Myth and Violence: The Fascism of Julius Evola and Alain de Benoist

Author(s): THOMAS SHEEHAN

Source: Social Research, Vol. 48, No. 1, On Violence: Paradoxes and Antinomies (SPRING 1981),
pp. 45-73
Published by: The New School
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Mythand Violence:
The Fascism of
Julius Evola and /
BY THOMAS
Alain de Benoist / SHEEHAN

XVeflectingon the Frenchsituationin 1912,GeorgesSorel,

the evangelistof what ProfessorRoth dubs "the cult of vio-
lence,"wrotethat"ardentyoungmenare turningtowardwhat
Republicanscall reaction,because onlytheredo theyperceive
Today in Europe,a dozen yearsfrom
some signsof vitality."1
the uprisingsof 1968, afterhalf a decade of left-wing ter-
rorismin Germanyand Italy,and in what seems to be the
twilightof hopes for some formof Eurocommunism, Sorel's
of
words ring true again. Among the youth Italy, France,
Germany,and Belgium- not to mentionSpain- the last five
yearshave seen the quiet but steadygrowthof whatanalysts
have named Eurofascism, a perhaps small but well-financed
and internationally coordinatednetworkof extremeright-
wing groups,ideologicallygrounded in the philosophiesof
menlikeJuliusEvola and Alainde Benoistand, in theirmore
extremeforms,dedicated to violenceand terrorismin the
name of savingEurope frombothcapitalismand Marxism.2
Europe wokeup to the new ideologyof Eurofascismin the
springof 1978 when, in a series of articlesentitled"Une
1
JackJ. Roth,The Cultof Violence:Soreland theSorelians(Berkeley and Los Angeles:
Universityof California Press, 1980), p. 107.
2A
veryrough listincludes: in France, the Fédérationd'action nationaleeuropéenne
(now called Faisceaux nationales européennes) and Mouvement nationaliste révo-
lutionnaire;in Italy,Terza Posizione and the terroristgroup Nuclei armati rivoluzio-
nari; in Belgium, the Vlaamse MilitantenOrde. In Germany there are 69 extreme-
right groups, of which 23 are known to be armed.

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46 SOCIAL RESEARCH

nouvelledroite?,"Le Mondediscussedthe worksof neofascist

philosopherAlainde Benoistand probedintohisstudygroup
et d'étudespour la civili-
de recherche
called GRECE (Groupement
sationeuropéenne). The worldwokeup to theterrorist potential
of the new fascismwiththe bloodymassacresperpetratedin
the summerand fall of 1980: the bomb explosionsat the
Bologna railwaystationin August(85 dead), at the Munich
Oktoberfest in September(13 dead), and at a Parissynagogue
in October(4 dead).
Fascistideology,fascistterrorism - thequestionof theirpos-
sibleconnectionpressesto thefore.To be sure,no one would
wantto lay responsibility for the deathsin rue Copernicdi-
rectlyat thedoorstepof Alainde Benoist,any morethanone
would wantto blame the massacrein Bologna on the Italian
parliamentarian and neofascistideologue Pino Rauti. Both
men, fact,have severelycondemnedthoseterrorist
in acts in
theirrespectivecountries.Nonetheless,one is leftwiththe
question of what formof ideologycould possiblyunderlie
thosedreadfulacts,inspiringand, in the eyesof theirperpe-
trators,justifying them.And, shortof terrorism, whatis the
ideology of the new fascist?Why are "ardent young men"
turningagain, in whatevernumbers,towardreaction?
There is no lack of studieson terrorism frompoliticaland
sociologicalpoints of view, although,given the course of
eventsin the pastdecade, mostof the analysishas focusedon
leftistterrorism.ProfessorFerrarotti's penetratinginvestiga-
tionsintothe social rootsand whathe calls the "hypnosis"of
violencehavea broaderperspective and have takenlongsteps
towardan understanding bothof thecausesofviolenceand of
its ambiguousfascinationfor certainintellectuals.3 I findhis
suggestive discussion of violence as an "interruption of dis-
course"to be a fruitful startingpointforsome reflections on
what I shall call the "mythologyof violence" withinthe
mythic-metaphysical frameworkof the extremeright,par-
3 Franco Ferrarotti,Alie radieidella violenza(Milan: Rizzoli, 1979) and L'ipnosidella
violenza(Milan: Rizzoli, 1980). On "the interruptionof discourse," see pp. 9 and 94.

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 EVOLA AND DE BENOIST 47

ticularlyin Italyand more generallyin Europe. I shall con-

centrateon the workof thelateJuliusEvola,bothbecause his
philosophyof fascismcontinuesto exert great influencein
Italy(neofascistpoliticalleader GiorgioAlmirantehas called
him"our Marcuse,onlybetter"4)and because the differences
betweenhis thoughtand thatof Alain de Benoistallow us to
see whatmightbe "new" about the New Right.
Withinthe limitationsimposed by the formof an essay,
these reflectionscan be littlemore than a sketchof some
themesthatbelongto a longerand morewide-ranging study
of the politicalphilosophyof totalitarianism. In the present
essay I wish to suggestthat,whereas social, political,and
psychologicalanalysesof terrorismdo contributegreatlyto
our understandingof the phenomenon,theyalso leave un-
touched an essentialaspect of it: its mythicappeal to the
terroristand, in his eyes,its quasi-metaphysical justification.
To adapt Hegel's phrase:in orderto understandterrorism in
its depth we musttryto comprehenddie verkehrte Welt,the
upside-downworld, of the terrorist's of
metaphysics reality
and history.While this metaphysics, this vision of what is
essentialand whatoughtto be, is inscribedin the terrorist's
politicsand incarnatedin his actions,it is not adequately
explainedby analysesof his strategyand tactics.The almost
religiousappeal of a lifeof clandestinity,withitsritualsof the
undergroundand itsmessianicchallengeto riskone's lifefora
cause, calls foran analysisnotjust of the psycheof the ter-
roristbut,even deeper,of the mythor metaphysics to which
he responds.
A briefreflection on the meaningof violenceand terrorism
may bear out this point. (For now I take terrorismnot as
qualitatively differentfromviolencebut ratheras an extreme
formof it.) In Greek philosophyand especiallyin Aristotle,
violence(bia) was any forceexertedagainstthe essentialna-
4 Cited in ( Milan: Mondadori,
Giorgi Galli, La crisiitalianae la Destrainternazionale
1974), p. 20. Rauti calls Evola "the greatesttraditionalistthinkerin our days in the
entire West" (Le idee che mosseroil mondo[Rome: Edizione Europa, 1976], p. 65).

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48 SOCIAL RESEARCH

ture of things(para physin).Aristotlesaw everything as pos-

sessed of an intrinsicnatureor finality (telos),and all move-
mentor becomingthattendedtowardthe fulfillment of that
finality was "telological"or in accordwiththe thing'sessential
nature(kataphysin).In this straightforward view of reality,
true developmentis movementtowardthe essential(genesis
henekaousias),and violenceis movementagainstthe essential.
And for today'sterrorist it is the same- except thathe dis-
agreeswithsocietyabout whatis politically naturaland essen-
tial(physis,
ousia) and hence about whatconstitutes violence.In
his invertedworld,whichhe sees fromthe viewpointof what
Ricoeurhas entitled"the hermeneutics of suspicion,"society
as it standsis "unnatural"and thereforeviolent;and what
societycalls violenceis for him eitherself-defence (resistance
againstthe unnatural)or therapeutic (restoration of the essen-
tial) or maieutic(helpinggive birthto the naturaland essen-
tial).5
Whatsocietycallsterrorism is, fortheterrorist, an urge for
the essential,for what ought to be. It is fundamentally a
"metaphysical" act. Disagreements about whose violence is
reallyviolenceare, fortheterrorist (butalso forthesocietyhe
attacks),disagreements about the essenceof thepoliticalorder
and ultimately about the essenceof historyand reality.To be
sure, policemencannot discuss metaphysics when tryingto
disarma terrorist. But at the levelof reflection on the causes
of and motivesbehind terrorism, and especiallyfascistter-
rorism,not much light is shed by easy appeals to "ir-
5
Compare the words of Prince Junio Valerio Borghese, leader of the failed coup
against the Italian governmenta decade ago: "[Evola] is not afraid to be considered a
reactionary,i.e., a man of the Right,when he warns that revolutionmakes sense only
when it is a reconstruction,that is, a violent removal of an unjust state of affairsor
disturbancein the civil and politicalorder . . ." (from his introductionto Julius Evola,
Gli uominie le rovine[Rome: Ascia, 1953]; reprinted in Omaggioa Julius Evola, ed.
Gianfrancode Turris [Rome: Volpe, 1973], p. 93). Sorel's concept of violence is more
complex. While he does see it as a normal manifestationof the social order, he
nonetheless believed it maintained the "scission" between the proletariat and the
corrupt world about it and thatit had the functionof midwifeto progress. See Roth,
The Cult of Violence,pp. Ill, 163, 265.

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 EVOLA AND DE BENOIST 49

and "nihilism."If anything,fascistterrorists

rationalism" are
veryrationaland extremely positiveabout theirmetaphysical
And
beliefs. the challengeis to understandthosebeliefs,not
tout c'est pardonnertout, but because jail
because comprendre
sentenceshave neverbeen an effective wayto abolish philo-
sophical convictions.
An analysisof the mythicsand metaphysics thatmay ulti-
mately underlie acts of violence
and terrorism could be carried
out withregard to the extremeleftas well as the extreme
right.Toni Negri,the Italian theoreticianof a radical neo-
Marxism,speaksin almostreligiousand Manichaeantonesof
a revolutionary "logicof collectiveseparateness,"of the con-
victionthattrueMarxistsare "anotherrace,"bornof a "virgin
mother"and dedicatedto "thebattlebetweenthetrueand the
false,"led by the Partywhichis comparedto a "combatant
religiousorder."6Indeed, I maintainthatboththe radicalleft
and the radicalrightrepresent,at the level of theirmythics
and metaphysics, different butultimatelyhomologousreactions
against what Mircea Eliade has called "the terror of
history"- even if Marxismpretendsto be the scienceof his-
tory.AlthoughI cannot argue it here, I hold that Negri's
neo-Marxism is as mucha metahistorics in a teleologkal
(specifi-
callyan inverted as
eschatological)modality Julius Evola's fas-
cisticphilosophyis a metahistorics in an archeological (and
specifically cyclical)modality.7
In whatfollowsI do not intendto suggestthatthe mythics
or metaphysics of the radicalrightnecessarilydemands and
intrinsically justifiesterrorism, any more than I would hold
anything like that for radicalMarxist philosophy.But thereis
6 Antonio
Negri, //dominioe il sabataggio:Sul metodomarxistadella trasformazione
sociale (Milan: Feltrinelli,1978), pp. 57, 47, 18, and 36 respectively.Rauti seems to
hold similarnotionsof the (Fascist) Partyas modeled on the religious fightingorders
of the Middle Ages: Le idee, p. 339.
7 Cf.
Negri, //dominio,p. 72: "Our sabotage organizes the proletarian assault on
heaven so that finally that damned heaven may be no more!" On Negri's neo-
Marxism,see Thomas Sheehan, "Italy: Behind the Ski Mask," The New YorkReviewof
Books 26 (Aug. 16, 1979): 20-26.

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50 SOCIAL RESEARCH

an essentialelement in both Evola's and de Benoist's visionsof

realitythat not only interruptsdiscourse, as Ferrarottiputs it,
but also denies its validity from the outset and thus does
radical violence to the nature of man himself.Whetherand to
what degree this violence at the level of theoryfinds its way
into practice and is used as a justification for terrorismis
another, although not unrelated, question.

Evola's "Traditionalism"

Julius Evola (1898-1974) was perhaps the most original and

creative- and, intellectually,the most nonconformist - of the
Italian Fascist philosophers. His most important works on
idealist philosophy,spiritualism,orientalism,and racism were
written between 1925 and 1943 (a major book on The
Metaphysics of Sex appeared in 1958), but his deep and con-
tinuing impact on the ideology of the extreme right is evi-
denced by the energetic republicationof his works in recent
years.8 (Whatever "philosophy" undergirds the writings of
Italian neofascistideologue Pino Rauti is made up of rehashes
and outrightplagiarismsof Evola's work.9)Although he never
joined the Fascist Party,he was an ardent supporterof Musso-
lini and enjoyed the dubious privilege of having //Duce en-
dorse his book, Synthesis of theDoctrineof Race (1941), as the
officialstatementof Fascism's "spiritualist"racism as against
Nazism's merelybiological racism. When Italy surrendered to
the Allies in September 1943, Evola and other Fascist in-
8 For a
bibliographyof Evola's work and secondary literature,see Omaggioa Julius
Evota, pp. 117-205. In what follows I concentrateon Evola's Rivoltacontroil mondo
moderno, 5th ed. (Rome: Edizioni Mediterranee,1976). I abbreviatethe workasÄMAi.
9
Although Rauti plagiarizes blatantly,he also does so badly, miscopyingfootnotes,
misspellingwords, etc. Compare his Le idee che mosseroil mondo(-IMM) and Evola's
Rivoltacontroil mondomoderno(=RMM) on the followingpages: IMM 40 = RMM 322;
41 = 322f (but compare the footnotes);66 n. 3 = 342 n. 2; 173 = 363 and 365 (but
= 139f (but
compare footnotes 13 and 18 respectively);211 n. 2 = 38 n. 16; 212f
Rauti miscopies "Vollgenossen"); 219 n. 8 - 375 n. 8; 220f = 378 (but compare the
footnotes); and most blatantlyof ali, IMM 387-389 = RMM 419-421.

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 EVOLA AND DE BENOIST 51

tellectualsvisitedHitlerto discussthe formation of the Fascist

Republic of Salò. After narrowlyescaping arrest by the
Americansin June 1944, Evola fledRome forVienna,where
he was crippledduringa bombardment. In 1951 he wasjailed
in Italyforsix monthson chargesof "reconstituting Fascism"
but was acquitted.He spenthis last yearscontinuingto write
whileoverseeingtheJuliusEvola Foundationin Rome.
Evola's philosophy,whichhe entitledTraditionalism, is a
curiousbutfinally coherentsynthesis of metaphysical idealism,
primitivemythologies, and what he called a "metaphysics of
history." In fact,however,his metaphysics of historyis a long
diatribeagainsthistoryin the nameof theultimateprimacyof
the eternal,stable,suprahistorical realmof the spiritualand
ontological, "the of
Being origins."10 This unmitigatedaffir-
mationof thespiritual,whichin verydifferent wayswas char-
acteristicof reactionaryintellectuals
betweenthewars,11 forms
the foundationof Evola's philosophicalfascismand the basis
of his repudiationof nihilism,bourgeoismaterialism(espe-
ciallyin its Americanform),and, of course,Marxism.In his
eyes it markedthe criticaldifferencebetweenthe Olympic,
Apollonian nature of Italian Fascism and the pagan,
romantic-telluric Dionysianism of GermanNationalSocialism.
In the young Italian neofascistof today, I believe,Evola's
distinction has disappeared,and one findsinsteada confused
that
mythology combinestheuranic(e.g., summer-solstice fes-
tivals)withthe chthonic(in ItalyJ.R.R. Tolkien's trilogyis
generallyidentifiedwiththe youthcultureof the rightwing,
whereit enjoysenormouspopularity).In any case, one does
well to rememberthatchargesof "irrationality," "nihilism,"
and "romanticism" entirelymissthecore of Evola'sthought.If
anything,his philosophyis one of the suprarationalrather

l0RMM, p. 229 (l'essere delle origini).

11
Compare, e.g., Martin Heidegger, An Introduction
to Metaphysics,
tr. Ralph Man-
heim (New Haven and London: Yale UniversityPress, 1959), pp. 45-50. See also
Alastair Hamilton,TheAppealofFascism:A StudyofIntellectuals
and Fascism,1919-1945
(New York: Avon, 1971).

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52 SOCIAL RESEARCH

than the irrational,of Being rather than nihilism,of Olympic

classicism rather than romanticism.For him, history,evolu-
tion,and the world of becoming are the realm of irrationalism
and nihilism.
Of course, the invocation of spiritualitywas a common-
place of Italian Fascism. Even Mussolini was given to protrep-
tics in which he called upon the Italian citizento "achieve that
purelyspiritualexistence in which his value as a man consists,"
and in describing Fascism in 1930 he said: "This political
process is flanked by a philosophical process; if it be true that
matterwas on the altars for one century,today it is the spirit
which takes its place. ... By sayingthat God is returning,we
mean that spiritual values are returning."12At the risk of
statingthe obvious, I believe that the urge for the "spiritual,"
however poorly defined, is still what ultimatelymoves the
neofascistmilitantand terroristin Italy today. The point now
is to see how the primacy of the spiritual in Evola's thought
constitutesas well the destructionof the world of discourse,of
logosyand ultimatelyof history.
Evola's earliest philosophical works from the 'twentieswere
dedicated to reshaping neo-Idealism from a philosophy of
Absolute Spirit and mind into a philosophy of the "absolute
individual" and action.13At firstEvola seemed to follow Gen-
tile's anti-intellectualistturn toward action and becoming
(verumetfiericonvertuntur , Gentile wrote),14and he sought to
reread Hegel's speculative dialecticsof necessityin terms of a
voluntaristicdialecticsof freedom ruled by the maxim tu devi
diventareDio, "You must become God." In his 1925 Essayson
Magical Idealism Evola wrote, "God does not exist. The Ego
12Benito Mussolini, Fascism: Doctrineand Institutions(New York: Howard Fertig,
1968), pp. 8 and 35.
13
Especially Saggi suW IdealismoMagico (Todi and Rome: Atanor, 1925); Teoria
dell'Individuoassoluto (Turin: Bocca, 1927); and Fenomenologiadell'Individuoassoluto
(Turin: Bocca, 1930). See also the reviewsin Omaggioa JuliusEvola, pp. 24-54, upon
which I draw.
14See Giovanni Gentile, The Theoryof Mind as Pure Act, tr. H. Wildon Carr (New
York: Macmillan, 1922), pp. 269, 271, and 15 respectively,cited in Herbert Marcuse,
Reason and Revolution(London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1955), pp. 404 and 408.

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 EVOLA AND DE BENOIST 53

must create him by making itself divine."15 But it was in

workingout the idea of the individual who elevates himselfto
the level of absolute self-determinationin the world of action
that Evola discovered the existential power of primitive
mythologyand made the decisive turn from neo-Idealism to
what I call his "metaphysical mythics," the vision that
structureshis best-knownand most influential work, Revolt
AgainsttheModernWorld.
It is in Evola's approach to his metaphysical mythics - his
method in the broad sense- thatwe find the interruption,and
indeed the invalidation, of discourse of which Ferrarotti
speaks. "I have always foughtagainst words,"Pirandello wrote
in 1925 when subscribing to a manifesto of Fascist in-
tellectuals,16and this phrase could well stand as a motto for
Evola's repudiation of discursive argumentationin the name
of a spiritualintuitionas the proper method in philosophy.The
suprarational "intellectualintuition"that he proposes is in fact
a kind of Platonic anamnesis(a riconescere o ricordare)of the
eternal, nonhuman realm of the spirit. In the introductionto
RevoltAgainsttheModernWorldEvola writes:

The truthsthatallowus to understandthe worldof Tradition

are notthosethatcan be "learned"or "discussed."They either
are or are not. We can onlyremember them,and thathappens
when we are freedfromthe obstaclesrepresentedby various
human constructions(chief among these the results and
methodsof authorized"researchers") and have awakenedthe
capacitytoseefromthenonhumanviewpoint, whichis thesame
as theTraditionalviewpoint.. . . Traditionaltruthshave always
been held to be essentially
non-human}1

For Evola, discursivethought "decentralizes" man by detach-

ing him from the realm of Being. Indeed, the Vetenoire of
Western philosophy is Socrates, who introduced "the most
fatal deviation," that of "substitutingdiscursive thought for

15In
Omaggio,p. 26.
18See The
Appeal of Fascism,p. 84.
17RM M ,
pp. 12f; for "riconoscere o ricordare," p. 124.

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54 SOCIAL RESEARCH

the spirit." The result has been "the emancipation of the

individual as 'thinker'fromthe Tradition, and the affirmation
of reason as the instrumentof free criticismand profane
knowledge."18
What we find in Evola is no advocacy of the irrationalbut,
quite the contrary,the reassertion of a perennial theme in
Western philosophy: the primacy of nous over episteme,of
intellectusover ratio,of Vernunftover Verstand,of intellectual
intuitionover discursive knowledge. And to the degree that
these two poles are dichotomized and bereftof any mediating
connection- as they emphatically are in Evola and as they
potentially are in certain interpretationsof, for example,
Thomas Aquinas and Heidegger- we may say that the charge
of a fascismof the spiritcan be laid at more doors than just
Evola's.19What Evola has done is to actualize and exaggerate a
tendencythat is implicitin all Western philosophies based on
the primacy- indeed, the possibility - of an intellectualintui-
tion. He repudiates dialogistic, discursive reasoning (logos,
ratio) not because he favors a descent to the irrational but
because he affirms,along withAristotle,the superiorityof the
suprarational ("Since man is- more than anythingelse- nous,
life in accord with nous is also for him the happiest" [Nie.
Ethics,K, 7, 1178 a 8]). In assertingthe primacyof this "non-
human element of man," Evola calls his philosophy "anti-
humanistic" in the sense of something "more-than-human."
Spiritual intuitionis the means whereby"empirical existence
comes to be reallytransformedand resolved in divinity."20
Evola's method of intuitionismgrows out of the contentof
his philosophy.As we turn to an explicitconsiderationof that
content,we find his thoughtarticulatedinto: (1) a metaphysics
18/?AÍM,pp. 319 and 320.
19 de saintThomas,2nd ed.
Regarding Aquinas, see Pierre Rousselot,L'Intellectualisme
(Paris: Beauschesne, 1924), p. 228f: "Christian life seems to have developed in St.
Thomas an enthusiasmfor intelligence,along witha correlativedisdain for discursive
human reasoning." Also pp. 25f on Aquinas's opposition to "the idolatry of the
enunciable."
20Evola, Saggi suitIdealismoMagico, p. lö. tor the nonnuman element ot man,
RMM, p. 125.

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 EVOLA AND DE BENOIST 55

of dualismand hierarchythatcomportsa philosophicalan-

(2) a politicalphilosophyof
thropologyof "spiritualvirility";
empire and a social philosophyof castes; and (3) a "meta-
physicsof history" cyclicaltheoryof
based on an antihistorical,
time.

Metaphysicsand Anthropology.At the basis of Evola's

Traditionalist thoughtlies "thedoctrineof thetwonatures"a
dualismof thesupernatural and thenatural,wherethesuper-
naturalis emphatically notto be read inJudeo-Christian terms
(whichare founded on the "Semiticspirit"),that is, as an
hypostasizedand separate realm, but ratherin ontological
terms.21 For Evola,the higherrealmis the (ill-defined) power
of thea prioriand the normative, the"worldof 'Being,'which
alone can providestability," an underivableand unconditional
principleor "occult force which,when present,livingand
active. . ., reactson the worldof quantitybyimpressing upon
it a formand quality."22 Evola's "supernatural"is the dimen-
sion of whatI call the"archeological," thatis, of the ontologi-
cal archewhichis the originand orderingprincipleof every-
thingelse, to whichit is comparedas formto matter.This
archeis the power of the Law, "that primordiallegislation
whichordersthingshierarchically" bygivingthingstheirrela-
tiveontologicalstatus.This suprahumanthemis is reflectedin
but notderivedfromhumannomos:"Everylaw,if itis to have
objectivevalidityas such, musthave a 'divine'character.But
when this characteris recognizedand when, therefore,its
originis connectedbackto a nonhumantradition, itsauthority
[is] absolute,the law has validityas somethinginfallible,in-
flexible,and immutable,somethingwhichdoes not admitof
discussion.. . ,"23
In mythicterms,this metaphysical realm of Being is de-
scribedin termsof the divine, not as a personalGod but as
21RM M,
pp. 19 and 345.
22RM M,
pp. 82 and 211.
23RMM,
pp. 38 (primordial legislation) and 40 (every law).

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56 SOCIAL RESEARCH

numenyan immutable "naked force," an "essence free of pas-

sion and change, one which creates distance with regard to
everythingwhich is merelyhuman," a solar realm of Olympic
peace and light, of divine "regality."24In Evola's mythic
"metaphysicsof history,"this dimension corresponds to the
Golden Age of Hesiod and the Satya (or Krta) Yuga of Hindu
mythology(sat = being; satya = truth),"the age of Being and
thus also of truthin the transcendentsense."25In mythology's
"sacred geography," this dimension is described as the polar
realm, the center of the earth, the axis mundi.If we seek the
origins of some of the arcane symbols and rituals of young
Italian neofascists,it is to such pages as these in Evola that we
must turn.
Correlative to the principle of spiritual dualism in Evola's
metaphysicsis the principle of hierarchy.By virtue of its ar-
cheologicalnature, the realm of the spiritual has a cosmological
function:it imposes formand qualityon lower matter(princi-
ple of matterand form)and thus creates a hierarchyor "great
chain of Being" in which things are "analogous . . . homolo-
gous formsof the appearance of a central,unitarysignificance"
(principle of correspondence), and in which "every reality[is]
a symbol and every action a rite" (principle of symbolism).26
The world, in this perspective,is "a stable and animated or-
ganism, constantly oriented toward the supernatural,
sanctifiedin potential and in act according to its hierarchical
gradations in all domains of thought, feeling, action, and
struggle."27It is preciselythis neat and tidy pre-Copernican
world that Evola's social and political philosophy seeks to re-
store: an antihistoricalcosmos of levels of Being ordered ac-
cording to form and matter. It is the basis of his theory of
corporativismin economics, of the aristocraticcaste systemin
24RMM,
pp. 65 (naked force),343 (free of change), and 23 (regality).Also RMM, p.
344, "purely Olympic divinities,free of passion."
25RMM,
p. 229.
26RMM,
pp. 14 (analogous), 151 (symbol,rite). On "the great chain of Being," cf.
RMM, p. 134, "una luce che si irradiava. . . ."
27RMM,
p. 79.

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 EVOLA AND DE BENOIST 57

social relations,of the man-womanrelationin sexuality,and of

"spiritual racism" in ethnology. Running through all these
areas is the principle that the "daimonic" element of matter
receives its liberation and elevation by the imposition of the
qualitativeelement of form.For example, woman, who repre-
sents the daimonic material element, can "enter the sacral
hierarchicalorder only mediately,by her relation to another,
to man," who represents the formal, qualitative element.28
Corresponding to Evola's metaphysics of dualism and
hierarchy is his philosophical anthropology of "spiritual
virility."This virilityis not (or not only) a matterof biology
and sexuality, but above all of ontology, of that "sense of
Being" whichcharacterizesall elites.29Spiritualvirilityis "tran-
scendent virility,"the conditionof always being turned toward
the archeological-hierarchicalprinciplethat orders reality,not
in a relation of personal devotion or belief as in Judaism and
Christianity(for the "divine" is an impassivenumen)but rather
in "simple relations of technique." In the ethical realm these
relations translateinto what Evola calls "fidelity,"a loyaltyto
the archeological-hierarchicalpower of the spiritual realm, a
"magnetism"toward the "center."30
Such fidelity,which is best manifestedin the priest-kingof
ancient cultures,the heroic warriorof later cultures,and the
knightof medieval chivalry,has "a supernatural sanction and
a religious value" because of "the traditionalistconception of
hierarchy,according to which all power comes fromabove."31
The anthropologyof spiritualvirilityand the ethics of fidelity
find expression in the man of action (the warrior) and the
man of contemplation(the ascetic). The former,in fightinga
sacred war (for all actions are symbolicrituals),and the latter,
28RMM,
p. 203. Evola treatsthe man-womanrelationin RMM, pp. 200-215 and in
Metafisicadel sesso,2nd ed. (Rome: Atanor, 1969).
29Cf. RMM,
pp. 227f. This sense of Being and the sacred is the basis of the
aristocrat'ssacred rightto property: see RMM, pp. 194-199.
30RMM,
pp. 65 (spiritualvirility),69 (transcendentvirility,relationsof technique),
49 (fidelity),and 132f (magnetism,center).
31RMM,
p. 347.

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58 SOCIAL RESEARCH

in turning "toward the principle from which every 'form'

procedes," provide the types of Evola's suprahuman anti-
humanism and the role models for young neofasciststoday.32

Social and PoliticalPhilosophy.Evola's theoriesof the State, of a

social caste system, and of racism follow directly from his
mythicsof dualism and hierarchyand from his anthropology
of virilityand fidelity.Here I shall only sketch some major
lines of these theories.
For Evola, the State has a transcendentmeaning and final-
"
ity:it is "an apparition of the 'world above' and, in its proper
form,whichis thatof Empire, it is an essentiallysacral institu-
tion whose organicityreflectsthe hierarchicalordering func-
tion of the ontological arche. "If an Empire is not a sacred
Empire," he writes,"it is no Empire at all."33 Because of its
intrinsicsacral origin, the State-Empiredoes not get its legiti-
macy fromthe people- this "is an ideological perversiontypi-
cal of the modern world"- but rather from the realm of the
spiritual,for again the principle of matterand form applies:
"At bottomthe substanceof the demosis alwaysdaimonic(in the
ancient, not the Christian-moral sense of the term) and
always needs a catharsis,a liberation,before it can have va-
lidity as the force and material (dynamis)of a Traditional
politicalsystem.. . ,"34For Evola, the best incarnationsof or-
ganic ideal of the State in the last two millenniahave been the
Roman Empire and, in second place, the medieval Holy
Roman Empire, but for all his admirationof these models, he
did not believe that they could be reproduced today.
Rather- in 1972- he opined: "Within the limitationsof an
epoch like our modern one [ifwe seek a monarchicalmodel of
contemporarygovernance],we could referto an 'authoritarian
32RMM,
pp. 145 (toward the principles) and 145-165 (ascetic, warrior).
33RMM,
pp. 42 (apparition), 139 (organicity)and 105 (sacred Empire). See also
Julius Evola, Lo stato (Rome: Fondazione Julius Evola).
34RMM,
pp. 43 (ideological perversion) and 44 (demos, daimonic).

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 EVOLA AND DE BENOIST 59

constitutionalmonarchy'like thatwhichexisted in Germanyat

the time of Bismarck."35
Evola's social doctrine of an aristocraticcaste system,mod-
eled ultimatelyon the Hindu caste systemand on its relative
reproductions in Roman and medieval Europe, is the most
concrete application of his principleof hierarchy.It is also the
basis of his argument against the doctrine of egalitarianism
withits "leveling down to equal rightsand duties, to an equal
social moralitywhichtriesto impose itselfon all persons in the
same measure and to be valid for all. . . ."36 This is nothing
other than the modern sacrilege of "superseding one's caste,"
that is, one's "proper organic preformation"which is regis-
tered in one's birthand which "gathers,preservesand refines
one's talents and qualifications for determinate functions."37
Although Evola probablydid not reallyhope for a restoration
of the fourcastes in theirtraditionalform(priest-ruler;aristo-
cratic warrior; merchant; worker- cf. the Hindu Brahman,
Kshatriya,Vaisya,and Sudra), there is no question that he fa-
vored a closed and stable organic society where "everyone
[keeps] his functionin the entireorder" and where, mythically
speaking, "God assigns each one his proper status."38The
modern alternative is "a civilization that no longer knows
anythingabout the salutaryand creative limitsconstitutedby
the castes and the traditionsof blood," a chaotic world where
"men may go wherever they want according to the destiny
which theiractions create for them and which superior forces
can no longer modify."39The so-called modern "free" man is,
for Evola "the casteless, the slave emancipated, the pariah
glorified."40
35In
Omaggio,p. 163.
36/?AÍAÍ,p. 125; for the doctrine of castes, pp. 120-133.
37RMM, p. 126.
3*RMM, pp. 127 (everyone . . . function)and 130 (God assigns).
39RM M ,
pp. 213 and 133 respectively.
40RMM, p. 389; at p. 143 n. 20 Evola writes: "The true miseryof the Blacks in
America began when theywere freed and put in the conditionof a rootlessproletariat

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60 SOCIAL RESEARCH

The ethical correlativeof Evola's theoryof castes is, again,

fidelity,but in this case not so much a loyaltyto the archeo-
logical nature of the spiritualas to its hierarchicalfunctionof
placing one in his proper state. The maxims that govern
fidelityto one's caste are gnothiseauton(know thyself),meden
agan (nothing in excess), and Pindar's genoi hoiosesse mathon
(become, throughunderstanding,what you already essentially
are). We see here again how a type of Platonic anamnesis
functionsin such a world where all meaning is archeologically
determined: one does not create one's destinybut recollectsit,
reconnects with it in its a priorideterminationin the eternal
realm of the spiritual. "The individual did not 'receive' his
proper nature from the caste system;rather,the systemgave
him the way to recognizeor 'recollect' his proper nature. . . ."
Such recollectioncomports three moments: "to discover what
is 'dominant' in oneself by the traces registeredin one's proper
form and proper caste; then to will it, to transformit into an
ethical imperative; and further, to actualize it 'ritually' in
fidelity.. . ."41
A thirdelement of Evola's social and political philosophy-
his doctrine of "spiritual" racism- might equally be treated
under the heading of his philosophical anthropology; in any
case, I will make only passing reference to it here.42 For
whatever it is worth, Evola prided himself on developing a
theory of races that went beyond the merely biological (a
racismof blood à la Nazism) to the spiritual.What constitutesa
superior race for Evola is the spiritualorientationof a given
stock,the subsumptionof the requisitebiological material(and
that did mean Aryan races) under a qualitativelyelevating
form,namely,referenceto the realm of the spirit.But in fact

in an industrializedsociety.As 'slaves' in a paternalisticregime,theygenerallyenjoyed

a much bettereconomic securityand protection."
4lRMM, pp. 124 (individual did not "receive") and 126 (to discover).
42See
JuliusEvola, //mitodel sangue:Genesidel razzismo(Milan: Ulrico Hoepli, 1937);
Sintesi di dottrinadella razza (Milan: Ulrico Hoepli, 1941); and Indirizzi per una
educazionerazziale (Naples: Conte, 1941).

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 EVOLA AND DE BENOIST 61

all that Evola's theorydoes is to promotebiological-ethnic

racisma step higher.There are enough referencesin his
worksto the"inferior, non-Europeanraces,"to the"powerof
inferiorstrataand races,"to disgusting"Negro syncopations"
- and enough adulationof
in jazz, to "Jewishpsychoanalysis"
the Aryans - for us to divine that Evola's "spiritual"racism
mayhave had somethingotherthandisinterested Apollonian
origins.43

TheMetaphysics ofHistory.Evola'stheoryofhistory is, as I have

mentionedabove, an argumentagainsthistory,against at-
tributing realityor value to any formof movementthatdis-
tancesman fromthe archeologicalorderingprincipleof the
world.Inspiringall of his workis a powerfulnostalgiaforthe
archaicin both a temporaland an ontologicalsense, and a
correspondingrepudiationof any manifestations of progress
or development.For Evola,evolutionis devolutionand in fact
"nothingotherthanthe professionof faithof the parvenu."44
In no othercontemporary EuropeanthinkerthatI knowof is
-
the rejection of history and, a fortiori,of the modern
world- so absoluteand so violent.An indexof the regressive
natureof his ontologicalarcheologyand his theoryof history
can perhapsbe foundin his repeatedassertionthatthe real
declineof the Westbegan somewherebetweentheeighthand
sixthcenturiesb.c.45
In generaltermsEvola's theoryof historyis cyclical,and in
itsspecificformitis modeledafterthemythof theFour Ages,
whethertheybe describedin termsof Hesiod (gold, silver,
bronze,iron)or of Hinduism'syuga(Satyaor Krta,Treta,Dvap-
ara, Kali). Withoutgoinginto Evola's mythicaltypification of
civilizations
according to the four I
yuga, wishto emphasize his
43See Indirizzi, 36 (inferior,
p. non-European), p. 42 (Jewishpsychoanalysis)and
pp. 49f (the Aryan body). RMM, pp. 216 (inferior strata and races), 43 (Negro
syncopations) and also 297: "the inferior castes ... of the races of the South."
Mussolini's praise of Evola's race doctrine is reprinted in Omaggio,p. 76.
44RMM,
p. 404, italicized in the original.
45RMM,
pp. 8 and 318.

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62 SOCIAL RESEARCH

constant point: that the modern age finds itself in the Kali
Yuga, the final"age of obscurity"that precedes the cataclysmic
Pralaya or dissolution that in turn leads back to the Golden
Age of the Satya or Krta Yuga. Corresponding to the four
momentsin this cyclicalvision of historyare the four levels of
the caste system.Seen synchronically, if we may use that word,
the cyclicaltheoryof historyparallels the law of the "regres-
sion of the castes," so that the modern age or Kali Yuga is
characterized by the dissolution of the firstthree castes into
the fourthcaste of mass man, democracy, and "the spirit of
the herd." This most decadent of ages, characterized by the
"flightof the gods" and "deprived of the dimension of tran-
scendence," is at one and the same time the darkest age of
nihilismand the prelude to a catastrophe that will issue in a
new Golden Age.46

De Benoist'sExistentialism
Even fromsuch a briefsketch,the reader may be able to see
the coherentstructure - of Julius Evola's
- if not the credibility
metaphysicalmythics.But Evola is identifiedin Europe with
the "Old Right,"even if his influence in Italy and elsewhere
remains strong. We may now ask how his philosophy of fas-
cism differsfrom that of Alain de Benoist and the so-called
"New Right."
Alain de Benoist throwsdown the gauntlet: "The Old Right
is dead and well deserves to be."47 He roundly criticizesits
myopia, its father complex (God, king, Führer),its individu-
alism, its reactionaryand Manichaean character,its ignorance.
All that old nonsense about work-family-fatherland is nothing

4«RMM, pp. 397 (regression), 131 (spirit of the herd), 389 (deprived). On the
"flightof the gods" (a phrase from Heidegger, An Introduction to Metaphysics,
p. 45),
compare RMM, p. 133: "l'immediato ritirarsidelle forze dall'alto."
47Alain de Benoist, Les idéesà l'endroit(Paris: Hallier, 1979), p. 57. On de Benoist
and the New Right,see Thomas Sheehan, "Paris: Moses and Polytheism"in Sociobiol-
ogyExamined,ed. Ashley Montague (New York: Oxford UniversityPress, 1980), pp.
342-355.

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 EVOLA AND DE BENOIST 63

other than "Pétain in the land of the Soviets."48In its place he

seeks to construct la Nouvelle Droite. What is the new
ideology- and what is its potential for violence?
What is new about de Benoist's theories can be found
primarilyin the realm of metaphysicalor ontological princi-
ples and not in the lack of them. Whereas Evola, adapting the
traditionof neo-Idealism, saw the world as grounded in an
archeological spiritthat gives form,meaning,and hierarchyto
everything,de Benoist, who prefersNietzsche and Heidegger
to the Hegelians and who declares himselfa nominalistand an
existentialist,sees the world as fundamentallychaotic and void
of meaning (". . . we find no 'sense' in the organization and
configurationof the world. We refuse all determinism, be it
'spatial' or 'temporal' "49). Correspondingly, whereas Evola's
ontological archeology comported a "transcendent virility"
shaped by the primacyof spiritualintuitionand called to the
fidelityof anamnesis,de Benoist's ontology of chaos comports
an anthropologybased on the primacy of the will- a volun-
tarismor "heroic subjectivism."If God is dead, he says, there
are in fact no norms,and a fortiorino hierarchy,except those
which man creates for himselfby the force of his own will.
"The world is a chaos- but we can give it a form.What we do
has no other meaningthan the one we give it." "The 'order'
that we establisharound us is, in effect,nothingotherthanwhat
we put there."The chasm between Evola and de Benoist is
definitive:"Either there is an order in the universe,and man's
task is to conform to it (and thus the restorationof public
order is the same as reseekingthe truth. . .) or the universe is
a chaos, and the task that man can undertake is to give it a
form." And it is clear where de Benoist stands: "Order is
created, not received."50

48 Les idees,
p. 113.
49 Les idees,
p. 38.
50Les idées,
pp. 51 (chaos), 39 ("order"), 101 (either,or), 108 (created, not received).
Cf. pp. 40 and 66 (man, the animal who gives meaning), and p. 105 (why law is
perceived as "sacred").

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64 SOCIAL RESEARCH

De Benoist's existentialism,we should note, is not an abdi-

cation of ontologyor metaphysicsbut a recastingof it in terms
of voluntarism. In place of Evola's "Being of origins," de
Benoist posits man as will-to-power - and this is a decision
about the essence of reality(ousia). He affirmsthat"man is the
quintessence of everything"and that his "aspirationto order
[that is, his will] is an essence."51The idea of will-to-poweris
stillan ontology("In the beginningwas action,"he writes),and
from that voluntaristicmetaphysicsthere follow his ethical
imperatives:man must become the "cause and creator of him-
self," he must "become what he can be" and "constructhero-
ically."52Thus fidelityis no longer, as it was for Evola, a
commitment to the archeological nature and cosmological
functionof an a priorispiritualrealm which determinesevery-
thing. Rather, fidelityis simplyfidelityto- oneself. "Fix your
own norm- and stickto it."53There is no justificationfor any
act, other than one's choice of it.
What then of Evola's other metaphysicalprinciple, that of
hierarchy?It too is not preordained but to be constructed,in
effectby a kind of Platonic "noble lie." "If norms are con-
ventions,and if no societycan do withoutnorms, then in fact
the only possible avenue is to assume and institutea certain
collective subjectivity withenoughpowerthatit maybe perceivedin
turnas a 'natural*normthatfunctionsas an 'absolute9 in thesocial
structured
For all these major differences,there is stilla fundamental
continuitybetween the Old Rightof Evola and the New Right
of de Benoist, and the connecting link lies in de Benoist's
theoryof time. Evola's ontologyof the archecomports a cycli-
cal theoryof time (the periodic return to the arche),whereas
de Benoist's ontology of chaos and will comports a spherical
51Les idées,
pp. 72 and 105.
52Les idées,
pp. 51 (action), 44 (cause, creator), 50 (become), and 71 (construct).Cf.
p. 68 (only a project can give meaning to life).
53Les idées, 50. See
p. p. 51, n. 10: "Honor means never to fail the norms you set
yourself."
54Les idées,
pp. 43f.

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 EVOLA AND DE BENOIST 65

conceptof time(everything is in the instant).Historyforde

Benoist, as forEvola, has no sense,but notbecause all mean-
ing lies in the archeologicalorigins.Rather,"the past and
thatare presentin everyactual mo-
future constitutedimensions
ment"Nor is thisa teleologicalviewof history."The present,
actualizesall past momentsand potentializes all futureones.
To acceptthepresentbyjoyouslyassumingtheinstantis to be
at thesametime.The past,present,and
able to enjoyall instants
futureare threeperspectives, equallyactualnow,thatare given
to everymomentof historicalbecoming."55 But if thisinstan-
taneousviewof timeand historyallowsde Benoistto break
withbothlinearand cyclicalnotionsof time,it also deliversto
him the possibility of connectingwithtradition, indeed in a
culturaland ethnicsense. Traditionis not the past but is
"beyondtime";it is "permanent"and "withinus," and it be-
comes our traditionby being reactualized.56But when we
probedeeperintothiswould-beHeideggeriannotion,we find
thatwhatde Benoistmeans by "tradition"is one's own tem-
poral and culturalheritage,in fact,one's familyand race.
"The only true piety[cf. fidelity]is filialpiety,extendedto
include one's ancestors,one's offspring,and one's people.
WhenJesusaffirmed thatJosephwas nothistruefather - that
he was theson of theone God and thebrotherof all men- he
startedtheprocessof disavowingpaternity. The ancestorswho
precededus are neitherspiritually dead nor gone to another
world.They are at our side like an invisibleand whispering
crowd."57This noble sentimenttakes on a differentcolor,
however,whende Benoistbeginsto speak of the racialheri-
tage of cultures.Whilehe does affirmthat"all men of quality
are brothers,regardlessof race, nationor time,"his sense of
and he judges the "masses"
qualityis, likeEvola's,aristocratic,
as lackingin "form"and "meaning."He praisesthe Celtsover
Mediterraneanpeoples and judges the ancientRomansto be
55Les idees,pp. 97 (past and future)and 53 (the presentactualizes).
™Les idées,pp. 118f.
57Les idées, 54; cf.
p. p. 41.

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66 SOCIAL RESEARCH

superiorto the Carthaginiansbecause theywere continental

European warriorsratherthan maritimeAfricanmerchants.
Perhapsthe AryanZoroasterhad it right,he suggests,when
he forbadeinterracialmarriages.58
The New Rightlooks more and more like the Old Right
whenwe go on to comparede Benoist'stheoriesof the State
withEvola's. The State should be organicand hierarchical,
organizedaround the principleof sovereignty, not divided
into parties and factionsbut modeled after the tripartite
Europeancastesystem(de Benoistfusesthetwobottomcastes
into one).59 He condemnsthe "mass democracies"because
they homogenizeeveryoneand are indifferent to cultural
heritageand nationalpatrimony(theyeven sell nationalart
treasuresto foreigners). He also is clear about foreignpolicy:
"I am the citizenof a countryand the heir of a determined
culture. I don't make politicsan affair of disincarnated
moralitybut one of relationsof force.Faced withindividual
eventsI ask: what is our interestas Frenchmenand Euro-
peans?" Which means that,as a good Frenchman,he will
never forgiveAmerica for its "offensiveagainst the Con-
corde."60
To summarize:De Benoist'sfascismis at odds withEvola's
metaphysics butagreeswithhissocialand politicalphilosophy.
In metaphysicshe takes decisive distance from Evola's
archeology - his dualism, determinism, and spiritual
intuitionism- not so as to substitute forthata teleologyor a
of
theory progress but ratherin order to affirmtheexistential
absurdity of realityand thecorresponding primacyof thewill-
to-power. For de Benoist the verticalism and determinism of
Evola's mythicsverges too closelyon a totalitarianuniver-
salism;and onlya nominalistic voluntarism can guaranteeand
58Les idées,
pp. 54 (all men of quality: my italics),99 (masses); Alain de Benoist, Vu
de droite(Paris: Copernic, 1977), pp. 56 and 58 (Celts), 53 (Rome), and 50 (Zoroaster).
59See Les idées,
pp. 88, 110 (esp. on "national popular community"),etc.
60Les idées,
pp. 88 (art treasures), 265 (citizen of a country),and 267 (Concorde).

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 EVOLA AND DE BENOIST 67

preservetherightto difference and equalitywithinan organic

and hierarchicalsocietycreatedby man'sown forces.61 Evola's
philosophyis an archeologicalmetaphysics thattendsto swal-
low up actionin anamnesis; de Benoist'sphilosophyis an exis-
tentialnominalism thatabandonstherecollective so as
intellect
to freethe willforcreativeself-assertion. For Evola, the or-
ganic State is prescribedby the natureof realityitselfand
mustbe reconstituted; forde Benoist,the organicStateis an
ideal thatmencan setforthemselves and perhaps,withforce,
establish.Evola offersthe assuranceof whatis a priorideter-
mined; de Benoistoffersthe challengeof what is yetto be
achieved.The metaphysics and the approach are different.
The goal, it seems,remainsthe same.
In de Benoist'svoluntarism thereis as muchan "interrup-
tion of discourse"as in Evola's spiritualism - with perhaps
even a greaterinvitationto violencein the practicalorder.
"Great and strongthingshave no raisond'etre" he writes.
"That is whytheymustbe done. . . . The actionis the most
important, notthe one who undertakesit; so too the mission,
not the one who carriesit out. Againstindividualism - foran
activeimpersonalism.What mustbe done is not explained in
termsof motives.Nobilitykeeps silent.... Do not seek to
convince;seek to awaken."62
And he is adamantabout the unnaturalnessof liberalde-
and "therefore,
mocracy;itis, he suggests,totalitarian bydefi-
nition,inhuman"It seems that if it is inhuman,it mustbe
violentlyundone, withan activeimpersonalism and a noble
silence.De Benoist'sprotrepticis frightening: "The 'positive
nihilism'of Nietzsche has no other sense than this: one can
buildonlywherethegroundhas been razed. ... If we wantto
givebirthto a New Right,everything remainsyetto be done.
61De Benoist's insistenceon the rightto differenceis the basis of his preferencefor
a mythologicalpolytheism over Evola's mythicmetaphysicsof a unified and determin-
ing arche.
62Les idées,
pp. 51 and 53.

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68 SOCIAL RESEARCH

And given the delay to be made up, we have about a century

in which to succeed. Which means there isn't a minute to
lose."63

Social Mythsin Evola and de Benoist

It was Georges Sorel who most clearly posed the need for
social mythsto move the masses to revolutionaryfervor and
violence in the name of an absolute and irrevocable
transformationof the politicaland social order. For him, mere
theories were the products of bourgeois minds, and because
theywere geared to describingand explaining facts,theywere
impotentto move to action. A social myth,on the other hand,
was essentiallyan expression of the will to emancipation,
not a
description of facts,and only mythsembodied the historical
forces than in the past had created such revolutionarymove-
ments as primitiveChristianity,the Protestant Reformation,
and the French Revolution and that in the present inspired
the Marxist proletariat.64
In the work of Evola and de Benoist we have seen the
functionof such social myths.While in Evola the mythicqual-
ityof his metaphysicsis more pronounced, in de Benoist too,
although perhaps less explicitly,mythis a moving force (see
his invocation of polytheismand his assertion that the new
doctrineof inequalityis stillin the mythicstate). We have also
seen the element of "theoretical violence" embodied in the
thoughtof these two men, especially under the rubric of "the
interruptionof discourse," whether in the form of Evola's
intuitionismor de Benoist'svoluntarism.I now propose firstto
sketch out how the verystructure of mythin general, and its
relation to time and historyin particular,comport a necessary
element of violence, and then I will indicate that at the
theoretical level a necessary response to such mythicsis a
63Les idées,
pp. 109 (inhuman) and 76 (positive nihilism).
64See Roth, The Cult of Violence,pp. 18, 33, 39, 46, 78-79, 159, 25y, 2b5-Zbb.

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 EVOLA AND DE BENOIST 69

that preserves the ineluctabilityof dis-

radical demythologizing
course, mediation, and history.These suggestions,as I men-
tioned at the beginning,are only programmaticsketchesand
formal analyses, and they have many intended limitations.I
restrict my remarks primarily to the formal structure of
Evola's mythicsbecause it presents a paradigmatic case. The
instance of de Benoist's thoughtis more complex insofar as it
representsan inversionof metaphysics,but one that remains a
metaphysics nonetheless; thus a structural analysis of its
mythicquality and the approach to a demythologizingof it
would require another essay focused particularlyon his con-
cept of time and history.

The Structureof Myth.Modern ethnological and philosophical

studies of mythhave generallyovercome the naïve view, trace-
able to the Enlightenmentand reinforcedby Positivism,that
mythsare valueless and unreal products of simplistic,primi-
tive minds. We now see theirontological and creativefunction
in founding societies and cultures, and, in fact, their con-
tinuationin modern cultures,notjust in the oneiric but also in
the social realm.65 Myths are not legends or fancifulstories
but, seen structurally, accounts of the only and absolutelytrue
nature of reality;they are the "true stories about time," the
"only valid revelation of reality,"preciselybecause they nar-
rate sacredhistory, that ontologicallydeterminativeperiod or
world where the nature of thingsis established. To narrate a
myth(mython - cf. Plato's Sophist,242c) is, for the
tinadiegeisthai
man of archaic cultures,to reveal the essence of the world by
tracing things and events back to their ground in the arche.
There are three structuralmoments to the mythicalnarra-
tive: (a) Insofar as it recounts paradisal beginnings (sacred
time),it is a theologyof divine origins,(b) Insofar as it narrates
the alienated in-between (sinful time), it is a hamartiology or
doctrine of the sinful fall from those origins,(c) Insofar as it
85See Mircea
Eliade, "The Mythsof the Modern World," in Myths,Dreams,and
(New York: Harper Torchbook, 1971), pp. 23ff.
Mysteries

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70 SOCIAL RESEARCH

prophesiestheapocalypticend (redeemedtime),it is a soteriol-

ogyof returnto thesacredorigins.If we formalizethesethree
momentsin quasi-philosophical categories,we may say that
mythical narrative represents:(a) an ontology of essential
Being; (b) a phenomenology of the loss of Being (the terrorof
and an
history); (c) eschatology of thereconstitution of essential
Being. Whetherthese three momentsbe scored on cyclical,
linear,or "instantaneous" visionsof time,and whethertheybe
archeological, teleological,or "existential" in theirorientation,
they sharein common an "ousiological"pointof view:theysee
realityand historyfromthe standpointof essence (ousia).
The threemomentsinterpenetrate and demandeach other;
theycan be distinguishedbut not separated.As theology, a
myth recounts the essential and calls for faith.Objectively,it
tellswhatis reallythe case and whatis alreadyoperative(cf.
Aristotle'sto ti en einai); but subjectively, because it is onlya
tellingof the storyand because it demands faith(both of
whichindicateman's distancefromthe sacred origins),the
mythas theologyawakensa sense of sin or alienationand
thereforeimpliesa hamartiology. As hamartiology, the myth
narratesthe fall from the essentialinto time and history,
whichare thejailersof theessential;butinsofaras itallowsone
to recognizesin as sin,the mythis alreadyincipiently beyond
sin. Objectively, the mythrevealsman'slocationin a dynamics
of fall fromthe sacred but also, potentially, of movement
towardredemption(in thecyclicalconcept,manis currently in
the Kali Yuga). Thus, subjectively, the mythawakens hope,
eitherin the formof nostalgiaforthearcheor in the formof
courageto achievethetelos.The mythas hamartiology awak-
ens an impatiencefor deliveranceand inspiresaction,and
thereforeimpliesa soteriology. As soteriology, the mythprom-
isesa radicaltransformation -
of history perhaps,but notnec-
essarily,an irrevocable one - and thusinvitesto ritualenact-
ment(or reenactment) of thesacredand essentialin the name
of a utopia of love,justice,or transcendent union.
In brief,the mythin its three momentsdemands faith,

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 EVOLA AND DE BENOIST 71

enkindleshope,and inspiresto actionin thenameof "charity"

or union.And it is in the thirdmomentabove all thatwe can
see its potentialfor "apocalypticviolence."As a revelation
(apo-kalyptein: to reveal) of what historyand the world are
reallyabout, the mythrequires"violence"in order to over-
come the perversionof the essential,whetherthatbe a vio-
lence fromthe gods or fromman. As the promiseof an
ultimatereinstatement of theessential(eschaton: ultimate),it is
in facta prophecyof thenecessity of theoverturning of sinful
reality.The apocalyptic-eschatological violencethatis intrinsic
to mythis groundedin the natureof mythics as an ousiology:
a visionof essence,a repudiationof nonessence,and an urge
to reinstatethe essence- even if the "violence"be as mildas
Plato'speriagoge, the"turningaround"of thesoul forthesake
of seeingthe Forms(Republic, 518 c and d). In the thoughtof
JuliusEvola, the metaphysics of the "Being of origins,"the
condemnationof the decadence (and unnaturalness)of the
modernworld,and thecall to a revolutionary "fidelity"in the
form of the ascetic and the warrior, homologous the
are to
threestructural momentswe have seen. In de Benoistit is the
will and one's traditionthat are ousia. Traditionoffersthe
timelessdimensionof the essential,and the willto reactualize
tradition in theworldof chaosincarnatesthateternalelement.
And it is theimperative ofwilledeffectivenessthatcomportsthe
necessityof "razing"the inhumanand buildingthe human.
The therapeutic-soteriological-eschatological imperativein
-
myth its urge for the essential,whether the formof an
in
Aristotelian "touching"(thigein) of thetruth(Metaphysics ix, 10,
1051 b 25) or the Augustinian"touching"(tangere)of God
(Confessions, ix, 10)- is also itsdemand forviolenceto history
and discourse.

FromSocratesonward,theimpetusof
Violence.
Demythologizing
philosophyhas been to explainthe real not by tellingstories
(mython but by discursively
diegeisthai) showingits meaning
(logondidonai).In general,this"givingof reasons"has been

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72 SOCIAL RESEARCH

understood as a search for the common and ultimategrounds

of things,and hence, whetheras ontologyor natural theology,
has been a rationalcontinuationof the trajectoryof myth.The
need to demythologizemythsimplies as well the need to de-
mythologizephilosophy's ontological-theologicalquest for the
ultimate meaning of the real. I suggest that demythologizing,
to be effectiveand comprehensive,must become the destruc-
tion of the search for "absolute truth" both in mythand in
philosophy,and, correlatively,the assertion of man's condem-
nation to endless mediation and "hermeneuticaltruth."I take
"hermeneutics"as the commitmentto asymptoticmediationand
discursive knowledge, one which always exceeds the given in
the direction of a "more" but never finds this "more" in an
absolute and self-identicaltruth. Hermeneutics as a philo-
sophical position is the commitment to man as ineluctably
kinetic,as a movementwhich may project a unifyinghorizon
of the real but never attainsit,in fact,discoversit to be always
receding beyond his grasp.
Applied to the threefoldstructureof myth,a hermeneutical
demythologizingwould seek to thematize the followingposi-
tions. As against the theologicalstructure of myth,it would
explicate the atheological nature of historyand reality: the
denial of a graspable archeor telos,the deconstructionof Being
so as to reveal the ineluctabilityof becoming,the abdication of
hopes for a final resolutionto history.There are no gods but
only man, and man is the mysteryof a question to whichthere
is no answer. There are no ends or beginnings,but only we
ourselves, who ever remain "In the middle, not only in the
middle of the way/Butall the way, in a dark wood . . ." (East
Coker).
As against the hamartiology of myth,which affirmsa penul-
timate pessimism and an ultimate optimism,a hermeneutical
demythologizing reveals ultimate tragedy and penultimate
optimism. It does not refuse action in the social and political
world; on the contraryit demands it, but with a discursive
structureof social mediation thatis disabused of the illusion of

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 EVOLA AND DE BENOIST 73

ultimatesolutionsand that has learned to accept the terrorof

history.Perhaps we may take as a motto for this sense of
ultimatetragedyand penultimateoptimismCicero's Nee mala
nostranee remediapati possamus:the refusal to accept either evil
in the realm of the penultimate (which is, in fact, where we
live) or final solutions in the realm of the ultimate (which we
cannot grasp).
As against the soteriologyof myth, a hermeneutical de-
mythologizingreveals the inevitability of temporal and histori-
cal mediation. Man may be an intimationof ends and begin-
nings, but he does not know them. Like Stephen Dedalus in
Ulysses(ch. 3) he is condemned to "almosting it." Like Hera-
clitus (fr. 122) he is ever in a state of agchibasie,"approxima-
tion."
This is only a program for a methodology which seeks to
affirmman's historicityand discursivenessas over against any
metaphysicalmythicsthat requires in theory and implies in
practicethe need forviolence. There is, of course, a "violence"
to this hermeneutics,but it is that of learning to live with the
terrorof history.It is the "violence" practicedby Socrates- the
pain of the discursive- which in fact, because he dared to
question the mythof immediacy and to propose the state of
"knowingthatone does not know,"broughtupon him a much
greater violence. And as Albert Camus suggested in 1948, the
question today is whetherwe willallow the sacrificeof Socrates
to happen again in our lifetime.

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