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War for Eternity
Author	Benjamin R. Teitelbaum
Language	English
Subject	Traditionalism, far-right politics, alt-right
Genre	Non-fiction
Publisher	Penguin Books, HarperCollins
Publication date	2020
Media type	Print, Digital
Pages	336
ISBN	978-0-06297-845-5

War for Eternity: The Return of Radical Traditionalism and the Rise of the Populist Right is a 2020 nonfiction book written by ethnographer and ethnomusicologist Benjamin R. Teitelbaum. Based on his wide-ranging connections with far-right networks and extensive interviews with his subjects, the author traces the rising influence of the niche Traditionalist ideology in international politics.

Teitelbaum argues that Steven Bannon in the US, Aleksandr Dugin in Russia, and Olavo de Carvalho in Brazil all share a common Traditionalist framework despite having different geopolitical goals. He reconstructs the history of how each of these figures came to the once-obscure school of thought, and how they have reconciled Traditionalism with their own nationalist visions. The author also documents the times that the three figures have crossed paths and how they have shaped each others' thinking.

Based on over 20 hours of interviews, the book also investigates the complicated ties Steven Bannon has with a number of international figures with different political interests, including Iranian-American alt-right philosopher Jason Jorjani and dissident Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui.

Synopsis

History of Traditionalism

Teitelbaum situates Traditionalism as beginning in the early 20th century with the French writer René Guénon. Guénon argued that all traditional religions descended from the same origin, whose common core of truth, the Tradition, has been degraded and obscured over time. Inspired by Hinduism, Guénon's Tradition is characterized by a cyclical view of time and an analysis of society that divides it into four castes. Instead of a linear progression, society goes through four distinct ages, each dominated by a different caste and its values: The spiritual Golden Age lead by priests, the honorable Silver Age of warriors, the Copper Age of money-seeking merchants, and finally, the current era, the Dark Age, or Kali Yuga, where society is overtaken by the bodily and materialistic desires of slaves. Teitelbaum points out that this worldview is antithetical to Enlightenment ideals of progress; instead of advancing society, Traditionalists believe that modernity has stripped society of its crucial spiritual foundation and is a sign of inevitable decline.

While Guénon advocated dedication to religious asceticism and converted to Sufi Islam, his successor, Julius Evola, attempted to fuse Traditionalist spirituality with European far-right politics. The Italian philosopher argued that the white race descended from an advanced civilization from the North Pole known as Hyperborea. Over time, these Hyperboreans mixed with darker races near the equator, beginning the degeneration of man. While supportive of fascism and earning the admiration of Benito Mussolini, Evola's aristocratic stances and view of race as rooted in spirituality often clashed with Nazi biological racism and populist Völkisch nationalism. Skeptical of fascism's ability to reverse the cyclical descent of history, Evola proposed the idea of "riding the tiger", or withdrawing from political engagement completely until the time to act was finally ripe. Following this history, Teitelbaum identifies two themes that modern Traditionalist thinkers would grapple with: how to reconcile right-wing populism with the esoteric intellectualism of Traditionalism, and how to potentially fight back against the fatalistic degeneration of the Kali Yuga.

Steve Bannon

The majority of the book focuses on Steven Bannon, who first encountered Traditionalism while exploring New Age movements in California. Secretly studying spirituality while in the US Navy, he would purchase books from esoteric bookstores across the globe during naval tours. (24) Despite becoming an investment banker and Hollywood executive producer and having no interest in joining an organized religious group, Bannon continued to learn spiritual practices, conversing with religious scholar Jacob Needleman.

Alexandr Dugin

Dugin began his political journey with the "Yuzhinsky circle", an underground group of dissidents in the Soviet Union that rebelliously experimented with mysticism and Nazism. During this time, Dugin came into contact with the writings of Guénon as well as Armenian-Russian mystic George Gurdjieff. Upon discovering Evola's books in the V. I. Lenin State Library, Dugin began identifying as a Traditionalist. After the fall of the Soviet Union, he provocatively re-adopted Marx-Leninist ideology, founding the National Bolshevik Party which combined fascist and communist rhetoric.

While the NazBol Party failed to catch on in Russia, Dugin continued his efforts to combine Traditionalism with Orthodox Christian nationalism in Russia. (p 46) Beginning with his on-the-ground support of South Ossetian separatists, Dugin has lobbied for Eurasian "multipolarity". In his book, Foundations of Geopolitics, Dugin argued that the unbridled capitalism and materialism of the US no longer had a real competitor after the fall of the Soviet Union, and regions such as Russia, China, and the Muslim world needed to reinvigorate their traditional roots to provide a counterweight against US liberalism. Invoking Heidegger's notion of Dasein and Traditionalist critiques of modernity, Dugin believes that every local culture has its own values and sense of being, which the universalism of Western human rights and capitalist homogenization violates. While Teitelbaum is careful to distinguish that Dugin is not an official advisor to Putin, Dugin has been involved in negotiations to build ties between Russia and Iran, Syria, Turkey, and a number of European far-right parties.

Olavo de Carvalho

Olavo de Carvalho is now known as a prominent right-wing writer and close confidant to Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro. However, in his youth, Carvalho was a member of the Brazilian communist party during the US-backed dictatorship of Brazil. (p 128) He became interested in astrology, teaching it as a course for the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo. Upon reading an anthology of Guénon's writings, Carvalho sought to join a Traditionalist group. Carvalho attended a local Sufi tariqa in São Paulo headed by the brothers Omar and Idries Shah. Although disappointed by the organization, he was encouraged by British Traditionalist Martin Lings to travel to Bloomington, Indiana and join a tariqa founded by Swiss Traditionalist Frithjof Schuon. However, Carvalho grew disillusioned by infighting within the group as well as its unorthodox practices, which allegedly involved sexual initiation rites between Schuon and under-aged women. (138) Despite being appointed a leader of his own branch of the tariqa in Brazil, Carvalho drifted away from Sufism and re-embraced Catholicism. By the time that Teitelbaum interviews him in Carvalho's home in Richmond, Virginia, Carvalho has become a prominent advocate for Brazilian nationalism and Christian populism.

Debates and Agreements

Carvalho's first significant interaction with Dugin was in 2011 during an online debate organized by Brazilian traditionalists. (178) While Dugin argued for a dualistic worldview where traditional societies needed to take a stand against the United States, Carvalho identified three groups of interest vying for global dominance: Western capitalists, Islamic fundamentalists, and a Russian-Chinese geopolitical alliance. Despite being a former Sufi, Carvalho criticizes all three of these powers, and saw the US as a key nation of Tradition that was under attack by "big government" and "big finance". (180) He argued that rural Americans and Christians were threatened by these three powers which actually secretly worked together in their united interest to control the world. Distancing himself from Dugin's geopolitical ambitions, Carvalho's reinterpretation of Traditionalism positioned himself more closely with Christian and small-government conservatism.

Bannon and Alt-Right

Reception

War for Eternity

Notability

Multiple reviews in large news sites:

High profile op-eds by author on the book:

^[1]

^ Teitelbaum, Benjamin (2020-04-21). War for Eternity: The Return of Traditionalism and the Rise of the Populist Right. Penguin Books Limited. ISBN 978-0-14-199204-4.

[WfE-1] Teitelbaum, Benjamin (2020-04-21). War for Eternity: The Return of Traditionalism and the Rise of the Populist Right. Penguin Books Limited. ISBN 978-0-14-199204-4.

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