Culture
Book Review:
‘Politica Aeterna’
By Alexander
Markovics22 November 2024No Comments
Alexander
Markovics reviews Alexander Dugin’s book Politica Aeterna: Political Platonism
& the Dark Enlightenment.
https://arktos.com/2024/11/22/book-review-politica-aeterna/
Philosophy
Has Consequences
What is the
connection between politics and philosophy? With this seemingly innocent
question begins the latest book by Russian state philosopher Alexander Dugin,
Politica Aeterna: Political Platonism & the Dark Enlightenment. Politics
and philosophy are inseparable — anyone who believes politics can be divorced
from philosophy will never fully grasp the dimension of the political.
Politica
Aeterna — For a Philosophy of Eternity as a Way Out of Modernity
“Democracy”
and “human rights” are, in the modern West, taken for granted just as much as
“Workers of the world, unite!” was in communist states. Yet, if we do not
understand these concepts and their consequences (a materialistic worldview,
the erosion of state sovereignty, etc.) philosophically, we are also unable to
take control of our people’s destiny. On around 600 pages, Dugin presents a
history of philosophy that, unlike in Germany, does not start with the Greek
atomists like Democritus or the European Declaration of Human Rights but with
Plato and Aristotle. Dugin interprets the philosophical systems of these two
Greek thinkers as manifestations of a masculine philosophy of eternity, in
which Plato (the philosophy of the Father, the realm of eternal ideas) and
Aristotle (the philosophy of the Son, the realm of phenomena) serve as the
foundation for a 3,000-year-old European intellectual history.
The Pursuit
of the Ideal State as the Foundation of Right-Wing, Traditional Thinking
The Russian
philosopher and sociologist emphasizes that both thinkers form the basis of the
Indo-European tradition and the starting point for right-wing thought: the
pursuit of service to God and truth, a hierarchically structured, patriarchal
society composed of philosopher-kings/priests, warriors, and peasants that
prioritizes the common good over individual self-interest, and the primacy of
the spiritual over the material. Plato and Aristotle’s vision of the
kallipolis, the ideal state that exists as an eternal model, starkly contrasts
with the idea of democracy, which they polemically dubbed the “city of pigs,”
inevitably sliding into tyranny. This ideal state shaped Europe’s political
reality from antiquity through the realm of Alexander the Great, the Roman
Empire, and up to the Renaissance.
The
Philosophy of the Mother as Humanity’s Fall: From Democritus to “Democracy”
Dugin
highlights the roots of Western democracy in the thought of the Greek atomists
3,000 years ago, with their materialism, atheism, disdain for hierarchy, and
matriarchal worldview, which eventually evolved into a fully developed
“philosophy of the mother” with the advent of modernity. The bourgeoisie,
individualism, modern science, and capitalism eventually led to today’s
liberalism, which aims to “liberate” the individual further and, in Democritus’
view, seeks truth in the void of nothingness. Dugin meticulously demonstrates
how the latest philosophical developments in postmodernity — from transhumanism
to self-loathing, gender ideology, climate cultism, and the liberal world state
as a consequence of the Great Reset — are all outcomes of a liberal end-of-history
narrative, driven by a philosophy of non-being, which, in the truest sense of
the word, he deems Satanic.
Political
Platonism or Dark Enlightenment
Against this
“dark enlightenment” with its object-oriented ontology and accelerationism
(inspired by Nick Land and Reza Negarestani), Alexander Dugin opposes the
political Platonism of his Fourth Political Theory, as encapsulated in Politica
Aeterna. Rejecting communism and fascism/National Socialism as equally
materialistic and individualistic as liberalism, he advocates a re-rooting in
eternity, countering Fukuyama’s liberal eschatology of the end of history along
with Popper and Soros’ “open society.” Like a bird that learns to fly when
pushed from the nest and must prove that it is not a stone, humanity should use
the postmodern descent to recognize that it has wings and is not a stone. Dugin
views hierarchy, (national) community, heroism, and tradition as antidotes to a
society of the many, of merchants, and of egotism, which suffocates the spirit
in wealth. In light of the open Satanism of postmodern philosophy, which not
only promotes a secular, God-detached world but even appeals to humanity’s dark,
demonic aspects, Dugin advocates reorientation towards heaven and
transcendence. In the war of ideas between gods and titans, we should align
ourselves with the heavenly host. We must become a radical subject in a world
threatening to merge with the radical object (the devil).
Politica
Aeterna — A Comprehensive Overview of 3,000 Years of Philosophy
Politica
Aeterna provides a detailed and comprehensive overview of 3,000 years of
philosophy from a right-wing perspective. Not only does it critique liberalism
and trace its development, but it also thoroughly explains the thought of Plato
and Aristotle as a spiritual antidote. A must-read for those on the right who
seek to understand and save our world.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário