Recently we published an interview with Alain de Benoist (The End of the planet We Know), No. 19-20, 5-12.05.2024. 1 of the most intriguing contemporary French political thinkers in it presents its current position in matters which are consistently key to it – civilization, culture, worldview and ideas.
The French is not afraid of modifying and reviewing any of his earlier claims, although the core of his imagination of the planet remains unchanged. De Benoist is 1 of the pillars of intellectual life outside the mainstream not only in France, but throughout Europe. During respective decades of his work he has published dozens of books, thousands of comments and articles. Yet in Poland his achievements remained almost unnoticed for a long time.
Not until 1990. His character began to bring people like Andrzej Wylotek (according to his writing “Alive”) and Jarosław Tomasiewicz. Recently, the situation began to change slowly. In 2022, a book by the French Against Liberalism was published. Society is not a marketplace in translation Krzysztof Tyszko-Drozdowski (Issuing of the Zamoyski Institute, Warsaw 2022). late a comprehensive technological monograph by Paweł Bielawski "Apostasy of Europe. The Place and function of religion in the Thoughts of Alain de Benoist and French fresh Right” (Advertising Agency Arte, Biała Podlaska 2024), whose reviewer is Adam Wielomski.
Bielawski's work is mainly based on the origin materials of texts and interviews of the creator of the European fresh Right and his closest colleagues. There is no another possibility; the literature of the subject, besides foreign, is rather poor. Anglo-Saxon publications are besides marked by a spirit of political correctness preventing a reliable analysis of the ideas under discussion. Although the book focuses on the issues of close to the polytology of religion and is the consequence of investigation on a single part of de Benoist, the following chapters read about the broader background of the phenomenon, its social and political contexts. To the achievements of Polish authors on fresh Right thought Paweł Bielawski is alternatively critical, peculiarly powerfully contradicting Tomasiewicz (pp. 120-121).
The European fresh Right should be considered in terms different from those applied to political movements. "Nouvelle Droite is simply a school of thought, intellectual current or metapolitical movement" (p. 26) – we read. The author notes the youthful attempts to engage a political French intellectual, presenting on the margins the conclusions he has drawn from years of activism.
So we have a phenomenon of a purely intellectual nature, a kind of school of thought, which may be a origin of inspiration for those practicing current political activity, but does not have to, due to the fact that it exists autonomously, regardless of current shuffling. It would be hard to treat the ENP's achievements as a permanent political credo. De Benoist and his companions present syncretism, eclecticism, in many cases. This is mostly the effect of their attachment to pluralism fleeing all values. Author cites noted by Pierre-André Taguief interior contradictions of ENP's thoughts: "between explicit hierarchism and implicitious egalitarianism (in the form of hyperplurism" (p. 65). Looking for sources of thought Alain de Benoist, Bielawski states that traditions prior to Christian Europe, especially in the sense of a French spiritual student and philologist, can be considered superior among them. Georges Dumézil, referred to by him as “the pagan conservatism”, and the thought of the German conservative revolution of the interwar period. At the same time, ideas at first glance from the classical right, specified as feminism (recognizing sex variation as value), tiermondism (apology of doctrines born during the Cold War in the 3rd World) or ecocentrism (in the spirit of deep ecology).
There are, however, 2 elements in common that inspire de Benoist. This is an opposition to all universalism (leading from monotheistic religions) and criticism of liberalism in various aspects of it; “of all modern varieties of egalitarianism, liberalism is considered by Nouvelle Droite to be the most dangerous of them, as it contributes most effectively to social disintegration and the thinning of collective identities” (p. 99). Contrary to the claims of any researchers and mainstream publicists, it turns out, however, that "The deficiency of totalitarian and imperialist drive, the deficiency of militaristic aesthetics, opposition to social uniformization, the attitude more reflective than revolutionary, the deficiency of authoritarianism, the deficiency of populist demagoguery, the deficiency of anti-Semitism, the support for democracy, the support for decentralization, regional autonomy and the rule of subsidiarity prompt the designation that Nouvelle Droite is much closer to conservatism than fascism" (p. 127).
The definition of liberalism as the main antagonist makes the ENP most likely to be among the different streams of modern communistism; "What is common to A. de Benoist and communists is anti-modernism, anti-individualism, anti-contractualism, emphasising the importance of the common good and postulating a society based on shared values" (p. 233)," Bielawski notes. In addition, the French thinker draws attention, as the representatives of communism do, to the apparent contradiction of liberalism and democracy. He himself recognizes himself as a supporter of democracy, while based on different from contemporary versions of its basis. "A. de Benoist states that liberal democracies were based on the rule of freedom and folk democracies on equality. His proposed organic democracy would be based on the rule of brotherhood" (pp. 236-237) – we read.
An crucial category, noted by the author of monographs, in reflection de Benoist is Europe. It is understood as a certain continental community, an ununiform, diverse culture. The European fresh Right-wing concept of a 100 flags is simply a imagination of the Old Continent, consisting of its distinct regions, while the existence of a non-imperialist Empire in the form of an umbrella acting on the principles of subsidiarity. Of course, the French thinker in many places emphasizes that the European Union presently in existence has small in common with specified Europeanism. "Nouvelle Droite critically refers to the word 'West' because, in their view, it is mistakenly regarded as the synonym of Europe (it is in fact a symptom of European alienation). The word “Americanosphere” (p. 112) would be a close term, writes Bielawski.
The extremist rejection of the United States' hegemony at the ENP is, as Bielawski states, related to the 3 sources of reflection de Benoist: the rejection of Christian universalism, to which the circumstantial Puritan variant was appealed by the creators of American society; the counter-revolutionary and anti-enlightenment thought and the typical approach of French culture to culture from across the Atlantic.
However, the issue of the impact of spiritual systems on social and political life is the title of this work. As we mentioned, de Benoist and his co-workers were affirmative about pre-Christian themes, emphasizing their skepticism toward Christianity. They accused Christian religion and doctrine primarily of paving the way for secular progressive and liberal-individualist ideologies. In turn the second were to lead to specified a uniformity, totalitarian of the spirit of rejecting cultural diversity. any have accused the ENP of a kind of “neopogianism”, which might propose the title of 1 of the most crucial de Benoist books Comment peut-on etre paien? (How to Be a Gentile?), published in 1981. However, this intellectual movement did not call for the revival of early forms of European religion, noting only certain worldly, philosophical and axiological features typical of the pre-Christian period. According to Paweł Bielawski, Alain de Benoist himself treated Indo-European beliefs initially through the humanist prism Friedrich Nietzscheto then adopt optics Martin Heidegger and Mircea Elias. The “sense of paganism” present is not to trust on the perverse and thoughtless denial of Christianity, but on the “recovery of intellectual equipment that was linked to the first European religiousism. And only this can be the real basis for a affirmative re-establishment of the erstwhile spiritual heritage of Europe" (p. 139) – the author of this monograph is characterized by this attitude.
Religions before Christian Europe were to be more afraid than eschatological issues in shaping circumstantial attitudes, reproducing in the cultural communities of the time, the Weltanschauung. In the opinion of the ENP representatives, the adoption of specified a position will consequence in a humanisation of relations with the environment; "The enemy is not identified with evil itself, for he is always a comparative adversary. There is besides nothing to prevent enemies from having common respect. The enemy is simply individual who is on the other side of the barricade. Therefore, there is no request to humiliate him, deprive him of dignity, dehumanize him, or even force him to convert" (pp. 143-144). This attitude, according to de Benoist, is the other of the message of universalist and monotheistic religions. The breakthrough of the second – as Paweł Bielawski reminds us – is written not only by representatives of the ENP, but besides by spiritual scholars, specified as German scholars Jan Assmann.
Reactivation of pre-Christian worldview and axiology would, according to the ENP, be a appropriate remedy for the problems of modern Europe; "It is not so much about the resurrection of past cult forms, but about the restoration of the erstwhile right ancient man's sensitivity and attitude towards the surrounding world. In another words, it is about capturing “the pagan being-in-the-world”. Its recovery is what would aid to overcome the current crisis and the Renaissance of European culture" (p. 156). The criticism of Christianity by de Benoist is not full criticism, but rather nuanced, taking into account the different stages of the evolution of this religion in Europe: “It distinguishes, about speaking, early Christianity (i.e. from the early centuries, ‘egalitarian and subversive’) and late (from the mediate centuries, ‘relatively constructive’, ‘strongly colored pagan organicism’) or ‘Christian opposition’ and ‘conquerive Christianity’ (p. 174). However, the fundamental philosophical and anthropological assumptions remained unchanged. According to de Benoist, the inevitable consequence of the Christian worldview has become the trends of modern times, and “A. de Benoist argues that the emergence of atheism in Europe was the consequence of... Christianity. This argues that Western metaphysics excluded any authentic transcendence and thus prepared an unknowing ground for atheism. Laician Rationalism turned against Christian rationalism" (p. 195).
The negation of the individualistic and ENP-typical appreciation of the function of the community besides results from the critical approach of this metapolitical trend to the concept of human rights. According to his representatives, it is worth considering the alternate guaranteeing the rights of communities and communities wishing to preserve their identity. Hence, affirmative references to the 1976 Universal Declaration of People's Rights, adopted in Algiers, appear in de Benoist. Interestingly, the defence of identity, according to the co-founder of the ENP, should not be limited to individual territorial units and indigenous ethnocultural communities inhabiting them, but should besides consist in allowing it to be cultivated by immigrant communities. The attitude towards immigration, above all that of the muslim world, has become the origin of interior divisions among New-Right intellectuals; the position clearly islamophobic represents among them, for example. Guillaume Faye.
One chapter devotes the author of the book to a comparative analysis of ENP. Comparative procedures in the case of metapolitical thought are inherently a alternatively hard task, as is any effort to systematize specified an internally diverse and rich intellectual accomplishment as the 1 by de Benoist and his associates. Bielawski analyses similarities and differences between him and French nationalism in the edition of the French Action, an integral traditionalism Julius Evoli, independence, tercerism or yet 4th Political explanation Alexander Dugin. Let's halt at the last one. It is worth noting the diametric difference between Russian and French thinker in their attitude towards Christianity. Dugin is much more dualistic in his perception of the modern world. It may combine their opposition to liberalism and globalism, although they have different accents. Although Bielawski cites 1 of the best authors in Poland examining the thought of the Russian philosopher, Krzysztof Karczewski, he seemingly did not full get acquainted with Alexander Dugin's 4th Political Theory. It emphasizes its incarnation in east civilization, while not noticing the common sources of inspiration of both thinkers, specified as Heidegger's philosophy. By the way, Bielawski resembles the curiosal explanation of duginism made in 1 of Leszek Sykulski's publications, according to which it is not a doctrine or a philosophical school, but a "element of information war" (p. 291).
The most crucial concepts and values in ENP's thoughts are diversity and identity. The erstwhile is threatened by all attempts at globalist codification, by the nature of totalitarian things. The second is further threatened by atomicism and liberalism. In defining briefly the essence of the European fresh Right, Paweł Bielawski writes that it is “a movement occurring with an idea, an effort to make a affirmative mention to the pre-modern (pre-monotheistic, Indo-European, polytheistic) axiology that could service as a basis for the Renaissance of European civilization” (pp. 251-252). "Nouvelle Droite is not a movement whose goal is political change. It is simply a movement whose pursuit is paradigmmatic changes" (p. 305) – summarizes the author.
Paweł Bielawski's book fills a very crucial gap in Polish discipline so far. The scope of the issues raised in the title goes beyond the subject indicated in the title, which makes it the most comprehensive monograph dedicated to the European fresh Right so far in Polish. The second is an highly interesting intellectual phenomenon on the modern European map of metapolitical reflection. That's why it's worth reading about.
Mateusz Piskorski
Paweł Bielawski, Apostasy of Europe. The Place and function of religion in the Thoughts of Alain de Benoist and French fresh Right, Arte Publishing and Advertising Agency, White Podlaska 2024, p. 326.
photo of wikipedia
Think Poland, No. 27-28 (30.06-7.07.2024)
