The Great Holy War of the Radical Subject

Incipit

The reflections contained in this and other of our previously published writings on the subject of the Radical Subject do not have a didactic priority of intellectual deepening, nor do they have a strictly educational function, which, although present, are not the aim of the writings themselves. It is for this reason that we deliberately do not dwell on the historical origin or etymology of certain concepts that are taken for granted or require further study by the reader, such as that of holy war or that of asceticism.  

It is also clear that the canon of drafting these reflections is predominantly anthropological as well as phenomenological with regard to the subjective evidence of the human experience lived by the radical subject. A canon linked to the globality of Anthropology as a humanistic science that expresses itself in its various intellectually consolidated forms: ethno-racial, philosophical, theological, cultural, mystical, phenomenological and which, compared to other humanistic disciplines, has remained more sheltered from Darwinian, Marxian and Freudian ideological perversion.

Precisely because of these characteristics, Anthropology in the multiplicity of its branches, turns out to be a neutral ground of understanding and a sure objective basis of knowledge about the Truth of the human being located in the cosmos, in time and in space. A neutral ground on which any philosophical, spiritual, religious or confessional vision belonging to the specificity of each individual radical subject can converge, without considering such weltanschauung as Hegelian superstructures of natural knowledge of an anthropological order, but rather as metaphysical and spiritual integration and completion in the order of Being and the Divine.

The present reflections, on the other hand, are realised primarily as articles written 'for the sake of the Cause', as meta-reflexive ideas with a dual evocative and exhortative purpose. To evoke the symbolic archetypes of the Tradition that are ever-present even in our postmodern DNA, to live them in a living experience of Dasein, of being-there in the world; to exhort and urge with metapolitical vehemence the struggle for the Great Awakening, for the construction of a new world order based on multipolar civilisation.

Speaking of meta-reflexive ideas arising from the intuitive contemplation of the symbols of Tradition, we are therefore speaking of androgynous ideas "beyond good and evil", i.e. above a purely ethical perception, as well as apophatic ideas, thus sometimes eluding the principle of non-contradiction on which they nonetheless rest inductively, since they are not irrational ideas but supra-rational ideas. This is why it will be useless for possible censors to look for any aporias or antinomies in such meta-reflexive ideas that are certainly present, because the mysterium vertically surpasses the horizontal logical extension of thought, as St Thomas Aquinas also said to his secretary Reginald, who urged him to write again after he had a vision of God that turned his life upside down and led him to the irrevocable decision to put down pen and inkpot forever: "Reginaldo I cannot, because all that I have written is like straw to me [...] it is like straw compared to what has been revealed to me". (William of Tocco, History of St Thomas, 47)

The Great Holy War

"I therefore affirm that the Knight of Christ with certainty gives death but with even greater certainty falls. By dying he wins for himself, by giving death he wins for Christ. For it is not without reason that he bears the sword: he is God's minister for the punishment of the wicked and the praise of the righteous. (Rom, 13:4; I Pet, 2:14). When he kills an evil-doer, he is rightly not considered a murderer, but, dare I say it, an 'evil-doer' and avenger on Christ's part against those who do evil, defender of the Christian people And when he is killed, it is known that he does not perish but fulfils his purpose. (St Bernard of Clairvaux, De Laude Novae Militiae, III Dei Cavalieri di Cristo) St. Bernard of Clairvaux, thus writes to the Knights of the Temple about the spirit that must animate their Crusade, the Little Holy War and, in this way, he goes on to enucleate a principle of universal truth that, beyond its purely confessional form, represents the way in which the Man of Tradition must face his struggle against external evil and that can be taken as a model by any radical Subject, regardless of his specific weltanschauung.

If this is the correct way of understanding the Little Holy War, then the Great Holy War, in its deepest substance is nothing other than the practical application of the Bernardian concept of "malicide" to one's interiority, necessary to kill one's ego and give birth to the Self; it is the incontrovertible condition for killing one's egoism and being transferred into the otherness of the Divine.

Among the innumerable forms of ascesis proper to universal spirituality, the proper form of warrior ascesis is precisely represented by the Way of the Sword which, in the Radical Subject, takes on the drama of an inner nihilism with apocalyptic overtones and an outer nihilism towards the final phase of the post-modern Kali Yuga, capable of overcoming the very definition of warrior in that of destroying angel, terrifying and cold murderer, at least in the resoluteness of its mode of action: "The hypostasis of the assassin who restores man's taste for life is a fundamental function of the Radical Subject. He is not a warrior - a concept, in his eyes, too plebeian - but an assassin without purpose, cold, depersonalised, in the pay of no-one. He is a destroying angel, a terrifying angel'. (Alexander Dugin, Ibid. p. 27)

The Way of the Sword is born from silence and becomes the Word of truth and of accusation against the Anti-Tradition present in the world and in ourselves: "While a profound silence enveloped all things, and night was in the midst of its swift course, your almighty word from heaven, from your royal throne, implacable warrior, hurled itself into the midst of that land of extermination, carrying, like a sharp sword, your irrevocable decree, and, stopping, filled everything with death; it touched heaven and had its feet on the earth. (Wis. 18:14-16)

This same Sword of the Word of truth then enters within ourselves to perform the opus magnum of the deification of the radical Subject. Accomplishing through the alternation of suffering and total inner cosmic upheaval to a regenerating and absolute mystical silence, the progressive destruction of personal egoism crystallised in the seven deadly vices: "For the word of God is living, efficacious, and sharper than any two-edged sword; it penetrates to the dividing point of soul and spirit, to the joints and marrow, and discerns the feelings and thoughts of the heart. There is no creature that can hide itself before God, but everything is naked and uncovered in the sight of him to whom we must give an account". (Heb. 4:12-13).

The destruction of one's ego, the struggle against the deadly vices are equivalent to the death of the soul awaiting the awakening, its resurrection, the full manifestation of the Self, as well as of the Divine in one's 'radical Self', a term with which Alexander Dugin prefers to define the radical Subject correctly in a metaphysical sense. In the HAGAKURE, the secret book of the ancient Samurai, the knights of the Rising Sun, it is stated: "I have discovered that the Way of the Samurai is death... The essence of Bushido is to prepare for death, morning and evening, every moment of the day. When a samurai is always ready to die, he masters the Way'. (Yamamoto Tsunetomo, HAGAKURE, Mondadori 2001, p. 24)

Phenomenology of ultra-warrior qualities in the Great Holy War 

Dugin's ultra-warrior metaphorical statement about the phenomenological identity of the radical Subject as a destroying angel, terrifying and cold murderer, brings to the writer's mind the rude teaching handed down to him in 1985 by the late Zen Master Fr Johannes Baptista Ishii, a Japanese, Tokyo-born, Catholic priest and Camaldolese hermit, who, in order to make him understand the reality of Zen's own technical neutrality, stated in a very determined way a stark truth that left him stunned for many days at the time: "Looked at purely from the point of view of technology, Zen is a neutral technique in itself, neutral, without moral or religious hooks of any kind. Don't be frightened if I tell you that in Japan Zen meditation is used by members of the Yakuza, the Japanese mafia, among others, to be impassive, cold and determined when they kill their enemies or victims'. (René Manusardi, Visiology. A socioclinical contribution to the neuroscience of meditation, p. 125, Primiceri Editore, 2018)

On the other hand, we are aware that the alternation between the total inner cosmic upheaval and the regenerating and absolute mystical silence, caused by the inner nihilism to which the radical Subject is subjected in the Great Holy War brought about first and foremost by the call of the Divine in conjunction with asceticism against the deadly vices and the practice of profound prayer or apophatic meditative practices, i.e. based on inner silence and mental emptiness, can bring about a series of inner qualities and actions capable of justifying the Duginian ultra-warrior vision.

With the constant practice of asceticism, deep prayer and/or apophatic meditative practices, singular inner qualities and actions are developed in the radical subject, which by ordinary means could only be attained after decades of personal maturation. These key qualities (also called primary phenomenological effects), can be encapsulated in two macro-areas or quadrants: the 'existential' and the 'action'.

Courage, determination, imperturbability, qualities necessary for the acquisition of inner well-being, self-mastery and a solid psychophysical foundation as well as social relationships. In the action quadrant, the primary effects are the rooting of a new personality endowed with profound intuition, intense empathy, acute penetration, sharp awareness, intrinsic qualities necessary for the infinite needs of total warfare.

The two quadrants are by no means separate and develop inner qualities and qualities of action in a reticular and interdependent manner. Thus, the growth of one specific quality also favours the development of the others in a gradual and almost simultaneous manner as the commitment to asceticism and meditative techniques becomes habitual and daily. Let us now take a brief look at the qualities that develop first in the existential quadrant and then in the action quadrant.

Qualities for psychophysical well-being and self-mastery:

Inner calm
Anthropological and phenomenological aspects: inner calm or stillness is the first palpable effect of ascetic and meditative practice, which is achieved through an energetic rebalancing and a progressive serene dominance of the soul/consciousness over mind and body. The human being rediscovers his or her anthropological centre of gravity and gradually opens up to interpersonal and social relationships, amplifying the capacity for mediation and the ability to build bonds of collaboration and dialogue. Primary neurophysiological effect: endorphin and serotonin discharge.

Courage
Anthropological and phenomenological aspects: the practice of asceticism and meditation generates courage. Observing one's mental chaos in a detached manner gradually leads to a profound knowledge of oneself and the mechanisms of psychophysical government. Emotionality subsides, the ghosts of the mind are localised and then gradually expelled. From this constant inner work emerges the courage to fight against one's own unruly tendencies, courage that then emanates outside the person and involves their social and interpersonal relationships. The sense of fear towards others and the uncertainties of life increasingly fades away. A social relationship content based on sincerity, humble pride, a sense of personal dignity, respect for others and their rights is affirmed. Primary neurophysiological effect: adrenalin rush with positive response to the primary fight/flight stimulus.

Determination
Anthropological and phenomenological aspects: asceticism and meditative techniques develop the quality of strong determination. The inner work on oneself and the desire to improve by coming out of one's own traumas and deficits, trigger in a high way will, constancy, tenacity, stubbornness, which form the anthropological and phenomenological content of determination understood as resilience and capacity for personal, community and social renewal. Primary neurophysiological effect: perfect balance of the sympathetic and parasympathetic subsystems of the autonomic nervous system.

Imperturbability
Anthropological and phenomenological aspects: an interesting ascetic-meditative approach, in many respects - from Greek-classical Stoicism to the most recent oriental literature on the Samurai - is the acquisition of imperturbability also called impassibility. The practice of meditation, which from a phenomenological point of view creates peace-seeking, peace-dedicated and peace-building people, cannot be divorced from the boldness pushed beyond all limits, which is necessary, as for example in the case of Gandhi, to operate a non-violent and effective struggle. In fact, from an anthropological point of view, the acquisition of imperturbability generates superhuman endurance of pain, indifference to one's fate, total detachment from one's ego, apatheia or coldness with respect to the sensory, emotional and sentimental component that is reduced by its perceptive and passionate excesses. Primary neurophysiological effect: neuromuscular anaesthesia caused by raising the threshold of pain resistance and controlled decrease in the state of psychomotor arousal.
Qualities for success in action:

Intuition
Anthropological and phenomenological aspects: intuition is the primary quality by which consciousness manifests itself through the instantaneous perception of as yet unmanifested realities, by means of illumination and inner vision, and this process is enhanced through meditative practice. The most perceptible phenomenological relief of intuition is the capacity for non-judgmental understanding of all that is ad extra and the appreciation, respect, and integration of social diversity in the epistemological vision of an articulated social body. Primary neurosocial effect: acute perception of truths, events and facts not yet manifest.

Empathy
Anthropological and phenomenological aspects: strongly intensified by meditative practice, empathy is anthropologically knowledge of others as a consequence of self-knowledge and thus charged with understanding, tolerance, generosity, free love, compassion. From a phenomenological point of view, the greatest instance of empathy is that of being considered a social virtue, capable of creating deep and lasting bonds in society, in intermediate bodies and in family and interpersonal relationships. Primary neurosocial effect: progressively integral knowledge of the personality of others.

Penetration
Anthropological and phenomenological aspects: the quality of penetration (paññã in the Theravada Buddhist diction of the Pali language), developed with the meditative techniques, from an anthropological point of view can be defined as the complete unification of intuition and empathy projected towards the analysis ad extra. Phenomenologically, it represents a quality capable of generating substantial acts of observation, which enable us to grasp personal, environmental and social situations and realities through deep screening. Primary neurosocial effect: deep and comprehensive view of things.

Awareness
Anthropological and phenomenological aspects: the quality of meditative awareness is nothing other than the anthropological practice of the hic et nunc, of the here and now, capable of connecting by means of a golden thread the common experimental and meta-historical philosophical culture, which starting from classical Greek metaphysics arrives in the Hindu and Buddhist Arya tradition of the origins. The phenomenological implications of mindfulness focus on the fact that the habitual detachment from oneself and the total immersion in the present reality, make people projected out of the axis of their 'I' in order to fully experience the new dimension of 'us', of the 'other', of the 'community', going on to fully perfect that 'compassion', that choice of altruism already built up by the quality of empathy. Primary neurosocial effect: vacuum state i.e. state of mental emptiness.

Let us conclude these reflections, bearing in mind that the ultra-warrior qualities that the radical Subject is acquiring during the purification of the Great Holy War do not represent the birth of the New Man, as conceived by the three political theories of the 20th century, namely liberalism, communism and fascism. But, as the fourth political theory of multipolarism teaches us, they do tell us of the eternal return of the ancestral Man, the image of the Divine, the Man of Tradition, the Guardian of the Divine Order and the sacred fire of Tradition, the Man who never changes, who as a radical Subject knows how to reposition himself to overcome historical epochs unscathed, finding refuge in the depths of the primordial Chaos to finally reach the heights of the Kosmos, as our Alexander Dugin teaches us with this wonderful reflection: "Things change, everything changes, but not the Radical Subject, which remains the same, passing through the three paradigms (Tradition, modernity and postmodernity) like a shadow. It does not lose itself in these spaces, nor does it change its nature. It remains in all respects always itself, passing through the three phases. He changes position, moving from the centre to the periphery, but remains exactly the same, always behaving as if he were in the space of Tradition. He is a beggar king, hiding his royal origin under the miserable rags of a servant'. (Alexander Dugin, Ibid. p. 26)

Translation by Lorenzo Maria Pacini

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