One of the criticisms that have been made of my original Against the Modern World
is that I did not pay enough attention to Traditionalist thought. I
agree, and therefore a new book will come out in June 2023 focusing on ideas: Traditionalism: The Radical Project for Restoring Sacred Order. The book is a companion to Against the Modern World, not a replacement--it goes over different ground.
The publishers are Oxford University Press in the US (see cover without tree) at $29.95 (pre-order here) and Pelican in the UK (see cover with tree) at £22 or £9.99 on Kindle (pre-order here). Two very different covers, but the text is the same.
The chapters are:
INTRODUCTORY
1. Traditionalism and the Traditionalists
2. Historical perennialism
PART I: FOUNDATIONS
3. Traditionalist perennialism
4. Traditionalist history
5. The Traditionalist critique of modernity
6. Traditionalism, thought, and society
PART II: CORE PROJECTS
7. Self-realization
8. Religion
9. Politics
PART III: FURTHER PROJECTS
10. Art
11. Gender
12. Nature
13. Dialogue
PART IV: POST-TRADITIONALISM
14. The radical right
CONCLUDING
15. Conclusion
6 comments:
Publication date is June 2023, correct?
Yes, and will probably be met.
Just pre-ordered my copy, I am looking forward to it. I'm hoping it will be a sympathetic treatment of Traditionalism, not too hostile. I think Wouter Hanegraaff sets a great standard for how to write about these kinds of beliefs in an objective but sympathetic manner, I'm hoping for something along those lines.
In the future, it would be great to see an academic journal on Traditionalism, in which scholars, advocates, and critics could interact. Maybe for the future!
Actually, following some interaction with people on this blog, I have been inspired to concentrate over the remainder of this year on a journal article that has been on my back-burner for some time, which is presently titled, "Crisis of the modern world or crisis of civilization? Anarcho-primitivism and the Traditionalism of René Guénon". I think that Guenon's critique of modernity is absolutely ripe for development and modification as a critique of civilization in general. If it is published, I will post on this blog with details, as others may be interested. It will require considerable reworking of Guenon's ideas of what is a valid tradition, and what is a counter-tradition, as well as reframing his theory of historical unfoldment. As well as drawing on Guenon and other Traditionalists, I will definitely use Mark's book (once I receive it!) as a source for this.
That would certainly be interesting, though Guénon would have little sympathy for anarcho-primitivism. Indeed, he would no doubt take note of both its impracticality and its pseudo-religious features. After all, even Ted Kaczynski sees contemporary anarcho-primitivism as selecting evidence from hunter-gatherer societies to create a myth rather than rationally and impartially studying these societies. Instead, they idealize them and present as ‘a kind of politically correct Garden of Eden’, a ‘mushy utopian myth’. Kaczynski presented these parallels in detail: the anarcho-primitivist myth of an original state of innocence giving way to a ‘fall’ with the invention of agriculture and civilization is similar to the Christian myth of the Fall. The revolution and future utopia which the anarcho-primitivists hope for are akin to a Day of Judgment when Babylon falls, followed by the inauguration of the Kingdom of God when suffering comes to an end. In their willingness to struggle and even die for this earthly utopia, environmental activists are akin to the martyrs of early Christianity. If you do write the article, I hope that you will take these arguments into consideration.
Thanks for your comments. Obviously, I am aware that Guenon himself would not sympathize with anarcho-primitivism. As I said, it requires modification (in my view, improvements) to his theory. As for talk of "revolution", there may be some anarcho-primitivists who advocate such a view, but many of us are against any kind of political action (like Guenon) and regard modern civilization as the final terminal form of civilization in general, which will destroy itself, no help from us required. We are looking to what comes after the collapse of civilization, which we regard as inevitable and not requiring any action on our part. As to the "noble savage" issue, what anarcho-primitivists are saying is actually pretty obvious and straightforward. If you asked, is a lion better off in a zoo, or in the natural environment in which it evolved, nearly everyone will say it is better off in the natural environment. All anarcho-primitivists are saying is that humans are also better off in the natural state in which they evolved over 200,000 years. That is the state for which human nature is optimally suited. Why that should be considered a radical idea, I don't know. Finally, all hunter-gatherer societies have deep spiritual beliefs, so anarcho-primitivism cannot be genuine unless it also has spiritual grounding. That would, in fact, be a criticism I would make of Ted Kaczynski, whom you rely on, since he was essentially a secularist. It is the spiritual aspects of anarcho-primitivism that make Guenon so relevant to it. And yes, I have been working on the article and hope to have it ready by the end of the year.
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