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A review by mikuthemuso
Metaphysics of War by Julius Evola
4.0
I finished this in one sitting.
A very beautifully written book. He leaves a quote from Renè Quinton "Every ideal is a pretext to kill. Hatred is the most important thing in life. The wise men who no longer hate are ready for sterility and death. You must not understand the [enemy] peoples, you must hate them. The more man rises, the more his hatred for man grows. Nature has by no means created males, and peoples, in order for them to love each other.” I've never resonated with a quote about hatred ever before. It's almost like a death metal lyric, but in the form of poetry.
This book is quite interesting. I don't quite agree on the author's race politics which I find quite off putting. But he does highlight the spiritual side of war, and it is quite nice how he ties in disparate traditions like Islamic Jihad, Roman Devotio and Bhagavad Gita's Kshatriya Dharma. Where he gets it wrong I find is his discussion of Zoroastrianism. I think he is grasping at straws here.
In some passages it feels like a JRPG game. Final Fantasy, somewhat. With talk on Valhalla and Valkyries. Almost like live action role playing (LARP), in some ways like a mythical literary rendition of Counter Strike. Instead of terrorists it's holy warriors and infidels. He uses a lot of Marxist terminology here like "bourgeois" which I find interesting. It's very New Agey mixed with Conservatism. Not necessarily a critique. But as I have read his previous book Revolt Against the Modern World, I had already come to expect his mish-mash esotericism. He has a deep love for holy war, and spiritual war. It's fascinating. Intriguing. Poetic. A new-age final fantasy-esque conservativism holy war esoteric jihad kshatriya dharma kind of thing mixed with strange race politics and debunked aryan theories. It's definitely not in the realm of science. Maybe right wing schizophrenia, or avant garde conservatism.
A very beautifully written book. He leaves a quote from Renè Quinton "Every ideal is a pretext to kill. Hatred is the most important thing in life. The wise men who no longer hate are ready for sterility and death. You must not understand the [enemy] peoples, you must hate them. The more man rises, the more his hatred for man grows. Nature has by no means created males, and peoples, in order for them to love each other.” I've never resonated with a quote about hatred ever before. It's almost like a death metal lyric, but in the form of poetry.
This book is quite interesting. I don't quite agree on the author's race politics which I find quite off putting. But he does highlight the spiritual side of war, and it is quite nice how he ties in disparate traditions like Islamic Jihad, Roman Devotio and Bhagavad Gita's Kshatriya Dharma. Where he gets it wrong I find is his discussion of Zoroastrianism. I think he is grasping at straws here.
In some passages it feels like a JRPG game. Final Fantasy, somewhat. With talk on Valhalla and Valkyries. Almost like live action role playing (LARP), in some ways like a mythical literary rendition of Counter Strike. Instead of terrorists it's holy warriors and infidels. He uses a lot of Marxist terminology here like "bourgeois" which I find interesting. It's very New Agey mixed with Conservatism. Not necessarily a critique. But as I have read his previous book Revolt Against the Modern World, I had already come to expect his mish-mash esotericism. He has a deep love for holy war, and spiritual war. It's fascinating. Intriguing. Poetic. A new-age final fantasy-esque conservativism holy war esoteric jihad kshatriya dharma kind of thing mixed with strange race politics and debunked aryan theories. It's definitely not in the realm of science. Maybe right wing schizophrenia, or avant garde conservatism.