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Emil Cioran was a Romanian philosopher. Cioran was born on April 8, 1911 in Rășinari (Transylvania, then part of Austria-Hungary and today part of Romania) and died stateless in Paris on June 20, 1995. A nationalist writer in his youth, after the Second World War he achieved fame as a French-language author of essays and aphorisms of a markedly dark and apparently nihilistic bent. (more…)
1,980 words
Emil Cioran
Apologie de la Barbarie: Berlin – Bucharest (1932-1941)
Paris: L’Herne, 2015
This is a very interesting book released by the superior publishing house L’Herne: a collection of Emil Cioran’s articles published in Romanian newspapers, mostly from before the war. (more…)
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Emil Cioran
De la France
Paris: L’Herne, 2015
This is a strange, vile little book as only Emil Cioran knew how to produce. It was only recently published, in both the original Romanian and in French translation,[1] having been written in 1941 and left to languish for decades in some cardboard box in the Cioran archives. (more…)
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I am always astounded by how bad the films playing in mainstream cinemas look and, when I occasionally go to see them, I often find that my initial impressions based on the ads or a synopsis were fully justified. So when I enjoy a fairly recent film, it is noteworthy. (more…)
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The Dutch identitarian group Erkenbrand will be holding its annual conference on November 3, with a list of speakers including Greg Johnson, Millennial Woes, George Hutcheson, and Fróði Midjord. In anticipation of this event, we have interviewed two of Erkenbrand’s organizers below. Tickets to the event may be purchased online here. (more…)
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There is no disputing Adolf Hitler was of tremendous importance in determining the course of the twentieth century. Thus, whether one believes the German Führer was the most evil man to have ever lived or if one takes a more nuanced perspective, it is important to try to understand him both as a personality and as representing a world-historical phenomenon. (more…)
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It’s that time of year. The French dictionaries Le Petit Larousse and Le Petit Robert (don’t ask me why they are called “petit,” they are huge) are adding various neologisms and foreign loanwords to our beloved langue de Céline.
My interest was particularly piqued by the following new entry: (more…)
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We are all faced with the challenge of speaking, and living, truths which are felt to be offensive by a great many of our countrymen, not to mention the powers that be. This is not a new problem. By definition, the natural diversity of men means that knowledge of the truth is highly unequally distributed and those who know most about the truth are necessarily a tiny minority. This minority must alone face the prejudices and ignorance of the masses and the violence of the state. (more…)
Count Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi
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The facts of history are invariably more paradoxical and interesting than the retrospective mythology that comes afterwards. Browsing an excellent collection of Julius Evola’s essays, I came across an astonishing interview which the Baron held with his fellow aristocrat, the long-time “European federalist” Count Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi. (more…)
Friedrich Wilhelm Heine, The Ash Yggdrasil, 1886
1,480 words
Snorri Sturluson
Translated by Jesse L. Byock
The Prose Edda
London: Penguin, 2005
There is always an air of mystery surrounding the most ancient religious texts. The great bulk were gradually developed through oral traditions, passed down, and then evolved from generation to generation. We typically know little or nothing about their authors, whether the Brahmins who composed the Upanishads or the Greeks’ notoriously elusive “Homer.” (more…)
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Asceticism often has a bad reputation in vitalist circles. The idea of the sexless, passionless, passive, world-rejecting monk seems self-evidently maladaptive, an evolutionary dead end, as Nietzsche and Savitri Devi surmised. Yet the fact is that monks have often been warriors, and the monarchs of ascetic religions, such as Christianity and Buddhism, have often been great conquerors. (more…)
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Massimo Pigliucci is an evolutionary biologist and professor of philosophy at the City University of New York. He has played an important role in the popularization of a modern Stoicism in recent years (see his useful collection of materials for practicing Stoicism on his blog).
While some of the renewed interested in Stoicism, like Buddhism, has a somewhat commercial flavor, I for one think this is a very good development. (more…)
Augustus as Pontifex Maximus
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As (post-)Christian moderns, we are twice handicapped in trying to understand the religions of the ancient pagan states such as Sparta and Rome. Where we tend to think of religious belief as universalistic, other-worldly, monolatrous, and dogmatic, ancient paganism was particularistic, world-embracing, polytheistic (almost ecumenical), and non-dogmatic (but ritualistic). (more…)
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Ancient philosophy, as Pierre Hadot has argued, was not merely a set of ideas but meant to include something far more practical: the leading of a good life in the pursuit of truth. (more…)
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I was recently reading the Discourses of the Stoic philosopher Epictetus (c. 55-135 AD). These recordings of Epictetus’ teachings are a very fine work: one really feels as though one is in the early Roman Empire, at Epictetus’ school, and the master is speaking to us directly, in a very practical way. (more…)
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Cultural hygiene is a must. Every day, you must try to consume culture that is educational, that elevates your soul, but also culture which puts you in sync with your society. That is a tough dilemma.
Thus, I am on the lookout for old, good films. Generally speaking, older is better.
The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964) is an amusing epic, especially if you can enjoy the Sixties kitsch. The film is attractive in that it does try to show some aspects of Roman life which most films ignore: the animal sacrifices for omens, the Roman saluting, the enthusiastic “Hails Caesars.” (more…)
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Suffrage should be granted to married fathers and mothers with children, who are not social misfits. For these have shown responsibility, have rendered service to the community by perpetuating its lineage, and have a stake in its future.
Perhaps suffrage should be proportional to the number of children raised.
1,276 words
Frederick the Great
De la littérature allemande, des défauts qu’on peut lui reprocher, quelles en sont les causes, et par quels moyens on peut les corriger (1780), http://friedrich.uni-trier.de/fr/oeuvres/7/103/page/
Frederick the Great is an awkward figure for German patriots in certain respects. Politically, he was in no ways a German nationalist, (more…)
Leonardo da Vinci, Study for the Battle of Anghiari
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Anyone who studies the thought and ways of life of our ancestors can only be struck by their manly vigor and toughness. Material comfort and mass miseducation have taken their toll on modern Western man, turning him, with every generation, into a more and more effeminate creature. The ancients knew that without manly courage, political and personal freedom is impossible. One will not take the inevitable risks of living the truth without courage. (more…)
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Today, Western liberals are ambivalent about Plato. On the one hand, liberals claim they are the heirs of Greco-Roman civilization and philosophy (more…)
3,870 words
Sayings of the Buddha
Rupert Gethin, translator
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008
Anyone who wishes to promote certain values is faced with the challenge of how to maintain those values over time: throughout one’s life, from one generation to the next, and across the centuries. A people’s adherence to values is likely to wane over time, overcome by lower drives, such as the desires for material comfort and personal self-indulgence. (more…)
An East German soldier guards Clausewitz’s grave in the 1980s.
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Part 4 of 4 (Part One here; Part Two here; Part Three here)
Conclusion: Freedom or Death
After his death, Clausewitz had a public destiny rare for generals, let alone theorists. He was not only enthusiastically celebrated in the Third Reich, a regime firmly dedicated to many of the Prussian virtues, but, for better and for worse, his words proved to be of foundational importance for Hitler and his own life’s work. (more…)
Allegedly the last photo ever taken of Hitler, in the ruins of the Reich Chancellery, April 1945.
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Part 3 of 4 (Part One here; Part Two here)
Hitler & the Bekenntnis: A Mantra of Resistance & Renewal
Perhaps more significant still than Hitler’s use of the Formule, is his citing of Clausewitz to assert the ethical validity of resistance at any price, even doomed resistance. (more…)
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Part 2 of 4 (Part One here)
Clausewitz in the Third Reich I: A National Hero
Clausewitz’s presence in this period of German history cannot be reduced to Hitler. As a Prussian patriot and the preeminent theorist of modern war, Clausewitz was unsurprisingly enthusiastically celebrated in the Third Reich. (more…)
Young Clausewitz.
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Part 1 of 4
All intellectuals dream that their ideas will not be confined to the dead letters of books accumulating dust on library shelves, but should possess the world. An underexplored but highly fertile field in this respect is the influence of the great Prussian military theorist Carl von Clausewitz upon the German dictator and warlord Adolf Hitler. This is an extremely controversial issue. Clausewitz is the preeminent military theorist, rivaled in fame only by the ancient Chinese sage Sun Tzu. (more…)
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The modern era is characterized by the steady, at times exponential, growth in the material power of human societies in mastering their world. This has paradoxical consequences in the field of war. The most obvious is an exponential increase in warring states’ means of destruction: (more…)
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English original here
Возможно, самая впечатляющая западная традиция государственного строительства, по крайней мере в Новое время, принадлежит Пруссии. Разумеется, либерально-демократическая традиция, начатая Соединенными Штатами и Францией крепка, и она недаром сегодня господствует в нашем мире. (more…)
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The British have a knack for comedy. Speaking English and being comfortable with American culture, they are well-placed to fully participate in the emerging “Anglo-global” Weltkultur. By this, and their natural unpretentiousness, they have neither the wounded amour-propre of the French nor, often, the commercial crassness and/or uncultured piety of the Americans. Unlike the Frenchman, the successful Briton can triumph in Anglo-American cultural scene in a wholly décomplexé fashion. (more…)
Julius Schrader, Frederick the Great after the Battle of Kolin
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Frederick the Great
Exposé du gouvernement prussien, des principes sur lesquels il roule, avec quelques réflexions politiques
Berlin, 1775-1776[1]
One often encounters people who have no faith in the ability of a small nation to achieve anything worthwhile.[2] Yet one typically does not have the luxury of choice. One may prefer to live in a large and populous country, but in any event one must work with what one has. (more…)
