Traditionalism and the Crisis of Modernity: A brief Introduction

[Hyperborean]

The traditionalist school of thought arose among the inter-war thinkers in the 20th century, based upon the esoteric aspect of Sophia Perennis. The most famous of the Traditionalist School writers were Rene Guenon, followed by the Italian Baron Evola. Frithjof Schuon, Ananda Coomaraswamy, and Seyyed Hossein Nasr are the lesser-known, but by no means less important in that field.

When referring to "Tradition" - that is, with a capital "T" - there is a special meaning which is outside of customs and folklore. "Tradition" here refers to a divine principle revealed from Heaven, which though obscured by time and the force of degeneration, binds followers of various religions to the same divine origin which is called God or Allah.

For Guénon and Evola, the end of this degeneration process is the modernity itself. Evola in particular refers to the Hindu principle of the Kali Yuga. Hindus believe that human civilization degenerates spiritually throughout the Kali Yuga, and Evola extends that same idea to explain the phenomena of the 20th century. Democracy, for example, in the 20th century, was an appeal to the lowest common denominator, instead of an appeal to wisdom.