In the comprehensive “Men and Ruins” Evola develops a series of ideas of René Guénon regarding the tools of secret warfare.
1. Τhe dissemination of various materialist and positivist prejudices about “historical causality” causes “selective blindness” even among intelligent scholars regarding the occult dimension of History.
2. Ιn order to prevent those who reject materialism from finding the truth, false spiritual or idealistic conceptions of History are disseminated (such as those of Hegel and Bergson, for example).
3. When the effects of the overthrow begin to appear on the material plane and provoke a reaction in the name of ideals derived from the traditional past, the agents of the overthrow spread false or distorted versions of these ideas of traditional origin, so that “the reaction against the overthrow is limited, diverted or even directed in the opposite direction”.
4. Since “the basis of the order to be destroyed is found in the supernatural element – that is, in the spirit – conceived not as a philosophical abstraction or as an element of faith, but as a higher reality, as a point of reference for the embodiment of everything human”. Therefore, all genuine spiritual desires are deceitfully guided by the forces of dissolution so that they are channeled into inverted forms of spirituality directed towards the goals of the Counter-Tradition.
5. In order to weaken, derail and destroy any real opposition that might be maintained and persisted, the enemy encourages his organs to attack incessantly against those who share the same traditional principles and at the same time hypocritically adopt the principles of the fighters of tradition, falsifying the messages and directions of guidance. An example of the first tactic is the promotion of anti-thetical, intra-party or factional conflict between the various circles of the national traditionalist resistance: “Thus, they try in every possible way to lead any superior idea to yield to the tyranny of individual interests or to tendencies of seduction, pride and power.”
An example of the second tactic is the encouragement of the national or traditionalist opposition to readily and without study embrace the principles of the enemy in order to gain momentary rhetorical or political advantages. A useful and accurate contemporary example is the tendency of European Nationalists to appeal to various forms of moral universality, ultimately undermining all Nationalism, simply to gain cheap opportunistic points (of influence or electoral percentages) against the regime forces. Evola emphasizes that “unconditional faith in an idea is the only possible protection against occult war,” in contrast to arrogant egoism, which leads to internal factional strife, or to political pragmatism, which often leads one to ultimately adopt the enemy’s idea.
6. If the forces of subversion are in danger of being exposed and punished, then they will divert public anger against various “scapegoats.” Evola does note that “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” may represent an attempt to make Freemasons and Jews scapegoats for a much deeper conspiracy. He may not have had such thoughts today, since in 1953, when “Men and Ruins” was first published, the largely Zionist nature of the dominant powers was not as apparent as it is today.
7. When the upheaval develops sufficiently to provoke a reaction, this reaction can be diverted from the lofty pursuit of a new healthy society based on eternal truths, to a return simply to an older form of society, in which the disease is simply not so advanced. Thus it is possible to face reality with a mild and soothing approach of the type “every year is better” and to manifest anxiolytic adaptive nostalgia for past decades such as that of the 1950s, the 1980s or the 20th century or the National Revolution. Of course, if, for example, we could return to the 1950s, our descendants would face the same problems seventy-four years later.
8. All principles or institutions can be undermined if people confuse them with their representatives. All representatives are inevitably imperfect as human and not divine beings, but when these imperfections come to light, then the factors and agents of subversion argue that it is the imperfect institution or its fundamental principle that must be replaced and not its faulty or incompetent representatives.
9. Evola claims that one of the dominant tools of subversion is,
the infiltration of traditional organizations and the replacement of their leadership in order to completely destroy any such organization or to further advance the boundaries of the influences and ideas of social subversion.
In this regard, Evola argues that Freemasonry was originally a vehicle of the genuine Tradition but was infiltrated and taken over by brigands of the Counter-Tradition.
However, all these techniques, tactics and methods of the forces of decadence fall into two fundamental groups:
The in every way assisted dissemination of septic ideas (i.e. the promoted metapolitics of multilateral and complete ethnodestruction) and
The penetration of collectivities and individuals, agents of decadence, into the structures of national institutions with the aim of undermining and destroying them.
Since the prevailing current of decline is to some extent created, maintained, and guided by occult warfare, is it possible to use the same means to reverse the decline? Yes and no.
Traditionalists do not believe that it is possible to replace decline with “progress,” that is, progress toward the realization of the ideals of the Golden Age, since they believe that decline is the prevailing current of these times. One may decline, falling from an existing Golden Age, but no one advances toward it. However, at the end of the Dark Age a new Golden Age will rise again, so although one cannot advance toward a Golden Age, one can certainly decline while moving toward it. It can slide into it. So, from this perspective, the further development of decline can actually be seen as a kind of true progress and holy development, because things cannot improve until the decline has progressed.
But this is not an argument for complacency and inertia, it is not a reason to simply wait for an impersonal historical fate to act for us. For, as we have already said, historical fate is not impersonal. It operates through specific individuals and groups who have a “place to stand” and a lever to move the human world.
In “The Crisis of the Modern World” René Guenon writes “…the characteristic features of this era are in fact those which all traditional doctrines about the cyclical period to which this era corresponds (i.e. about the dark age or “Kali Yuga”) have always indicated… that from a certain point of view it is disorder and anomaly, it is nevertheless a necessary element of a larger order, as well as an inevitable consequence of the laws that govern the development of all manifestation. However, let us say it at once, this is not a reason to passively acquiesce in the disorder and dark obscurity which momentarily seem to triumph, for if that were the case we would have nothing better to do than to remain silent. On the contrary, it is a reason to try our utmost to prepare the way out of this dark age, because there are many signs that its end is already near if not imminent.”
Guénon does not simply claim that we must resist the Dark Age but also that resistance already exists. And for this claim, he offers a metaphysical argument: “This resistance is also part of the determined order of things, for equilibrium is the result of the simultaneous action of two opposing tendencies. If one or the other could cease to act completely, the balance would never be restored and the world itself would disappear. But this hypothesis is not possible, because the two terms of an opposition have no meaning separated from each other, while, however it may seem, one can be sure that all partial and temporary imbalances ultimately contribute to the realization of an overall balance.
Guenon’s view is that all realities are composed of opposing forces in balance. Today the currents of the Dark Age dominate. But this does not mean that their opposites, the resistance currents of the Golden Age, are completely absent, for if they were absent the world would collapse into absolute chaos, instead of the inverted evil order that exists today. Therefore, a countercurrent, an offshoot of the Golden Age, exists and exerts its countervailing influence on the Dark Age, but in a hidden and residual way.
Moreover, as with the forces of decadence, the forces of subversion and subversion, this current of resistance of the Golden Age does not exist simply as a disembodied tendency. It is the work of specific individuals and groups, which we must consistently support.
