First of all, what is that “legionary spirit” and where is the evidence for it today? That spirit has nothing to do with hot-headedness, emotional outbursts, or partisanship. Rather, it is characterized by an iron will, a sense of order, rationality, mental sobriety, the ability to plan or strategize, loyalty, the adherence to principles.
How does that fit in today, among those who can see in such a spirit only a disease, a mistake, the “authoritarian personality”. Today hedonism is preferred to sobriety, living for the moment instead of strategizing, the lack of discrimination instead of the quest for order, the irrational, the unusual, the absurd instead of rationality. But what idea or principle is there to be loyal to? Even among certain groups that claim to be “radical traditionalists” there is no underlying unity. Rather, they are motivated by the party spirit, i.e., alliances are made based on similarity of immediate goals, but not on the possession of a common mind.
Evola’s vision is far from being realized, even further than when Orientations was published. Where do we see the legionary spirit “in the factories, in the laboratories, in the universities, in the street”? The “agitators” today wonder why no one will follow them. Isn’t it time to look elsewhere?
Something already exists as spirit that can serve as evidence of the forces of resistance and resurgence: it is the legionary spirit. It is the attitude of those who were able to choose the hardest way, who were able to fight even knowing that the battle was materially lost, who were able to confirm the words from the ancient saga: “Loyalty is stronger than fire” and through which the traditional idea was affirmed; that is the meaning of honor and shame, — not small measures drawn from petty morality — that creates a substantial, existential difference between beings, almost like that between one race and another.
On the other hand, there is the realization typical of those in whom what was the end now appeared as the means, in them the recognition of the illusory character of multiple myths while leaving untouched those who were able to achieve for themselves, on the borderline between life and death, beyond the world of contingency.
These forms of the spirit can be the base of a new unity. The essential thing is to adopt them, to apply them, and to extend them from the time of war to the time of peace, of this peace especially, that is only a setback and a poorly kept down disorder—to those who bring about distinctions and a new alignment. That must happen in rather more essential terms than what is a “party”, which can only be a contingent instrument in sight of given political battles; in terms more essential than even as a simple “movement”, if by “movement” is meant only a phenomenon of the masses and aggregation, a quantitative phenomenon more than qualitative, based more on emotive factors than on strict, clear adherence to an idea.
It is instead a silent revolution proceeding in the depths, that must be propitiated, to those who are, it first creates on the inside and in the individual the premises of that order that then will have to also be asserted on the outside, supplanting as quick as lightning at the right moment the forms and forces of a world of subversion. The “style” that must gain emphasis is that of whoever holds onto positions in faithfulness to himself and to an idea, in a collected intensity, in a repulsion for every compromise, in a total engagement that must be manifested not only in the political battle, but also in every expression of existence: in the factories, in the laboratories, in the universities, in the street, in the very personal life of the affected. One must reach the point that the type of which we speak, and who must be the cellular substance of our alliance, is well recognizable, unmistakable, differentiated, and one can say: “He is one who acts like a man of the movement.”
This must today be recovered, which was already the guarantee of the forces that yearned for a new order for Europe but which in its realization often was impeded and diverted by multiple factors. And today, fundamentally, the conditions are better, because misunderstandings do not exist and it suffices to look around, from the streets to the Parliament, because the callings are put to the test and one has, clearly, the measure of what we must not be. Facing a world of mush whose principle is: “Who makes you do it”, or: “First comes the stomach, the skin (the Malapartian Skin!), and then morality”, or again: “These are not times in which we can be permitted the luxury of having a character”, or finally: “I have a family”. One is able to oppose clarity and service to them: “We cannot do otherwise, this is our life, this is our being”. Whatever is positive will be able to be reached today or tomorrow. It will not be through the abilities of agitators and politicians, but rather through the natural prestige and the recognition of men whether of yesterday, or, and even more, of the new generation, that so many are capable and in that give the guarantee for their idea.
Seeing at last one of the few Traditionalist writings in which we get a view of how the revolt takes place is definitely inspiring. Evola’s idea that the Traditional man must simply live as a Traditional man, and make himself known by virtue of his existence is simple and yet highly practical. Assuming that a personal inner order has been achieved, or is being achieved, it lets this fact be transmitted into the real world. It can be done in daily life, at any level of society. In a sense, the man of Tradition then displaces the current order by refusing to be a part of it through his personal actions. It reminds one of Michael Collins’ dictum that the Irish would “defeat the British Empire by ignoring it.” Thanks for publishing.