Men Among the Ruins
Encyclopedia
Book
A book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of hot lava, paper, parchment, or other materials, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is called a leaf or leaflet, and each side of a leaf is called a page...
by Julius Evola
Julius Evola
Barone Giulio Cesare Andrea Evola also known as Julius Evola, was an Italian philosopher and esotericist...
.
First published as Gli uomini e le rovine (Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
) in 1953, it is a statement of Evola's view of the political and social manifestations of our time (the Kali Yuga
Kali Yuga
Kali Yuga is the last of the four stages that the world goes through as part of the cycle of yugas described in the Indian scriptures. The other ages are Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga and Dvapara Yuga...
). It is considered the second in Evola's core trilogy (starting with Revolt Against the Modern World
Revolt Against the Modern World
Revolt Against the Modern World: Politics, Religion, and Social Order in the Kali Yuga is a book by the philosopher and theorist Julius Evola, first published in Italy, in 1934...
and ending with Ride the Tiger
Ride the Tiger
Ride the Tiger: A Survival Manual for the Aristocrats of the Soul is a 1961 book by Italian Traditionalist philosopher Julius Evola. The first English translation was published by Inner Traditions in 2003...
).
It was first published in an English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
translation by Inner Traditions International in 2002 (ISBN 0-89281-905-7). Translated from the revised Italian edition of 1972 by Guido Stucco with a foreword by Joscelyn Godwin
Joscelyn Godwin
Joscelyn Godwin is a composer, musicologist and translator, known for his work on ancient music, paganism and music in the occult....
, a preface and introduction by Dr. H.T. Hansen and edited by Michael Moynihan
Michael Moynihan (journalist)
Michael Moynihan is an American journalist, publisher and musician. He is best known for co-writing the book Lords of Chaos, about black metal....
. Moynihan's Dominion Press printed a hardbound limited edition of 100 copies, which included a cover painting by Harold McNeill, and an additional essay by John Michell
John Michell (writer)
John Frederick Carden Michell was an English writer whose key sources of inspiration were Plato and Charles Fort...
.
Summary
In this work Evola argues for a radical restructuring of society based on his view of TraditionTradition
A tradition is a ritual, belief or object passed down within a society, still maintained in the present, with origins in the past. Common examples include holidays or impractical but socially meaningful clothes , but the idea has also been applied to social norms such as greetings...
. Evola takes as his jumping off point Italian Fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
and to a lesser degree German National Socialism and describes the ways that the two failed to achieve his ideal. As in Fascism and Nazism, Evola champions a powerful state unified under a rigid code and caste system.
Despite similarities, Evola's ideas differ dramatically from those of the fascists and, while preserving an appreciation of militarism, focus less on modernity than tradition, less on the technological than the spiritual, less on the masses than the person (which Evola distinguishes from the individual). In this work, Evola develops his radical reactionary
Reactionary
The term reactionary refers to viewpoints that seek to return to a previous state in a society. The term is meant to describe one end of a political spectrum whose opposite pole is "radical". While it has not been generally considered a term of praise it has been adopted as a self-description by...
philosophy. Reactionary is an important word for him, one that he seeks to own. In fact "reactionary" could be seen as an understatement in his case as he seeks to restore the order, not of 100 or 200 years ago, but of literally thousands of years ago.
This work constitutes Evola's only attempt at a book-length explicitly political work and, as such, he regarded it as a failure. Ultimately, Evola would become disenchanted about the prospects of achieving a radical reactionary restructuring of society and would advocate that an enlightened or "differentiated" man should Ride the Tiger
Ride the Tiger
Ride the Tiger: A Survival Manual for the Aristocrats of the Soul is a 1961 book by Italian Traditionalist philosopher Julius Evola. The first English translation was published by Inner Traditions in 2003...
– the title of his last work – of modern civilization.
Table of contents
- Introduction: "Julius Evola’s Political Endeavors" by Dr. H. T. Hansen
- RevolutionRevolutionA revolution is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.Aristotle described two types of political revolution:...
-- Counter-revolution -- TraditionTraditionA tradition is a ritual, belief or object passed down within a society, still maintained in the present, with origins in the past. Common examples include holidays or impractical but socially meaningful clothes , but the idea has also been applied to social norms such as greetings... - SovereigntySovereigntySovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a geographic area, such as a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided...
-- AuthorityAuthorityThe word Authority is derived mainly from the Latin word auctoritas, meaning invention, advice, opinion, influence, or command. In English, the word 'authority' can be used to mean power given by the state or by academic knowledge of an area .-Authority in Philosophy:In...
-- ImperiumImperiumImperium is a Latin word which, in a broad sense, translates roughly as 'power to command'. In ancient Rome, different kinds of power or authority were distinguished by different terms. Imperium, referred to the sovereignty of the state over the individual... - Personality -- Freedom -- HierarchyHierarchyA hierarchy is an arrangement of items in which the items are represented as being "above," "below," or "at the same level as" one another...
- Organic State -- TotalitarianismTotalitarianismTotalitarianism is a political system where the state recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible...
- BonapartismBonapartismBonapartism is often defined as a political expression in the vocabulary of Marxism and Leninism, deriving from the career of Napoleon Bonaparte. Karl Marx was a student of Jacobinism and the French Revolution as well as a contemporary critic of the Second Republic and Second Empire...
-- MachiavellianismMachiavellianismMachiavellianism is, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, "the employment of cunning and duplicity in statecraft or in general conduct", deriving from the Italian Renaissance diplomat and writer Niccolò Machiavelli, who wrote Il Principe and other works...
-- ElitismElitismElitism is the belief or attitude that some individuals, who form an elite — a select group of people with intellect, wealth, specialized training or experience, or other distinctive attributes — are those whose views on a matter are to be taken the most seriously or carry the most... - Work—The Demonic Nature of the Economy
- HistoryHistoryHistory is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
-- Historicism - Choice of Traditions
- Military Style -- MilitarismMilitarismMilitarism is defined as: the belief or desire of a government or people that a country should maintain a strong military capability and be prepared to use it aggressively to defend or promote national interests....
-- WarWarWar is a state of organized, armed, and often prolonged conflict carried on between states, nations, or other parties typified by extreme aggression, social disruption, and usually high mortality. War should be understood as an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political... - Tradition -- CatholicismCatholicismCatholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
-- Ghibellinism - RealismRealism (international relations)In the study of international relations, Realism or political realism prioritizes national interest and security over ideology, moral concerns and social reconstructions...
-- CommunismCommunismCommunism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
-- Anti-bourgeois - Economy and Politics -- Corporations -- Work Units
- Occult War—Weapons of the Occult War
- Latin Character—Roman World -- Mediterranean Soul
- The Problem of Births
- Form and Presuppositions of a United Europe
- Revolution
- Appendix: Evola’s Autodifesa (Self-Defense Statement)
External links
- Review of Men Among the Ruins by Martin Schwarz
- Men Among the Ruins eBook