Evola's Revolt Against The Modern World

Julius Evola, an Italian philosopher, said that the world we live in today is "in its twilight." For us, "liberation and renewal" are only possible once we recognize the "menacing reality of a destructive spiritual process." But what is this destructive process? 👇

Hostage to the Gods of Democracy and Equality, we live in an unending flatland of mediocrity. We protect our Gods with "rhetoric, sentimentalism, moralism, and hypocritical religiosity." What's the alternative?

Evola seeks a return to "long-lasting paths, long-lasting risks, long-lasting gazes, and long-lasting silence." The world today gives us the opposite of all this: incessant noise, risk minimization, a terminal short-termism only focused on the next quarter.

There is no truce possible with the modern world: "This is not a matter of compromises or adaptations. It is not a matter of shifting to the other side of this bed of agony. It is a matter of finally waking up, and standing on one’s feet."

Evola said that "before it's too late, the way to the peaks must be brought back into the consciousness" of those who wish to finally wake up. The way to the peaks can only be walked via "hard discipline, self-mastery, and self-overcoming." The trophy at the top? Solar wisdom.

The precise nature of Solar Wisdom "cannot be spoken" of - it is only available to a select elite. It comes from "the depths of feelings and the soul." Solar wisdom is not proven via "arguments and books," but embodied in "creative acts."

Only hierarchy can save us: "It's absolutely an error to think that we can achieve renewal if a hierarchy is not reestablished, that is to say, if we do not place above the lower forms - tied to earth and matter, to man & humanity - a higher law, a higher right, a higher order."

Evola wishes to evoke three sensations in us: "world as power," "world as rhythm," and "world as sacrificial act." This is Evola's conception of a noble life: become ever more powerful, match the rhythm of your life with eternal principles, and sacrifice the lower for the higher.

Evola is not interested in a "secular, democratic, and material science." Science has burdened us with a nihilistic worldview that says we are "slave to phenomena and incomprehensible laws." Better to master the "science of self-realisation and self-dignification."

Evola wrote for the ones who want to “transcend the petty lives of petty men." To them he says: it's time to discover the "hidden forces which govern" our world, get intimate with the "deepest reality of man," and become "capable of transcendent action."