From Chapter II, “Principles”, L’Autorité, of Mes Idées Politique, by Charles Maurras. This principle will appear in three installments. Nature of Authority The idea that authority can be constructed from below would not have come into the head of our grandparents who were wise. It is not made, in truth, … Continue reading
Monthly Archives: October 2012
The Secret Meaning of Marriage
Recently several of Gustav Meyrink’s books were republished: The White Dominican, Walpurgis Night, The Angel of the West Window, after the publisher Bompiani had already published a new translation of the Golem, a book that had in its time a great success in Germany and from which a film was … Continue reading
The Path of Blue Flowers
You ask me what I mean by ideas when I say that they are the only permanent thing in man and that they alone deserve one’s lifetime attention. Ideas are first of all opposed to ephemeral external things and to the sensations, desires, and passions directly referring to them. Continue reading
Spiritual Knighthood
Henceforth, the relationship between man and his God is that of knightly service. At its limit, this relationship produces the metamorphosis of the warrior knight to the spiritual knight. Continue reading
Shun Poison, Seek Nectar
As often happens with saints, legends surround them. Ashtavakra’s name derives from the eight deformities in his body. The cause of the deformities is unclear. Said to be enlightened already in the womb, Ashtavakra was upset about the scriptures being recited improperly; he either squirmed or was cursed by his … Continue reading
Origin of Revolution
Revolution is the overthrow of established order, resulting in a state of disorder. Thus, there can be no such thing as a “conservative revolution” but rather what is required, as Joseph de Maistre famously claimed, is “the opposite of a revolution“. To understand what Order is in the first place, … Continue reading
Principle III: Order
Although he described himself as a pagan, the influence of Thomism on Charles Maurras is quite clear. Being and Order, for him, are coterminous. I don’t know the extent of Donoso Cortes’ influence on Maurras, but Maurras also rejects endless discussion, claiming that to debate order, which has a mathematical-like … Continue reading
The Nachtenschein of Classic Liberalism
Having come across a remark in AKC‘s letters that the really cultured and spiritual European does not have a peer in their Eastern counterparts, I returned to a volume of Wilhelm Humboldt‘s collected letters and essays, excerpted by subject. Although one can tell that the writing was not in English … Continue reading
Liberalism and the Individual
We now resume our review of one of the newer works of political theory. The point is not to critique it, but rather to see how its analyses and prescriptions expand or improve on similar projects based solely on Tradition. In The Fourth Political Theory, Alexander Dugin defines the essence … Continue reading