Balder Ex-Libris

Author : Evola Julius (Giulio Cesare Evola)
Title : Spiritual And Structural Presuppositions Of The European Union
Year : 19**

Link download : Evola_Julius_-_Spiritual_And_Structural_Presuppositions_Of_The_European_Union.zip

Circumstances have rendered the need for European unity imperative on our continent. Until now, this need has been fuelled principally by negative factors : the nations of Europe seek a defensive unity, not so much on the basis of anything positive and pre-existing, as because of the lack of any other choice in the face of the threatening pressure of non-European blocs and interests. This circumstance makes it difficult to see the inner form of any possible real European unity very clearly. Thought seems not to go much beyond the project of a coalition or federation, which, as such, will always have an extrinsic, aggregative, rather than organic, character. A unity which would really be organic could be only conceived on the basis of the formative force from inside and from above which is peculiar to a positive idea, a common culture, and a tradition. If we look at the European problem in these terms, it is clear that the situation is painful, and that problematic factors prevent us from indulging in an easy optimism. Many have drawn attention to these aspects of the European problem. In this respect, a significant work is that of U. Varange, entitled Imperium (Westropa Press, London, 1948, 2 vol.). A further examination of the difficulties which we have mentioned can be based upon this book. Varange does not propose to defend the project of European unity in purely political terms ; rather, he bases himself on the general philosophy of history and civilisation which he derives from Oswald Spengler. The Spenglerian conception is well known : according to it there is no singular and universal development of 'culture', but history both builds up and crushes down, in distinct and yet parallel cycles, various 'cultures', each of which constitutes an organism and has its own phases of youth, development, senescence, and decline, as do all organisms. More precisely, Spengler distinguishes in every cycle a period of 'culture' (Kultur) from a period of 'civilisation' (Zivilisation). The first is found at the origins, under the sign of quality, and knows form, differentiation, national articulation and living tradition ; the second is the autumnal and crepuscular phase, in which the destructions of materialism and rationalism take place and the society approaches mechanicalness and formless grandeur, culminating in the reign of pure quantity. According to Spengler, such phenomena occur fatally in the cycle of any 'culture'. They are biologically conditioned. ...