Maverick Philosopher

A Timid Plea for Freedom of Speech

JULIUS EVOLA wrote a fascinating introduction to Pali Buddhism. You say Evola was a fascist? Well, Jean-Paul Sartre was a Stalinist; Gottlob Frege was an anti-Semite (according to Michael Dummett); Martin Heidegger and Carl Schmitt were members of the Nazi Party. Are those affiliations good reasons to not read these great authors? Not to a sane person. Only to an anti-civilizational termite.

 

No book burning, no de-platforming! Stand up for free speech and open inquiry! To hell with the Left and its index librorum prohibitorum.

 

To hell with the Democrat Party.

Virile Ascesis

Julius Evola (Doctrine of Awakening, 233) preaches a virile ascesis which is neither renunciation, nor worldflight, nor inaction, nor quietism, nor mortification. 

Ascesis requires detachment, but one can be both detached and active in the world. The vita activa is possible without contemptus mundi. One can even be a warrior like Arjuna in the Bhagavad-Gita whom Lord Krishna commands to do his duty and slay the enemy but with detachment from the fruits of action. Imagine slaughtering a fellow human being with equanimity!  An impossible ideal? (An ideal impossible of realization is of course no ideal at all.)

In the world but not of it. In the thick of it, but without anything sticking to you, like the lotus flower that floats on the water without getting wet.

Reading Now: Julius Evola, The Doctrine of Awakening

Excellent introduction to Pali Buddhism. Will blog portions later.

You say Evola was a fascist? Well, Sartre was a Stalinist; Frege was an anti-Semite (according to Michael Dummett); and Heidegger and Carl Schmitt were members of the Nazi Party. Are those affiliations good reasons to not read those great authors? Not to a sane person. Only to a leftist crapweasel. You know my motto: "Study everything; join nothing."   No book burning, no de-platforming! Stand up for free speech and open inquiry! Defend the universities against the Pee Cee!

To hell with the Left and its index librorum prohibitorum. To hell with the Democrat Party. Man up, gear up, bone up.