Men Among the Ruins: Post-War Reflections of a Radical Traditionalist By Julius Evola Inner Traditions, 2002 (Translated from the revised Italian edition of 1972; First Edition 1953) 310 Pages, $22.00 ISBN 0-89281-905-7

Brief Introductory Review Tradition The State Elites & History The Church Culture & Worldview Institutions The Occult War United Europe Evola's Influence

The Occult War The social and economic explanations for the problems of the modern world are true as far as they go, but they do not reveal the final causes. Those who look at history in three dimensions see that an Occult War is underway. Not all historical forces are merely human. There is a subterranean dimension. This is not to be confused with the subconscious of depth psychology, though the war is waged in part in the subconscious of history's objects. Intelligences are at work. Evola presents a system of non-religious dualism, in which cosmos battles chaos. The Cunning of History, the fact that consequences are often so different from what the actors intended, shows that deeper forces are at work. They rarely appear directly. Rather, they make subtle cracks in the structure of events, and so give the development of the world a direction. Though one should assess the effect of these forces only with prudence, there is something suspicious every time a historical effect transcends its apparent cause. Wild speculation has prevented the formulation of a science about this, thus meeting the expectations of the hidden enemy. Evola wrote a supportive preface and appendix for “The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion,” a book he also discusses in “Men Among the Ruins.” He does not endorse the “Protocols” as literal fact, noting that real secret organizations do not leave documents like that. Still, even though the “Protocols” clearly draw on fictional sources, that does not mean that the plan they present is unreal. He says we should take the book seriously, because its predictions are reliable. We are dealing, he suggests, with prophetic premonition. The “Protocols” is correct in saying that the primary modern ideologies were devised by forces that knew them to be false, but which promoted the ideologies for their subversive effect. Conspiracy theory itself is part of a program of demoralization. For that matter, “Traditionalism” can be an evasion, a tactic of chaos. Jung, for instance, represents a turn away from the Transcendent, masked in a system suitable for those too smart for Freud. Antisemitism is another misleading ideology. The “Protocols” exaggerates the role of the Jews in the Occult War, perhaps for the purposes of those further in. The process of subversion started in the Renaissance; the Jews enter the mainstream of European history much later. The “Protocols” also distracts attention from Masonry. As the Regression of the Castes continues, the Occult War could turn against both the Masons and the Jews as the age of plutocracy ends and that of the proletarian revolution begins. Next

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Copyright © 2002 by John J. Reilly