Audiobook: Revolt Against the Modern World by Julius Evola, Part Two, Chapter 34

Chapter 34: Unrealism and Individualism

In Chapter 34: "Unrealism and Individualism," Julius Evola examines the further phases of the decline of Western civilization, highlighting the transition from traditional societies to modern, individualistic cultures. He discusses the separation of the material and spiritual worlds, the rise of humanism and individualism, and the erosion of traditional values. Evola critiques the impact of rationalism, scientism, and Protestantism on Western culture, noting how these movements contributed to the loss of sacred traditions and the rise of a purely human-centric worldview. The chapter delves into the consequences of this shift, including the degradation of spiritual and hierarchical structures, leading to a fragmented and disoriented modern society.

Footnotes:

1. Naturally, this lack of understanding was typical of the representatives of Catholicism as well. Paracelsus was right when he said: "What is this commotion about Luther’s and Zwingli's writings? It truly reminds me of a shallow bacchanalia. If I had to make a recommendation about this controversy I would have these gentlemen and the pope himself go back to school."

2. This is the main difference between Buddhism and Protestantism, which confers a positive character to the former and a negative to the latter. Both movements are characterized by pessimist premises—Luther's concupiscienda invincibiliscorresponds somewhat to Buddhism’s "thirst for life"—and by a revolt against a corrupted priestly caste. However, Buddhism indicated a path to follow since it created a strict system of asceticism and of self-discipline, unlike Protestantism, which rejected even the mitigated forms of asceticism found in the Catholic tradition.

3. De Maistre (Du pape [Lyon, 1819]) correctly remarked that this situation is paradoxical: Protestantism in fact upholds the idea that God did not bestow infallibility to man or to the Church as if it were a dogma. In Islam, infallibility (isma) is not regarded as the natural possession of an individual, but of all the legitimate interpreters of the tawil, the esoteric teaching.

4. Within Catholicism, due to a confusion between what is proper to asceticism and what is proper to the priesthood, the clergy never was a real caste. Once the principle of celibacy was established, by virtue of this very principle Catholicism irremediably lost the possibility of connecting the deposit of certain spiritual influences with the deep-seated forces of a blood legacy that had been preserved from any corrupt influence. The clergy, unlike the noble class, was always affected by the promiscuity of the origins since it recruited its members from all social strata and therefore always lacked an "organic" (i.e., biological and hereditary) basis for those spiritual influences.

5. Critical or “epistemological” idealism claimed to be the awareness of all other philosophical systems; in' this it was right. It is the unrealism of philosophy in general that becomes aware of itself in the system, whereby the real becomes identical to the “rational,” the world to the "concept" of the world, and the"I” to the "thought" of the “I.” I have written at greater length about this in my Fenomenologia dell’individuo assoluto (Turin, 1930).

6. During the Middle Ages there was a revival of some of the traditional sciences; the view of nature Scholasticism constructed on the basis of Aristotelianism, though constrained in a conceptualist apparatus, still upheld the view of the qualities or of the formative virtues.

7. Observations by J. de Maistre in Considerations sur la France (Lyon, 1860), 5-8.

8. J. Benda, La Trahison des clercs (Paris, 1928).

9. A. Tilgher, J. Benda e ilproblems del tradimento dei chierici (Rome, 1930). The “treason of the clerics," as Benda envisions it, is not a peculiar case of the phenomenon being discussed. The type of the “cleric” as a mere man of letters, philosopher, or moralist (Benda stops at this level) already represents'that type of “betraying cleric.”.

10. In the Chinese tradition (Meng-tzu, 3.12) we find indications of this process in which individualism opens the gates to an obsessive phenomenon that puts man at the mercy of subpersonal and irrational faculties.

11. J. Evola, L'arco e la clava, chap. 1.

12. In my Maschera e vollo dello spiritualismo contemporaneo (Bari, 1949) and especially in the last chapter of Cavalcare la tigre I have discussed the meaning of the most recent kinds of “spiritualism."

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1. Audiobook: Revolt Against the Modern World by Julius Evola, Foreword (https://rumble.com/v4zm5tq-audiobook-revolt-against-the-modern-world-by-julius-evola-forward.html)
2. Audiobook: Revolt Against the Modern World by Julius Evola, Part One, Chapter 1, The Beginning (https://rumble.com/v4zmraf-audiobook-revolt-against-the-modern-world-by-julius-evola-part-one-chapter-.html)
3. Audiobook: Revolt Against the Modern World by Julius Evola, Part One, Chapter 2, Regality (https://rumble.com/v4zq2nw-audiobook-revolt-against-the-modern-world-by-julius-evola-part-one-chapter-.html)
4. Audiobook: Revolt Against the Modern World by Julius Evola, Part One, Chapter 3, Polar Symbolism (https://rumble.com/v4zr566-audiobook-revolt-against-the-modern-world-by-julius-evola-part-one-chapter-.html)
5. Audiobook: Revolt Against the Modern World by Julius Evola, Part One, Chapter 4, The Law, The State, The Empire (https://rumble.com/v4zshwr-audiobook-revolt-against-the-modern-world-by-julius-evola-part-one-chapter-.html)
6. Audiobook: Revolt Against the Modern World by Julius Evola, Part One, Chapter 5, The Mystery of the Rite (https://rumble.com/v4zv075-audiobook-revolt-against-the-modern-world-by-julius-evola-part-one-chapter-.html)
7. Audiobook: Revolt Against the Modern World by Julius Evola, Part One, Chapter 6, On the Primordial Nature of the Patriciate (https://rumble.com/v4zydz5-audiobook-revolt-against-the-modern-world-by-julius-evola-part-one-chapter-.html)
8. Audiobook: Revolt Against the Modern World by Julius Evola, Part One, Chapter 7, Spiritual Virility (https://rumble.com/v500py2-audiobook-revolt-against-the-modern-world-by-julius-evola-part-one-chapter-.html)
9. Audiobook: Revolt Against the Modern World by Julius Evola, Part One, Chapter 8, The Two Paths in the Afterlife (https://rumble.com/v50556i-audiobook-revolt-against-the-modern-world-by-julius-evola-part-one-chapter-.html)
10. Audiobook: Revolt Against the Modern World by Julius Evola, Part One, Chapter 9, Life and Death of Civilizations (https://rumble.com/v50aqwt-audiobook-revolt-against-the-modern-world-by-julius-evola-part-one-chapter-.html)
11. Audiobook: Revolt Against the Modern World by Julius Evola, Part One, Chapter 10, Initiation and Consecration (https://rumble.com/v50kzgb-audiobook-revolt-against-the-modern-world-by-julius-evola-part-one-chapter-.html)
12. Audiobook: Revolt Against the Modern World by Julius Evola, Part One, Chapter 11, On the Hierarchical Relationship Between Royalty and Priesthood (https://rumble.com/v50rmrr-monetized-audiobook-revolt-against-the-modern-world-by-julius-evola-part-on.html)
13. Audiobook: Revolt Against the Modern World by Julius Evola, Part One, Chapter 12, Universality and Centralism (https://rumble.com/v50sybe-audiobook-revolt-against-the-modern-world-by-julius-evola-part-one-chapter-.html)
14. Audiobook: Revolt Against the Modern World by Julius Evola, Part One, Chapter 13, The Soul of Chivalry (https://rumble.com/v51anjl-audiobook-revolt-against-the-modern-world-by-julius-evola-part-one-chapter-.html)
15. Audiobook: Revolt Against the Modern World by Julius Evola, Part One, Chapter 14, The Doctrine of the Castes (https://rumble.com/v51o38z-audiobook-revolt-against-the-modern-world-by-julius-evola-part-one-chapter-.html)
16. Audiobook: Revolt Against the Modern World by Julius Evola, Part One, Chapter 15, Professional Associations and the Arts; Slavery (https://rumble.com/v525v94-audiobook-revolt-against-the-modern-world-by-julius-evola-part-one-chapter-.html)
17. Audiobook: Revolt Against the Modern World by Julius Evola, Part One, Chapter 16, Bipartition of the Traditional Spirit; Asceticism (https://rumble.com/v525zx1-audiobook-revolt-against-the-modern-world-by-julius-evola-part-one-chapter-.html)
18. Audiobook: Revolt Against the Modern World by Julius Evola, Part One, Chapter 17, The Greater and the Lesser Holy War (https://rumble.com/v526gxc-audiobook-revolt-against-the-modern-world-by-julius-evola-part-one-chapter-.html)
19. Audiobook: Revolt Against the Modern World by Julius Evola, Part One, Chapter 18, Games and Victory (https://rumble.com/v5272gy-audiobook-revolt-against-the-modern-world-by-julius-evola-part-one-chapter-.html)
20. Audiobook: Revolt Against the Modern World by Julius Evola, Part One, Chapter 19, Space, Time, the Earth (https://rumble.com/v52ee4o-audiobook-revolt-against-the-modern-world-by-julius-evola-part-one-chapter-.html)
21. Audiobook: Revolt Against the Modern World by Julius Evola, Part One, Chapter 20, Man and Woman (https://rumble.com/v52etn8-audiobook-revolt-against-the-modern-world-by-julius-evola-part-one-chapter-.html)
22. Audiobook: Revolt Against the Modern World by Julius Evola, Part One, Chapter 21, The Decline of Superior Races (https://rumble.com/v52f2wz-audiobook-revolt-against-the-modern-world-by-julius-evola-part-one-chapter-.html)
23. Audiobook: Revolt Against the Modern World by Julius Evola, Part Two, Genesis and Face of the Modern World, Introduction (https://rumble.com/v52j35f-audiobook-revolt-against-the-modern-world-by-julius-evola-part-two-introduc.html)
24. Audiobook: Revolt Against the Modern World by Julius Evola, Part Two, Chapter 22, The Doctrine of the Four Ages (https://rumble.com/v52jgnv-audiobook-revolt-against-the-modern-world-by-julius-evola-part-two-chapter-.html)
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42. Audiobook: Revolt Against the Modern World by Julius Evola, Conclusion (https://rumble.com/v53hjf7-audiobook-revolt-against-the-modern-world-by-julius-evola-conclusion.html)