Revolt Against the Modern World Hardcover – October 1, 1995

One of the greatest books I have ever read.

While I would not recommend this book to someone completely unaware of the Traditionalist worldview, to those who are it is like a divine revelation.

"Beside the great 'currents' of the world there are still individuals who are rooted in terra firma. Generally speaking, they are unknown people who shun the spotlight of modern popularity and culture. They live on spiritual heights; they do not belong in this world. Though they are scattered over the earth and often ignorant of each other's existence, they are united by an invisible bond and form an unbreakable chain in the traditional spirit. This nucleus does not act: it only exercises the function to which the symbolism of the "perennial fire" corresponded. By virtue of these people, Tradition is present despite all; the flame burns invisibly and something still connects the world to the superworld. They are those who are awake, whom in Greek are called the εγρήγοροι."

A prophetic book that foresaw what is unfolding now before our very eyes.

Imagine William S. Burroughs without any of the life affirming zest. It’s telling that the Randroids switched to Evola when Paul Ryan failed to manifest the Libertarian Promised Land.

The Modern Age is falling and the West is in an era of decadence. The darkest of all the dark ages, what the Hindus called the Kali Yuga, is before us and Ragnarok (Twilight of the Gods) is at hand. Tradition has been trammeled upon by modern utilitarian, pragmatist, and collectivist thought and the once sacred has been made profane. Mass-man is so caught up in collectivist thought and meaningless activity that he cannot be saved. Only a select group of elite traditionalists preserving the traditional Weltanschauung can restore a transcendent order to the world after the fall of this era. An ascetic neoscholasticism is needed to preserve the tradition intact while this cycle comes to an end.
This is the message of Julius Evola in _Revolt Against the Modern World_. In this book, Evola fully dispels the modern myth of progress and reveals it as nothing more than a cover for a decadent society. Evola spends the first part of this book and much of the second part expostulating a traditional world order based on the idea of immanence-transcendence, before it's break-up at the end of the Middle Ages. He explains how an occult band of knights, members of the warrior caste, preserved tradition in the form of chivalry, during this period. However, with the advent of modern times, this tradition has largely been lost to us. Evola develops a myth of man's origins in a Golden Age, a Hyperborean race at the pole. A conflict developed between North and South, and between "solar" and "lunar" forms of religion. This conflict was at the heart of medieval Catholicism, and was reflected in the growing separation between priest and ruler. Originally, Evola argues, the Church sanctified the monarchy (the emperor) by a special rite. However, when this practice ended it made possible conflicting national loyalties to split up the medieval picture. With the Protestant Reformation which produced a strong emphasis on individualism more damage was done to the traditional world. As such, the world of tradition was lost and covered up by a world based more and more on utilitarian, hedonist, and ultimately collectivist principles, especially as witnessed in the French and Russian revolutions. This is the grim state of affairs we find ourselves in today. (Evola leaves off with a view of Europe "enclosed in the pincers" of America and the Soviet state, with America becoming more and more collectivist in nature and thinking.)
Man must return to the values which are transcendent if he ever is to create a meaningful life. And, this is precisely what is absent from today's empty, hollow society. The philosophies of radical individualism and collectivism, nationalism and communism, pervade every aspect of our existence. And, we have lost much. Only by a return to tradition can we hope to achieve a new existence with a newfound meaning.
Julius Evola was a fascinating character with much of interest to the dreamer and the mystic. Unfortunately, he allied himself with fascism briefly; however this is not the true basis for his thought.

There is great stuff in here, but I wouldnt buy both this and, e.g., A Traditionalist Confronts Fascism unless you're looking to become an Evola expert.

Julius Evola says a lot that goes unspoken in this Kali Yuga/dark age.

In a very real sense the world is lining up with with "New Russia against the west. It is shaping up to be a huge confrontation clearly Putain has read some of this material.

Evola short definition of tradition.
"The traditional world knew divine kingship. It knew the bridge between the two
worlds, namely, initiation; it knew the two great ways of approach to the
transcendent, namely, heroic action and contemplation; it knew the mediation, namely, rites
and faithfulness; it knew the social foundation, namely, the traditional law and the
caste system; and it knew the political earthly symbol, namely, the empire.

These are the foundations of the traditional hierarchy and civilization that have
been completely wiped out by the victorious "anthropocentric" civilization of our
contemporaries. "

He goes on to describe Royal tradition in great societies Egypt China ect.

This is at times hard to take. but much needed critique of what some call the current dark age.
For example Evola on the destruction of the family and women in Soviet Russia are "two sides of the same coin."

On America

"In America everything works toward this goal; conformism in terms of "matter of fact" and "like-mindedness"

On the matter of leaving people alone.

It has rightly been observed that every American (whether
he be named Wilson or Roosevelt, Bryan or Rockefeller) is an evangelist who can-
not leave his fellow men alone, who constantly feels the need to preach and work for
the conversion, purification, and elevation of each and everyone to the standard
moral level of America, which he believes to be superior and higher than all others.
This attitude originated with abolitionism during the Civil War and culminated with
the double democratic "crusade" in Europe envisioned by Wilson and by Roosevelt.
And yet even in minor matters, whether it be prohibitionist or the feminist, pacifist,
or environmental propaganda, we always find the same spirit, the same leveling and
standardizing will and the petulant intrusion of the collective and the social dimen-
sion in the individual sphere. Nothing is further from the truth than the claim that the
American soul is "open-minded" and unbiased; on the contrary, it is ridden with
countless taboos of which people are sometimes not even aware.

Evola points out the individual in the world today is the "nomad of the asphalt"

Again two sides of the same coin.
"Is all this that far off from Lenin's recommendation to ostracize "every view
that is supernatural or extraneous to class interests" and wipe out as an infectious
disease any residue of independent spirituality? Does not the technocratic ideology
arise both in America and in Russia from the ranks of secularized and all-powerful
men?"

Have women become strong under the Soviet and American system?

Evola on women. Would seem horribly offsenive in some aspects
The Soviet emancipation of the woman parallels that emancipation that in America the feminist idiocy,
deriving from "democracy" all its logical conclusions, had achieved a long time ago
in conjunction with the materialistic and practical degradation of man. Through count-
less and repeated divorces the disintegration of the family in America is characterized
by the same pace that we could expect in a society that knows only "comrades."
The women, having given up their true nature, believe they can elevate themselves
by taking on and practicing all kinds of traditionally masculine activities. These women
are chaste in their immorality and banal even in their lowest perversions; quite often
they find in alcohol the way to rid themselves of the repressed or deviated energies
of their own nature. Moreover, young women seem to know very little of the polarity
and the elemental magnetism of sex as they indulge in a comradely and sportive
promiscuity. These phenomena are typically American, even though
their contagious diffusion all over the world makes it difficult for people to trace their origin to America."

Somewhat critical towards Nationalism
"Even when nationalism speaks of "tradition," it has nothing to do with what used
to go by that name in ancient civilizations; it is rather a myth or fictitious continuity
based on a minimum common denominator that consists in the mere belonging to a
given group. Through the concept of "tradition," nationalism aims at consolidating a
collective dimension by placing behind the individual the mythical, deified, and
collectivized unity of all those who preceded him. In this sense, Chesterton was right to
call this type of tradition "the democracy of the dead." Here the dimension of -
transcendence, or of what is superior to history, is totally lacking. "

More in favor of caste
"In the context of a living tradition, the castes represented the natural "place" of
the earthly convergence of analogous wills and vocations; also, the regular and closed
hereditary transmission forged a homogeneous group sharing favorable organic, vi-
talistic, and even psychic proclivities in view of the regular development on the part
of single individuals of the aforesaid prenatal determinations or dispositions on the
plane of human existence. The individual did not "receive" from the caste his own
nature; rather, the caste afforded him the opportunity to recognize or remember his
own nature and prenatal will, while at the same Lime presenting him with a kind of
occult heritage related to the blood so that he would be able to realize the latter in a
harmonious way."