A Newly-Discovered Letter from Julius Evola

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1. Friedrich Braun says:

   December 29, 2022 at 5:13 pm

   I’ve read the letters and they confirmed what I already knew and didn’t like about Evola: He was an insufferable elitist snob. Despite Amaudruz’s obsequious sucking up to the Grand Old Man, Evola wasn’t interested in his movement, since he viewed it as too national and too socialist. He objected to its plebeian and proletarian orientation; especially in its emphasis on a labour service where all classes have to interact for a period of time and towards a common goal. This idea was obviously copied from the Reich Labour Service with the idea of promoting a Volksgemeinschaft, maybe National Socialism’s most appealing aspect. Anyway, reading these letters reminded me whey the SS had a rather low of opinion of the mystical Baron. (Although Evola was something of an SS groupie…the fondness wasn’t reciprocated…). I don’t know to what extent the Sicilian aristocrat was on Adolf Hitler’s radar but we know that he didn’t much like all the reactionary “vons” who eventually tried to assassinate him when the going got though. The reactionary aristocrats  always viewed National Socialism with great suspicion and the feeling was mutual. Another point of contention centred on race…Amaudruz’s outfit had a hereditary and biological outlook on issues of race (i.e., the only sound one) and Evola was lost in some mystical mumbo-jumbo of “spirit races” and the like. Evola prides himself that he was never a “party man,” what he fails to mention is that his application to join the Fascist Party was rejected. With all of this said, I still regard Evola as worth reading because he’s an important illiberal thinker but there’s also a lot of baggage in his worldview that isn’t appealing and some parts are outright ridiculous.

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