Monday, November 29, 2010

Discreet Influences



Discreet influences
by Olavo de Carvalho
Jornal do Brasil, May 8, 2008

Translated by Alessandro Cota and Bruno Mori










Hat tip: LSA.


M.O.B. said...

I'll take barbarism (aka securarism) over a Christian theocracy any day of the week, thank you very much. BTW, I'd say that's also the EDL position.

goethechosemercy said...

Even the writings of pre-Christian Europe were rational.
If a Westerner can find no vitality of reason in the corpus of Western philosophical and other texts, he isn't looking for it.
Islam is not rational.
If anything, it is the ultimate excuse for acting irrationally, ruling irrationally, and refusing to change.
The people who think that Islam is the new life have refused to study very much of what is right in front of them.

Adam West said...

People don't understand how important it is that we attack the occultists after we push Leftism in the corner and remove Islamism from Europe.

I spend 5 years reading about occultism in my youth and these people are as irrational and fascist as any Leftism and Islamist.

I personally think that after economic and cultural Marxism, Europe will see it's biggest threat develop from a spiritual Marxism; which is actually occultism mixed with Marxist believes.

Anonymous said...

That is very interesting! Isn't Bob Godwin of the One Cʘsmos a big follower of Frithjof Schuon? I always found Godwin's posts to be a bit dense but I would never have guessed the Schuon/Islam connection from what Godwin writes.

Very interesting indeed!


Charles Martel said...

No one today is seriously suggesting a "Christian theocracy" and such a suggestion is a merely straw man argument meant to undercut the larger point being made by Guenon.

Europe was forged in the crucible of the Catholic Church. That is an undeniable historical fact. Without the Catholic Church, Europe is no more for its essence is lost.

Catholic (pre-Vatican II) sensibilities must inform the organization and structure of our civilization if it is to remain recognizably Western. Failure to grasp this essential truth is the proximate cause of our impending demise and collapse into the barbarism of relativism and nihilism.

The ultimate form and structure of governments is not so important as the prevalent Catholic influence. For without the ultimate Authority and structure that a Catholic belief system provides only chaos can reign.

So, Guenon was most certainly correct though his synthesis needless complicated. For, our choice actually boils down to Catholicism vs barbarism (for there can be no doubt, Islam is just a more organized form of barbarism.

goethechosemercy said...

In Christian culture, there is no body of law that is equal to the Sharia.
In every Christian country, the separation of church from state is recognized.

Cyrus said...

If someone could enlighten me...if islam was considered a (the preferable) viable alternative for the future of Europe, why not consider Orthodoxy? Obviously Shuon's prejudice was to islam, but does that necessarily preclude Orthodoxy as an option?

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure if Orthodoxism was as important as distrust of otherness in Romania. I mean, Vlad Tepes, for example, had no compulsion against committing genocide against Muslims, even if they weren't part of the Ottoman war effort. And I didn't find anywhere in the Bible the request to commit genocide.

What Vlad Tepes would do if he was the ruler of France or whatnot would be to round all the Muslims and impale them. That's Christian?

Anonymous said...


It's in the Old Testament, the Jews were supposedly ordered to wipe out lots of Canaanite tribes. But there was certainly none of that in the New Testament, so you can't call it Christian.

Christian rulers can make war on other countries under some circumstances, so I suppose the question is whether there are circumstances which are a "just war" from one side's point of view and "genocide" from the other's.

goethechosemercy said...

end quote.

Yes. But if you've read the OT, then you know that the Hebrews did not carry those genocidal orders out completely, did they?

Also, concerning Just War?
It's an Aristotlean principle adopted by the Church.

Anonymous said...

Polymath, Vlad Tepes rounded up Muslims from another country and impaled them. They weren't even on the territory he ruled. You must be insane to consider that just war. :)

Gagdad Bob said...

I am in no way a disciple of Schuon, much less Guenon, but I have profited deeply from Schuon's writings, including unpublished letters and documents that nowhere justify de Carvalho's paranoid claims.

Wisdom said...


If you found Mr. De Carvalho's essay interesting, you might also want to take a look at some other pieces by him at the Inter-American Institute for Philosophy, Government, and Social Thought website:


There, you can also find two of his lectures on political philosophy and religion:

Keep up the good work,