the king] prior to becoming "the only one" who carries within himself and then begets all gods, goddess, rivers, springs, and the rest of life. Burkert finds a clear parallel to this theme in Egyptian iconography popular in the 6th century BCE showing a plurality of gods combined into one composite god figure. Thus, argues Burkert, the text of the Orphic theogony, as known to the author of the Derveni papyrus, can be understood as "the verbal representation of the Egyptian idea of the composite god" (94). Burkert also finds an Egyptian parallel to the Orphic idea (also found in Parmenides) of the god who creates the world through thinking in the Memphitic Theology, which has Ptah produce the gods by thinking and speaking. Thus, concludes Burkert, "The ejaculation of air, the composite god, the creation by thinking -- it is almost uncanny to find so many Egyptian particulars. But the evidence is clear" (91).
With their post-Persian War polarization of Persia as the Asiatic "Other," observes Burkert in his final chapter "The Advent of the Magi," Classical Greeks themselves bear no small responsibility for our relative inattention to Persian influences on Greek culture. The difficulties of handling Persian sources are surely of equal causative weight. Readers new to the subject will be grateful to Burkert for his clear exposition of the sources and their problems in his detailed introduction to this chapter. Written sources for one probable area of cultural influence, the religion of Zarathustra vary wildly over region (Iran to India), epoch (from Darius' sixth-century BCE commemorative monument carved in rock face at Behistun, to ninth-century CE Zoroastran texts written under Moslem rule), dialect and script (e.g., Cuneiform Persian, Old and New Avestan, Pahlevi), and are fragmentary and paradoxical (later texts may be more valuable than earlier) to boot. It should come, then, as no surprise that Burkert summarizes our state of knowledge of pre-Persian War influences in two words: Megabyxos (the Persian title of the priest at the temple of Artemis at Ephesus which was brought under Persian protection after the defeat of Croesus in 547 BCE) and Magos, a Persian loan word, variously used in Greek texts for priests and itinerant quacks.
For the post-Persian War period, Burkert focuses on two religious ideas, both apparently Persian imports to Greece. The first is the notion of the ascent of the pious dead to a better life in heaven, an idea that replaces the uniformly bleak picture of an afterlife held by first millennium Greeks, Mesopotamians, Syrians, and Jews. Although Burkert argues that this notion is widely documented in Zarathustran and possibly pre-Zarathustran sources that antedate its first 5th century appearance in Greece (perhaps via the Pythagoraeans), he admits defeat when it comes to further historical specifics, since "among Iranian, Egyptian, and Pythagorean elements, the intermingling of similar motifs and tendencies is too dense, and the determining contacts go back too far as against the extant Greek texts, so that a neat sorting out of items and ways of transfer becomes impossible" (113). Burkert feels on firmer ground when it comes to the principle of dualism, the idea of a persistent battle between good and evil forces, elaborately documented as an import in Greek texts (Plutarch, Aristoxenus, Eudemus) and first found in fifth-century BCE Greece in Empedocles' depiction of a war between Love and Hate as the driving cause for natural processes.
Burkert is as clear about the incontrovertible fact of cultural transmission as he is about cultural transformation. Cultural mixing is a fact: "Culture, including Greek culture, requires intercultural contact" (1). The notion of an "isolated" Greek miracle is a mirage resulting from a historical accident: "Greek culture had the good fortune to find successors who established a heritage and took care of it continuously, while neighboring civilizations fell victim to the ravages of time and to the victory of either Christianity or Islam" (124). The recent demise of the notion of a pure Classical culture merits a rather dry-eyed obituary notice: "Classicism presupposes and confirms recognized standards or norms -- but these are disappearing from our multicultural world and will not be recovered easily' (1).
Burkert's magisterial introduction (which should be required reading for anyone interested in the topic) traces the two hundred year shift in paradigm: from Classical Greece perceived in isolation as a point of origin to today's intercultural paradigm for Greek historiography. But he is unambivalent about subsequent Greek cultural primacy ("What determined the shape of world civilization was Greek," 15), the fact that within the short space of two hundred years the Greeks had outgrown their Eastern masters:
And yet in the process of acculturation something new may arise; and although Greeks had been on the receiving side for a long time, there is no doubt that the result is Greek. It is Greek art and architecture that have become classical, and Greek literature that has become world literature...By the fifth century, Greek style had become a model for the whole of the Mediterranean world, both in artistic craftsmanship and in mythological poetry; it even had its effects in the East. In a way it was already dominating world civilization and this without the props of military or political power (12).
The explanation for this shift of the cultural fulcrum from the East to Greek coastal and mainland cities -- the Greeks "special luck" (11)--- comes in the latter half of Burkert's introduction in a brief geo-political history of the East (from the Assyrian Epoch through the Persian Wars). The collapse of Bronze Age Aegean civilization opened the way for new centers of contact in small coastal cities. Political and economic factors such as the development of maritime trade, the growing political power of the Assyrians, and the expansion of literacy together served an impetus for cultural transfer. The Greeks, with their freedom, their polycentricity, their "openness for agonistic competition, even if this meant a lack of stability" (14-15) were advantageously positioned to take advantage of the changed world order: "If the development of royal authority and state administration had been a necessary precondition for the establishment of high cultures in the East, their further development depended upon the retreat of the state and the opening of unlimited opportunity for small groups and individuals" (15). With the successive collapse of the great Eastern Empires, the areas at the fringes benefited. The center of Aegean civilization shifted from the Near East to Greece. As the nearest "westerners," the Greeks got lucky: "They immediately benefited -- they got their chance and their 'miracle'" (7).
Of course, for communities as for individuals success turns on far more than the sheer luck of being in the right place at the right time. The ability to exploit a favorable roll of the dice to fullest advantage certainly counts as much, if not more. In light of the flood of work on cultural influences by Burkert and others, perhaps this is a good way for today's classicists to think when we ponder the Greek "miracle."- Martin Litchfield West (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Litchfield_West#Bibliography) also wrote on the eastern elements in Greek culture, especially in his book The East Face of Helicon (https://books.google.fr/books?id=fIp0RYIjazQC).
- An article by Martin L. West about "Near Eastern Material in Hellenistic and Roman Literature" is also available at http://www.jstor.org/stable/311152.
A study about Prehistory of Presocratic Philosophy in an Orientalizing Context is readable at https://books.google.fr/books?id=14muxtEiBG0C.
A text dealing with The Babylonian Origin of Greek Science is available at http://www.hebrewhistory.info/factpapers/fp016_science.htm. It is written at the end of it that “A much fuller and more detailed exposition of the subject can be found in chapters 14, 15 and 16 of The Eighth Day; The Hidden History of the Jewish Contribution to Civilization (https://books.google.fr/books?id=fWRIAAAAMAAJ), by Samuel Kurinsky, Jason Aronson, 1994, from which much of the above material was taken.”
https://www.griffith.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/409525/before-athens-early-popular-government.pdf, Before Athens: Early Popular Government in Phoenician and Greek City States, is concerned with “There is no question that Athens developed, named and refined democracy in the late 6th and early 5th centuries BC but a number of scholars have pointed to evidence that suggests the ideas and institutions that constitute democracy had previously been tested in other Greek city states and even further afield, in the Middle East. This paper explores the political environment in the eastern Mediterranean in the 6th century and earlier to establish whether any Phoenician cities had their own form of democratic government and whether Phoenician trade into the Greek sphere might have contributed to democratic experiments in other polities before Athens.”
It appears to me that what I call the Downfall of Europe is foretold and explained with extreme clearness in Dostoevsky's works and in the most concentrated form in The Brothers Karamazov. It seems to me that European and especially German youth are destined to find their greatest writer in Dostoevsky--not in Goethe, not even in Nietzsche. In the most modern poetry, there is everywhere an approach to Dostoevsky, even though it is sometimes callow and imitative. The ideal of the Karamazov, primeval, Asiatic, and occult, is already beginning to consume the European soul. That is what I mean by the downfall of Europe. This downfall is a return home to the mother, a turning back to Asia, to the source, to the "Faüstischen Muttern" and will necessarily lead, like every death on earth, to a new birth.We contemporaries see a "downfall" in these events in the same way as the aged who, compelled to leave the home they love, mourn a loss to them irreparable while the young think only of the future, care only for what is new.
What is that Asiatic Ideal that I find in Dostoevsky, the effect of which will be, as I see it, to overwhelm Europe?
Taken from H. Hesse, The Brothers Karamazov, or the Downfall of Europe, readable in full here http://world.std.com/~raparker/exploring/books/hesse_hudson_brothers.html
From: evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com
To: evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com
Date: Sun, 3 Apr 2016 14:34:08 -0700
Subject: [evola_as_he_is] Re: Non-white influences on the alleged "white" civilization
A study about Prehistory of Presocratic Philosophy in an Orientalizing Context is readable at https://books.google.fr/books?id=14muxtEiBG0C.
A text dealing with The Babylonian Origin of Greek Science is available at http://www.hebrewhistory.info/factpapers/fp016_science.htm. It is written at the end of it that “A much fuller and more detailed exposition of the subject can be found in chapters 14, 15 and 16 of The Eighth Day; The Hidden History of the Jewish Contribution to Civilization (https://books.google.fr/books?id=fWRIAAAAMAAJ), by Samuel Kurinsky, Jason Aronson, 1994, from which much of the above material was taken.”
https://www.griffith.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/409525/before-athens-early-popular-government.pdf, Before Athens: Early Popular Government in Phoenician and Greek City States, is concerned with “There is no question that Athens developed, named and refined democracy in the late 6th and early 5th centuries BC but a number of scholars have pointed to evidence that suggests the ideas and institutions that constitute democracy had previously been tested in other Greek city states and even further afield, in the Middle East. This paper explores the political environment in the eastern Mediterranean in the 6th century and earlier to establish whether any Phoenician cities had their own form of democratic government and whether Phoenician trade into the Greek sphere might have contributed to democratic experiments in other polities before Athens.”
Karl, Kynast, Apollo and Dionysos. Nordic and non-Nordic within Greek Religion. A racial inquiry. (1927) [German title : Apollon und Dionysos. Nordisches und Unnordisches innerhalb der Religion der Griechen. Eine rassenkundliche Untersuchung ]
Available here :
Van: evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com <evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com> namens 'G. H.' g.vdheide@... [evola_as_he_is] <evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com>
Verzonden: zondag 1 mei 2016 19:42
Aan: evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com
Onderwerp: RE: [evola_as_he_is] Re: Non-white influences on the alleged "white" civilization
It appears to me that what I call the Downfall of Europe is foretold and explained with extreme clearness in Dostoevsky's works and in the most concentrated form in The Brothers Karamazov. It seems to me that European and especially German youth are destined to find their greatest writer in Dostoevsky--not in Goethe, not even in Nietzsche. In the most modern poetry, there is everywhere an approach to Dostoevsky, even though it is sometimes callow and imitative. The ideal of the Karamazov, primeval, Asiatic, and occult, is already beginning to consume the European soul. That is what I mean by the downfall of Europe. This downfall is a return home to the mother, a turning back to Asia, to the source, to the "Faüstischen Muttern" and will necessarily lead, like every death on earth, to a new birth.
We contemporaries see a "downfall" in these events in the same way as the aged who, compelled to leave the home they love, mourn a loss to them irreparable while the young think only of the future, care only for what is new.
What is that Asiatic Ideal that I find in Dostoevsky, the effect of which will be, as I see it, to overwhelm Europe?
Taken from H. Hesse, The Brothers Karamazov, or the Downfall of Europe, readable in full here http://world.std.com/~raparker/exploring/books/hesse_hudson_brothers.html
From: evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com
To: evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com
Date: Sun, 3 Apr 2016 14:34:08 -0700
Subject: [evola_as_he_is] Re: Non-white influences on the alleged "white" civilization
A study about Prehistory of Presocratic Philosophy in an Orientalizing Context is readable at https://books.google.fr/books?id=14muxtEiBG0C.
A text dealing with The Babylonian Origin of Greek Science is available at http://www.hebrewhistory.info/factpapers/fp016_science.htm. It is written at the end of it that “A much fuller and more detailed exposition of the subject can be found in chapters 14, 15 and 16 of The Eighth Day; The Hidden History of the Jewish Contribution to Civilization (https://books.google.fr/books?id=fWRIAAAAMAAJ), by Samuel Kurinsky, Jason Aronson, 1994, from which much of the above material was taken.”
https://www.griffith.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/409525/before-athens-early-popular-government.pdf, Before Athens: Early Popular Government in Phoenician and Greek City States, is concerned with “There is no question that Athens developed, named and refined democracy in the late 6th and early 5th centuries BC but a number of scholars have pointed to evidence that suggests the ideas and institutions that constitute democracy had previously been tested in other Greek city states and even further afield, in the Middle East. This paper explores the political environment in the eastern Mediterranean in the 6th century and earlier to establish whether any Phoenician cities had their own form of democratic government and whether Phoenician trade into the Greek sphere might have contributed to democratic experiments in other polities before Athens.”
"Je n’hésite jamais à le déclarer, le diplôme est l’ennemi mortel de la culture. Plus les diplômes ont pris d’importance dans la vie (et cette importance n’a fait que croître à cause des circonstances économiques), plus le rendement de l’enseignement a été faible. Plus le contrôle s’est exercé, s’est multiplié, plus les résultats ont été mauvais."
http://skhole.fr/paul-val%C3%A9ry-sur-les-diplomes-et-le-baccalaur%C3%A9at
skhole.fr() Paul Valéry critique le culte des diplômes et du baccalauréat. Extrait de Le bilan de l'intelligence (1935), in Variété, Œuvres, t. 1, Gallimard, Pléiade, p ...Van: evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com <evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com> namens rouesolaire@... [evola_as_he_is] <evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com>
Verzonden: maandag 29 februari 2016 13:39
Aan: evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com
Onderwerp: [evola_as_he_is] Re: Non-white influences on the alleged "white" civilizationThe previous book by Walter Burkert, The Orientalizing Revolution: Near Eastern Influence on Greek Culture in the Early Archaic Age, is worth reading for the reason that the Greek civilization is often presented as being the basis of the European civilization. From there, the reading of the book can be justified in order to better discriminate what is Aryan and what is not in the first, and so what can be considered as a benchmark. Knowing what is from Semitic origin can also allow criticizing it and to eventually show its nocuous influence. For instance, the chapter “Writing and Literature in the Eighth Century” introduces the transmission of writing to the Hellenes and asserts that “It is the practice of the subscriptio in particular that connects the layout of later Greek books with cuneiform practice, the indication of the name of the writer/author and the title of the book right at the end, after the last line of the text; this is a detailed and exclusive correspondence which proves that Greek literary practice is ultimately dependent upon Mesopotamia. It is necessary to postulate that Aramaic leather scrolls formed the connecting link.” Regarding the alphabetic script from Phoenician origin, "With the alphabetic script, for the first time a system of writing had come which was so simple that it could be used by all people of normal intelligence even outside the circles of learned professional scribes."
A review of the book is available at http://garyrumor.com/?p=1415.
Walter Burkert wrote another book entitled Babylon, Memphis, Persepolis: Eastern Contexts of Greek Culture, whose abstract is “At the distant beginning of Western civilization, according to European tradition, Greece stands as an insular, isolated, near-miracle of burgeoning culture. This book traverses the ancient world’s three great centers of cultural exchange—Babylonian Nineveh, Egyptian Memphis, and Iranian Persepolis—to situate classical Greece in its proper historical place, at the Western margin of a more comprehensive Near Eastern–Aegean cultural community that emerged in the Bronze Age and expanded westward in the first millennium B.C.
In concise and inviting fashion, Walter Burkert lays out the essential evidence for this ongoing reinterpretation of Greek culture. In particular, he points to the critical role of the development of writing in the ancient Near East, from the achievement of cuneiform in the Bronze Age to the rise of the alphabet after 1000 B.C. From the invention and diffusion of alphabetic writing, a series of cultural encounters between “Oriental” and Greek followed. Burkert details how the Assyrian influences of Phoenician and Anatolian intermediaries, the emerging fascination with Egypt, and the Persian conquests in Ionia make themselves felt in the poetry of Homer and his gods, in the mythic foundations of Greek cults, and in the first steps toward philosophy. A journey through the fluid borderlines of the Near East and Europe, with new and shifting perspectives on the cultural exchanges these produced, this book offers a clear view of the multicultural field upon which the Greek heritage that formed Western civilization first appeared.“
It is partly readable at https://books.google.fr/books?id=rQKxV6rFRtYC.
The first chapter begins with “Among oriental imports in Greece, by far the most important was the alphabet. If modernization and democracy seem to be linked to literacy up to the present day, the Greeks were among the first to achieve such a state, thanks to their Eastern neighbors.”
A detailed review is available at http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2005/2005-07-03.html.
With its user friendly tone and emphasis on ideas and interpretation, this slim book makes good on the author's promise to stick to the spirit of its origins in a 1996 lecture series at the Università Ca Foscari of Venice on the now popular subject of cultural exchange in the ancient Mediterranean. Well before Bernal there was Burkert, who here speaks with the authority of one who has devoted a lifetime to once unpopular alliances of Classics with, inter alia, anthropology, evolutionary psychology, and the Near East. Unlike Bernal, Burkert's impeccable classical credentials have made him harder to dismiss, except as a maverick, who like most mavericks with patience, now occupies a sane and centrist position in debates on influences and interactions.
Of the Bernal controversy, Burkert remarks: "Vigorous debates have ensued: yet while many details of Bernal and his followers' statements are open to argument, polemics are not worthwhile. One ought to look for further evidence and new perspectives, and to work out more equitable judgments"(5). In this elegantly written, meticulously argued, and honest book, Burkert not only summarizes and adds to our knowledge of the how, why, and what of cultural influences on Greece from the Near East, Egypt, and Persia, mainly during the Archaic and Classical Periods, but also demonstrates to his readers the right way to study this fascinating topic. In other words, the work provides a methodological model for all who wish to pursue its subject.
Among the book's most valuable contributions is its attention to the historical and geographical contexts of cultural transmission: trade between Greece and the East (a push fueled by the Greek search for metals), politics (diplomacy, war, and conquest), of course, but also factors such as roads, libraries, schools, and writing materials (e.g., the switch from clay tablets to perishable materials with the Greek import of the Semitic alphabet). Burkert's understanding of the process of cultural transmission is nuanced, never a simple cause-effect phenomenon, but a complex array of responses "including possible progress by misunderstanding," as well as both positive and negative input by peaceful transfer or invasion or exploitation (5).
The detailed discussions of the nature and limits of the sources, especially for Persia, are also of great value, especially when taken together with the Appendix of "Ancient Sources in Various Translations" covering English translations of Mesopotamian, Hittite, Egyptian, Iranian and Persian texts. Each chapter opens with a helpful survey of the history and state of scholarship on its topic.
Equally impressive is the author's meticulous distinction between the degrees of probability for hypothesized instances of influence so that reader easily can distinguish between an intriguing suggestion and overwhelming proof. Thus, a learned, fascinating, and (to me) highly persuasive etymological discussion of the ultimate derivation of the Greek Titans from the Semitic Tit (clay) concludes with a modest disclaimer: "This daring hypothesis still lacks evidence for verification, but even possibilities suggest context" (34). Alternatively, of an Akkadian epic parallel to Iliad 15.190-193 (the tripartite division of the world between Poseidon, Hades, and Zeus), Burkert writes "No other passage in Homer comes so close to being a translation of the Akkadian epic. Actually it is not really a translation but a resetting, yet in a way that shows the foreign framework. One might still believe this to be a deceptive coincidence, were it not for the special context of the Dios Apate where many different clues come together to point to the oriental tradition; in this case the coincidence hypothesis becomes the most improbable one" (37).
Taken as a whole, the work draws our attention to two critical and related methodological truisms of this line of inquiry. First, the search for evidence of cultural interactions that occurred at the dawn of history is a damnably difficult, perhaps quixotic enterprise, since the survival of the evidence to a great extent turns on accidents of preservation and discovery. Second, the fact that today we cannot yet (and perhaps never will) come up with sufficient evidence for any water-tight "proof" of influence does not "prove" that such evidence or influences did not exist, simply that we cannot prove their existence one way or the other. This "positivist fallacy" is particularly frustrating when the hypothesis in question seems quite likely in light of both common sense and comparative history.
The book's five chapters cover much terrain familiar to readers of Burkert's earlier work (especially his The Orientalizing Revolution: Near Eastern Influence on Greek Culture in the Early Archaic Age, translated by Margaret E. Pinder & Walter Burkert. Cambridge, Mass and London: Harvard University Press, 1992; originally published in German in 1984) with the welcome additions of chapters on Egypt and Persia.
A brief first chapter covers alphabetic writing. Burkert accepts an 8th century BCE date of transmission and suggests Cyprus as a plausible locus. Chapter Two's treatment of orientalizing features in Homer not only offers a comprehensive reexamination of Mesopotamian parallels to the Homeric poems (epithets, repetitions, reported speech, verbal and thematic correspondences, etc.) but also offers suggestive comments on how these parallels may have come into being. Especially intriguing is his observation that many of the most striking echoes of Mesopotamian literature in the Homeric Epics come from the opening passages of the texts of the Enuma Elish and Atrahasis--precisely the sections that a Greek seeking education would be likely to recall.
Burkert privileges cuneiform literature as a source of literary transmission in light of the continuous routes of contact between Mesopotamia and Greek speakers; these contacts reached an apogee in the 8th and 7th centuries BCE. He also raises an intriguing paradox: Mesopotamian Epics share striking similarities with the Homeric poems in both content and style, although the former were based on a fixed tradition of writing, while the latter were orally composed and transmitted. This chapter's centerpiece is a detailed discussion of the Dios Apate (the scene of Hera's deception of Zeus in Iliad14), explaining the many peculiarities of language and content that long troubled commentators on the basis of parallels with the Atrahasis, Gilgamesh, and Enuma Elish. Burkert's Chapter Three, "Oriental Wisdom Literature and Cosmogony," presents an interesting taxonomy of the ideas that gave rise to and shaped the creation stories and wisdom literature that comprise the earliest speculative literature from the East. The modes of thinking that engender these cosmogonies, as Burkert demonstrates, also appear in Homer, Hesiod, Orphic writings, and the Presocratics. Thus, Burkert sees no reason to isolate the mythologicalcosmogonies of the Greeks from their oriental counterparts: "They evidently belong to the same family, and it is no less evident that the Presocratics still follow in their steps" (61). In the realm of more rational fields such as mathematics and astronomy, where Greek dependence on continuous and extensive contacts with the East is incontrovertible, the Presocratics like their contemporary Eastern counterparts can be shown attempting to square observed facts of the natural world with existing theologies: "Certainly we should keep in mind that Eastern cultures do not represent only the prerational, the mythical stage, leaving it to the Greeks to march the whole way from mythos to logos" (66).
Still, there is no question about the primacy of a Greek foundation for philosophy as we know it today. Burkert likens the Presocratic transformation of Eastern wisdom to a process of building on an oriental scaffolding and explains the Greeks' philosophical achievements by their different social structure (more freedom, mobility, and risk taking) and the exceptionally flexible medium of their language. These factors enabled Greek philosophers to formulate an abstract fundamental category of "being" or disinterested and decontextualized "truth" that can be revealed by rational argument, and, after Plato, through mathematics. On the last point, Burkert permits himself a rather touching personal coda: "Philosophy has largely tried to follow such an ideal of truth. It threatens to become obsolete, though, with the onset of relativity and deconstruction within the more modern trends in the social sciences and humanities. It is still to be hoped that the Greek heritage will not be totally lost" (70).
Burkert's Chapter Four, "Orpheus and Egypt," focuses on Graeco-Egyptian religious contacts, which intensify in the 6th century BCE with extensive Greek settlement and mercenary activity in Egypt and are reflected even earlier in the undisputed Egyptian influences on Archaic Greek art and temple architecture.. Among the few documented cases of instances of religious syncretism for the 6th century BCE, most notable is the Greek identification of Dionysus with Osiris; mystery rites promising a blissful afterlife provide the strongest basis for the association of the two gods. From Dionysus it is a short hop to Orpheus. For the rest of this chapter, Burkert takes on the topic of putative Egyptian influences on Orphic religion, a question made very difficult by the fact that despite tantalizing new discoveries, 1) we still know so little about Orphic religion; 2) inevitably, those who think they know something about Orphism are hotly challenged by those who are sure they know better. This sorry state of affairs leave the rest of us -- those nonspecialists among whom I count myself -- a miserable silent majority, not knowing what to think, and surely in no position to enter the fray with any substantive criticism.
In a nutshell, Burkert argues the following: Orphism can be contextualized within a general family of teachings guaranteeing renewed life after death through the performance of ritual; such rituals or mysteries were associated with Orpheus as well as Dionysus and taught by itinerant teachers. Egyptian influences in the 6th century BCE were probably of prime importance for the transformation of the Mycenaean Dionysus into the Dionysus of mystery rites.
The Derveni papyrus, with its Presocratic commentary on an Orphic theogony, provides Burkert's main evidence for Egyptian influences on Greek Orphism. In his reading, the detail of "the god [Uranus] who first had ejaculated the brilliance of heaven (aither)" is a mainstream Egyptian cosmogonic tradition which has the primal god Amun masturbating and ejaculating twin children. The Derveni text has Zeus swallow the phallus [of the king] prior to becoming "the only one" who carries within himself and then begets all gods, goddess, rivers, springs, and the rest of life. Burkert finds a clear parallel to this theme in Egyptian iconography popular in the 6th century BCE showing a plurality of gods combined into one composite god figure. Thus, argues Burkert, the text of the Orphic theogony, as known to the author of the Derveni papyrus, can be understood as "the verbal representation of the Egyptian idea of the composite god" (94). Burkert also finds an Egyptian parallel to the Orphicidea (also found in Parmenides) of the god who creates the world through thinking in the Memphitic Theology, which has Ptah produce the gods by thinking and speaking. Thus, concludes Burkert, "The ejaculation of air, the composite god, the creation by thinking -- it is almost uncanny to find so many Egyptian particulars. But the evidence is clear" (91).
With their post-Persian War polarization of Persia as the Asiatic "Other," observes Burkert in his final chapter "The Advent of the Magi," Classical Greeks themselves bear no small responsibility for our relative inattention to Persian influences on Greek culture. The difficulties of handling Persian sources are surely of equal causative weight. Readers new to the subject will be grateful to Burkert for his clear exposition of the sources and their problems in his detailed introduction to this chapter. Written sources for one probable area of cultural influence, the religion of Zarathustra vary wildly over region (Iran to India), epoch (from Darius' sixth-century BCE commemorative monument carved in rock face at Behistun, to ninth-century CE Zoroastran texts written under Moslem rule), dialect and script (e.g., Cuneiform Persian, Old and New Avestan, Pahlevi), and are fragmentary and paradoxical (later texts may be more valuable than earlier) to boot. It should come, then, as no surprise that Burkert summarizes our state of knowledge of pre-Persian War influences in two words: Megabyxos (the Persian title of the priest at the temple of Artemis at Ephesus which was brought under Persian protection after the defeat of Croesus in 547 BCE) and Magos, a Persian loan word, variously used in Greek texts for priests and itinerant quacks.
For the post-Persian War period, Burkert focuses on two religious ideas, both apparently Persian imports to Greece. The first is the notion of the ascent of the pious dead to a better life in heaven, an idea that replaces the uniformly bleak picture of an afterlife held by first millennium Greeks, Mesopotamians, Syrians, and Jews. Although Burkert argues that this notion is widely documented in Zarathustran and possibly pre-Zarathustran sources that antedate its first 5th century appearance in Greece (perhaps via the Pythagoraeans), he admits defeat when it comes to further historical specifics, since "among Iranian, Egyptian, and Pythagorean elements, the intermingling of similar motifs and tendencies is too dense, and the determining contacts go back too far as against the extant Greek texts, so that a neat sorting out of items and ways of transfer becomes impossible" (113). Burkert feels on firmer ground when it comes to the principle of dualism, the idea of a persistent battle between good and evil forces, elaborately documented as an import in Greek texts (Plutarch, Aristoxenus, Eudemus) and first found in fifth-century BCE Greece in Empedocles' depiction of a war between Love and Hate as the driving cause for natural processes.
Burkert is as clear about the incontrovertible fact of cultural transmission as he is about cultural transformation. Cultural mixing is a fact: "Culture, including Greek culture, requires intercultural contact" (1). The notion of an "isolated" Greek miracle is a mirage resulting from a historical accident: "Greek culture had the good fortune to find successors who established a heritage and took care of it continuously, while neighboring civilizations fell victim to the ravages of time and to the victory of either Christianity or Islam" (124). The recent demise of the notion of a pure Classical culture merits a rather dry-eyed obituary notice: "Classicism presupposes and confirms recognized standards or norms -- but these are disappearing from our multicultural world and will not be recovered easily' (1).
Burkert's magisterial introduction (which should be required reading for anyone interested in the topic) traces the two hundred year shift in paradigm: from Classical Greece perceived in isolation as a point of origin to today's intercultural paradigm for Greek historiography. But he is unambivalent about subsequent Greek cultural primacy ("What determined the shape of world civilization was Greek," 15), the fact that within the short space of two hundred years the Greeks had outgrown their Eastern masters:
And yet in the process of acculturation something new may arise; and although Greeks had been on the receiving side for a long time, there is no doubt that the result is Greek. It is Greek art and architecture that have become classical, and Greek literature that has become world literature...By the fifth century, Greek style had become a model for the whole of the Mediterranean world, both in artistic craftsmanship and in mythological poetry; it even had its effects in the East. In a way it was already dominating world civilization and this without the props of military or political power (12).
The explanation for this shift of the cultural fulcrum from the East to Greek coastal and mainland cities -- the Greeks "special luck" (11)--- comes in the latter half of Burkert's introduction in a brief geo-political history of the East (from the Assyrian Epoch through the Persian Wars). The collapse of Bronze Age Aegean civilization opened the way for new centers of contact in small coastal cities. Political and economic factors such as the development of maritime trade, the growing political power of the Assyrians, and the expansion of literacy together served an impetus for cultural transfer. The Greeks, with their freedom, their polycentricity, their "openness for agonistic competition, even if this meant a lack of stability" (14-15) were advantageously positioned to take advantage of the changed world order: "If the development of royal authority and state administration had been a necessary precondition for the establishment of high cultures in the East, their further development depended upon the retreat of the state and the opening of unlimited opportunity for small groups and individuals" (15). With the successive collapse of the great Eastern Empires, the areas at the fringes benefited. The center of Aegean civilization shifted from the Near East to Greece. As the nearest "westerners," the Greeks got lucky: "They immediately benefited -- they got their chance and their 'miracle'" (7).
Of course, for communities as for individuals success turns on far more than the sheer luck of being in the right place at the right time. The ability to exploit a favorable roll of the dice to fullest advantage certainly counts as much, if not more. In light of the flood of work on cultural influences by Burkert and others, perhaps this is a good way for today's classicists to think when we ponder the Greek "miracle."This excerpt from 'Le bilan de l'intelligence' (1935), translated into English as 'The Outlook For Intelligence', was also published at https://elementsdeducationraciale.wordpress.com/2011/08/11/les-mefaits-de-linstruction-publique-ii/, as well as other considerations on the evils of public education.
« I never hesitate to declare that the diploma is the deadly enemy of culture. As diplomas have become more important in our lives (and their importance has done nothing but grow as a result of economic conditions), the less has education had any real effect. As regulations have multiplied, the results have grown worse.
Worse in their effect on the public mind and on the mind generally. Worse because a diploma creates hopes and the illusion that certain rights have been acquired. Worse because of the stratagems and subterfuges it gives rise to: the recommendations, the strategic "cramming," and, indeed, the use of every expedient for crossing the redoubtable threshold.
That, we must admit, is a strange and detestable preparation for intellectual and civic life.
Furthermore, if I take my stand on experience alone and look at the effects of regulation in general, I note that regulation will, in all matters, finally vitiate action and pervert it. I have already said so : once an action is put under regulations, the ulterior aim of the one who acts is no longer the action
itself. He anticipates the regulations, and thinks how to circumvent them. Examinations are merely a particular case and a striking proof of this very general observation.
[…]
The diploma grants to society a phantom guarantee; and to the diploma-holders, phantom rights. The diploma-holder is officially considered to know; all his life he keeps that certificate of some momentary and purely expedient knowledge. Moreover, the holder of a diploma is led in the name of the law to believe that something is owed to him. No practice ever instituted was more fatal for everyone, the State and the individual (and, in particular, for culture).
It is with a view to the diploma, for example, that the reading of authors has been replaced by the use of summaries, manuals, absurd digests of knowledge, ready-made collections of questions and answers, extracts, and other abominations. The result is that nothing in this adulterated form of culture can be helpful or suitable to the life of a developing mind. » ((p. 149-51)The following statement is hardly less insightful :
« Do not let us over-estimate the advantages conferred by mere education as ordinarily understood. Its results mainly depend upon the inherent character of the soil into which it falls. Thus, education can never make fools wise ; but it can undoubtedly bestow upon them a larger area for the exercise of their folly. » (Robert Brown, Semitic Influence in Hellenic Mythology, Londres, Longmans, Green & Co. p. xi, 1898)
Source : http://www.rusjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Rus_Sex.pdf
The Sexual Revolution in Post-Reform Russia:Left-Radicalism, Feminism and its Connection to Terrorismfrom 1861 to the Great WarMatthew Raphael JohnsonJohnstown, PAThe first years after the abolition of serfdom were the time of the last burst of nobleluxury. A large mass of cash, value earned by others, was withdrawn from the sphere ofproduction and directed into their own consumption. Lands of the few nobles owning serfsneeded to be compensated. The government paid off the nobles, who then sunk into a muchdeserved oblivion. Peasants then went about buying Russia, making it the most egalitarianEuropean society in terms of land ownership. Within 49 years the peasants had to pay thegovernment back, however, soon, Alexander III canceled these payments.The early years of the 20th century is thus the final stage of moral crisis, the beginning ofwhich was declared by Dostoevsky in the middle of the 1870s. His novel A Raw Youth(sometimes translated as A Teenager or The Adolescent, from the Russian Подросток) saw thenew generation of Russians aspiring to be “Rothschilds.” It was rare to find a major writer ofmost political backgrounds at the time believing any differently.Arkady Dolgoruky, the main character, was a symbol of his era. He is illegitimate, and theson of a landowner who was totally dissolute in his life. He was raised by strangers and has noreal home. Under nihilism, only power can be real. The nihilist movement was “scientific” in thatit only recognized blind cause and effect. Since wealth was the best means to power, Arkady setupon “being like a Rothschild” as his main goal.The book is a condemnation of the mentality that is at the heart of this paper: thedestruction that western liberalism and capitalism wrought on Russia. Arkady adopts the ideas of“global citizenship.” Since there are no moral norms, money raised from the gambling table isthe same as money actually earned. The result is that he becomes addicted to roulette, asDostoevsky apparently was himself. The ideas of the sexual revolution, already present in the“western” capital of St. Petersburg, turn on Arkady as he realizes that the powerful can take hislove interest with ease. Because he has bought into the nihilists code, he has nowhere to stand tocomplain.Struggling to reconcile materialism to freedom, Arkady, in dealing with this cognitivedissonance, is split into two people, a common motif in Dostoevsky. The first is the “rationalegoist,” one ostensibly social and constructive, while the other, not really distinct from the first,is the lustful hunter, the one who seeks to possess, exclude and ultimately destroy. Ultimately,only chaos results from this both at a social and psychological level, leading Arkady to admit thatonly in purity can true youth be maintained.The Background: the Pre-Revolutionary Revolution
The death of Nikolai I in the midst of the Crimean War signaled the revolution. Theabolition of serfdom in 1861 (just a few years later) seemed to hammer the final nail into thecoffin of the “shameful past.” The few survivors of the Decembrist revolt, a noble revolutionstopped by Nicholas, saw this event as a worthy end of their lives, and a victory over theirnemesis, the conservative Nikolai and all he stood for.The nobility of the Russian Empire, at one point accustomed for centuries to serve thethrone and Fatherland, ingloriously left the stage. They also led the revolutionary movements.Not quite capitalist, not traditional, ideologically confused and altogether secular, these indebtedfamilies, the target of all royal policy from Ivan III onward, went to the cities and led the liberalrevolution in 1905.After the freedom of the serfs in 1861, the nobles were to be compensated for their lostlabor. The fact that the Emperor can easily cancel these payments shows the irrelevance of thisclass. The nobility did not invest the money in the improvement of Russia, but preferred toconsume in their wasteful lifestyle. Thus was laid the cornerstone of the imminent coming ofeconomic impoverishment and ruin of the nobility on the one hand, and the collapse of theRussian Empire - on the other.The “wives of the Decembrists” were the initial leaders of the proto-feminist movementin Old Russia. The most powerful and elite names in Russian life engaged in an oligarchicaluprising against Nicholas I that has been lionized as “democratic” by an American historicalestablishment not well schooled in irony. Names such as Volkonskaya, Trubetskaya, Annenkova,Muravievya, Naryshkina and Fonvizina, just to name a few, read like a history book of Russianhistory since the Troubles. These were the elites who revolted as the “Decembrists” I 1825, andnow, their wives were to do their part for the New Age.Such ultra-elite names showed the titanic power backing feminism and social decay.These were the same names that sought to overthrow royal power since the earliest days of theMoscow autocracy. These were the same names that one reads about that tried to overthrow IvanIV and Boris Gudenov, installed “tsar oligarch” Vasili Shuskii during the Russian time oftroubles in the early 17th century, installed Peter I and his Masonic clique in the very late 17thcentury, ruled as an oligarchical, pagan cult throughout the 18th century and now, in the 19thcentury, sought the Jacobin Revolution in Russia.1 The upper reaches of the nobility wereanything but conservative. They were deeply Masonic and pagan. It is the same families and thesame ideology: pagan statism and absolutism. They were elitist revolutionaries.At the turn of the century in Petersburg, many of these name families consecratedthemselves to Dionysus and used the artificial “crystal palace” as their symbol. This served as theepicenter for the rich and powerful in Peter's “Floating City.” The desire was to bring “Parisian”manners to Russia, as it was understood to mean at the time. To be “Parisian” was to beBohemian and politically revolutionary. Gypsy choirs, seen as libertine and non-Christian, wereused to bring the Dionysian feelings to their apex while the vodka flowed. The idle rich, the oldnoble families long replaced and the salon women were willing to listen to any “spiritualist” thatflattered them. The males were almost all deeply involved in Freemasonry and Jacobin politics.The females had other pastimes (Ekshtut, 2010).In Rosina's (2009) work on the women of the Decembrists, she writes concerning the“Wives:”The strange analysis here is typical of the westernized Russian historian. Apparently, theslew of immensely powerful female women from St. Olga to Marfa Boretskaya2 to Catherine IIescaped her, but these were hardly the first women involved in politics. It is ironic how the ultra-elite (and they remained so in exile, which was not difficult or arduous) are seen to be fighting“accepted norms of social behavior.” They were the norms of behavior. Worse, that this feminismand sexual revolution is traced back to the most powerful and elite families in Russia whoserecent history made them to be tyrants of the first order. Oligarchy was their only concern, butthey needed a chaotic social system from which to emerge. Stable identities are the enemy of allrevolutions.It is not difficult to see, therefore, that revolution had a female cast from the beginning.As the traditional rulers of the home, these westernized libertines sought to revoke the old moralorder in their revolutionary praxis. Their husbands sought to do it politically, they sought to do itprivately. The wives of the Decembrists, especially the elite families Trubetskoy and Volkonsky,become centers around which the new left was created in Siberia. The wives of the exiledDecembrists had a tremendous impact on the formation of the Russian female character,accentuating the virtues of self-sacrifice for the new cause.Psychological Revolution in Russian LiteraturePost-reform Russia destroyed the idea of woman. Gradually, from the revolution of PeterI, the woman became an object of male desire and her worth was measured accordingly. The elitecrust of urban High Society led the way in destroying Russian manners and Christian customs.The slogan of the elite was “freedom of the will outside prudence and decency” as theconsequences of western capitalism made their way through the once strictly Christian society.This use of the orgy was described by Peter Dmitrievich Boborykin (1836-1921) in thenovel Evening Sacrifice (1868). This “hellish scene,” a pagan, unbridled orgy with ten men,deliberately took place during Lent, when the Orthodox Church does not bless even maritalconjugal intimacy. After the publication of the novel, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, in ananonymous 1868 review, revealed that these were elite initiations into what was called the“Athenian Vespers.”Boborykin writes:The youth are today filled with the revolutionary idea of not taking the old moralsRussia seriously. They feel the passionate need to develop themselves and theirviews on life; to live according to their new moral and social rules andrequirements. This was strongly permeated all among those who were callednihilists. The movement was just as destructive as constructive (Boborykin,1868).3Evening Sacrifice is a novel essential to any analysis of the era. Mary M, the heroine, isconvinced that her husband never loved her. Upon visiting her friend, she catches her with a newlover. Intrigued with this lifestyle, she quickly succumbs. The elite of Petrograd are fond of citingcommonplace cliches about Spinoza and Rousseau (usually incorrectly), and this provides thethinnest of justifications for their lifestyle. As she falls deeper and deeper into this Bacchanal, sheis rescued by Stepan Labazina. Mary goes from philosophical view to philosophical view,throwing herself into different lifestyles before realizing that she is nothing �C there is nothingbehind the masks. She commits suicide at the end of the novel. In this novel, superficialPetersburg ladies have education without substance. Perfect for the superficial, it cannot beapplied to a life seeking meaning. The pseudo-intellectual life exists to justify vice. It is not to betaken seriously. Mary made that error.In September 1900, Boborykin wrote the story “Classmates.” The heroine of the story,just graduated from a provincial secondary school with a gold medal, says “For now it is notdifficult to get a divorce. Everywhere divorce is common, and not just in the main cities.”Divorces were granted by the provincial nobility to their peers for the slightest of causes.The demand for female involvement in politics and business was always connected to theobjectification of these same women sexually. The Russian version of the “bustle” was a meansof giving the illusion that the wearer was far better endowed than she really was. Femaleclothing was now to be seductive. The literature of the day was loaded with references to the“African passion” a euphemism to unbridled lust that has been artificially provoked. The olderform of female dress was very complicated. Given the hundreds of buttons and straps, theexperienced servant took roughly two hours to remove the formal dress of a society lady inPetrograd. The new “African” style was merely to life the skirt.In the circles of the capital's bohemian fashion the “Athenian Vespers” becamecommonplace. Poet Olimpovna Pallas Bogdanov-Belsky (1885-1968) arranged several Atheniantrysts at his apartment on the Fontanka and slowly, such gatherings became the talk even ofprovincial capitals. She called herself a “sacred prostitute” and “orgiastic poet.” From the upperclasses, she developed a bohemian lifestyle her wealth could afford, and joined the socialistrevolutionaries, the eternal pastime of the idle rich. The mistress of E. Sazonov, she soon ranaway to “marry” S. Bogdanov and at least one more “husband” later on. Her significance lies inexplicating the cliché lifestyle of the wealthy in Petrograd just before and just after therevolution.Dmitry Ivanovich Pisarev, the most consistent of the nihilists, spoke for “Young Russia”as he demanded the destruction of “decrepit despotism, decrepit religion, frail rafters of theofficial morality!” Apparently such morality was not as official as he implies. Unrestraineddebauchery was celebrated by Pisarev and it knew no bounds not only in theory but also inpractice. In a letter of the same era, he justifies the “new thinking” like this:dispose of it according to her discretion without answering to anyone, evenher husband. If a woman who can enjoy life will not, then there is no virtue.This behavior is a result of the mass of prejudices which hamper pleasureand produce useless and imaginary difficulties. Life is beautiful, and wemust use it. From this point of view I look at it and find it fair that eachperson was guided by the same rule (Pisarev, 1958).4The dual events of Tsar Nicholas' death and the freedom of serfs created a turning point inthe consciousness of the public, and the “woman's issue” was now mainstream. In S. Nechayev'sCatechism of a Revolutionary, the family is denied entirely, while AI Herzen, financed in Londonby the Rothschilds, sees the family as an institution protecting the “corruption of men.”Famed leftist and materialist N. Chernyshevsky went even further, recognizing the rightof women to free love as part of the revolutionary creed. IV Stasov argues that the failure of thesmall farms of the lower nobility and the rise of a “noble proletariat” of impoverished familieswith noble titles, created an individualist ethos where families disintegrated and women were leftwithout support.The incorruptible Emperor Alexander III shocked the slightest impropriety in familyrelationships, it does not hide his disfavor those of his relatives who violated the sanctity of thebonds of marriage. However, members of the imperial family is not terrible, even the augustanger. Grand Dukes did not consider it necessary to imitate the Emperor in his pious family life.They openly kept mistresses, the many sported second families and illegitimate children. Theelite press enjoyed “exposing” these foibles along with a very liberal approach to truth. Inseeking to undermine the authority of the fairly popular Alexander, the press began circulatingrumors (some quite accurate) about the moral failures of more distant royal relatives.The new Russian woman of all orders except the peasant, sought to gain the“unconditional right to personal happiness.” Previously, the Russian merchant class, at leastsome of whom were building the new “bourgeois” order in Russia, were seen as the most vulgarand parasitic of classes. As the nobility steadily was ruined and degraded, the merchants grewrich and sought to take the trappings of aristocratic life for themselves. The merchants who werenot Old Believers were the source of a new market for luxury, foreign architecture and the sexualrevolution. Without the military service of the old nobility, women were easily able to becomesuccessful in the merchant realm.Boris Mironov writes that between 1841-1850, the Orthodox Church authorized anaverage of 77 divorces yearly. After the Great Reforms of Alexander II, this number radicallyincreased. Between 1867-1886 the average was 847 divorces a year, and from 1905 to 1913 theaverage increased to 2565. From 1841-1850 adultery was the cause of divorce about 4% of thetime. From 1905-1912, it became 97.4% (Mironov, 2012: 384ff).Chernyshevsky, the Elite, and Pagan Materialism
This writer is by far the most significant in promoting and popularizing the sexualrevolution in post-Reform Russia. Chernyshevsky believed that good is what is useful, and badis what is harmful. Thus, there are no good or bad people: one is good when in search ofsomething pleasant for him/herself and doing useful things for others as well, whereas one isbad when what brings pleasure to him/her is harmful to others. Yet, Chernyshevsky claimedthat human behavior is determined by the laws of nature.In Chernyshevsky's What is to be Done? (1863), the heroine, Vera, is visited by a“beautiful being” that teaches her about the new sexual order. In the section “Vera's FourthDream,” this being reveals the truth about woman and the progression of her forces fromfragmentation to unity. Describing a festival in the fully utopian, liberated society, a poet beginsto speak that unpacks the symbolic integration of woman.The era of Asarte is that of the nomadic life. Woman is seen as a bearer of pleasure and,while idealized, is also a prisoner. The beautiful women servicing the warrior elite among thenomads is described with the most costly gifts and esteem, but ultimately, Astarte reduces her to atemporary amusement (368-369).The scene moves from the nomad's tents to a city. The city is saturated with every sort ofbeautiful song, statue and poem as its inhabitants live for love alone. Among the nomads, thewoman was a slave. She bore the marks of servitude and saw her circumstances as normal andeven privileged. The warrior elite were in control and the woman were just a substitute formasturbation. In the city, woman is worshiped, she has power. This power comes from the abilityof the female form to enslave the male and render him irrational. Aphrodite is the goddess ofpower, but not of intellectual maturity.From there comes the troubadours, the goddess “Chastity” rules where the man dedicatedhimself to the service of the woman. This irrationality exists for the sake of conquest. When thisis accomplished, the woman's state is worse than under the nomads. She is merely ignored (370-376). The being that guides Vera through all this says that her existence was manifest only whenthis system began to crumble and the final state was reached.Yes, Vira Pavlovna saw. It was herself ; it was herself, but a goddess. The goddess'countenance is her own countenance, her living countenance, the features of whichare so far from perfection ; every day she sees more than one face more beautifulthan hers. This was her own face, kindled with the brightness of love ; morebeautiful than all ideals left to us by sculptors of the ancient time, and by the greatartists of the great age of art. Yes, it is she herself, but kindled by the brightness oflife ; it is she, more beautiful than whom are hundreds of faces in Petersburg, whichis so poor in beauty. She is more beautiful than the Aphrodite of the Louvre, morebeautiful than all the beauties of the past (Chernyshevsky, 375).Vera has become a goddess and she possesses all the sensual pleasure that was containedin Astarte as well as all the ecstasy and contemplation of beauty which was present in Aphrodite.Lust was mixed with reverence and power and was not canceled by their integration. She becamethe Goddess of Freedom and Equality.Once manifest to the whole world and adored by it, she beings utopia. The “sacredgroves” of the Old Testament pagans is carefully hidden in the verbiage of citrus growing, bu thehypocrisy of Chernyshevsky could not be clearer. Just as a materialist rejecting free will canargue for freedom and equality among human beings that are not distinct from the rest of creationis not a lapse in thought of logic, but a concealing of the nature of this “utopia.” Its symbol is theCrystal Palace, as the new architecture is glass and metal. All work is mechanized, all exists inabundance and there seems to be no ruler except for the ever-present causality, mechanism anddeterminism.Science has solved all production problems, there is a generally uniform climate anddeserts are blooming (Chernyshevsky, 380-387). Female clothing is simple and free flowing. It isclear that the author sees these new dresses as incitements to sexual activity. The nature of thispalace becomes clearer with odd and ominous passages such as this:But here there are no remembrances, no dangers of want and woe ; there are onlyremembrances of free labor with full satisfaction, of abundance, of good, and ofenjoyment. Here the expectations of the time to come are the same. What acomparison ! And again, the nerves only of our working people are strong, andtherefore they are able to endure a great deal of enjoyment ; but they are coarse,obtuse ; but here the nerves are strong as those of our laborers, and developed,susceptible, just as with us (Chernyshevsky, 386).Happiness exists only for those whose memories have been erased. Enjoyment comeswith little work; overt rule does not exist; all evolve upward with no sinking to a “commondenominator.” Passions do not control man since both love and reason check its power. Wherethis freedom comes from is not mentioned.The Goddess of Freedom and Equality is joined by the Goddess of the “Love ofHumanity” where all national boundaries are erased. She is termed the “elder sister” meaning sheis more primal and more significant than “freedom” and equality. Chernyshevsky begins to drophints �C as he did above --- that there is more at work here than this simplistic image depicts. Thenew Goddess can take on the features of any ethnic group without having any identity of herown. In fact, the entire idea of identity is dropped out. The “Love of Humanity” takes a morepractical shape when the Palace itself is built by “foreign workers.” These do the work, alongwith the machines, while the actual residents of the palace have little to do but “walk beside”them.Equality of women in marriage was the basic principle in Chernyshevsky. For him, sexualfreedom was always prominent as a clear consequence. The rise of capitalism in Russia meantthe rise of both foreign ideas and the domination of the west. As early as 1860 ML Mihaylovwrote: “Participation in the work of industry, science and art in general should be available toeveryone as an adult member of society.” Maximizing the labor pool in industry is the very firstfocus of early feminism. Chernyshevsky was no different, in that his heroine finds happiness andfulfillment “in the workplace.”Sexuality was paramount as Chernyshevsky advocated a “revolving door” system of“marriage” where women can be passed from man to man “with respect.” The earliestmanifestation so f feminism before 1861 all concerned their “freedom to labor.”The Decadents and the Rise of Pagan Capitalism
Zinaida Gippius is one of the lesser decadents known n the west. Flirting with Satanism,Gippius, a cross-dressing woman, preferred to be called a “witch” or “the demoniac.” The decayof the Symbolist movement in D. Merezhkovsky and Dmitry Vasilyevich Filosofov led to the“triple marriage” of the three in a demonic union that was envisaged to become a new “elitereligious order.” This existed in numerous levels: the ontological, literary, personal and erotic. Itexisted on all at once. There is no mere “spiritual” love (erroneously called Platonic), but itfunctions only as another level of the erotic.In Gippius, love is the synthesis of “freedom and God.” This is no God of the Christians,but the erotic energy. Bisexuality was Gippius' solution, having affairs with both genders. In thisera, homosexuality was on the level of ideological trend. At the beginning of XX century, same-sex love in the circles of the artistic elite became fashionable. From the memoirs of AlexanderBenois: “I was particularly impressed that those of my friends who belonged to the cult ofhomosexual” do not hide and seek its public acceptance. Gippius saw bisexuality as thehermaphrodite. From the diary of Zinaida «Contes d'amour» (1893): “In my mind, my desires, inmy spirit, I am no longer a man, my body, I am no longer a woman. But they are so fused that Iknow nothing of either.”The self was destroyed. She painted a thick layer of white blush that gave her face kind ofdeath mask. In the 19th century only actresses were painted. Gippius was also an actress,charming and deceiving people. She would charm, and then pour on a tub of icy arrogance, evilwords and and mocking, outspoken contempt. By the 1930s her appearance was a strangelytwisted red hair with her cheeks dyed in bright pink. She dressed with a pink ribbon around herneck, a monocle, a cape and when she was offered a cigarette, she would thrust out a tongue likea snake to grab it.For the decadents, “Eros” was connected to the cult of Dionysus. “Free Love” became asymbol of the decay of the self. K. Brysov wrote in this regard: “He has attained freedom fromall appearances and conventions. His life is subject only to the whims of its moments.”Merezhkovsky's “Death of the Gods” begins with the painful and destructive gap between thespiritual and the corporeal, the earthly and heavenly principle in man, which is manifested mostclearly in relation to Eros. One aspect of this dichotomy is the pagan Dionysian and the Christian“cult of shame.” For D. Merezhkovsky ancient world bears a true harmony since the spiritual andphysical are one. This excluded the term “sin” in the relationship of man and woman.The time of “sickness” is that of the “Galilean despondency.” Christian moralityintroduced disharmony in the relations among people in that it forbids the sensual side of man'sbeing. This separation of the spiritual and corporeal introduces the idea of sin and itssubconscious craving for sin as a forbidden fruit. At the same time, sensuality withoutcorresponding psychological acceptance of it leads to the “masochistic and sadistic component.”In Alexander Kuprin, the story “Sulamith” takes place in the temple of the goddess Isis,contested by priestesses who performed the role of Horus, Anubis, Toot, Isis and Nephthys,indirectly enter into debate with the Symbolists that turn natural high human feelings in aperverted cult object. The main part of the ceremony was to find parts of the body of Osiris andsacrifice the phallus, can be attended only by the initiated. The whole scene is a bloody sacrificewhich appears cruel and unnatural “in the sanctuary around the image of the goddess, coveredwith a black veil, the priests and priestesses circle in the sacred frenzy, shouting, barking, theringing and rattling of instruments. Some of them are lashed with whips of rhinoceros skin,others used short knives in the chest and shoulders to create long bloody wound. . .” The love ofthe gods Isis and Osiris is to stimulate the carnal instincts. In the ecstasy of the now mad priests,they shout: “Where is your phallus, O god of light! Come fertilize the goddess! Her breast islanguishing with desire! Her womb is like a desert in the hot summer months!” This is theprelude to the castration.The king, Solomon, fears the Queen Astiz, since she controls the levers of lust. Accordingto the author, her love is not free, and is as intoxicating as the “poppy drink” which was given tothe participants in the Temple of Isis so as to keep people in the fire of “sacred madness.” “Theunbridled sensuality” of the queen led to her spiritual loneliness, to the loss of Solomon's love.She both loves and hates him �C loves him as the “only man for her” and hates him because shefeels his judgment on her practices. She is spoiled and immature, worshiped in the temple farmore than Isis herself. Kuprin's diagnosis: uncontrollable sensuality leads to the destruction ofthe individual.This is connected to capitalism in his Moloch (1896). In this story, the engineer AndreiBobrov works for a remorseless capitalist enterprise, completely nihilistic in its mentality, that isslowly alienating Bobrov's sensibilities. The firm is owned by Kvashnin, a self-described nihilist,who uses his power and wealth to steal, Nina, Bobrov's wife. Afterwards, he suffers a nervousbreakdown. As is a common motif in Russian prose, he then dissociates himself from reality,seeing a “double” of himself who he hates. The last lines concern “Dr. Goldberg” injectingBobrov with some unnamed concoction. It is clear his time is over.Consider the product and D. Merezhkovsky Kuprin, we see that the social aspect of theimage out of love relationships, and in the foreground is the motive of the correlation of spiritualand physical principles in amorous feelings. The main problem for the Symbolists, andparticularly for D. Merezhkovsky, it was to overcome internal contradictions through thesanctification of human flesh beginning, through the deification of Eros, so in his novel lovestory is inextricably linked with the choice of faith. In contrast Kuprin shows that true love is,regardless of religious, it deifies the human soul. The theme of eros is presented in the literatureof the Silver Age is not unique and diverse, which may be the subject of further study.Elite Agendas: the “Woman's Congress” and Capitalism
In 1908, the wives of Russia's political elite created the first “Woman's Congress” in St.Petersburg. Rejecting the “feminist” label, they opted instead for ravnopravok. One of itsattendees was Alexandra Kollontai. The institutionalization of Russian feminism at this and otherconferences created a “new woman.” She was unkempt, had short hair and had abandoned allfeminine manners. The more radical were part of the nihilist movement and all readChernyshevsky. They refuse to shave or clean their fingernails. This was a deliberate shock toRussian society.The daughters of the elite looked down on family and hated all mannerisms that stressednurturing. Prince Meshchersky had reached a point where he remarked that the “educated”woman had lost the ability to love. Here, the decay of the family meant the decay of all moralsand cohesion. Further, since feminism was immediately attached to the revolutionary movement,socialism, the decay of the family and unshaven, smelly women all became one anti-culturalobject.In a recent analysis of Anna Volkova's journalism, we read:Appearing objective, impersonal, and derivative on the surface, on a deeper levelVolkova’s published writings are permeated with her personal experiences andbeliefs. Most of her work dealt with subjects closest to her heart: education andvocational training, the position of women, the upbringing of children,innovations in charity and social reform. In her treatment of these subjects, sheoften described or prescribed approaches that were the diametric opposite of herown experiences as a child or woman (Lindenmyer, 2001: 131).At the time, this was “journalism.” The term did not yet have its plastic prestige. TheRussian press was particularly bad, having no concern for even a pretense of scruple whereoverthrowing the monarchy was concerned. As always, no real censorship existed and the far leftran the urban papers unopposed. The admission here is that the typical male argument againstwomen in these professions was right. Truth and justice were not the issue, but bending reality tosupport the new agenda was. Worse, she admits that there was a surface “objectivity” that servedonly to deceive. In Russia, this was normal.It must also be stressed that the new capitalist relations were essential for thedevelopment of feminism and sexual nihilism. Writing on the first fashion magazine in Russia(like this is a cultural milestone), the significance of social breakdown could not be overstated:The laws of competition eventually led to a broadening of subject matter as avehicle for expanding readership. By the end of the eighties, women’s magazineshad turned to the still unsolved problems of women’s education, professionalism,and gender relations (without, of course, abandoning fashion and the domesticscene). In the process, they supplied readers with a new range of images; theappearance of the female student and the woman doctor, for instance, implied thatthese ideas were gaining social acceptance. The magazines thus helped tolegitimize a pro-education, pro-equality agenda. Rather than insist on the need forlegal reform to allow for these new roles, however, they instead challengedwomen to enter the marketplace by spotlighting women professionals, theiractivities, and their achievements. The rules of commercial business promotedindividualism through economic competition and thus undermined governmentpaternalism, at least for as long as the market remained unregulated. These newideals, though, were not an unqualified blessing. The race for profit had justifiedotherwise intolerable behavior. . . (Marks, 2001: 112-113)Like the above, there is a surface objectify that covers over a startling set of admissions.First, that image had taken the place of reality. To depict these new “roles” meant that the readerwas convinced that they were real, or that they were “accepted.” They were not, at least for thebulk of the population, but the purpose was to convince others that they were and bring it forthby wish fulfillment. Second, that capitalism was a means to bring about a “pro-equality” agenda.“Government paternalism” is another term for the common good. Once this is overthrown, thewill to power is all that is left.As Russian men are dying against Japan or later, the Germans, this is what occupies themind of the “women's movement.” were the leaders of this movement in the later 19th century.“women's movement.” As always, this puerile movement comes into existence precisely at a timeof high wages and the alteration of typical jobs from the severe discomfort of the mines to thecomfortable existence of an editor, university professor or office worker. As always, men are atthe forefront, promoting “equality” as a means to a) combat the monarchy's fairly advancedsocial legislation against capitalism and b) lower wages overall.Elena Yukina writes concerning the 1908 Congress, “Where the ravnopravki receivedtheir money for such a grand event is not clear” (Yukina, 1998: 14). Some indication is given bytheir backgrounds:Who were they? They were mostly from Petrograd, but all regions of Russia wererepresented. The Congress had its attendees fill out a questionnaire that revealedmost of the delegates were from the high commercial and industrial bourgeoisie,which itself was mixed within the traditional left-intelligentsia. A handful werefrom the lower orders, while peasants were totally absent. The median age wasover 30, were educated, and mostly married (Yukina, 1998: 14).Kollontai did all in her power to obey the male Bolsheviks and divide the movementalong “class” lines. Given the bizarre way the Marxists defined “class,” this is meaningless. Moresignificantly, she argued that “an autonomous women's movement does not exist.” Theimplication was that it is embedded in “class.”Concerned with the “economic needs of Russian womanhood” was ironic only in that thiswas the very last group that should have been consulted on what the typical Russian womanneeded. Needless to say, the agenda was largely masked. While slogans about “Dumademocracy” and “equal rights” were bandied about, the Congress made clear that “the problemsof the modern woman is not exhausted in the struggle for the equality of rights.” This blandstatement conceals much of the agenda. Any movement stressing “procedural” concerns is notbeing honest. No one goes to the barricades for “formal democracy” or “freedom of contract.”They go to the barricades to impose their will.Olga Shapir (Schapiro) (d. 1916) was one of the more significant ideologists of this earlymovement. Nearly every entry on her life says that she was “from the peasantry.” Her ownautobiography says the opposite. Deceit is built in from the first line. Her father was an armyofficer serving under the Jacobin Paul Pestel. She was only a small percentage Russian. Herconcern was the “free love” element of feminism. Her essential argument was that the mainconflict between the sexes is due to a gender stratification based on sexual ownership. “Thepowerlessness of women is the source of all injustice” was one of her more modest statements.The history of Russia sees many women with a great degree of power. Whether it be Miznek, theconcubine of the False Dmitri, “Tsar” Catherine I, an actual sex slave, the two Annas andCatherine II were utter disasters for Russia at every level. It might also be noted that most ofthese were quite sexually liberated.She married a powerful Jewish husband and quickly moved into both the free love and“populist” movement, one of the least descriptive names in political history. Yukina writes:OA Shapir stressed “the pleasure principle” in a woman's life and affirmed awoman's right to happiness in any suitable form, whether it be marriage withoutlove or love without marriage. Even the “abandonment of family” was acceptable.In her literary works, she gives examples of women gaining a different, non-traditional outlook on life, showing examples of self-directed activity,independence and self-reliance. Her heroines demonstrate positive social andintellectual qualities. When the type of women that is committed to traditionalideals, serving the family and nation, Shapir paints them in the worst colors: totalself-rejection, doomed to failure. . . . She gives an unequivocal condemnation ofwomen subjected to the traditional virtues such as searching for a husband, thesubstitution of the interests of loved ones for her own, a lack of independence,passivity and inaction in addressing their own destiny. She protests against thephenomenon of female self-sacrifice as the norms of female life. Selfishness isthe key to liberation (Yukina, 1998).This is the issue that the Congress would not permit the public to see. Her novels arepoorly written, since each scene has characters that are crude symbols for ideological caricatures(cf The Stormy Years for an excellent example of this). Plots are uninteresting (very much likeChernyshevsky), but at the very least, Shapir is honest and forthright in her demands. Virtue isreally a vice, since to guard one's honor is to submit to male dominated typologies. To submit to amale sexually is to become “independent.” Over and over again, childbearing is the worst curseimaginable. It focused one's attention on something outside the self, and this, while leading todisaster, will not fulfill the woman's destiny. The common good here is explicitly rejected, soeven if an action leads to depravity, it is still to be permitted since it leads to “self-fulfillment.”The origin of this, of course, is evolution. The women's movement is “inevitable” and “aforce of nature” in creating an evolving, developing woman. This speech, “Ideals for the Future”was her contribution to the 1908 Congress (Shapir, 1909: 896-898). Nature creates the feministmovement, and nature also creates the legitimization for the destruction of its purpose inchildbearing.Her autobiography seems to suggest that her father was somewhat less than egalitarian.She says that her father was “from peasant stock, a landowner and a nobleman and anoutstanding personality. His passion, his unbridled temper and insane drive to personal freedompermitted her own development into “restrained self-determination.” This seems to be anadmission that her father was violently abusive, and this turned her into an abusive, insane andpassionate advocate of the will to power. Her mother was Swedish, and was the traditionalconservative woman. It is clear that her own abuse led her to admire the power that came withthe paterfamilias. She sought that for herself.Barabra Engel writes in English:The burgeoning marketplace had much the same effect. A by product of Russia'sindustrialization drive, the market encouraged the desire for individual pleasureand gratification and fostered patterns of consumption that cut across socialdivides” (Engel, 2004: 113).Capitalism again is a liberal, hedonistic agent that destroys social institutions byundercutting them. Going to the lowest drives and promising their liberation and pleasure (for aprice), the Russian feminist movement was born through the relation between capitalism and freelove.Jews, Sexuality and Terror
The emblems of the “Silver Age” were revolutionary terror, drug addiction, alcoholism,sexual promiscuity and the odd fixation on suicide. After 1905, terror became widespread. By theend of 1907, the total number of those killed by leftist terror was about 4,500. Between Januaryof 1908 to mid-May of 1910 the police at all levels recorded nearly 20,000 terrorist attacks andexpropriations (ie political looting). Roughly 1000 civilians and 5000 civil servants were killedusing various methods.Many women were involved in these attacks. What is always deleted from the hackneyedhistories of the era are their motivations. Combing through police records of the day, thesepolitical “martyrs” engaged in their well funded murder spree based on their being “tired of life.”“I am weary, excitement is in political violence” or “I seek adventure” were commonexplanations for the mental torment and anguish of these deaths. Most of the terrorists of allgenders had no political program and were semi-literate. Teens of 14 to 16 were not uncommon.5O. Budnitsky writes in his work “Female Suicide in Russia” (Phoenix, 1996) that “thestrangle part of these left-socialist terrorists was a high percentage of Jews and women. A fullthird of the terrorists involved were female Jews. A Geyfman argues that the terror cells in pre-revolutionary Russia were almost exclusively Jewish and near the Pale of Settlement.Solzhenitsyn writes in Two Hundred Years together that the 1905 lifting of the press censorshipwas “like eliminating police from the streets.” It is rare that the historian realizes the nature ofjournalism 100 years ago. Their purpose was not to “report news” they did not even provide thepretense of that. In Russia at the time, the “popular dailies” had the purpose of causing trouble,promoting liberal interests and writing narratives about events, rather than reporting on events.Zionism was legal in Russia so long as it kept its distance from the revolutionaries. Ofcourse, since the two movements were quite similar, communism and Zionism functionedtogether. Large, well armed and wealthy federations of Zionist cells functioned in Poland andUkraine and were quickly mobilized by the German government once World War I began. Berlincreated the “Liberation of Russian Jews” movement that armed and mobilized western RussianJews. Part of the Russian mobilization for war was to remove these cells from Poland, Belarusand Ukraine. The Bund was the result of the final fusion of Zionism and communism.The Jewish Bund, in 1904, had a total of 23,000 members. By 1907, this number reached34,000. These were armed militia groups demanding the end of tsarism and the destruction of theOrthodox church. By contrast, the Social Democratic Party in Russia in 1905 had about 8,000members. By 1900, almost 30% of all those arrested for political offenses, were Jews. Therewere 140 million people in the Russian empire in 1903, with 7 million being Jews. At the sametime, Jews made about half of all membership lists in far left parties.6In 1910, the far left instituted “International Women's Day” through the Jewishcommunist Clara Zetkin at a the International Conference of Socialist Women” in Copenhagen.The Soviet Encyclopedia says that, in 1917, “the government prevented the celebration of thisholiday, soon boiling over into a violent at the main weapons plant in Russia at Pulitov.” Thisclash is traditionally seen in Soviet history as the beginning of the February revolution and thedate was February 23 (March 8 Julian).February 23 of 1917 was also Purim. Andrei Kuraev argues that the Jewish connection tothat day was clear in 1910. The communists, planning to destroy all Christian holidays andrewrite the calendar, needed a set of new days to celebrate. The problem was that they alwaysseemed to coincide with Jewish holidays. The heavily Jewish nature of the left automaticallyconnected Clara with Esther.Solzhenitsyn writes that accuracy was not a function of journalism, but advocacy. Theydeliberately distorted debates in the Duma, concocted platforms for candidates, attributedpolitical positions to politicians in elections and generally invented a reality that had no relationto daily life. There was no “Hill Reporters” as journalists were seen only as “muckrakers.” It wasnot an honest profession and no prestige attached to it.The Jewish role in media, its defense of terrorism and dogmatic liberalism is beyonddispute. The rightist Duma member (and one of the assassins of Rasputin, Purishkevitch calledthe press “covering” the Duma the “Duma of Settlement.” All major newspapers were owned byJews and without variation supported the leftist cause. SM Propper controlled the CommercialGazette; Yuri Bak owned the major daily of the Cadet party while the Russian Gazette wasoverseen by V Jabotinsky and Lurie-Larin, later to achieve fame as the architecht of “WarCommunism.”M Gorodetsky ran the more popular Penny Journal while the mainstream daily KievanThought was owned by Ion Kugel and one of its “mainstream” contributors was Leon Trotsky.Sverdlov's brother Averbahom built the literary careers of Yuri Goldshteyn, H Altus, ZnovyGrzhebin and even Maxim Gorky. The truth is that the royalist, Orthodox press in the cities didnot exist with any great circulation. Long after the revolution, the national composition of theMoscow delegation at the Congress of Writers in 1934 is, out of 600 has 92 Russians and 72Jews.When Tsar Nikolai II issued his Manifesto in October of 1905, Witte called a meeting ofthe elite press in Petrograd. Arriving was a small army of Jews including Propper, Notovitch,Chodsko, Arabazhin and a host of much smaller editors and owners. Uninterested in the normalrole of the press, these capitalists all demanded leftist political reforms immediately. Theydemanded the removal of Trepov as Governor of the region, total amnesty for all convictedterrorist, the removal of all law enforcement and Cossacks from the capital and to hand overpolice duties to the “Red Militia of the People.” This became known as the Manifesto of the“Association of Newspaper Owners.”In a striking foreshadowing, the system of Jewish capital, press and political operativesfunctioned exactly the same as it does in 2015 America. A journalist or professor who sought toanalyze the left radicals for what they were faced professional ostracism, riots and violence at hisplace of work. Papers such as “New Day” and “The Kievan” were more even handed, but itsemployees could find work in no other place.Like today, to openly support political terrorism and defend its practitioners was a sign ofprofessional success and “good manners.” The presence of the Tsar's infamous police serviceswas very rare, since it was quite limited in numbers and normally out-gunned by Jewishrevolutionary groups. The political landscape of Russia at this time is precisely the opposite ofthe typical English-language history textbook. The “pogroms” are creations of westernimaginations, not history. Deaths from these alleged “pogroms” were more often non-Jewish thanJewish, and local militias, Zionist or otherwise, were well armed.Many myths include the prohibition of Jews owning property, attending universities orliving outside the “Pale of Settlement.” The latter is particularly humorous since it was a placewhere its low taxes made Jewish merchants even more well positioned over their Christian rivals.Of course, Jews lived in all Russian cities and owned far more property than the church or thedecayed nobility. Jews made up about 40% of Russian merchants by 1910.Jews in western Russia paid a lower tax rate than Slavs. They were usually exempt frommilitary service. Land purchases were encouraged by the state to bring Jews to agriculture at amuch lower price than for Slavs. The Pale of Settlement created a Jewish oligarchy with far moreprivileges than the Orthodox Russian. The Pale was purely self governing, making the Kahal, oneof the more powerful landowners in the region, a religio-political center off limits to non-Jews.The Pale's school system was excellent and furnished graduates that attended Russia's majorurban university far out of proportion to their numbers. All told, about 18% of Russia's Jewslived in the Pale, where American schoolchildren are told was a “Jewish ghetto.”Jews were roughly 15-20% of the population of Warsaw, Minsk; almost 30% of Krakowand Lv'iv and even more in the port city of Odessa. Jewish militias functioned openly in all ofthese cities and featured intelligence, heavy weapons and a tight control over the executive of thecity.In Summer of 1903, Theodore Herzl traveled to Petrograd to assist in the removal of Jewsto Palestine. He met with the Ministry of Finance under Plehve and Witte himself, seeking tomake the financial removal of Jewish assets from Russian banks easier and to transfer these toPalestine. Witte's problem was the development of Jewish nationalism would be forbidden onRussian soil. Plehve condemned Jewish acts of loansharking and pornography in western Russia.His proscribing of Zionist periodicals in Petrograd earned him a death sentence in 1904. Theworld of capitalist modernity had its limits.Conclusion
Capitalism, sexual liberalism, paganism, Judaic control and feminism are all one and thesame movement in Russia. While the bulk of the peasantry and the church remained faithful, therich and powerful were Moloch �C the god of abortion and capitalism; the ancient form of child-sacrifice in Tyre, where children were killed in a belly of the idol in exchange for profits. Theelite decayed as the royal world was destroyed. From Peter I until Nikolai I, the crown was eithernon-existent or purely secular. The 18th century saw the destruction of the Russian tsarist idea asOrthodox churches in the empire were destroyed to where, by the start of the 19th century, therewere less than half of their original number.Capitalism is a universal solvent. Seeking to bring all social relations under the control ofmoney, it reduces human acts to mere power and control. The sexual revolution follows in itswake without fail, especially among those consecrated to its existence. Like in the OldTestament, the oligarchy of Tyre (powerful enough to ensnare Solomon himself) sought to usesacrifice to maintain its power. St. John the Baptist felt the consequences of sexual lust as he wasbeheaded, as did Pope Sixtus II, as the victim of the magical rites of the Emperor Valerian.In Russia, the upper nobility had the most to gain from the revolution, and so they threwthemselves in it from the Novgorod oligarchy in the middle ages to the 1905 Revolution. Moneywas more powerful than faith, family and nation and women were at the forefront of them all.Notes
1 These are all historical eras where the nobility set themselves against the crown. This changed when Peter I,having been initiated into the Lodge in Amsterdam, created his “new men” to revolutionize Russia. After Peter,the “new men” ruled Russian with a foreign, German Masonic clique often called the “Bironschinia.”A number of special studies emphasizes the social significance of their acts inexile. For the first time, a woman had become involved in Russian politics. Thiscontributed to the formation of a new type of Russian woman. The Decembristprotest against the accepted norms of social behavior brought them to the first steptowards the formation of women's self-consciousness and emancipation, perhapsnot even subconsciously. In subsequent years, women began to claim their rightsto equality with men, education, work and participation in social struggles(Rosina, 2009).2 Marfa was the oligarchical ruler of Novgorod from 1438 to 1439. She favored the region's conversion to PolishCatholicism to defend itself against Ivan III.3 The full text in Russian: Боборыкин П. Д. Сочинения. (Volume 3) Вступ. ст., сост., подгот. текста и примеч.С. Чупринина. Худож. Лит., 1993. http://az.lib.ru/b/boborykin_p_d/text_0090.shtml According to my convictions a woman is free in body and spirit, and mayThe 'North'.
https://www.thenation.com/article/most-feminist-place-world/
https://www.bustle.com/articles/28850-iceland-is-the-most-feminist-country-in-the-world-and-these-3-others-arent-too-shabby
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/feb/16/iceland-online-pornography
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34602822
http://www.nytimes.com/1988/05/11/world/beer-soon-for-icelanders.html
Van: G. H. <g.vdheide@...>
Verzonden: donderdag 29 september 2016 10:43
Aan: evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com
Onderwerp: Re: [evola_as_he_is] Re: Non-white influences on the alleged "white" civilizationSource : http://www.rusjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Rus_Sex.pdf
The Sexual Revolution in Post-Reform Russia:Left-Radicalism, Feminism and its Connection to Terrorismfrom 1861 to the Great WarMatthew Raphael JohnsonJohnstown, PAThe first years after the abolition of serfdom were the time of the last burst of nobleluxury. A large mass of cash, value earned by others, was withdrawn from the sphere ofproduction and directed into their own consumption. Lands of the few nobles owning serfsneeded to be compensated. The government paid off the nobles, who then sunk into a muchdeserved oblivion. Peasants then went about buying Russia, making it the most egalitarianEuropean society in terms of land ownership. Within 49 years the peasants had to pay thegovernment back, however, soon, Alexander III canceled these payments.The early years of the 20th century is thus the final stage of moral crisis, the beginning ofwhich was declared by Dostoevsky in the middle of the 1870s. His novel A Raw Youth(sometimes translated as A Teenager or The Adolescent, from the Russian Подросток) saw thenew generation of Russians aspiring to be “Rothschilds.” It was rare to find a major writer ofmost political backgrounds at the time believing any differently.Arkady Dolgoruky, the main character, was a symbol of his era. He is illegitimate, and theson of a landowner who was totally dissolute in his life. He was raised by strangers and has noreal home. Under nihilism, only power can be real. The nihilist movement was “scientific” in thatit only recognized blind cause and effect. Since wealth was the best means to power, Arkady setupon “being like a Rothschild” as his main goal.The book is a condemnation of the mentality that is at the heart of this paper: thedestruction that western liberalism and capitalism wrought on Russia. Arkady adopts the ideas of“global citizenship.” Since there are no moral norms, money raised from the gambling table isthe same as money actually earned. The result is that he becomes addicted to roulette, asDostoevsky apparently was himself. The ideas of the sexual revolution, already present in the“western” capital of St. Petersburg, turn on Arkady as he realizes that the powerful can take hislove interest with ease. Because he has bought into the nihilists code, he has nowhere to stand tocomplain.Struggling to reconcile materialism to freedom, Arkady, in dealing with this cognitivedissonance, is split into two people, a common motif in Dostoevsky. The first is the “rationalegoist,” one ostensibly social and constructive, while the other, not really distinct from the first,is the lustful hunter, the one who seeks to possess, exclude and ultimately destroy. Ultimately,only chaos results from this both at a social and psychological level, leading Arkady to admit thatonly in purity can true youth be maintained.The Background: the Pre-Revolutionary Revolution
The death of Nikolai I in the midst of the Crimean War signaled the revolution. Theabolition of serfdom in 1861 (just a few years later) seemed to hammer the final nail into thecoffin of the “shameful past.” The few survivors of the Decembrist revolt, a noble revolutionstopped by Nicholas, saw this event as a worthy end of their lives, and a victory over theirnemesis, the conservative Nikolai and all he stood for.The nobility of the Russian Empire, at one point accustomed for centuries to serve thethrone and Fatherland, ingloriously left the stage. They also led the revolutionary movements.Not quite capitalist, not traditional, ideologically confused and altogether secular, these indebtedfamilies, the target of all royal policy from Ivan III onward, went to the cities and led the liberalrevolution in 1905.After the freedom of the serfs in 1861, the nobles were to be compensated for their lostlabor. The fact that the Emperor can easily cancel these payments shows the irrelevance of thisclass. The nobility did not invest the money in the improvement of Russia, but preferred toconsume in their wasteful lifestyle. Thus was laid the cornerstone of the imminent coming ofeconomic impoverishment and ruin of the nobility on the one hand, and the collapse of theRussian Empire - on the other.The “wives of the Decembrists” were the initial leaders of the proto-feminist movementin Old Russia. The most powerful and elite names in Russian life engaged in an oligarchicaluprising against Nicholas I that has been lionized as “democratic” by an American historicalestablishment not well schooled in irony. Names such as Volkonskaya, Trubetskaya, Annenkova,Muravievya, Naryshkina and Fonvizina, just to name a few, read like a history book of Russianhistory since the Troubles. These were the elites who revolted as the “Decembrists” I 1825, andnow, their wives were to do their part for the New Age.Such ultra-elite names showed the titanic power backing feminism and social decay.These were the same names that sought to overthrow royal power since the earliest days of theMoscow autocracy. These were the same names that one reads about that tried to overthrow IvanIV and Boris Gudenov, installed “tsar oligarch” Vasili Shuskii during the Russian time oftroubles in the early 17th century, installed Peter I and his Masonic clique in the very late 17thcentury, ruled as an oligarchical, pagan cult throughout the 18th century and now, in the 19thcentury, sought the Jacobin Revolution in Russia.1 The upper reaches of the nobility wereanything but conservative. They were deeply Masonic and pagan. It is the same families and thesame ideology: pagan statism and absolutism. They were elitist revolutionaries.At the turn of the century in Petersburg, many of these name families consecratedthemselves to Dionysus and used the artificial “crystal palace” as their symbol. This served as theepicenter for the rich and powerful in Peter's “Floating City.” The desire was to bring “Parisian”manners to Russia, as it was understood to mean at the time. To be “Parisian” was to beBohemian and politically revolutionary. Gypsy choirs, seen as libertine and non-Christian, wereused to bring the Dionysian feelings to their apex while the vodka flowed. The idle rich, the oldnoble families long replaced and the salon women were willing to listen to any “spiritualist” thatflattered them. The males were almost all deeply involved in Freemasonry and Jacobin politics.The females had other pastimes (Ekshtut, 2010).In Rosina's (2009) work on the women of the Decembrists, she writes concerning the“Wives:”The strange analysis here is typical of the westernized Russian historian. Apparently, theslew of immensely powerful female women from St. Olga to Marfa Boretskaya2 to Catherine IIescaped her, but these were hardly the first women involved in politics. It is ironic how the ultra-elite (and they remained so in exile, which was not difficult or arduous) are seen to be fighting“accepted norms of social behavior.” They were the norms of behavior. Worse, that this feminismand sexual revolution is traced back to the most powerful and elite families in Russia whoserecent history made them to be tyrants of the first order. Oligarchy was their only concern, butthey needed a chaotic social system from which to emerge. Stable identities are the enemy of allrevolutions.It is not difficult to see, therefore, that revolution had a female cast from the beginning.As the traditional rulers of the home, these westernized libertines sought to revoke the old moralorder in their revolutionary praxis. Their husbands sought to do it politically, they sought to do itprivately. The wives of the Decembrists, especially the elite families Trubetskoy and Volkonsky,become centers around which the new left was created in Siberia. The wives of the exiledDecembrists had a tremendous impact on the formation of the Russian female character,accentuating the virtues of self-sacrifice for the new cause.Psychological Revolution in Russian LiteraturePost-reform Russia destroyed the idea of woman. Gradually, from the revolution of PeterI, the woman became an object of male desire and her worth was measured accordingly. The elitecrust of urban High Society led the way in destroying Russian manners and Christian customs.The slogan of the elite was “freedom of the will outside prudence and decency” as theconsequences of western capitalism made their way through the once strictly Christian society.This use of the orgy was described by Peter Dmitrievich Boborykin (1836-1921) in thenovel Evening Sacrifice (1868). This “hellish scene,” a pagan, unbridled orgy with ten men,deliberately took place during Lent, when the Orthodox Church does not bless even maritalconjugal intimacy. After the publication of the novel, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, in ananonymous 1868 review, revealed that these were elite initiations into what was called the“Athenian Vespers.”Boborykin writes:The youth are today filled with the revolutionary idea of not taking the old moralsRussia seriously. They feel the passionate need to develop themselves and theirviews on life; to live according to their new moral and social rules andrequirements. This was strongly permeated all among those who were callednihilists. The movement was just as destructive as constructive (Boborykin,1868).3Evening Sacrifice is a novel essential to any analysis of the era. Mary M, the heroine, isconvinced that her husband never loved her. Upon visiting her friend, she catches her with a newlover. Intrigued with this lifestyle, she quickly succumbs. The elite of Petrograd are fond of citingcommonplace cliches about Spinoza and Rousseau (usually incorrectly), and this provides thethinnest of justifications for their lifestyle. As she falls deeper and deeper into this Bacchanal, sheis rescued by Stepan Labazina. Mary goes from philosophical view to philosophical view,throwing herself into different lifestyles before realizing that she is nothing �C there is nothingbehind the masks. She commits suicide at the end of the novel. In this novel, superficialPetersburg ladies have education without substance. Perfect for the superficial, it cannot beapplied to a life seeking meaning. The pseudo-intellectual life exists to justify vice. It is not to betaken seriously. Mary made that error.In September 1900, Boborykin wrote the story “Classmates.” The heroine of the story,just graduated from a provincial secondary school with a gold medal, says “For now it is notdifficult to get a divorce. Everywhere divorce is common, and not just in the main cities.”Divorces were granted by the provincial nobility to their peers for the slightest of causes.The demand for female involvement in politics and business was always connected to theobjectification of these same women sexually. The Russian version of the “bustle” was a meansof giving the illusion that the wearer was far better endowed than she really was. Femaleclothing was now to be seductive. The literature of the day was loaded with references to the“African passion” a euphemism to unbridled lust that has been artificially provoked. The olderform of female dress was very complicated. Given the hundreds of buttons and straps, theexperienced servant took roughly two hours to remove the formal dress of a society lady inPetrograd. The new “African” style was merely to life the skirt.In the circles of the capital's bohemian fashion the “Athenian Vespers” becamecommonplace. Poet Olimpovna Pallas Bogdanov-Belsky (1885-1968) arranged several Atheniantrysts at his apartment on the Fontanka and slowly, such gatherings became the talk even ofprovincial capitals. She called herself a “sacred prostitute” and “orgiastic poet.” From the upperclasses, she developed a bohemian lifestyle her wealth could afford, and joined the socialistrevolutionaries, the eternal pastime of the idle rich. The mistress of E. Sazonov, she soon ranaway to “marry” S. Bogdanov and at least one more “husband” later on. Her significance lies inexplicating the cliché lifestyle of the wealthy in Petrograd just before and just after therevolution.Dmitry Ivanovich Pisarev, the most consistent of the nihilists, spoke for “Young Russia”as he demanded the destruction of “decrepit despotism, decrepit religion, frail rafters of theofficial morality!” Apparently such morality was not as official as he implies. Unrestraineddebauchery was celebrated by Pisarev and it knew no bounds not only in theory but also inpractice. In a letter of the same era, he justifies the “new thinking” like this:dispose of it according to her discretion without answering to anyone, evenher husband. If a woman who can enjoy life will not, then there is no virtue.This behavior is a result of the mass of prejudices which hamper pleasureand produce useless and imaginary difficulties. Life is beautiful, and wemust use it. From this point of view I look at it and find it fair that eachperson was guided by the same rule (Pisarev, 1958).4The dual events of Tsar Nicholas' death and the freedom of serfs created a turning point inthe consciousness of the public, and the “woman's issue” was now mainstream. In S. Nechayev'sCatechism of a Revolutionary, the family is denied entirely, while AI Herzen, financed in Londonby the Rothschilds, sees the family as an institution protecting the “corruption of men.”Famed leftist and materialist N. Chernyshevsky went even further, recognizing the rightof women to free love as part of the revolutionary creed. IV Stasov argues that the failure of thesmall farms of the lower nobility and the rise of a “noble proletariat” of impoverished familieswith noble titles, created an individualist ethos where families disintegrated and women were leftwithout support.The incorruptible Emperor Alexander III shocked the slightest impropriety in familyrelationships, it does not hide his disfavor those of his relatives who violated the sanctity of thebonds of marriage. However, members of the imperial family is not terrible, even the augustanger. Grand Dukes did not consider it necessary to imitate the Emperor in his pious family life.They openly kept mistresses, the many sported second families and illegitimate children. Theelite press enjoyed “exposing” these foibles along with a very liberal approach to truth. Inseeking to undermine the authority of the fairly popular Alexander, the press began circulatingrumors (some quite accurate) about the moral failures of more distant royal relatives.The new Russian woman of all orders except the peasant, sought to gain the“unconditional right to personal happiness.” Previously, the Russian merchant class, at leastsome of whom were building the new “bourgeois” order in Russia, were seen as the most vulgarand parasitic of classes. As the nobility steadily was ruined and degraded, the merchants grewrich and sought to take the trappings of aristocratic life for themselves. The merchants who werenot Old Believers were the source of a new market for luxury, foreign architecture and the sexualrevolution. Without the military service of the old nobility, women were easily able to becomesuccessful in the merchant realm.Boris Mironov writes that between 1841-1850, the Orthodox Church authorized anaverage of 77 divorces yearly. After the Great Reforms of Alexander II, this number radicallyincreased. Between 1867-1886 the average was 847 divorces a year, and from 1905 to 1913 theaverage increased to 2565. From 1841-1850 adultery was the cause of divorce about 4% of thetime. From 1905-1912, it became 97.4% (Mironov, 2012: 384ff).Chernyshevsky, the Elite, and Pagan Materialism
This writer is by far the most significant in promoting and popularizing the sexualrevolution in post-Reform Russia. Chernyshevsky believed that good is what is useful, and badis what is harmful. Thus, there are no good or bad people: one is good when in search ofsomething pleasant for him/herself and doing useful things for others as well, whereas one isbad when what brings pleasure to him/her is harmful to others. Yet, Chernyshevsky claimedthat human behavior is determined by the laws of nature.In Chernyshevsky's What is to be Done? (1863), the heroine, Vera, is visited by a“beautiful being” that teaches her about the new sexual order. In the section “Vera's FourthDream,” this being reveals the truth about woman and the progression of her forces fromfragmentation to unity. Describing a festival in the fully utopian, liberated society, a poet beginsto speak that unpacks the symbolic integration of woman.The era of Asarte is that of the nomadic life. Woman is seen as a bearer of pleasure and,while idealized, is also a prisoner. The beautiful women servicing the warrior elite among thenomads is described with the most costly gifts and esteem, but ultimately, Astarte reduces her to atemporary amusement (368-369).The scene moves from the nomad's tents to a city. The city is saturated with every sort ofbeautiful song, statue and poem as its inhabitants live for love alone. Among the nomads, thewoman was a slave. She bore the marks of servitude and saw her circumstances as normal andeven privileged. The warrior elite were in control and the woman were just a substitute formasturbation. In the city, woman is worshiped, she has power. This power comes from the abilityof the female form to enslave the male and render him irrational. Aphrodite is the goddess ofpower, but not of intellectual maturity.From there comes the troubadours, the goddess “Chastity” rules where the man dedicatedhimself to the service of the woman. This irrationality exists for the sake of conquest. When thisis accomplished, the woman's state is worse than under the nomads. She is merely ignored (370-376). The being that guides Vera through all this says that her existence was manifest only whenthis system began to crumble and the final state was reached.Yes, Vira Pavlovna saw. It was herself ; it was herself, but a goddess. The goddess'countenance is her own countenance, her living countenance, the features of whichare so far from perfection ; every day she sees more than one face more beautifulthan hers. This was her own face, kindled with the brightness of love ; morebeautiful than all ideals left to us by sculptors of the ancient time, and by the greatartists of the great age of art. Yes, it is she herself, but kindled by the brightness oflife ; it is she, more beautiful than whom are hundreds of faces in Petersburg, whichis so poor in beauty. She is more beautiful than the Aphrodite of the Louvre, morebeautiful than all the beauties of the past (Chernyshevsky, 375).Vera has become a goddess and she possesses all the sensual pleasure that was containedin Astarte as well as all the ecstasy and contemplation of beauty which was present in Aphrodite.Lust was mixed with reverence and power and was not canceled by their integration. She becamethe Goddess of Freedom and Equality.Once manifest to the whole world and adored by it, she beings utopia. The “sacredgroves” of the Old Testament pagans is carefully hidden in the verbiage of citrus growing, bu thehypocrisy of Chernyshevsky could not be clearer. Just as a materialist rejecting free will canargue for freedom and equality among human beings that are not distinct from the rest of creationis not a lapse in thought of logic, but a concealing of the nature of this “utopia.” Its symbol is theCrystal Palace, as the new architecture is glass and metal. All work is mechanized, all exists inabundance and there seems to be no ruler except for the ever-present causality, mechanism anddeterminism.Science has solved all production problems, there is a generally uniform climate anddeserts are blooming (Chernyshevsky, 380-387). Female clothing is simple and free flowing. It isclear that the author sees these new dresses as incitements to sexual activity. The nature of thispalace becomes clearer with odd and ominous passages such as this:But here there are no remembrances, no dangers of want and woe ; there are onlyremembrances of free labor with full satisfaction, of abundance, of good, and ofenjoyment. Here the expectations of the time to come are the same. What acomparison ! And again, the nerves only of our working people are strong, andtherefore they are able to endure a great deal of enjoyment ; but they are coarse,obtuse ; but here the nerves are strong as those of our laborers, and developed,susceptible, just as with us (Chernyshevsky, 386).Happiness exists only for those whose memories have been erased. Enjoyment comeswith little work; overt rule does not exist; all evolve upward with no sinking to a “commondenominator.” Passions do not control man since both love and reason check its power. Wherethis freedom comes from is not mentioned.The Goddess of Freedom and Equality is joined by the Goddess of the “Love ofHumanity” where all national boundaries are erased. She is termed the “elder sister” meaning sheis more primal and more significant than “freedom” and equality. Chernyshevsky begins to drophints �C as he did above --- that there is more at work here than this simplistic image depicts. Thenew Goddess can take on the features of any ethnic group without having any identity of herown. In fact, the entire idea of identity is dropped out. The “Love of Humanity” takes a morepractical shape when the Palace itself is built by “foreign workers.” These do the work, alongwith the machines, while the actual residents of the palace have little to do but “walk beside”them.Equality of women in marriage was the basic principle in Chernyshevsky. For him, sexualfreedom was always prominent as a clear consequence. The rise of capitalism in Russia meantthe rise of both foreign ideas and the domination of the west. As early as 1860 ML Mihaylovwrote: “Participation in the work of industry, science and art in general should be available toeveryone as an adult member of society.” Maximizing the labor pool in industry is the very firstfocus of early feminism. Chernyshevsky was no different, in that his heroine finds happiness andfulfillment “in the workplace.”Sexuality was paramount as Chernyshevsky advocated a “revolving door” system of“marriage” where women can be passed from man to man “with respect.” The earliestmanifestation so f feminism before 1861 all concerned their “freedom to labor.”The Decadents and the Rise of Pagan Capitalism
Zinaida Gippius is one of the lesser decadents known n the west. Flirting with Satanism,Gippius, a cross-dressing woman, preferred to be called a “witch” or “the demoniac.” The decayof the Symbolist movement in D. Merezhkovsky and Dmitry Vasilyevich Filosofov led to the“triple marriage” of the three in a demonic union that was envisaged to become a new “elitereligious order.” This existed in numerous levels: the ontological, literary, personal and erotic. Itexisted on all at once. There is no mere “spiritual” love (erroneously called Platonic), but itfunctions only as another level of the erotic.In Gippius, love is the synthesis of “freedom and God.” This is no God of the Christians,but the erotic energy. Bisexuality was Gippius' solution, having affairs with both genders. In thisera, homosexuality was on the level of ideological trend. At the beginning of XX century, same-sex love in the circles of the artistic elite became fashionable. From the memoirs of AlexanderBenois: “I was particularly impressed that those of my friends who belonged to the cult ofhomosexual” do not hide and seek its public acceptance. Gippius saw bisexuality as thehermaphrodite. From the diary of Zinaida «Contes d'amour» (1893): “In my mind, my desires, inmy spirit, I am no longer a man, my body, I am no longer a woman. But they are so fused that Iknow nothing of either.”The self was destroyed. She painted a thick layer of white blush that gave her face kind ofdeath mask. In the 19th century only actresses were painted. Gippius was also an actress,charming and deceiving people. She would charm, and then pour on a tub of icy arrogance, evilwords and and mocking, outspoken contempt. By the 1930s her appearance was a strangelytwisted red hair with her cheeks dyed in bright pink. She dressed with a pink ribbon around herneck, a monocle, a cape and when she was offered a cigarette, she would thrust out a tongue likea snake to grab it.For the decadents, “Eros” was connected to the cult of Dionysus. “Free Love” became asymbol of the decay of the self. K. Brysov wrote in this regard: “He has attained freedom fromall appearances and conventions. His life is subject only to the whims of its moments.”Merezhkovsky's “Death of the Gods” begins with the painful and destructive gap between thespiritual and the corporeal, the earthly and heavenly principle in man, which is manifested mostclearly in relation to Eros. One aspect of this dichotomy is the pagan Dionysian and the Christian“cult of shame.” For D. Merezhkovsky ancient world bears a true harmony since the spiritual andphysical are one. This excluded the term “sin” in the relationship of man and woman.The time of “sickness” is that of the “Galilean despondency.” Christian moralityintroduced disharmony in the relations among people in that it forbids the sensual side of man'sbeing. This separation of the spiritual and corporeal introduces the idea of sin and itssubconscious craving for sin as a forbidden fruit. At the same time, sensuality withoutcorresponding psychological acceptance of it leads to the “masochistic and sadistic component.”In Alexander Kuprin, the story “Sulamith” takes place in the temple of the goddess Isis,contested by priestesses who performed the role of Horus, Anubis, Toot, Isis and Nephthys,indirectly enter into debate with the Symbolists that turn natural high human feelings in aperverted cult object. The main part of the ceremony was to find parts of the body of Osiris andsacrifice the phallus, can be attended only by the initiated. The whole scene is a bloody sacrificewhich appears cruel and unnatural “in the sanctuary around the image of the goddess, coveredwith a black veil, the priests and priestesses circle in the sacred frenzy, shouting, barking, theringing and rattling of instruments. Some of them are lashed with whips of rhinoceros skin,others used short knives in the chest and shoulders to create long bloody wound. . .” The love ofthe gods Isis and Osiris is to stimulate the carnal instincts. In the ecstasy of the now mad priests,they shout: “Where is your phallus, O god of light! Come fertilize the goddess! Her breast islanguishing with desire! Her womb is like a desert in the hot summer months!” This is theprelude to the castration.The king, Solomon, fears the Queen Astiz, since she controls the levers of lust. Accordingto the author, her love is not free, and is as intoxicating as the “poppy drink” which was given tothe participants in the Temple of Isis so as to keep people in the fire of “sacred madness.” “Theunbridled sensuality” of the queen led to her spiritual loneliness, to the loss of Solomon's love.She both loves and hates him �C loves him as the “only man for her” and hates him because shefeels his judgment on her practices. She is spoiled and immature, worshiped in the temple farmore than Isis herself. Kuprin's diagnosis: uncontrollable sensuality leads to the destruction ofthe individual.This is connected to capitalism in his Moloch (1896). In this story, the engineer AndreiBobrov works for a remorseless capitalist enterprise, completely nihilistic in its mentality, that isslowly alienating Bobrov's sensibilities. The firm is owned by Kvashnin, a self-described nihilist,who uses his power and wealth to steal, Nina, Bobrov's wife. Afterwards, he suffers a nervousbreakdown. As is a common motif in Russian prose, he then dissociates himself from reality,seeing a “double” of himself who he hates. The last lines concern “Dr. Goldberg” injectingBobrov with some unnamed concoction. It is clear his time is over.Consider the product and D. Merezhkovsky Kuprin, we see that the social aspect of theimage out of love relationships, and in the foreground is the motive of the correlation of spiritualand physical principles in amorous feelings. The main problem for the Symbolists, andparticularly for D. Merezhkovsky, it was to overcome internal contradictions through thesanctification of human flesh beginning, through the deification of Eros, so in his novel lovestory is inextricably linked with the choice of faith. In contrast Kuprin shows that true love is,regardless of religious, it deifies the human soul. The theme of eros is presented in the literatureof the Silver Age is not unique and diverse, which may be the subject of further study.Elite Agendas: the “Woman's Congress” and Capitalism
In 1908, the wives of Russia's political elite created the first “Woman's Congress” in St.Petersburg. Rejecting the “feminist” label, they opted instead for ravnopravok. One of itsattendees was Alexandra Kollontai. The institutionalization of Russian feminism at this and otherconferences created a “new woman.” She was unkempt, had short hair and had abandoned allfeminine manners. The more radical were part of the nihilist movement and all readChernyshevsky. They refuse to shave or clean their fingernails. This was a deliberate shock toRussian society.The daughters of the elite looked down on family and hated all mannerisms that stressednurturing. Prince Meshchersky had reached a point where he remarked that the “educated”woman had lost the ability to love. Here, the decay of the family meant the decay of all moralsand cohesion. Further, since feminism was immediately attached to the revolutionary movement,socialism, the decay of the family and unshaven, smelly women all became one anti-culturalobject.In a recent analysis of Anna Volkova's journalism, we read:Appearing objective, impersonal, and derivative on the surface, on a deeper levelVolkova’s published writings are permeated with her personal experiences andbeliefs. Most of her work dealt with subjects closest to her heart: education andvocational training, the position of women, the upbringing of children,innovations in charity and social reform. In her treatment of these subjects, sheoften described or prescribed approaches that were the diametric opposite of herown experiences as a child or woman (Lindenmyer, 2001: 131).At the time, this was “journalism.” The term did not yet have its plastic prestige. TheRussian press was particularly bad, having no concern for even a pretense of scruple whereoverthrowing the monarchy was concerned. As always, no real censorship existed and the far leftran the urban papers unopposed. The admission here is that the typical male argument againstwomen in these professions was right. Truth and justice were not the issue, but bending reality tosupport the new agenda was. Worse, she admits that there was a surface “objectivity” that servedonly to deceive. In Russia, this was normal.It must also be stressed that the new capitalist relations were essential for thedevelopment of feminism and sexual nihilism. Writing on the first fashion magazine in Russia(like this is a cultural milestone), the significance of social breakdown could not be overstated:The laws of competition eventually led to a broadening of subject matter as avehicle for expanding readership. By the end of the eighties, women’s magazineshad turned to the still unsolved problems of women’s education, professionalism,and gender relations (without, of course, abandoning fashion and the domesticscene). In the process, they supplied readers with a new range of images; theappearance of the female student and the woman doctor, for instance, implied thatthese ideas were gaining social acceptance. The magazines thus helped tolegitimize a pro-education, pro-equality agenda. Rather than insist on the need forlegal reform to allow for these new roles, however, they instead challengedwomen to enter the marketplace by spotlighting women professionals, theiractivities, and their achievements. The rules of commercial business promotedindividualism through economic competition and thus undermined governmentpaternalism, at least for as long as the market remained unregulated. These newideals, though, were not an unqualified blessing. The race for profit had justifiedotherwise intolerable behavior. . . (Marks, 2001: 112-113)Like the above, there is a surface objectify that covers over a startling set of admissions.First, that image had taken the place of reality. To depict these new “roles” meant that the readerwas convinced that they were real, or that they were “accepted.” They were not, at least for thebulk of the population, but the purpose was to convince others that they were and bring it forthby wish fulfillment. Second, that capitalism was a means to bring about a “pro-equality” agenda.“Government paternalism” is another term for the common good. Once this is overthrown, thewill to power is all that is left.As Russian men are dying against Japan or later, the Germans, this is what occupies themind of the “women's movement.” were the leaders of this movement in the later 19th century.“women's movement.” As always, this puerile movement comes into existence precisely at a timeof high wages and the alteration of typical jobs from the severe discomfort of the mines to thecomfortable existence of an editor, university professor or office worker. As always, men are atthe forefront, promoting “equality” as a means to a) combat the monarchy's fairly advancedsocial legislation against capitalism and b) lower wages overall.Elena Yukina writes concerning the 1908 Congress, “Where the ravnopravki receivedtheir money for such a grand event is not clear” (Yukina, 1998: 14). Some indication is given bytheir backgrounds:Who were they? They were mostly from Petrograd, but all regions of Russia wererepresented. The Congress had its attendees fill out a questionnaire that revealedmost of the delegates were from the high commercial and industrial bourgeoisie,which itself was mixed within the traditional left-intelligentsia. A handful werefrom the lower orders, while peasants were totally absent. The median age wasover 30, were educated, and mostly married (Yukina, 1998: 14).Kollontai did all in her power to obey the male Bolsheviks and divide the movementalong “class” lines. Given the bizarre way the Marxists defined “class,” this is meaningless. Moresignificantly, she argued that “an autonomous women's movement does not exist.” Theimplication was that it is embedded in “class.”Concerned with the “economic needs of Russian womanhood” was ironic only in that thiswas the very last group that should have been consulted on what the typical Russian womanneeded. Needless to say, the agenda was largely masked. While slogans about “Dumademocracy” and “equal rights” were bandied about, the Congress made clear that “the problemsof the modern woman is not exhausted in the struggle for the equality of rights.” This blandstatement conceals much of the agenda. Any movement stressing “procedural” concerns is notbeing honest. No one goes to the barricades for “formal democracy” or “freedom of contract.”They go to the barricades to impose their will.Olga Shapir (Schapiro) (d. 1916) was one of the more significant ideologists of this earlymovement. Nearly every entry on her life says that she was “from the peasantry.” Her ownautobiography says the opposite. Deceit is built in from the first line. Her father was an armyofficer serving under the Jacobin Paul Pestel. She was only a small percentage Russian. Herconcern was the “free love” element of feminism. Her essential argument was that the mainconflict between the sexes is due to a gender stratification based on sexual ownership. “Thepowerlessness of women is the source of all injustice” was one of her more modest statements.The history of Russia sees many women with a great degree of power. Whether it be Miznek, theconcubine of the False Dmitri, “Tsar” Catherine I, an actual sex slave, the two Annas andCatherine II were utter disasters for Russia at every level. It might also be noted that most ofthese were quite sexually liberated.She married a powerful Jewish husband and quickly moved into both the free love and“populist” movement, one of the least descriptive names in political history. Yukina writes:OA Shapir stressed “the pleasure principle” in a woman's life and affirmed awoman's right to happiness in any suitable form, whether it be marriage withoutlove or love without marriage. Even the “abandonment of family” was acceptable.In her literary works, she gives examples of women gaining a different, non-traditional outlook on life, showing examples of self-directed activity,independence and self-reliance. Her heroines demonstrate positive social andintellectual qualities. When the type of women that is committed to traditionalideals, serving the family and nation, Shapir paints them in the worst colors: totalself-rejection, doomed to failure. . . . She gives an unequivocal condemnation ofwomen subjected to the traditional virtues such as searching for a husband, thesubstitution of the interests of loved ones for her own, a lack of independence,passivity and inaction in addressing their own destiny. She protests against thephenomenon of female self-sacrifice as the norms of female life. Selfishness isthe key to liberation (Yukina, 1998).This is the issue that the Congress would not permit the public to see. Her novels arepoorly written, since each scene has characters that are crude symbols for ideological caricatures(cf The Stormy Years for an excellent example of this). Plots are uninteresting (very much likeChernyshevsky), but at the very least, Shapir is honest and forthright in her demands. Virtue isreally a vice, since to guard one's honor is to submit to male dominated typologies. To submit to amale sexually is to become “independent.” Over and over again, childbearing is the worst curseimaginable. It focused one's attention on something outside the self, and this, while leading todisaster, will not fulfill the woman's destiny. The common good here is explicitly rejected, soeven if an action leads to depravity, it is still to be permitted since it leads to “self-fulfillment.”The origin of this, of course, is evolution. The women's movement is “inevitable” and “aforce of nature” in creating an evolving, developing woman. This speech, “Ideals for the Future”was her contribution to the 1908 Congress (Shapir, 1909: 896-898). Nature creates the feministmovement, and nature also creates the legitimization for the destruction of its purpose inchildbearing.Her autobiography seems to suggest that her father was somewhat less than egalitarian.She says that her father was “from peasant stock, a landowner and a nobleman and anoutstanding personality. His passion, his unbridled temper and insane drive to personal freedompermitted her own development into “restrained self-determination.” This seems to be anadmission that her father was violently abusive, and this turned her into an abusive, insane andpassionate advocate of the will to power. Her mother was Swedish, and was the traditionalconservative woman. It is clear that her own abuse led her to admire the power that came withthe paterfamilias. She sought that for herself.Barabra Engel writes in English:The burgeoning marketplace had much the same effect. A by product of Russia'sindustrialization drive, the market encouraged the desire for individual pleasureand gratification and fostered patterns of consumption that cut across socialdivides” (Engel, 2004: 113).Capitalism again is a liberal, hedonistic agent that destroys social institutions byundercutting them. Going to the lowest drives and promising their liberation and pleasure (for aprice), the Russian feminist movement was born through the relation between capitalism and freelove.Jews, Sexuality and Terror
The emblems of the “Silver Age” were revolutionary terror, drug addiction, alcoholism,sexual promiscuity and the odd fixation on suicide. After 1905, terror became widespread. By theend of 1907, the total number of those killed by leftist terror was about 4,500. Between Januaryof 1908 to mid-May of 1910 the police at all levels recorded nearly 20,000 terrorist attacks andexpropriations (ie political looting). Roughly 1000 civilians and 5000 civil servants were killedusing various methods.Many women were involved in these attacks. What is always deleted from the hackneyedhistories of the era are their motivations. Combing through police records of the day, thesepolitical “martyrs” engaged in their well funded murder spree based on their being “tired of life.”“I am weary, excitement is in political violence” or “I seek adventure” were commonexplanations for the mental torment and anguish of these deaths. Most of the terrorists of allgenders had no political program and were semi-literate. Teens of 14 to 16 were not uncommon.5O. Budnitsky writes in his work “Female Suicide in Russia” (Phoenix, 1996) that “thestrangle part of these left-socialist terrorists was a high percentage of Jews and women. A fullthird of the terrorists involved were female Jews. A Geyfman argues that the terror cells in pre-revolutionary Russia were almost exclusively Jewish and near the Pale of Settlement.Solzhenitsyn writes in Two Hundred Years together that the 1905 lifting of the press censorshipwas “like eliminating police from the streets.” It is rare that the historian realizes the nature ofjournalism 100 years ago. Their purpose was not to “report news” they did not even provide thepretense of that. In Russia at the time, the “popular dailies” had the purpose of causing trouble,promoting liberal interests and writing narratives about events, rather than reporting on events.Zionism was legal in Russia so long as it kept its distance from the revolutionaries. Ofcourse, since the two movements were quite similar, communism and Zionism functionedtogether. Large, well armed and wealthy federations of Zionist cells functioned in Poland andUkraine and were quickly mobilized by the German government once World War I began. Berlincreated the “Liberation of Russian Jews” movement that armed and mobilized western RussianJews. Part of the Russian mobilization for war was to remove these cells from Poland, Belarusand Ukraine. The Bund was the result of the final fusion of Zionism and communism.The Jewish Bund, in 1904, had a total of 23,000 members. By 1907, this number reached34,000. These were armed militia groups demanding the end of tsarism and the destruction of theOrthodox church. By contrast, the Social Democratic Party in Russia in 1905 had about 8,000members. By 1900, almost 30% of all those arrested for political offenses, were Jews. Therewere 140 million people in the Russian empire in 1903, with 7 million being Jews. At the sametime, Jews made about half of all membership lists in far left parties.6In 1910, the far left instituted “International Women's Day” through the Jewishcommunist Clara Zetkin at a the International Conference of Socialist Women” in Copenhagen.The Soviet Encyclopedia says that, in 1917, “the government prevented the celebration of thisholiday, soon boiling over into a violent at the main weapons plant in Russia at Pulitov.” Thisclash is traditionally seen in Soviet history as the beginning of the February revolution and thedate was February 23 (March 8 Julian).February 23 of 1917 was also Purim. Andrei Kuraev argues that the Jewish connection tothat day was clear in 1910. The communists, planning to destroy all Christian holidays andrewrite the calendar, needed a set of new days to celebrate. The problem was that they alwaysseemed to coincide with Jewish holidays. The heavily Jewish nature of the left automaticallyconnected Clara with Esther.Solzhenitsyn writes that accuracy was not a function of journalism, but advocacy. Theydeliberately distorted debates in the Duma, concocted platforms for candidates, attributedpolitical positions to politicians in elections and generally invented a reality that had no relationto daily life. There was no “Hill Reporters” as journalists were seen only as “muckrakers.” It wasnot an honest profession and no prestige attached to it.The Jewish role in media, its defense of terrorism and dogmatic liberalism is beyonddispute. The rightist Duma member (and one of the assassins of Rasputin, Purishkevitch calledthe press “covering” the Duma the “Duma of Settlement.” All major newspapers were owned byJews and without variation supported the leftist cause. SM Propper controlled the CommercialGazette; Yuri Bak owned the major daily of the Cadet party while the Russian Gazette wasoverseen by V Jabotinsky and Lurie-Larin, later to achieve fame as the architecht of “WarCommunism.”M Gorodetsky ran the more popular Penny Journal while the mainstream daily KievanThought was owned by Ion Kugel and one of its “mainstream” contributors was Leon Trotsky.Sverdlov's brother Averbahom built the literary careers of Yuri Goldshteyn, H Altus, ZnovyGrzhebin and even Maxim Gorky. The truth is that the royalist, Orthodox press in the cities didnot exist with any great circulation. Long after the revolution, the national composition of theMoscow delegation at the Congress of Writers in 1934 is, out of 600 has 92 Russians and 72Jews.When Tsar Nikolai II issued his Manifesto in October of 1905, Witte called a meeting ofthe elite press in Petrograd. Arriving was a small army of Jews including Propper, Notovitch,Chodsko, Arabazhin and a host of much smaller editors and owners. Uninterested in the normalrole of the press, these capitalists all demanded leftist political reforms immediately. Theydemanded the removal of Trepov as Governor of the region, total amnesty for all convictedterrorist, the removal of all law enforcement and Cossacks from the capital and to hand overpolice duties to the “Red Militia of the People.” This became known as the Manifesto of the“Association of Newspaper Owners.”In a striking foreshadowing, the system of Jewish capital, press and political operativesfunctioned exactly the same as it does in 2015 America. A journalist or professor who sought toanalyze the left radicals for what they were faced professional ostracism, riots and violence at hisplace of work. Papers such as “New Day” and “The Kievan” were more even handed, but itsemployees could find work in no other place.Like today, to openly support political terrorism and defend its practitioners was a sign ofprofessional success and “good manners.” The presence of the Tsar's infamous police serviceswas very rare, since it was quite limited in numbers and normally out-gunned by Jewishrevolutionary groups. The political landscape of Russia at this time is precisely the opposite ofthe typical English-language history textbook. The “pogroms” are creations of westernimaginations, not history. Deaths from these alleged “pogroms” were more often non-Jewish thanJewish, and local militias, Zionist or otherwise, were well armed.Many myths include the prohibition of Jews owning property, attending universities orliving outside the “Pale of Settlement.” The latter is particularly humorous since it was a placewhere its low taxes made Jewish merchants even more well positioned over their Christian rivals.Of course, Jews lived in all Russian cities and owned far more property than the church or thedecayed nobility. Jews made up about 40% of Russian merchants by 1910.Jews in western Russia paid a lower tax rate than Slavs. They were usually exempt frommilitary service. Land purchases were encouraged by the state to bring Jews to agriculture at amuch lower price than for Slavs. The Pale of Settlement created a Jewish oligarchy with far moreprivileges than the Orthodox Russian. The Pale was purely self governing, making the Kahal, oneof the more powerful landowners in the region, a religio-political center off limits to non-Jews.The Pale's school system was excellent and furnished graduates that attended Russia's majorurban university far out of proportion to their numbers. All told, about 18% of Russia's Jewslived in the Pale, where American schoolchildren are told was a “Jewish ghetto.”Jews were roughly 15-20% of the population of Warsaw, Minsk; almost 30% of Krakowand Lv'iv and even more in the port city of Odessa. Jewish militias functioned openly in all ofthese cities and featured intelligence, heavy weapons and a tight control over the executive of thecity.In Summer of 1903, Theodore Herzl traveled to Petrograd to assist in the removal of Jewsto Palestine. He met with the Ministry of Finance under Plehve and Witte himself, seeking tomake the financial removal of Jewish assets from Russian banks easier and to transfer these toPalestine. Witte's problem was the development of Jewish nationalism would be forbidden onRussian soil. Plehve condemned Jewish acts of loansharking and pornography in western Russia.His proscribing of Zionist periodicals in Petrograd earned him a death sentence in 1904. Theworld of capitalist modernity had its limits.Conclusion
Capitalism, sexual liberalism, paganism, Judaic control and feminism are all one and thesame movement in Russia. While the bulk of the peasantry and the church remained faithful, therich and powerful were Moloch �C the god of abortion and capitalism; the ancient form of child-sacrifice in Tyre, where children were killed in a belly of the idol in exchange for profits. Theelite decayed as the royal world was destroyed. From Peter I until Nikolai I, the crown was eithernon-existent or purely secular. The 18th century saw the destruction of the Russian tsarist idea asOrthodox churches in the empire were destroyed to where, by the start of the 19th century, therewere less than half of their original number.Capitalism is a universal solvent. Seeking to bring all social relations under the control ofmoney, it reduces human acts to mere power and control. The sexual revolution follows in itswake without fail, especially among those consecrated to its existence. Like in the OldTestament, the oligarchy of Tyre (powerful enough to ensnare Solomon himself) sought to usesacrifice to maintain its power. St. John the Baptist felt the consequences of sexual lust as he wasbeheaded, as did Pope Sixtus II, as the victim of the magical rites of the Emperor Valerian.In Russia, the upper nobility had the most to gain from the revolution, and so they threwthemselves in it from the Novgorod oligarchy in the middle ages to the 1905 Revolution. Moneywas more powerful than faith, family and nation and women were at the forefront of them all.Notes
1 These are all historical eras where the nobility set themselves against the crown. This changed when Peter I,having been initiated into the Lodge in Amsterdam, created his “new men” to revolutionize Russia. After Peter,the “new men” ruled Russian with a foreign, German Masonic clique often called the “Bironschinia.”A number of special studies emphasizes the social significance of their acts inexile. For the first time, a woman had become involved in Russian politics. Thiscontributed to the formation of a new type of Russian woman. The Decembristprotest against the accepted norms of social behavior brought them to the first steptowards the formation of women's self-consciousness and emancipation, perhapsnot even subconsciously. In subsequent years, women began to claim their rightsto equality with men, education, work and participation in social struggles(Rosina, 2009).2 Marfa was the oligarchical rule
(Message over 64 KB, truncated)
It is doubtful that modern Amazonism will supress pornography, as, as is known, pornography is a powerful means for Amazons to control males.
In the political domain, or rather circus, the status quo is maintained with a vengeance. The prospect of seeing a Right-wing party being voted into power has been receding at the speed of a CGI Solar System probe on the horizon of those who entertain it, and those who count on a military coup need to come back to earth from Hollywood. The Right still exists, in the world of ideas, of forces, but certanly not in men who claim to embody its principles. The only plane on which lines can be felt as being slightly shaken, if not bluntly re-drawn, is that of the relations between the sexes. To put it vaguely, but simply, there is a growing feeling that « something is wrong ». Obviously, very few of those who have this feeling manage to articultate it, let alone clearly, and consistently.
Evola ('Viviamo in una società ginecocratica' ?) was the first to diagnose Europe with matriarchy, it being understodd that matriarchy can only be considered as a disease in a traditionally patriarcal society.
In 1971, an epoch-making book was published whose author wrote about a county which, due to its geogaphical location, but also to the peculiar collectivistic mentality of its population, was chosen to become the laboratory of so insidious, subtle, chloroformic, a new brand of Communism, that, once perfected, it would easily be injected at homeopathic doses to other western European countries, including France, where the soft Stalinism which prevailed since 1945 must have been felt to be too hard, not 'tittytaining' enough, by the pseudo-elites, withtout their peoples being aware of being infected by it : « In September 1969, the Social Democrats at their party congress adopted a platform of egalitarianism, in which equality of the sexes was given a leading role. For months beforehand, radio and TV imprinted the necessary concepts on the public consciousness. 'Equality' became a universal catchword on the air. Equality of the sexes (and its logical corollary, women's liberation) was propagated as received dogma » (p. 289). « When sexual equality was promulgated, and it was decided that a woman's place was not at home but out at work, there was a rapid change in the language. The customary Swedish for housewife is husmor, which is honourable; it was replaced by the neologism hemmafru, literally 'the-wife-who-stays-at-home', which is derogatory. Within a few months, the mass media were able to kill the old and substitute the new term. By the end of 1969, it was almost impossible in everyday conversation to mention the state of house wife without appearing to condemn or to sneer. Swedish had been changed under the eyes and ears of the Swedes. Husmor had been discredited; the only way out was to use hemmafru ironically. Connected with this semantic shift, there was a change in feeling. Women who, a year or so before, had been satisfied, and possibly proud, to stay at home, began to feel the pressure to go out to work. The substitution of one word for the other had been accompanied by insistent propaganda in the mass media, so that it was as if a resolute conditioning campaign had been carried out. Very few were able to recognize the indoctrination in the linguistic manipulation; in the real sense of the word, the population had been brain-washed » (p. 301-2 – http://eindtijdinbeeld.nl/EiB-Bibliotheek/Boeken/The_New_Totalitarians__Brave_New_Sweden___1980_.pdf). Please note that the man who wrote these lines had settled in that country as a correspondant for The Observer two or three years earlier, that he was then an enthusiastic supporter of the Labour party, and that he expected nothing more from this country than to be the paradise on earth he was persuaded the full realisation of socialism meant.
Sweden was the first country in the world where, in 1967, pornography was made legal, and is still the hotbed of Amazonism.
« Men, clearly, another author wrote about two decades later, do need protection, both from their own stupidity and from their susceptibility to female beauty. Indeed, one of the best laws ever passed by men, one of the few which male legislators have passed in the male interest, was an Act of the British Parliament of 1770. It said: All women, of whatever age, rank, profession or degree who shall after this Act, impose upon, seduce, and betray into marriage any of His Majesty's subjects by virtue of scents, paints, cosmetic washes, artificial teeth or false hair, iron stays, bolstered hips, or high-heeled shoes, shall incur the penalty of the law now in force against witchcraft and like misdemeanours; and marriage under such circumstances, upon conviction of the offending parties, shall be null and void. Predictably, like most sensible laws in the male interest, it is not known to have been ever enforced. It was probably a dead letter before it arrived on the statute books. Had it been enforceable, the cosmetics giants of the world would never have built a thriving industry. Nor would the advertising industry daily use the glamorous female body to raid the pockets of men on behalf of vendors of all manner of goods and services. Among feminists, there are puritan prudes who, in crying down "pornography" , object to advertisers' use of the female body-beautiful on billboards, posters, magazines and television to sell products. They claim that such images "demean women". It is doubtful that images of beautiful and sexy girls demean women. It is probably only the plain Janes and ugly duckling who feel demeaned when they compare themselves with the beautiful images over which men drool and lose their self-control. The truth or falsity of that jealous complaint is for women to sort out among themselves; however, it should be noted that if public displays of images of the female body-beautiful do "demean women", then every woman who displays her own body-beautiful in public places (streets, parties, offices, beaches) also "demeans women". If certain images are to be banned for "demeaning women", so too must every woman's self-disphy of a similarly provocative sort. » (p. 39-40 http://therawness.com/AFP.pdf). The title of the book, in which the vast majority of current males will recognise themselves, is : 'Anatomy of a Female Power : a Masculinist Dissection of Feminine Power'.
Being Nigerian, the author has had fist-hand experience of matriarchy, both in his youth, in Nigeria, and in his adult life, in London and in the United States (on the other hand, note xiii needed to be written at https://elementsdeducationraciale.wordpress.com/2016/10/07/anatomie-du-pouvoir-feminin-une-dissection-masculine-du-matriarcati, to show that women's means of pressure over men in ancient Greece, and, to a lesser extent, in ancient Rome, were as limited as possible). It is as little bookish as possible ; it is dedicated « To the handful of women now in my life (platonic friends, lovers, ex-lovers, lovers-to-be); To the countless others who have slipped in and out of my life; and especially To those who have attempted to marry me: From them I have learnt most of what I know about women. » It is slightly misogynist, and misanthropic. There seems to be some deal of irony in his evolutionist asides. It is a must-read, at any rate.
In 1998, an attempt was made by Philp G. Davis at presenting « Neopagan Feminist Spirituality » for what it is in 'Goddess Unmasked'. It is successful insofar as it shows that this « Spirituality » is closely connected with all the -isms which have undermined 'Western' civilisation in the past 200 years.
To get back specifically to the subject, 'Sexual Utopia in Power: The Feminist Revolt Against Civilization' by F. Roger Devlin was published in 2006 (see http://www.counter-currents.com/2011/07/sexual-utopia-in-power-part-1/ ; http://www.counter-currents.com/2011/07/sexual-utopia-in-power-part-2/ ; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJwJ8MNZuSA&feature=youtu.be&t=2370 - from 1:21:30 onwards).
This is the table of contents :
1. Sexual Utopia in Power
2. Rotating Polyandry—& its Enforcers
3. The Female Sexual Counter-Revolution and its Limitations
4. Home Economics
5. The Family Way
6. Back to Africa: Sexual Atavism in the Modern West
7. The Question of Female Masochism
This leads us to :
http://www.dailystormer.com/why-women-destroy-civilizations/
http://www.dailystormer.com/how-women-destroy-civilizations/
Despite some galant caveats, despite some unavoidable longueurs of argumentation, (unavoidable, because it is a 4-hour exposition), fanciful digressions that are common to students of the « Illluminati », some spiritualiist-oriented flights, and a self-indulgent use of the expression « mind control »,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umf5brThGus (from 02:33:49 onwards) is also worth listening to, owing to a clinical interpretation of the Book of Eno:h, and to the penetrating views it contains on the assumption, once made by a Masonic author, that the lower part of the Dollar 13-step pyramid represents self-styled 'patriarcal' Freemasonry, while the top, with the so-called « all seeing eye », stands for the matriarchal sect which pulls the strings behind-the-scene. Among other things, the reason why the 'pater familias' held powers of life and death over his wife will become crystal clear.
(his phonetic approach of etymology is not uninteresting, as etymology is one of the most opaque fields of study. To be consistent with himself in this regard, however, Tsarion, having connected « horse » to « whores », should also connect, for example, « the Duke of Kent » with « the Duke of Kunt »)The third chapter of S. Zweig's 'Die Welt von Gestern: Erinnerungen eines Europäers' ('The World of Yesterday: Memories of a European'), entitled 'Eros Matutinus', which describes the other end of the dialectical spectrum, and whose content is briefly discussed in the articles cited below, can be read in its totality at https://books.google.be/books?id=YrJjc9KADLwC&lpg=PP1&hl=nl&pg=PA67#v=onepage&q&f=false
The original German text can be read at http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/buch/die-welt-von-gestern-6858/5."In the third chapter of his autobiography World of Yesterday, entitled 'Eros Matutinus', Stefan Zweig describes the hypocritical sexual morality that he encountered when growing up in early 20th-century Vienna.
1. Zweig's motivations for critiquing hypocritical sexual morality
Stefan Zweig, an Austrian of Jewish Descent, started his literary career by participating in writers' circles in his native Vienna. He later cultivated literary acquaintances in Paris, Belgium, and Holland. In 1917, he gathered with some of them in Switzerland to promote their collective body of work that was critical of the war. In the United States, he is best known for his short story Letter from an Unknown Woman that was made into an American film starring Joan Fontaine.Zweig lived in the Austrian Age of Progress that transformed formerly autocratic, aristocratic, and Catholic Austria-Hungary into a country of religious freedom, middle-class ascendancy, and constitutional monarchy with voting rights for its citizens. His critique of sexual mores reflected his hopes to further the Age of Progress by changing the culture to reflect reason and common sense. In his opinion, allowing young men to satisfy their natural sexual instincts would be another step forward for freedom in society.
On the other hand, the cultural reluctance to lift these prohibitions made him suspect that the monarchy desired to control youth's potential to demand social and political change so that it could forestall any further liberalization of the country.2. The Culture of Hypocrisy towards Pre-Marital Sex
The general attitude of the middle-class professional bourgeoisie (doctors, lawyers, clerks, scientists) was that their sons had to maintain an appearance of sexual abstinence until marriage. On a cultural level, there was a broad consensus that premarital sexual relations were indecent. The young man who transgressed this invisible law of decency would pay terrible consequences. Ruined by allegations of scandal and impropriety, the person would be considered an unsuitable marriage partner and thus would have to spend his life single.
Just because appearances of propriety forbid men to have sex, it didn't mean that they stayed virgins until honeymoon time at about the age of 28. That, incidentally, was probably the minimum age for men to get married, because it was at that point that they finished their professional education and began a lucrative career in law, medicine, or science. And as you can probably guess, no father would allow his daughter to marry a man who had not begun receiving income from a career.
But there's no need to feel sorry for the young fellows. There were plenty of ways for them to satisfy their sexual desires under the radar. And their parents approved as long as their sons' reputation wasn't ruined. Some parents hired a maid for the express purpose of "sexually fulfilling" their sons. Other parents had no problem when their son visited a special bar or tavern where witty, well-dressed, friendly women would first engage their sons in conversation before taking them to a bedroom. Yet others patronized prostitutes, and this became such a commonplace part of Viennese culture, that the state began to test prostitutes for venereal disease and license the healthy ones with work permits. It is quite ironic that the same government whose culture shamed pre-marital sex had semi-legalized prostitution.
Zweig believed that the middle-class families were just as hypocritical as the government towards sexual mores. Nonchalant about discreet, out-the-way sex, they were nevertheless shocked and dismayed about much more innocent things. Zweig writes that there would be a scandal if a ballerina were to dance without a stocking. In fact, when dancer Isadora Duncan showed the soles of her feet at a performance, she was defamed.
Novels like Madame Bovary were forbidden because they were considered pornographic. It's quite ironic that middle-class parents in Vienna were more incensed about descriptions of extramarital affairs in a novel than by the fact that their own children were doing the very same thing in real life.
3. Zweig's hypothesis that sexual mores were a part of Austria-Hungary's conspiracy to curtail freedom of action and revolutionary behaviour
So, why would the middle-class families and the imperial government condemn premarital sex publically but condone it privately? One would think that their tacit acceptance of the young male's pursuit of sex might have led them to reform outdated conventions. Stefan Zweig believes that reason why they chose not to was so that they could make things more difficult for youth in order to curb their rebelliousness.
Zweig writes that the reason why the bourgeoisie culture of the times feared sex was because "they viewed sexuality as an anarchical and therefore disturbing element." He believes that the Imperial Government and the middle-class professionals who benefited financially from its rule feared that freedom to pursue sexual desire would also make the students seek political change.In the first chapter of "The World of Yesterday" , Zweig puts forward the view that the Austrian empire had a conscious policy of making young men obedient and less likely to engage in revolution by systemically denying their desires. "Young people" he writes, "who always instinctively desire rapid and radical changes, were to be held down or kept inactive for as long a time as possible."
In addition to prohibiting their sexual life, a young's man freedom was also curtailed at school. According to Zweig, the school system conspired to rob students of future desire for revolution by inculcating in them the value of obedience to authority and the surrender of initiative.
Since it was self-confident University students that had attempted the failed 1848 liberal revolution to overthrow the monarchy and institute democracy, it makes sense that the government would be distrustful of them and would attempt to stifle their confidence through a confining education system.
Students had no volition to act of their own accord: they were made to sit silently and had no right to ask questions of the teacher. Instead, they were to respond to the teacher's cues; they had to pay attention when he asked them questions because to answer these wrong would lower their grades."
(http://everything2.com/user/krenseby/writeups/World+of+Yesterday)
"(...) Zweig writes of a world in which sexuality is repressed and hidden behind closed doors. During that time period, it was improper for two people of the opposite sex of the same social class to go anywhere together without supervision, because “the first thought would have been that ‘something might happen'” (Zweig, “Eros Matutinus, 27). According to Zweig, in the Austria-Hungarian Empire, it was silently accepted that a man should have sex, but that a woman not have sexual desires because it “would have transgressed the conception of the ‘sanctity of womanhood'” (Zweig, “Eros Matutinus, 28). In other words, “normal” sex was meant only for men to enjoy. And even though it was socially acceptable for men to have sex, it was not acceptable for anyone to know about the men’s sex life. And as for the “normal” woman, it was not socially acceptable for her to even think sexual thoughts. However, because sex was so taboo, Zweig goes on to say there was a “gigantic spread of prostitution in Europe before the World War” (Zweig, “Eros Matutinus, 83). This can be likened to the Great Prohibition in the United States in the early 1900s when it was illegal to drink alcohol and alcohol became the most popular drink."
(http://superforty.com/sexuality-in-central-europe-during-the-austro-hungarian-empire/)Van: evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com <evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com> namens evola_as_he_is@... [evola_as_he_is] <evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com>
Verzonden: donderdag 20 oktober 2016 21:36
Aan: evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com
Onderwerp: Re: [evola_as_he_is] Re: Non-white influences on the alleged "white" civilization
It is doubtful that modern Amazonism will supress pornography, as, as is known, pornography is a powerful means for Amazons to control males.
In the political domain, or rather circus, the status quo is maintained with a vengeance. The prospect of seeing a Right-wing party being voted into power has been receding at the speed of a CGI Solar System probe on the horizon of those who entertain it, and those who count on a military coup need to come back to earth from Hollywood. The Right still exists, in the world of ideas, of forces, but certanly not in men who claim to embody its principles. The only plane on which lines can be felt as being slightly shaken, if not bluntly re-drawn, is that of the relations between the sexes. To put it vaguely, but simply, there is a growing feeling that « something is wrong ». Obviously, very few of those who have this feeling manage to articultate it, let alone clearly, and consistently.
Evola ('Viviamo in una società ginecocratica' ?) was the first to diagnose Europe with matriarchy, it being understodd that matriarchy can only be considered as a disease in a traditionally patriarcal society.
In 1971, an epoch-making book was published whose author wrote about a county which, due to its geogaphical location, but also to the peculiar collectivistic mentality of its population, was chosen to become the laboratory of so insidious, subtle, chloroformic, a new brand of Communism, that, once perfected, it would easily be injected at homeopathic doses to other western European countries, including France, where the soft Stalinism which prevailed since 1945 must have been felt to be too hard, not 'tittytaining' enough, by the pseudo-elites, withtout their peoples being aware of being infected by it : « In September 1969, the Social Democrats at their party congress adopted a platform of egalitarianism, in which equality of the sexes was given a leading role. For months beforehand, radio and TV imprinted the necessary concepts on the public consciousness. 'Equality' became a universal catchword on the air. Equality of the sexes (and its logical corollary, women's liberation) was propagated as received dogma » (p. 289). « When sexual equality was promulgated, and it was decided that a woman's place was not at home but out at work, there was a rapid change in the language. The customary Swedish for housewife is husmor, which is honourable; it was replaced by the neologism hemmafru, literally 'the-wife-who-stays-at-home', which is derogatory. Within a few months, the mass media were able to kill the old and substitute the new term. By the end of 1969, it was almost impossible in everyday conversation to mention the state of house wife without appearing to condemn or to sneer. Swedish had been changed under the eyes and ears of the Swedes. Husmor had been discredited; the only way out was to use hemmafru ironically. Connected with this semantic shift, there was a change in feeling. Women who, a year or so before, had been satisfied, and possibly proud, to stay at home, began to feel the pressure to go out to work. The substitution of one word for the other had been accompanied by insistent propaganda in the mass media, so that it was as if a resolute conditioning campaign had been carried out. Very few were able to recognize the indoctrination in the linguistic manipulation; in the real sense of the word, the population had been brain-washed » (p. 301-2 – http://eindtijdinbeeld.nl/EiB-Bibliotheek/Boeken/The_New_Totalitarians__Brave_New_Sweden___1980_.pdf). Please note that the man who wrote these lines had settled in that country as a correspondant for The Observer two or three years earlier, that he was then an enthusiastic supporter of the Labour party, and that he expected nothing more from this country than to be the paradise on earth he was persuaded the full realisation of socialism meant.
Sweden was the first country in the world where, in 1967, pornography was made legal, and is still the hotbed of Amazonism.
« Men, clearly, another author wrote about two decades later, do need protection, both from their own stupidity and from their susceptibility to female beauty. Indeed, one of the best laws ever passed by men, one of the few which male legislators have passed in the male interest, was an Act of the British Parliament of 1770. It said: All women, of whatever age, rank, profession or degree who shall after this Act, impose upon, seduce, and betray into marriage any of His Majesty's subjects by virtue of scents, paints, cosmetic washes, artificial teeth or false hair, iron stays, bolstered hips, or high-heeled shoes, shall incur the penalty of the law now in force against witchcraft and like misdemeanours; and marriage under such circumstances, upon conviction of the offending parties, shall be null and void. Predictably, like most sensible laws in the male interest, it is not known to have been ever enforced. It was probably a dead letter before it arrived on the statute books. Had it been enforceable, the cosmetics giants of the world would never have built a thriving industry. Nor would the advertising industry daily use the glamorous female body to raid the pockets of men on behalf of vendors of all manner of goods and services. Among feminists, there are puritan prudes who, in crying down "pornography" , object to advertisers' use of the female body-beautiful on billboards, posters, magazines and television to sell products. They claim that such images "demean women". It is doubtful that images of beautiful and sexy girls demean women. It is probably only the plain Janes and ugly duckling who feel demeaned when they compare themselves with the beautiful images over which men drool and lose their self-control. The truth or falsity of that jealous complaint is for women to sort out among themselves; however, it should be noted that if public displays of images of the female body-beautiful do "demean women", then every woman who displays her own body-beautiful in public places (streets, parties, offices, beaches) also "demeans women". If certain images are to be banned for "demeaning women", so too must every woman's self-disphy of a similarly provocative sort. » (p. 39-40 http://therawness.com/AFP.pdf). The title of the book, in which the vast majority of current males will recognise themselves,is : 'Anatomy of a Female Power : a Masculinist Dissection of Feminine Power'.
Being Nigerian, the author has had fist-hand experience of matriarchy, both in his youth, in Nigeria, and in his adult life, in London and in the United States (on the other hand, note xiii needed to be written at https://elementsdeducationraciale.wordpress.com/2016/10/07/anatomie-du-pouvoir-feminin-une-dissection-masculine-du-matriarcati, to show that women's means of pressure over men in ancient Greece, and, to a lesser extent, in ancient Rome, were as limited as possible). It is as little bookish as possible ; it is dedicated « To the handful of women now in my life (platonic friends, lovers, ex-lovers, lovers-to-be); To the countless others who have slipped in and out of my life; and especially To those who have attempted to marry me: From them I have learnt most of what I know about women. » It is slightly misogynist, and misanthropic. There seems to be some deal of irony in his evolutionist asides. It is a must-read, at any rate.
In 1998, an attempt was made by Philp G. Davis at presenting « Neopagan Feminist Spirituality » for what it is in 'Goddess Unmasked'. It is successful insofar as it shows that this « Spirituality » is closely connected with all the -isms which have undermined 'Western' civilisation in the past 200 years.
To get back specifically to the subject, 'Sexual Utopia in Power: The Feminist Revolt Against Civilization' by F. Roger Devlin was published in 2006 (see http://www.counter-currents.com/2011/07/sexual-utopia-in-power-part-1/ ; http://www.counter-currents.com/2011/07/sexual-utopia-in-power-part-2/ ; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJwJ8MNZuSA&feature=youtu.be&t=2370 - from 1:21:30 onwards).
This is the table of contents :
1. Sexual Utopia in Power
2. Rotating Polyandry—& its Enforcers
3. The Female Sexual Counter-Revolution and its Limitations
4. Home Economics
5. The Family Way
6. Back to Africa: Sexual Atavism in the Modern West
7. The Question of Female Masochism
This leads us to :
http://www.dailystormer.com/why-women-destroy-civilizations/
http://www.dailystormer.com/how-women-destroy-civilizations/
Despite some galant caveats, despite some unavoidable longueurs of argumentation, (unavoidable, because it is a 4-hour exposition), fanciful digressions that are common to students of the « Illluminati », some spiritualiist-oriented flights, and a self-indulgent use of the expression « mind control »,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umf5brThGus (from 02:33:49 onwards) is also worth listening to, owing to a clinical interpretation of the Book of Eno:h, and to the penetrating views it contains on the assumption, once made by a Masonic author, that the lower part of the Dollar 13-step pyramid represents self-styled 'patriarcal' Freemasonry, while the top, with the so-called « all seeing eye », stands for the matriarchal sect which pulls the strings behind-the-scene. Among other things, the reason why the 'pater familias' held powers of life and death over his wife will become crystal clear.
(his phonetic approach of etymology is not uninteresting, as etymology is one of the most opaque fields of study. To be consistent with himself in this regard, however, Tsarion, having connected « horse » to « whores », should also connect, for example, « the Duke of Kent » with « the Duke of Kunt »)« Well done, my friend, Cato once said to a young man he saw leaving out from a brothel (the anecdote was quoted by Evola, to make the same point as Cato made), I love thy breast inflame, Indulge it here, and spare the maried dame.» (Hor. Sat. I.2) Emma Bovary was not spared. In principle, the distinction should be made between extra-marital affairs with a married woman and extra-marial affairs with a prostitute, even though there are married prostitutes.
« It's quite ironic that middle-class parents in Vienna were more incensed about descriptions of extramarital affairs in a novel than by the fact that their own children were doing the very same thing in real life. » Is it ? Perhaps, they preferred their sons to have actual sexual experiences rather than virtual ones, to have actual sexual experiences with women who were not 'dames' rather than to dream of having some with married wives. Needless to say,this is not to condone prostitution, a knotty issue, if any, from more than one perspective. To name only one, prostitution is one of the main centre of female power. Sex is « an anarchical and therefore disturbing element. ». Since man's centre of gravity has been lying on that plane for quite some time, it must be taken into account.
What Zweig, or perhaps that commentator, perceived as 'hypocrisy' was a lack of obscenity. XIXth century Austrian bourgeoisie had many vices, but not everything was black in it.
The past 50 years show that Zweig was wrong in « (believing) that the Imperial Government and the middle-class professionals who benefited financially from its rule feared that freedom to pursue sexual desire would also make the students seek political change. » The more freedom has been conceived of as sexual, the less the need for political change has been felt. 'Tittytainment'.
Speaking of 'Madame Bovary', an English-speaking member familiar with the French language might consider translating into English this chapter of a book by Jules de Gaultier about 'Le bovarysme: la psychologie dans l’œuvre de Flaubert', at https://elementsdeducationraciale.wordpress.com/2016/07/01/sur-le-bovarysme/ This an important writing, in that it connects bovarysm with humantarianism and cosmopolitanism.
The American edition of Egon Friedell's (1878-1938) three-volume book 'A Cultural History of the Modern Age' (1927–31) is described by its publisher as follows (http://www.transactionpub.com/title/A-Cultural-History-of-the-Modern-Age-978-1-4128-0749-4.html) :
"Historian, philosopher, critic, playwright, journalist, and actor, Egon Friedell was a key figure in the extraordinary flowering of Viennese culture between the two world wars. His masterpiece, A Cultural History of the Modern Age, demonstrates the intellectual universality that Friedell saw as guarantor of the continuity and regeneration of European civilization.
Following a brilliant opening essay on cultural history and why it should be studied, the first volume begins with an analysis of the transformation of the Medieval mind as it evolved from the Black Death to the Thirty Years War. The emphasis is on the spiritual and cultural vortex of civilization, but Friedell never forgets the European roots in pestilence, death, and superstition that animate a contrary drive toward reason, refinement, intellectual curiosity, and scientific knowledge. While these values reached their apogee during the Renaissance, Friedell shows that each cultural victory is precarious, and Europe was always in danger of slipping back into barbarism. Friedell's historical vision embraces the whole of Western culture and its development. It is a consistent probing for the divine in the world's course and is, therefore, theology; it is research into the basic forces of the human soul and is, therefore, psychology; it is the most illuminating presentation of the forms of state and society and, therefore, is politics; the most varied collection of all art-creations and is, therefore, aesthetics.
Thomas Mann regarded Friedell as one of the great stylists in the German language. Like the works of the great novelist, A Cultural History of the Modern Age offers a dramatic history of the last six centuries, showing the driving forces of each age. The new introduction provides a fascinating biographical sketch of Friedell and his cultural milieu and analyzes his place in intellectual history."
The author, who counts as a chronology critic, had as his pupil the German historian Heribert Illig (born 1947), and has dealt with historical falsifications in the above list work, as well as in other titles of his. A selection of his work was reissued, for instance, in a 1950 booklet as 'Das Altertum war nicht antik und andere Bemerkungen' ('Antiquity was not antique, and other remarks'). That very idea was originally explored in the chapter "The discovery of the Classical' as it appeared in the second volume of 'A cultural history...'. The historical reality of Jesus was the subject of 'Das Jesusproblem' ('The problem of Jesus'), which became published in the year 1921.
'A Cultural History of the Modern Age' can be read online through https://monoskop.org/images/a/ae/Friedell_Egon_A_Cultural_History_of_the_Modern_Age_Vol_3.pdf
German source texts can be accessed through Egon Friedell – Wikisource
For further biographical information English readers may consult The Vienna Coffeehouse Wits, 1890-1938 which has a short chapter on E. Friedell.
P. S.
More can be read about modern-day Iceland at News Tagged with “Feminism” - Iceland Monitor, where it is recalled that the country brought forth Europe's first female president, and the world's first democratically elected female president, known as Vigdís Finnbogadóttir.
Here are some personally chosen extracts from Friedell's three volumes.
https://www.pdf-archive.com/2017/12/10/friedell-bookiii-america-russia-min/ ; https://www.pdf-archive.com/2017/12/10/friedell-bookiii-darwinism-min/ ; https://www.pdf-archive.com/2017/12/10/friedell-bookiii-diplomacy-min/ ; https://www.pdf-archive.com/2017/12/10/friedell-bookiii-historical-revisionism-min/ ; https://www.pdf-archive.com/2017/12/10/friedell-bookiii-hoerbiger-min/ ; https://www.pdf-archive.com/2017/12/10/friedell-bookii-coffee-the-post-newspaper-min/ ; https://www.pdf-archive.com/2017/12/10/friedell-bookii-rousseau-min/ ; https://www.pdf-archive.com/2017/12/10/friedell-bookii-theatrocracy-min/ ; https://www.pdf-archive.com/2017/12/10/friedell-booki-guilds-min/
https://www.pdf-archive.com/2017/12/10/friedell-bookiii-nietzsches-christianity-min/ ;https://www.pdf-archive.com/2017/12/10/friedell-bookiii-psycho-analysis-min/ ; https://www.pdf-archive.com/2017/12/10/friedell-bookiii-school-reform-min/ ; https://www.pdf-archive.com/2017/12/10/friedell-bookiii-wagner-theatre-min/ ;https://www.pdf-archive.com/2017/12/10/friedell-bookiii-will-to-power-as-decadence-min/.Van: evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com <evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com> namens g.vdheide@... [evola_as_he_is] <evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com>
Verzonden: maandag 14 november 2016 18:13:36
Aan: evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com
Onderwerp: Re: [evola_as_he_is] Re: Non-white influences on the alleged "white" civilizationThe American edition of Egon Friedell's (1878-1938) three-volume book 'A Cultural History of the Modern Age' (1927–31) is described by its publisher as follows (http://www.transactionpub.com/title/A-Cultural-History-of-the-Modern-Age-978-1-4128-0749-4.html) :
"Historian, philosopher, critic, playwright, journalist, and actor, Egon Friedell was a key figure in the extraordinary flowering of Viennese culture between the two world wars. His masterpiece, A Cultural History of the Modern Age, demonstrates the intellectual universality that Friedell saw as guarantor of the continuity and regeneration of European civilization.
Following a brilliant opening essay on cultural history and why it should be studied, the first volume begins with an analysis of the transformation of the Medieval mind as it evolved from the Black Death to the Thirty Years War. The emphasis is on the spiritual and cultural vortex of civilization, but Friedell never forgets the European roots in pestilence, death, and superstition that animate a contrary drive toward reason, refinement, intellectual curiosity, and scientific knowledge. While these values reached their apogee during the Renaissance, Friedell shows that each cultural victory is precarious, and Europe was always in danger of slipping back into barbarism. Friedell's historical vision embraces the whole of Western culture and its development. It is a consistent probing for the divine in the world's course and is, therefore, theology; it is research into the basic forces of the human soul and is, therefore, psychology; it is the most illuminating presentation of the forms of state and society and, therefore, is politics; the most varied collection of all art-creations and is, therefore, aesthetics.
Thomas Mann regarded Friedell as one of the great stylists in the German language. Like the works of the great novelist, A Cultural History of the Modern Age offers a dramatic history of the last six centuries, showing the driving forces of each age. The new introduction provides a fascinating biographical sketch of Friedell and his cultural milieu and analyzes his place in intellectual history."
The author, who counts as a chronology critic, had as his pupil the German historian Heribert Illig (born 1947), and has dealt with historical falsifications in the above list work, as well as in other titles of his. A selection of his work was reissued, for instance, in a 1950 booklet as 'Das Altertum war nicht antik und andere Bemerkungen' ('Antiquity was not antique, and other remarks'). That very idea was originally explored in the chapter "The discovery of the Classical' as it appeared in the second volume of 'A cultural history...'. The historical reality of Jesus was the subject of 'Das Jesusproblem' ('The problem of Jesus'), which became published in the year 1921.
'A Cultural History of the Modern Age' can be read online through https://monoskop.org/images/a/ae/Friedell_Egon_A_Cultural_History_of_the_Modern_Age_Vol_3.pdf
German source texts can be accessed through Egon Friedell – Wikisource
For further biographical information English readers may consult The Vienna Coffeehouse Wits, 1890-1938 which has a short chapter on E. Friedell.
P. S.
More can be read about modern-day Iceland at News Tagged with “Feminism” - Iceland Monitor, where it is recalled that the country brought forth Europe's first female president, and the world's first democratically elected female president, known as Vigdís Finnbogadóttir.
- Further readings in addition to The Manipulated Man and Anatomy of female power:
If Men Have All the Power How Come Women Make the Rules
https://archive.org/details/IfMenHaveAllThePowerHowComeWomenMakeTheRulesAndOtherRadicalThoughtsForMenWhoWant
All About Women: What Big Sister Doesn't Want You To Know
https://archive.org/details/AllAboutWomenWhatBigSisterDoesntWantYouToKnowSimonSheppard1998
The Predatory Female
https://archive.org/details/ThePredatoryFemaleAFieldGuideToDatingAndTheMarriageDivorceIndustry1986LawrenceShannon
The Great Female Con
https://archive.org/details/TheGreatFemaleConTheBookEveryFemaleDoesNotWantHerManToRead2006AndeyRandead
The Tyranny of Ambiguity
https://archive.org/details/TheTyrannyOfAmbiguity-AnAccountOfTheDevelopmentOfASystemOfHumanBehaviourAnalysis
Sex & Power - A Manual on Male-Female Relations
https://archive.org/details/SexPower-AManualOnMale-FemaleRelations2014-SimonSheppard
Sex-Ploytation
https://archive.org/details/SexPloytationHowWomenUseTheirBodiesToExtortMoneyFromMen1999MatthewFitzgerald It remains astonishing how even the above titles continue to rage about "equality", but of course it is not for this reason that you mention these works.
The subject of pornography has been indirectly addressed several times. "Sex-Ploytation", contains the following passage, which merely supplements the observations made here earlier, and, as a statement, is incomplete, even while it can easily be expanded upon : "As it was in Victorian Europe, the modern pornography business is booming. A variety of magazines, sex phone lines, and especially home videos are abounding. Internet entrepreneurs are making a fortune with sex-oriented web sites. Obviously a need for such eroticism exists, and such a need does not occur in a vacuum. Pornography exists because women are withholding sex and selling their bodies to the highest bidder, and most men can't afford them."
"Each and every instrument of communication that has been devised to date by man ... has been almost immediately turned to the service of what the culture in which it was invented called 'pornography...' regardless of so-called 'public attitudes' at the time or law", as it says elsewhere in very general terms, while highlighting the obvious links between sex and technology (Gordon, George (1980). Erotic Communications: Studies in Sex, Sin, and Censorship. New York, NY : Hastings House, p. 33).
(The full statement seems to read : "The avidity with which eroticism was devoured by the technologies of communication that might allow people to accomplish these ends is confirmed by one startling (to me) fact : Each and every instrument of communication that has been devised to date by man (including television) has been almost immediately turned to the service of what the culture in which it was invented called 'pornography", not on a limited basis but to whatever extent that technology - and the inventive mind of man - could contrive, regardless of so-called 'public attitudes' at the time or the law", https://www.yumpu.com/pt/document/view/11467571/pornography-technology-and-progress).
Apparently, H. L. Mencken's once wrote that a misogynist is "...a man who hates women as much as women hate one another." (A Mencken Chrestomathy, 1949).
His "In Defense of Women" (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1270/1270-h/1270-h.htm#link2H_4_0019), published in 1922, can perhaps be mentioned alongside the above-mentioned works.A review of the latest American edition of A. M. Ludovici's autobiography (https://www.counter-currents.com/2018/06/a-man-out-of-season-ludovicis-the-confessions-of-an-anti-feminist/) manages to mention that "... the critique of feminism occupies only twenty-two pages toward the end of the autobiography. Other sections deal with the author’s criticism of post-impressionist art, his rejection of democracy and support for aristocracy (perfectly consistent with his understanding of the shortcomings of the British aristocracy of his own age), his appraisal of Christianity and of Jewish influence in modern Britain, and even an original theory of laughter."Van: evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com <evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com> namens rouesolaire@... [evola_as_he_is] <evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com>
Verzonden: donderdag 21 juni 2018 16:30:53
Aan: evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com
Onderwerp: Re: [evola_as_he_is] Re: Non-white influences on the alleged "white" civilizationFurther readings in addition to The Manipulated Man and Anatomy of female power:
If Men Have All the Power How Come Women Make the Rules
https://archive.org/details/IfMenHaveAllThePowerHowComeWomenMakeTheRulesAndOtherRadicalThoughtsForMenWhoWant
All About Women: What Big Sister Doesn't Want You To Know
https://archive.org/details/AllAboutWomenWhatBigSisterDoesntWantYouToKnowSimonSheppard1998
The Predatory Female
https://archive.org/details/ThePredatoryFemaleAFieldGuideToDatingAndTheMarriageDivorceIndustry1986LawrenceShannon
The Great Female Con
https://archive.org/details/TheGreatFemaleConTheBookEveryFemaleDoesNotWantHerManToRead2006AndeyRandead
The Tyranny of Ambiguity
https://archive.org/details/TheTyrannyOfAmbiguity-AnAccountOfTheDevelopmentOfASystemOfHumanBehaviourAnalysis
Sex & Power - A Manual on Male-Female Relations
https://archive.org/details/SexPower-AManualOnMale-FemaleRelations2014-SimonSheppard
Sex-Ploytation
https://archive.org/details/SexPloytationHowWomenUseTheirBodiesToExtortMoneyFromMen1999MatthewFitzgeraldSometimes the Prisoner thought women had begun to withdraw respect from men about the time pregnancy lost its danger. For once Semmelweis uncovered the cause of puerperal fever, and the doctor could take over from the midwife, once anesthesia, antiseptics, obstetrics, and delivery by fluorescent light were able to replace boiling water, the lamp by the bed, and the long drum roll of labor, then women began to be insulated from the dramatic possibility of a fatal end. If that had once been a possibility real enough for them to look at their mate with eyes of love or eyes of hate but know their man might yet be the agent of their death, conceive then of the lost gravity of the act, and the diminishment of man from a creature equally mysterious to woman (since he could introduce a creation to her which could yet be her doom) down to the fellow who took lessons on how to satisfy his wife from Masters and Johnson and bowed out to the vibration of his superior, a vibrator (which, reminiscent of all the power concentrated by corporations in the plastic products of every supermart, had obviously the virility to ring the ladies' disembodied case-history buzzer). Enough! The case had been made for the third time, and can rest. It is, like all the argument, an exaggeration. What is more to the point is Millett's remark that "the sexes are inherently in everything alike save reproductive systems," etc.
"Good sister Kate," would reply any lady from the centuries before, "reproductive systems are better than half of it!" and could have been right, for how much will impress us more than the danger of our death? But technology, by extending man's power over nature, reduced him before women; Millett's remark is no longer absurd - it has become the summary of a line of thought which looks to prove that differences between men and women have been exaggerated, and cultural, are shaped by the condition that humans-with-phalluses generally grow up in a masculine culture, and humans-with-vaginas in a feminine milieu, thereby exaggerating the differences. Even before they could speak, their separation was imprinted by the way they were handled, whether ruggedly or maidenly, how sentimentally spoken to, "Hiya, guy!... Sweet little girl," and in the language they were soon to learn were numberless indications to shape their consciousness in such ways as to make them more masculine than boy, more feminine as girls. (And indeed, since English had no gender for its nouns, the thought occurred that feminism might have originated in England and America precisely because the conditioning to be masculine or feminine was less implanted in our language.) Culture had obviously created some of the polarity of men and women ,enough to embolden Millet to say, "Whatever the real differences may be, we are not likely to know them until the sexes are treated differently, that is alike." Yet, by every evidence of style, the sexes were already growing similar, for whether equipped with phallus or vagina, they came accoutered in pants and long hair, and such unisex had been incubating for more than a little while.Mailer, N. (1972). The Prisoner of Sex. London : Sphere Books Limited, p. 126-128Van: evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com <evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com> namens rouesolaire@... [evola_as_he_is] <evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com>
Verzonden: donderdag 21 juni 2018 16:30:53
Aan: evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com
Onderwerp: Re: [evola_as_he_is] Re: Non-white influences on the alleged "white" civilizationFurther readings in addition to The Manipulated Man and Anatomy of female power:
If Men Have All the Power How Come Women Make the Rules
https://archive.org/details/IfMenHaveAllThePowerHowComeWomenMakeTheRulesAndOtherRadicalThoughtsForMenWhoWant
All About Women: What Big Sister Doesn't Want You To Know
https://archive.org/details/AllAboutWomenWhatBigSisterDoesntWantYouToKnowSimonSheppard1998
The Predatory Female
https://archive.org/details/ThePredatoryFemaleAFieldGuideToDatingAndTheMarriageDivorceIndustry1986LawrenceShannon
The Great Female Con
https://archive.org/details/TheGreatFemaleConTheBookEveryFemaleDoesNotWantHerManToRead2006AndeyRandead
The Tyranny of Ambiguity
https://archive.org/details/TheTyrannyOfAmbiguity-AnAccountOfTheDevelopmentOfASystemOfHumanBehaviourAnalysis
Sex & Power - A Manual on Male-Female Relations
https://archive.org/details/SexPower-AManualOnMale-FemaleRelations2014-SimonSheppard
Sex-Ploytation
https://archive.org/details/SexPloytationHowWomenUseTheirBodiesToExtortMoneyFromMen1999MatthewFitzgerald- Included here a few passages from Ludovici's autobiography (Ludovici, A. M. (2018). The Confessions of an Anti-Feminist. The Autobiography of Anthony M. Ludovici (edited by John V. Day). San Francisco : Counter-Currents Publishing) that specifically deal with "the growing influence of the female sex over our society" :"The object of my (...) novel, French Beans, was to show by a description of one of the most extreme aspirations of feminists — their hope of ultimately dispensing altogether with the male, at least as a life-partner in the breeding of the race — that feminism is, as a rule, a reaction to defective masculinity in the men of the countries where it occurs. And by the lack of masculinity I meant not merely physical, but also characterological, shortcomings." p. 245"In my book, The Child: An Adult’s Problem, I tried — in vain, I fear — to call England to her senses concerning at least the absurd exaltation of immature humanity, which I suggested was rooted in Jesus’s palpably false view of children as recorded in Matthew 19.14. Believing, as I still do, that Dr Fritz Wittels was right when he declared our ‘present-day excessive preoccupation with children is a decadent ideal,’ and convinced, as I still am, that the staggering rise in juvenile delinquency has been due chiefly to three factors: 1) the ascendancy of women in our society; 2) the self-indulgence which causes mothers to prefer spoiling rather than disciplining their children; and 3) women’s general subconscious and deep hostility to discipline of any kind, as being to their minds (from early girlhood to maturity) peculiar to a masculine and oppressive order of being, I attempted a realistic revaluation of childhood in the light of modern psychology. In doing so I outlined a system of discipline for the young which would inculcate upon them at least a minimum of public spirit — the virtue chiefly lacking in modern children — and at the same time help parents in the admittedly difficult task of leading their children out of the dominion of the pleasure principle into that of the reality principle which fits them for social life.I tried to show that the root of the alarming prevalence of juvenile crime was due to the fact that the vast majority of modern children never effect this transfer and are consequently never really made fit for civilised life in society. I described with care the role played by women in bringing about this state of affairs and the reasons for their share in its production. But, as this will be exhaustively discussed when I deal with my books on feminism, I need not explain it here. Suffice it only to emphasise the fact that, as both in this country and America the increase of juvenile crime has kept pace with the growing influence of the female sex over our society, we are concerned with a problem that is not nearly as obscure as many of our psychological ‘experts’ would have us believe, and all the solemn wiseacres who nowadays attend learned conferences and committees on the subject merely display their failure to see the wood for the trees." p. 254-5"(...) it is precisely in the recent advocacy and realisation of the policy of giving sex-instruction to school children that we see the utter incompetence and futility of the wiseacres above-mentioned, who assemble in solemn conclave to devise remedies for evils they do not understand. For, of all the gaffes ever perpetrated by ‘experts,’ none has been more egregious and disastrous than that which culminated in the bright idea of providing sex-instruction in schools. Among the juvenile crimes recorded early in the century, only a small proportion were sexual. It was, however, imagined — and here I cannot help suspecting the cerebrations of one woman or several — that if only little girls and little boys could be taught the ‘facts of life’ this knowledge would protect them from all the untoward consequences of submitting to, or committing, sexual offences. It all seemed most plausible, not to say self-evident. Nor should the reader conclude from my suspecting the female brain behind the innovation that I am unaware of the gallant support women received from male collaborators. On the contrary, I am only too painfully aware of the important part masculine ‘authorities’ played in introducing sex-instruction in schools. Indeed, the hostility my opposition provoked among them led to much bitter comment. Yet, when we look at the results of the innovation; when we see how immensely that variety of juvenile crime classed as sexual has multiplied in recent years — i.e., ever since the introduction of sex-instruction — are we not entitled to ask how and in what respect this alleged remedy or preventative of juvenile sexual delinquency is supposed to have succeeded?" p. 254-5"(...) most of the absurd assumptions on which the claims of feminism rested owe their bloodless and unrealistic character to the fact that, as the leading feminists hailed from the effete and most passionless ranks of our middle classes, and were accustomed to the society of men as effete and passionless as themselves — men in whose company they knew perfectly well their daughters might travel round the world in perfect sexual safety — they very foolishly demanded reforms which were in keeping with their own and their menfolk’s temperamental anaemia and, forgetting that in the more vigorous and primitive strata of the population young men were not quite the constitutional nincompoops their own middle-class males were, they promoted a state of licence which not unnaturally spelt sexual depravity for a class of people with more stamina and native ardour than themselves.""It was my great misfortune to have been one of the few and the most vociferous of those who from the very beginning saw the many perils which were certain to overtake any nation that wholly accepted and instituted the reforms demanded by the movement known as feminism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. I was hardly likely to be forgiven for publishing radical attacks upon it, including the most pessimistic prophecies concerning its consequences (prophecies which, by the by, have been abundantly fulfilled), at the very time when the whole bias of the public and the press was in favour of the changes that promised to establish feminine influence over every department of our national life. It was above all my misfortune that in every one of my anti-feminist books I dealt blows at the feminist position which were unanswerable and could therefore be safely met only by silence. Thus, whilst the resolute feminists composing the editorial staff of The Times Literary Supplement (to mention but one example) always gave long laudatory reviews to all the publications written by my opponents, all my books were systematically disparaged or left unnoticed." p. 265-6"I have (...) no hesitation in claiming to be a philogynist whilst professing strong anti-feminist views." p. 266"(...) although I clearly recognised the real nature of the Anglo-Saxon female’s passionate demand for the futile vote, I was never so deluded as to suppose that it represented the whole of feminism, or even that it constituted the core of the feminist movement and consequently the main cause of the increasing disorder and anarchy of modern life. For I was never in any doubt that the basic cause of the decline in the quality of our civilisation was the degeneracy of the civilised male. Throughout my attacks on feminism, therefore, as any reader can discover for himself, there was always a plain allusion to the emasculated male of the nation as the principal cause of the abnormal ascendancy of the female. It was he who, typical of the majority of males in the country, had abdicated his position as leader and tone-setter of the domestic and social circles of the community. On this account, feminism, far from being a spontaneous and wholesome uprising of ebullient and flourishing womanhood, was merely a morbid reaction to the general inadequacy, supineness and feebleness of the male, complicated unfortunately by the fact that, owing to the Englishman’s total lack of psychological flair, even the best and most masculine men that remained in the nation were stricken with such inconceivable credulity as to be able to swallow all the ostensible and allegedly logical reasons which feminists, male and female, advanced for the realisation of their aims." p. 282Van: evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com <evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com> namens 'G. H.' g.vdheide@... [evola_as_he_is] <evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com>
Verzonden: zaterdag 4 augustus 2018 15:52:19
Aan: evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com
Onderwerp: Re: [evola_as_he_is] Re: Non-white influences on the alleged "white" civilizationSometimes the Prisoner thought women had begun to withdraw respect from men about the time pregnancy lost its danger. For once Semmelweis uncovered the cause of puerperal fever, and the doctor could take over from the midwife, once anesthesia, antiseptics, obstetrics, and delivery by fluorescent light were able to replace boiling water, the lamp by the bed, and the long drum roll of labor, then women began to be insulated from the dramatic possibility of a fatal end. If that had once been a possibility real enough for them to look at their mate with eyes of love or eyes of hate but know their man might yet be the agent of their death, conceive then of the lost gravity of the act, and the diminishment of man from a creature equally mysterious to woman (since he could introduce a creation to her which could yet be her doom) down to the fellow who took lessons on how to satisfy his wife from Masters and Johnson and bowed out to the vibration of his superior, a vibrator (which, reminiscent of all the power concentrated by corporations in the plastic products of every supermart, had obviously the virility to ring the ladies' disembodied case-history buzzer). Enough! The case had been made for the third time, and can rest. It is, like all the argument, an exaggeration. What is more to the point is Millett's remark that "the sexes are inherently in everything alike save reproductive systems," etc.
"Good sister Kate," would reply any lady from the centuries before, "reproductive systems are better than half of it!" and could have been right, for how much will impress us more than the danger of our death? But technology, by extending man's power over nature, reduced him before women; Millett's remark is no longer absurd - it has become the summary of a line of thought which looks to prove that differences between men and women have been exaggerated, and cultural, are shaped by the condition that humans-with-phalluses generally grow up in a masculine culture, and humans-with-vaginas in a feminine milieu, thereby exaggerating the differences. Even before they could speak, their separation was imprinted by the way they were handled, whether ruggedly or maidenly, how sentimentally spoken to, "Hiya, guy!... Sweet little girl," and in the language they were soon to learn were numberless indications to shape their consciousness in such ways as to make them more masculine than boy, more feminine as girls. (And indeed, since English had no gender for its nouns, the thought occurred that feminism might have originated in England and America precisely because the conditioning to be masculine or feminine was less implanted in our language.) Culture had obviously created some of the polarity of men and women ,enough to embolden Millet to say, "Whatever the real differences may be, we are not likely to know them until the sexes are treated differently, that is alike." Yet, by every evidence of style, the sexes were already growing similar, for whether equipped with phallus or vagina, they came accoutered in pants and long hair, and such unisex had been incubating for more than a little while.Mailer, N. (1972). The Prisoner of Sex. London : Sphere Books Limited, p. 126-128Van: evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com <evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com> namens rouesolaire@... [evola_as_he_is] <evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com>
Verzonden: donderdag 21 juni 2018 16:30:53
Aan: evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com
Onderwerp: Re: [evola_as_he_is] Re: Non-white influences on the alleged "white" civilizationFurther readings in addition to The Manipulated Man and Anatomy of female power:
If Men Have All the Power How Come Women Make the Rules
https://archive.org/details/IfMenHaveAllThePowerHowComeWomenMakeTheRulesAndOtherRadicalThoughtsForMenWhoWantarchive.orgIf Men Have All the Power How Come Women Make the Rules - and other radical thoughts for men who want more fairness from women (2010) - Jack KammerA brief,...
All About Women: What Big Sister Doesn't Want You To Know
https://archive.org/details/AllAboutWomenWhatBigSisterDoesntWantYouToKnowSimonSheppard1998
The Predatory Female
https://archive.org/details/ThePredatoryFemaleAFieldGuideToDatingAndTheMarriageDivorceIndustry1986LawrenceShannon
The Great Female Con
https://archive.org/details/TheGreatFemaleConTheBookEveryFemaleDoesNotWantHerManToRead2006AndeyRandead
The Tyranny of Ambiguity
https://archive.org/details/TheTyrannyOfAmbiguity-AnAccountOfTheDevelopmentOfASystemOfHumanBehaviourAnalysis
Sex & Power - A Manual on Male-Female Relations
https://archive.org/details/SexPower-AManualOnMale-FemaleRelations2014-SimonSheppard
Sex-Ploytation
https://archive.org/details/SexPloytationHowWomenUseTheirBodiesToExtortMoneyFromMen1999MatthewFitzgerald - Early Greek Philosophy and the Orient by Martin West is readable at https://fr.scribd.com/document/378447905/M-L-West-Early-Greek-Philosophy-and-the-Orient-Oxford-University-Press-1971.
- The french translation of Allahs Sonne über dem Abendland – Unser arabisches Erbe is available at https://archive.org/details/LeSoleilDAllah. Among other "anecdotes", this one (p. 146) is most telling about the semitic mindset :
Sans doute l’Antiquité avait-elle déjà soumis les médecins à une éthique élevée : tout jeune médecin devait prêter le « serment d’Hippocrate » à Apollon, à Asclépios, à Hygie, à Panacée, à tous les dieux et déesses (« Je jure de venir en aide aux malades dans toutes les maisons que je visiterai »), mais elle ne leur demandait pas de soigner les incurables. Leur devoir au contraire était de leur refuser toute assistance. Hippocrate disait : « La médecine est l’art de délivrer les malades de leurs souffrances, de diminuer la violence des attaques du mal, mais elle exige aussi qu’on n’approche pas ceux que la maladie a déjà vaincus, car on sait bien qu’alors la médecine est impuissante. »
Et ce fut un musulman, Ar-Rasi, qui le premier insista pour que le médecin secourût aussi les incurables. Considérant qu’il s’agissait là d’un devoir de la plus haute importance, il exprima son opinion en ces termes : « Tout médecin doit persuader son patient qu’il guérira et entretenir en lui cet espoir, même si l’issue est des plus douteuses. L’esprit imposant sa volonté au corps, le médecin doit encourager celui que la mort a déjà marqué pour lui insuffler un regain de vigueur. »
« Quelle audace et quelle malhonnêteté! riposte Geyler de Kaisersberg. Le médecin, qui au lieu d’appeler l’attention du malade sur sa fin prochaine lui fait au contraire espérer la guérison, le détourne ainsi de se remettre à temps entre les mains de Dieu ! »
Chez les musulmans, le point de vue est différent. «Un médecin ne doit jamais laisser paraître que son patient est condamné sans espoir», déclare Ibn Sina [Avicenne], compatriote d’Ar-Rasi.
Ar-Rasi et ses confrères arabes avaient largement devancé l’Occident dans le traitement psychique des malades, incurables et aliénés. Mais leur exemple passa à peu près inaperçu. - The reading of the chapter entitled Serviteur de Dieu et de la bien aimée (page 361) from Le soleil d'Allah brille sur l'Occident (https://archive.org/details/LeSoleilDAllah) is strongly advised. It is stunning. The beginning of it reads as follow :
Il est vrai que jamais tu ne quittes mon cœur
même quand tu es loin de moi!
Tristesse, souffrance et douleur, tel est mon lot,
mais que l'étoile du bonheur veille sur toi!
Il est dur sans doute d'être esclave de l'amour,
je n'en porte pas moins le joug de ta volonté!
Me sera-t-il un jour enfin accordé
de m'asseoir de nouveau à ton côté ?
Ah, pense à moi et ne m'oublie jamais,
si longue que doive être notre séparation!
De ton nom j'écris sans cesse les lettres :
Itimad, élue de mon cœur, ma passion.
Al-Motamid parcourt une dernière fois la missive qu’il vient d’écrire à sa jeune épouse, ainsi que les vers dont les lettres initiales forment le nom de sa bien-aimée. Puis, reprenant la plume, il ajoute au bas du message : « Je te reverrai bientôt si telle est la volonté d’Allah et d’Ibn Ammar! » Il montre en riant la lettre à son ami. « Ah, mon prince, s’exclame Ibn Ammar, comment pourrais-je jamais souhaiter autre chose que de me plier à ta volonté? Si tu veux retourner auprès d’elle, monte à bord d’un voilier et je te suivrai. Ou bien mets-toi en selle, et je te suivrai encore. Lorsque nous arriverons en vue du palais, je te quitterai pour rejoindre ma demeure, et toi, sans même prendre le temps de déposer ton sabre, tu iras te jeter à ses pieds! »
Al-Motamid sait que son ami dit vrai. Son amour pour Itimad a fait de lui, qui d’habitude n’accepte aucune contrainte, l’esclave de sa bien-aimée.
Bien que sa culture soit limitée, qu’elle n’ait même reçu qu’une éducation assez sommaire, tout en elle l’enchante. Elle est intelligente et pleine d’esprit, elle est d’humeur insouciante, d’une espièglerie charmante et très douée pour la poésie. Il n’est pas jusqu’aux caprices et aux idées extravagantes auxquels elle ne cède que trop volontiers qui ne le ravissent et le déconcertent à la fois par leur soudaineté et leur véhémence; il ne s’en soumet pas moins à ses fantaisies avec une étonnante docilité.
Un jour de février, il la trouva en pleurs derrière une fenêtre du palais, le regard fixé sur les flocons de neige qui tombaient du ciel. « Que se passe- t-il ? » lui demanda-t-il. Et elle répondit à travers ses sanglots : « Il se passe que tu es un barbare, un tyran, un monstre! Regarde donc comme la neige est belle, vois la délicatesse avec laquelle ces flocons blancs se posent sur les branches des arbres! Or, jamais encore tu n’as songé à m’offrir un tel spectacle ni à me mener dans un pays où tombe la neige ! » Sur quoi, il essuya en souriant les larmes de sa bien-aimée, lui promettant de lui offrir tous les ans un spectacle digne de celui-là. Devant la fenêtre d’Itimad, et aussi loin que pouvait porter son regard, il fit planter des amandiers, afin que chaque année sa bien-aimée pût se réjouir à la vue des fleurs parsemant leurs branches tels des flocons de neige, « premier sourire du printemps sur les lèvres de l’univers ».
Une autre fois, attristée à la vue de femmes du peuple qui en bordure du fleuve foulaient le limon de leurs pieds nus — le limon dont on faisait les briques — Itimad s’écria : « Ah, que je suis malheureuse d’être emprisonnée dans ce palais au lieu de vivre libre et joyeuse dans mon ancienne masure. Je pourrais alors, comme ces femmes, piétiner le limon!
— Mais rien ne t’empèche de le faire », avait répondu Al-Motamid en souriant. Il était alors descendu dans la cour où il avait fait broyer une grosse quantité de cannelle, de gingembre, de myrrhe et de musc, puis avait ordonné qu’on arrosât le tout d’eau de rose pour lui donner la consistance du limon. Après quoi, il alla chercher Itimad : « Aie l’obligeance de descendre dans la cour, le limon t’y attend. »
Al-Motamid se sent si merveilleusement comblé par sa bien-aimée que c’est avec joie qu’il a décidé — comme il le lui a écrit — « de porter le joug de sa volonté ». Et quand elle le tourmente par ses caprices d’enfant, il sait très bien qu’il ne voudrait pour rien au monde qu’il en fût autrement. Il aime au contraire se soumettre à ses brusques fantaisies, aussi inattendues qu’inexplicables, mais qui ne font qu’accroître encore son pouvoir de séduction.
Tourmente-moi, sois injuste, fuis-moi.
Rien ne saurait détruire ta beauté!
Agis toujours selon ton bon plaisir!
Quoi que tu fasses, je te donne raison.
Que tu veuilles ou non de moi,
Je supporte l'attente, j'endure ta pruderie.
(Moudgalis.)
Qu’importe qu’elle ne soit qu’une fille du peuple née « dans une vieille masure » et lui un prince né dans un palais ! Le cruel Al-Hakam Ier, souverain ommeyade de naissance illustre et qui fut émir d’Andalousie en l’an 800, n’avoue-t-il pas lui-même qu’il se soumet « aux gazelles de son palais, tel un prisonnier enchaîné » :
Bien qu'il soit un roi puissant
L'amour a fait de lui leur esclave !
L'humilité sied à l'homme libre
Quand l'amour l'a enchaîné!
A la même époque, le tout-puissant Souverain des Croyants, le calife de Bagdad Haroun al-Rachid avait écrit :
Mes trois bien-aimées me mènent par la bride,
Elles ont envahi tous les recoins de mon cœur.
Que m'importe que tous les hommes m'obéissent
Si j'obéis à ces trois-là qui demeurent indomptables?
C'est que le pouvoir de l'amour qui fait leur force
Est plus puissant que mon pouvoir.
Soulaïman, petit-fils du grand Abd ar-Rahman et calife de Cordoue, avait soulevé la même question :
Qu'importe si l'amour fait de moi son esclave
Alors qu'ils sont tous mes sujets!
On ne saurait blâmer un roi de s'humilier par amour,
En amour l'humiliation est un titre de gloire, une seconde royauté!
Il ne s’agit nullement là d’un ornement poétique, imaginé pour servir de parure à une galanterie de caractère artificiel, mais bien au contraire d’un sentiment profond et authentique, d’une soumission aussi véridique que la soumission devant Dieu. L’attitude de celui qui aime vis-à-vis de l’être aimé est de la même essence que celle de l’homme vis-à-vis de Dieu. In addition to the aforementioned works, two publications by Ernest Belfort Bax could be added :
The Legal Subjection of Men, https://archive.org/details/legalsubjection00baxgoog/.
The Fraud of Feminism, https://archive.org/details/fraudoffeminism00baxerich/.
Attention: Starting December 14, 2019 Yahoo
Groups will no longer host user created content on its sites. New
content can no longer be uploaded after October 28, 2019.
Sending/Receiving email functionality is not going away, you can
continue to communicate via any email client with your group members. Learn More
evola_as_he_is@{{emailDomain}}