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33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Julius Evola: Proponent of Counter-revolution and Tradition., February 14, 2003
This review is from: Men Among the Ruins: Post-War Reflections of a Radical Traditionalist (Paperback)
_Men Among the Ruins_ is the post World War II political reflections of the Italian intellectual Julius Evola. Continuing along the same lines as he had in his more famous _Revolt Against the Modern World_, Evola advocates a return to Tradition and radical counter-revolution. This translation is divided into three parts: an excellent introduction to the life and thought of Julius Evola, the text of _Men Among the Ruins_ proper, and Julius Evola's defense when brought in front of a court for charges of subversive activity. _Men Among the Ruins_ has been called a "dangerous book" and Evola has been called a fascist; however, if we are unable to read these "dangerous books" and decide for ourselves what they have to say then we will never be able to learn anything from outside of the dull conformist mainstream. The introduction to this book explains much of Evola's thought and life, while at the same time explaining the particularly tricky issues of his involvement with fascism, his lectures in Germany, his racist theories (unlike the crass biological racism of certain components of the National Socialist regime, Evola advocates a spiritual notion of race), and his relationship with antiSemitism (including mention of the notorious forgery "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion"). _Men Among the Ruins_ advocates a return to Tradition and a rejection of modern day liberalism, Bolshevism, individualism, collectivism, and the ideals of the revolution. Against this, Evola proposes a return to an underlying Indo-European substratum, authority, and a re-recognition of the necessity for transcendence. The book includes discussions of various aspects of the State, hierarchy, work and the economy, the Roman Imperium, corporativism (which Evola will somewhat reject along with socialism), militarism, and the role of war. Evola also tackles the issues of the "occult war" (including many of the rumors about the Jews - Evola rejects the more virulent forms of antiSemitism), the "problem of births", and Roman Catholicism as a component of that Tradition. I disagree somewhat with Evola's rejection of Catholicism, although it is unclear to me how much of this aspect of the Tradition is retainable (this would include recognition of the changes in the Church post-Vatican II, as well as the need to address the problem Evola brings up of the world's other religious traditions within the framework of Catholicism). Evola concludes with a discussion of the united Europe and a call for a new European Order. Evola writes specifically about the kind of men that are needed to compose this new Order, including old European families and military leaders. He concludes, "It remains to be seen which and how many men, in spite of it all, still stand upright among so many ruins, in order that they may make this task their own." The book concludes with Evola's defense before the Italian court and his rejection of his specific "glorification of Fascism" charge. This defense is one of the best clarifications of Evola's personal idiosyncratic thought that I have encountered. In order to read this work, it is probably necessary to first complete Evola's more famous _Revolt Against the Modern World_. Most of Evola's other works that have been translated have a more esoteric bent to them and are less outrightly political. In the end however, Evola advocates a form of apoleteia, a phenomenon he will refer to as "riding the tiger", and a rejection of all party politics. In fact, Evola never participated in outright politics nor ever voted in his entire life. The book goes beyond the familiar schema of Right and Left political thinking and is certainly not to be recommended to any person completely absorbed in either mainstream or modernist ideologies and modes of thinking.
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34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Julius Evola's Men Among the Ruins, September 10, 2003
This review is from: Men Among the Ruins: Post-War Reflections of a Radical Traditionalist (Paperback)
The first half of this edition of _Men Among the Ruins_ is an essay by Dr. H. T. Hansen putting the controversial thought of the ultra-reactionary Sicilian nobleman Julius Evola regarding Nazism, Fascism, the Aryan race, the Jewish-Masonic conspiracy and the SS into an historical perspective. Evola's political theory is radically anti-modernist to the core; anti-democratic, instead idealizing the ancient tradition of the warrior caste, the Kshatriyas in Hinduism. The proper government should be a Hierarchy, Greek for "Rule of the Sacred." The government should look to the Above as a base for authority rather than to the common mass of humanity below. He comments on the demonic nature of the economy, as it brings people away from the true transcendent spiritual reality behind our mundane existence. In traditional historiography, events were looked upon as an unfolding dualistic occult war between the powers of Cosmos and Chaos, like the Christian view of history as an unfolding of Divine Providence, good versus evil, Christ versus Antichrist. There is a metaphysical dimension to history that needs to be taken into account but which never is nowadays. On the side of Cosmos are "form, order, law, spiritual hierarchy, and tradition in the higher sense of the world." To Chaos belongs "every influence that disintegrates, subverts, degrades, and promotes the preponderance of the inferior over the superior, matter over spirit, quantity over quality." Evola criticizes Catholicism in his native Italy as not being a universal creed, along with the Church's eager striving to "update" itself with the modern world. _The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion_ is the notorious document which apparently reveals the methods of the Jewish-Masonic conspiracy to take over the world to make it a secularized welfare-slave state. Evola maintains the partial-accuracy of the _Protocols_, but admits that they do not tell the whole story and are too simplified. After all, the secret occult rulers of the world would not just leave the Master Plan of the Ages out on a table for everyone to find out all about them would they? A particular area where Evola differs from most right-wingers is his outlook towards birth control. The problem of the "bestial fecundity" of the proletariat (the word proletarian itself derived from an old Latin word meaning to reproduce like beasts) should be something that is taken into account in social policy. The government should try to improve the racial character of its people, and give a certain amount of reproductive freedom to the more capable people in the populace. Evola, at the same time, recognizes the legitimacy of the celibate traditions in the world's faiths that disavow marriage, having children and the use of women. He criticizes the Catholic stance on birth control, as the _Humanae Vitae_ encyclical itself states that birth control is desirable, but only the unreliable "rhythm method" is morally permissible. Evola will jar a fair amount of sensibilities when he exposes the "bourgeoisie cult of children and having children" as an illusion, when he points out that most couples get married for personal happiness rather than having children, and many get married without the intent of having any. Evola's entire take on the domain of marriage, children and celibacy is the most coherent that I have ever read. The "men among the ruins" that the book takes its title from are those scattered, isolated individuals around the world who see the modern world for the sham that it is, and maintain a vision of a Europe in spiritual unity with the divine. There is something in here to offend everybody, no matter his or her political or religious orientation. Also recommended: _Revolt Against the Modern World_.
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22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
More Brilliance From Julius Evola, February 21, 2002
This review is from: Men Among the Ruins: Post-War Reflections of a Radical Traditionalist (Paperback)
This book is an excellent and intriguing sequel to Julius Evola's Revolt Against the Modern World. In it, Evola deconstructs and demolishes modern "liberal"-bougeoisie ideas of "freedom" and "individualism" and returns those ideas to their pre-liberal creative and Indo-European roots. While some of the chapters, such as Evola's commentary on the possibly future shape of a social economic system, seem like more a forced and overly technical response to his leftist and socialist critics, this in no way detracts from the brilliance of the work as a whole. The 100-page introductions and biography of Evola, and review of his works and ideas, is also of vital necessity in a time where the self-defined defenders of liberalism are working extra to force the label of "fascist" on a man who transcended all such labels and categories. If you read only one work on occultism, read Evola's Revolt Against the Modern World -- but if you read two, pick up this sequel. It takes Radical Traditionalism and applies it to the restructuring of the political-spiritual sphere.
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