Alba Rosa Read online

  These symptoms, however, only represent the visible signs of a profound societal metamorphosis: the invisible transformations are much more worrisome. The rhetorical facade of ‘environmental awareness’ and ‘greening’ hides the abhorrent realities of an accelerating climate catastrophe and an intensifying ‘bio-industry’. Nobody dares to mention it, but even the natural seasons that the author still remembers from his childhood have been abolished: Dutch winter landscapes are now only found in museums and Dutch ice skates are now only useful in indoor facilities. Nobody dares to mention it, because the newest automobile fashion and the next flying holiday take a higher priority. Similarly, nobody wants to know the real price that must be paid for the prosperity cult of meat consumption: the indescribable horror of industrialized animal torture and, increasingly, of ‘ritual slaughter’. The hidden desecration of nature is mirrored in the simultaneous desecration of culture. The serene façade of social liberty covers the brutal reality of totalitarian matriarchy with its myriad ‘alternative family groups’ and ‘lifestyle options’ (‘Living Apart Together’, ‘Living Together Apart’, ‘single-parent families’, ‘same-sex marriages’ etc.). This is the real ground zero of social implosion. The physically and psychologically damaged youngsters that finally climb out of the multi-layered hell of this ‘new freedom’ cannot be anything else but the schrecklichen Kinder der Neuzeit, the ‘terrible children of the New Age’, providing the negative energy that propels the downward spiral of social implosion.

  And what is happening in the Netherlands, seen and unseen, is happening on a large scale in the entire West. And there is something even more sinister underway: over, under and beside the converging emergencies of Cultural Nihilism there is a deadly and hushed-up emergency more urgent than all others: ethnic replacement. Masses of immigrants, the ‘adopted children’ of the baby boomer hostile elite are preparing to take over the inheritance of the self-annihilating West. The young people of the West, after having been disfigured, abused and rejected, are now supposed to silently suffer exclusion in their own countries, from their own cultures and their own identities. Every attempt at redressing this unjust verdict is met with outright repression in politics, in the law courts and in the media arena. Thus, most of the young Westerners, fearing to lose their quiet little corner in the first circle of the hell of Cultural Nihilism, bear this undeserved fate in silence. Most of all, the author is writing for them — to let them know that what has been their indigestible past and their unacceptable present does not have to be their future. To let them know that an unexpected harvest of a profoundly different future can still arise from what was sown, long ago, deep in the ancient soil of the Lands of the West. That this harvest of courage, loyalty and honour can be found within them — as it was in Die Weisse Rose.

  Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

  —John 12:24

  ***

  Acknowledgements

  The author wishes to express his gratitude to Studiegenootschap Erkenbrand: to his colleagues and comrades he extends a warm welcome to the first printed reflection of the long-lost words that they first found the courage to speak again — pedo mellon a minno. He also wishes to thank Arktos’ Editor-in-Chief John Bruce Leonard for his patient support — and for reviving the long-lost art of conversation: rara temporum felicitas, ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet.

  Preliminaries

  Background

  The English-language, international edition of Alba Rosa provides a Traditionalist perspective on the Cultural Nihilist Crisis of the Modern West, illustrating its symptoms by an investigation of the ‘test case’ of the author’s own nation, the Netherlands. It should be emphasized that Alba Rosa does not provide a treatise on Traditionalism itself. Although the essays collected in Alba Rosa do contain some remarks about Traditionalism in general (cf. Chapter 6, ‘The Regression of the Castes’) and some elaborations on specific Traditionalist themes, the author does not intend to analyse Traditionalism as a philosophical and historical phenomenon — let alone ‘prove’ it. If ‘proof’ for Traditionalism is possible at all, it is sufficiently provided in the classic literature of the Traditionalist School; the Bibliography provides an elementary reading list for interested readers. The specific position that the author takes regarding Traditionalist thought and Traditionalist methodology is sufficiently explained in his recent book The Sunset of Tradition and the Origin of the Great War. In this regard it is important to state that if Alba Rosa occasionally refers to Sunset, the reader is in no way assumed to be familiar with the content of Sunset; Alba Rosa is an entirely self-sufficient ‘stand-alone’ publication. The functionality of Sunset was primarily historiographical, whereas the functionality of Alba Rosa is primarily metapolitical. The common element of Sunset and Alba Rosa is their shared basis in Traditionalist thought. Thus, both works offer a similar and new — because non-historical-materialist — perspective, but on two entirely different subjects. On several occasions following the publication of Sunset, the author was asked to project the cultural-historical analyses of Sunset forward to the present day — a truly formidable undertaking. But the lamentable paucity of contemporary Traditionalist resources to deal with contemporary realities — particularly acute in Dutch-language countries — convinced the author to make an attempt: Alba Rosa is the result.

  The readers of the international edition of Alba Rosa are asked to bear with the author as he illustrates the predicament of the Western peoples with various examples from the contemporary Dutch situation: they will find that there are many useful lessons to be learnt from the ‘test case’ of Dutch Postmodernity. In many ways, the Dutch nation constitutes one of the early pioneers — one of the ‘guide nations’ — of Western Modernity, alongside Great Britain and America: the course it navigates through Postmodernity may well indicate the future course of the more ‘conservative’ nations of the West. In this sense, other nations may profit from paying attention to the fate of the small Dutch nation; they may profit by the (largely negative) example of the Dutch people’s present plight. At various points, Alba Rosa touches upon the role of other Western nations at the present stage of the Crisis of the Modern West — Germany in Chapter 1, Britain in Chapter 7, America in Chapter 8 — but the author does not presume to prescribe remedies for their specific national problems. Rather, he wishes to point out the heritage that they hold in common, the plight that they share and the possibility of finding common remedies. Cultural Nihilism poses a mortal danger to all Western nations — a danger well illustrated by monstrous ‘super-state’ projects such as the ‘United Nations’ and the ‘European Union’. The survival of the Western peoples depends on a double exit strategy from Cultural Nihilism: a fundamental reassertion of national identity and a pragmatic alliance against globalist subversion. Such an alliance requires a fundamental shift in the metapolitical and geopolitical discourse of the West; Alba Rosa aims at contributing to this shift. From a Traditionalist perspective, Neo-Eurasianism currently provides the best chance of achieving this shift; the first chapter of Alba Rosa is therefore dedicated to a Traditionalist assessment of Neo-Eurasianism.

  The background to Alba Rosa requires yet another remark, namely with regard to what may be termed its ‘religious perspective’. Traditionalist thought is organically — one might even say symbiotically — related to religion, not only in general terms but also in specific terms. Every authentic Traditionalist thinker and scholar is associated with a specific ‘religious’ Tradition, without considering that specific Tradition to be universally superior. To the extent that it is authentically followed and experienced, each specific religious Tradition is intrinsically and undeniably superior to all others for individuals and groups within that Tradition itself. The Traditional School recognizes a universal Sophia Perennis, a shared Eternal Truth,
in all authentic Traditions, but it simultaneously recognizes the inevitable differences in the expression of that One Truth in different times and different places. Thus, a Traditionalist study of a specific cultural-historical study object, inevitably embedded in a certain time and place, always requires a contextual approach — an approach that respects and maintains the integrity of the Tradition that shaped it. The study object of Alba Rosa is the fate of the Western peoples during the Crisis of the Modern World — as illustrated by the Postmodern reality that is lived by the Dutch people. The Tradition that shaped the Western peoples is the Christian Tradition: in the case of the Dutch people, this is the specialized Tradition of Radical Protestantism — a particular Tradition it shares with the other ‘guide nations’ of Modernity: Great Britain and America. The author himself does not belong within the religious sphere of this Tradition, but he does belong within its cultural-historical sphere and he has directly experienced its religious sphere around himself throughout much of his life. Thus, the author is bound to observe the contemporary predicament of the Western peoples not only in the ‘rear-view mirror’ of Traditionalism but also through the lens of the Dutch Christian Tradition.

  Tesi samanunga was edele unde scona

  et omnium virtutum pleniter plena.

  — Munsterbilzen Evangelarium

  Organization

  Each of the ‘Ten Traditionalist Essays’ announced in the subtitle of Alba Rosa has a different theme, but these are all connected to each other. This section serves to explain this connection and the resulting organization of Alba Rosa. It also explains the relevance of the extra materials (the appendices and the study material).

  The first chapter, ‘The Harrowing of Hell’, provides a Traditionalist evaluation of the Crisis of the Modern West at its present stage. It describes the present predicament of the Western peoples in terms of their recent psycho-historical development and puts it in the Traditionalist geopolitical perspective offered by (Neo-)Eurasianism. By elaborating on basic Traditionalist concepts, Chapter 1 also serves as a general ‘introduction’.

  The following chapter triad, Chapters 2 through 4, serves to illustrate specific aspects of the Crisis of the Modern West by analysing Dutch Postmodernity: these analyses are consistently contextualized to point out the relevance of the ‘Dutch test case’ for the Modern West as a whole. Chapter 2, ‘The Crisis of the Modern West’, offers a Traditionalist cultural-historical ‘diagnosis’ of Cultural Nihilist Postmodernity centred on Julius Evola’s principle of the ‘regression of the castes’. Chapter 3, ‘The Dangers of Democracy’, offers a specific political analysis and couches this analysis in terms of Nicolás Gómez Dávila critique of modern ‘democracy’. Chapter 4, ‘The Sword of Knowledge’, investigates the historical origin of the Crisis of the Modern Netherlands on the basis of Julius Evola’s principle of the ‘treason of the clergy’.

  The second chapter triad, Chapters 5 through 7, is aimed at a cultural-historical ‘prognosis’ for the further stages of the Crisis of the Modern West. Chapter 5, ‘The Hamartiology of Modernity’, clarifies the meta-historical and metaphysical meaning of the Crisis of the Modern West by couching it in the old Christian vocabulary of the Traditional West. Chapter 6, ‘The Living Dead’, delves deeper into the core dynamics of the Crisis of the Modern West by analysing the phenomenon of ‘social implosion’ in terms of Sunset’s ‘Archaeo-Futurist’ double model of ‘Vampirism-Narcissism’. Chapter 7, ‘Shutdown’, sketches the ‘menu’ of psycho-historical options open to the Western peoples as they approach the event horizon of Postmodernity, focussing in on the Traditionalist theme of the mors triumphalis.

  The final chapter triad, Chapters 8 through 10, investigates the premises of a possible ‘Archaeo-Futurist’ rebirth of the Western peoples. In Traditionalist terminology, the synthetic fusion of archaic archetypes and futurist visions required for such rebirth would constitute a true ‘Golden Dawn’. Chapter 8, ‘The Archaeo-Futurist Revolution’, sketches the philosophical foundations of the new patriotic-identitarian movement and its immunity to Cultural Nihilism by reviewing the key theses of Jason Jorjani’s Prometheus and Atlas. Chapter 9, ‘Twelve Rules for the Archaeo-Futurist Revolution’, provides a Traditionalist recipe for the direction and control of a future patriotic-identitarian revolution, aimed at the re-institution and re-creation of Western civilization. Chapter 10, ‘The White Rose’, concludes Alba Rosa by providing an ‘updated’ version of the manifest of Die Weisse Rose; its subtitles are taken from relevant documents from the Dutch Heroic Age, but its contents are entirely relevant to all of the Western peoples.

  Finally, Alba Rosa provides some extra materials. These materials are primarily meant for young people who wish to further investigate the various themes of Alba Rosa: they offer references and directions. Appendix A, ‘Human Rights’, elaborates on the Traditionalist critique of Modernist ‘humanism’ through a running commentary on the ‘Universal Declaration of Human Rights’; this has been added to the English-language edition to compensate for the omission of an excerpt from Sunset that is included in the Dutch-language edition. Appendix B, ‘Stultitiae Laus’, provides Nietzsche’s Classical Modern critique of the rationalist-scientist-nihilist worldview that ultimately became dominant in Postmodern Cultural Nihilism. The ‘Study Material’ provides basic study advice and some elementary bibliography to allow young people easy access to the materials relevant to the themes of Alba Rosa.

  Irrespective of the organization outlined above, each of the ten chapters of Alba Rosa represents a self-contained essay, leaving the reader free to read them in the order that he prefers.

  (*) Bible citations are from the King James Version, Quran citations are from the Pickthall translation. The Holy Letters, all but first and second: these are the words, six and four, that should be read in the tongue of the SA.GAZ.

  (**) Despite its commitment to an accurate depiction of facts and a full attribution of intellectual rights, Alba Rosa is not a scientific treatise: reference notes have therefore been avoided. Instead, intellectual rights have been acknowledged by short bracketed references within the text itself. A few explanatory notes have been added to Chapters 2 and 4, but these only serve to elucidate specifically Dutch themes.

  (***) The Glossary included in the ‘Study Material’ lists and translates all foreign phrases used throughout Alba Rosa (always indicated in italics).

  Disclaimer

  As a Traditionalist critique of Postmodern Cultural Nihilism, Alba Rosa covers a number of subjects that are presently subject to politically-correct taboo in Western Europe and the overseas Anglosphere. The key themes of feminization, matriarchy, multiculturalism and ethnic replacement are effectively removed from public debate because any fundamental criticism of these processes constitutes a direct threat to the Cultural Nihilist ideology of anti-Tradition and anti-identity. The hostile elite of the West has invested too deeply in its theory, and gone too far in its practice, to ever turn back. The hostile elite is playing va banque; it is, therefore, logical that the power of Western governments and media outlets is increasingly taking on totalitarian forms. The politically correct consensus imposed by the mainstream media — recently strengthened by various ‘media laws’ — is increasingly characterized by extremely selective news-gathering, slavish self-censorship and hysterical witch hunts. For the sake of their position and reputation, average academics, serious journalists and concerned citizens silently accept this development. Thus, fundamental critique is pushed to the margins of society: it is — still — the exclusive domain of ‘political extremists’ and the ‘lunatic fringe’. Non-Cultural Nihilist thought, which necessarily includes the standard repertoire of Western philosophy, anthropology and cultural science, is quietly ignored and hushed up in the academia and media. Traditionalist thought was already removed from academic curricula and public discourse in the ’60s, during the rise of Cultural Marxism — currently, the grand-inquisitors of the politically co
rrect establishment have effectively declared it anathema. The same fate is now slowly being meted out to all other forms of thought originating with ‘dead white men’: the hostile elite has thus effectively pronounced a death sentence on Western civilization. Thus, every metapolitical statement based on Traditionalist thought now relates to the politically correct consensus of the Modern West as a glowing coal relates to a gunpowder keg. With Alba Rosa, it cannot be otherwise.

  The genocidal totalitarian regimes of the 20th Centuries justified their inhuman repression by referring to their self-appointed historical missions and their supposedly democratic mandates. As the self-elected guardian of a supposedly ‘optimal socio-political order’, every totalitarian regime considers itself justified not only in using its institutional power for the political and judicial persecution of its opponents but also in enforcing its official ideology by means of indoctrination and manipulation. These practices take on the most perfected — most effective, most direct — form in the politically correct totalitarian consensus of Postmodern Cultural Nihilism. On the one hand, it rests on the motivating power (the ‘carrot’) of the political guidance systems of Public Relations (Edward Bernays, 1952) and Manufactured Consent (Herman & Chomsky, 1988). On the other hand, it rests on the correcting power (the ‘stick’) of the politically guided mechanisms of social stigmatization and institutionalized psychiatry. In its ideal form, the resulting totalitarian consensus constitutes a self-regulating mechanism that perpetuates itself by permanently well calibrated and highly deceptive fluctuations between formal (but repressive) tolerance and informal (but blanket) intolerance towards all forms of non-conformism.