Audiobook: Revolt Against the Modern World by Julius Evola, Part Two, Chapter 35

Part Two, Chapter 35: The Regression of the Castes, from "Revolt Against the Modern World, Politics, Religion, and Social Order in the Kali Yuga", by Julius Evola

In Chapter 35, Evola examines the historical progression and decline of civilizations through the concept of the regression of castes. He describes a shift of power from sacred leaders to warrior aristocracies, then to merchants, and finally to the serfs. This progression illustrates the degradation of values, moving from spiritual virility and divine authority to materialism and economic dominance. The chapter also delves into the sociopolitical implications of this regression, highlighting the transformation of societal structures, family dynamics, and ethical standards. Evola's analysis points to a cyclical pattern of rise and fall within civilizations, culminating in the contemporary age's focus on economic and physical existence over spiritual and transcendent values.

Footnotes:

1. The idea of regression of the castes, which I had previously referred to in my pamphlet Imperialismo Pagano (Rome, 1927), was detailed by V. Vezzani and by R. Guinon in his Autoriti spirituelle etpouvoir temporal; finally, it has been expounded in an independent fashion by H. Berls in Die Heraufkunst des fUnften Standes (Karlsruhe, 1931). This idea has an analogical correspondence with the traditional doctrine of the four ages, since each of the four traditional castes embodies the values that have predominated during the quadripartite process of regression.

2. Karl Marx, Deutsche-franzosische Jahrbilcher (Paris, 1844), 209-12.

3. D. Merezhkovsky, LesMystkres de I’Orient(2A): "The word ‘proletarian’ comes from Latin proles, which means posterity, generation. Proletarians ‘produce’ and generate with their bodies, but are spiritual eunuchs. They are not men or women, but anonymous ‘comrades,’ impersonal ants which are part of the human anthill.”

4. O. Spengler, The Decline of the West (1918; London, 1926), vol. 1. The term “action" is here used as synonymous with a spiritual and disinterested activity; thus it may be applied to contemplation, which in the classical idea was often regarded as the most pure form of activity; it had its object and goal in itself and did not need “anything else” in order to be implemented.

5. Cicero, De officiis, 1.42.

6. Giordano Bruno, Spaccio della Bestia trionfante, dialogue 3.

7. A. Tilgher, Homo Faber, 120-21.

8. See M. Weber, Gesammelte Aufsdtze zur Religion und Soziologie (Tubingen, 1924), vol. 3, in which the Protestant roots of such an "ascetical" version of capitalism are discussed. Originally there was a separation between earning as a “vocation” and the enjoyment of riches, the latter being looked down upon as a sinful element of the deification and pride of the human creature. Naturally, in the course of history the original religious considerations were eliminated; today we only find purely secular and unscrupulous forms. [Evola is referring to Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.]

9. W. Sombart, Il borghese, Italian trans, from the French (Paris, 1926), 204-22; 400-409.

10. The word “demonic” is obviously not to be understood in the Christian sense of the word. The expression “demonic people" found in the BhagavadgHS applies very much to our contemporaries: “Thus they are beset with innumerable cares which last long, all their life, until death. Their highest aim is sensual enjoyment, and they firmly think that this is all” (16.11).

11. A. Tilgher, Homo Faber, 162.

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