Ride the Tiger: A Survival Manual for the Aristocrats of the Soul

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant work
Review: "Ride the Tiger" is a relatively short yet brilliant book for those capable of thining critically. Evola gives a history of nihilistic and existentialist thought, demonstrates in what manner these systems of thought are incomplete, and takes these systems to their logical conclusion.
I was so amazed at Evola's erudite thinking and consistency that I bought the rest of his works and have never looked back. Not for the intellectual dullard or neo-spiritualist (i.e. "New-ager"), "Ride the Tiger" is, as the subtitle states, for the "Aristocrat of the Soul".

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant work
Review: "Ride the Tiger" is a relatively short yet brilliant book for those capable of thinking critically. Evola gives a history of nihilistic and existentialist thought, demonstrates in what manner these systems of thought are incomplete, and takes these systems to their logical conclusion.
I was so amazed at Evola's erudite thinking and consistency that I bought the rest of his works and have never looked back. Not for the intellectual dullard or neo-spiritualist (i.e. "New-ager"), "Ride the Tiger" is, as the subtitle states, for the "Aristocrat of the Soul".

Rating:
Summary: Radical Right Critique of Contemporary Culture
Review: Julius Evola wrote this book (in the 1950's) for people like himself (although younger and less experienced): marginalized radical-right intellectuals (with a strong spiritual bent) trying to maintain their dignity in a world where they exert little to no influence over their contemporaries, which he refers to throughout the book as the "differentiated" and "integrated" type of man--the "aristocrats of the soul" referred to in the subtitle. Topics of his critique range from (to name a few) nihilism, youth sub-cultures, existentialism, science, the arts, sexuality, and death. Evola's basic premise is that Western civilization is disintegrating and beyond the point of saving (or being worth saving), and so it is the task of the individual who is disgusted by his surroundings to make the best of the situation by "riding the tiger"--a non-resisting controlled indulgence--for the time being, and yet not falling prey to the delusions offered by the surrounding world.

Rating:
Summary: Restores Integrity to Hierarchy
Review: While reading the latest re-print of Julius Evola's book Ride the Tiger, offered by Inner Traditions, I wondered what he would think of the so called Chaos Magick now spinning out of fractal control. After reading his essays and becoming more familiar with his views, I'm sure he would look upon something so anti-order so hier-anarchic with utter contempt and disdain. After all, he was an aristocrat of the Soul as the sub title of the book suggests. It certainly would give birth to a polemic tractate or two or even a full length book if he were still alive that is for certain. (I can see his monocle shattering in fractal fashion)
Evola has been quite a controversial figure, metaphysically toeing the line of some potentially fascist ideologies. He certainly has a growing audience on the right side of the occcult as well as political spectrum. In the book Black Sun, Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke takes aim at Julius and spells out his rather shady associations with a protracted and at times tedious detail while ignoring some of the real treasures within his work. In spite of such possible leanings to the Romanesque Imperium-I feel that we can greatly, even profoundly benefit from some of Evola's writings-that it is possible to separate them from facist undertones or inculcations and use them in a more life affirming way. I'm particularly drawn to the notion of preserving tradition in order to withstand the forces of dissolution, relativism, etc. I have yet to see any real lasting benefit to come out of Chaos Magick. I have not seen any positive influence yet anyway other than thrilling inner rides which may help us intuit the implicate more effectively. Nor have I really seen any obvious benefit come out of Quantum Physics, since virtually all of our political and economic systems are still based on the supposedly obsolete Newtonian Paradigm of action/reaction. For those of you who aren't familiar with my writing, I make my views on political correctness where notions of hierarchy are sneered upon in knee jerk fashion quite known. Evola advocates throughout his writings the importance of hierarchy in many ways and it is high time that we start listening to him again.
There are certainly many benefits to be had if we value or want to re-value notions of hierarchy. We need to de-load the word for starters since most associate it with oppression, the State, etc.
As an example of a positive hierarchy, I greately admire classical east Indian music and the artists who play it such as Irshad Khan, Ustad Uli Akbhar Khan and others who I have unending respect for. The musicians, often born into musical families are put through the most rigorous training-often made to practice up to 18 hours a day. Often their teachers sit on the stage with them, perhaps so they don't step out of line or as a gesture to remind the player that they are always learning. Now imagine some PC victim artist like Karen Finley wanting to learn how to play the sitar . She would probably start protesting that she was being oppressed by a caste system and then want to do things her own way. Mediocrity would inevitably result and Goddess Saraswati would weep and run away quite embarrassed.
In Ken Wilber's tumescent philosophical tome Sex, Ecology and Spirit he bravely defends biological hierarchy: first the sub atomic particlewave, then the atom, then the molecule, then the cell and then the organ and then the organism. Without this hieracrchy-lifeforms would cease to exist or never have existed in the first place. He brilliantly defends hierarchy against relativisms of various kinds. Well enough hammering on something so taboo as hierarchy. What I'm trying to convey is that without a sufficient grounding in hierarchical realities, anyone delving into Chaos Magick or Chaos Politicks or even Chaos Sex would be doomed to inevitable dissolution and not of an ego dissolving variety. I wholeheartedly defend many of Evola's positions-I do not however advocate the kind of facism he was attracted to or advocated himself(...)

Rating:
Summary: Ride the Tiger
Review: With "Ride the Tiger" Evola seeks to work out a method of behavior and thought appropriate for those who seek a radical return to tradition and hierarchy in the midst of the dissolution of the modern age. In short, he doesn't recommend "direct action" against the "spirit of the age", becuase it is simply too powerful, but instead the improvement and unrelenting service to ones ideals until an ideal time for change presents itself, as the spirit of the age exhausts itself and perishes.

As Evola puts it, refering to the book's title, "The phrase is a Far Eastern Saying, expressing the idea that if one suceeds in riding the tiger, not only does one avoid having it leap on one, but if one can keep one's seat and not fall off, one may eventually get the better of it."

Rating:
Summary: Riding the Tiger - Aristocratic Tradition Against Modernity.
Review: _Ride the Tiger: A Survival Manual for the Aristocrats of the Soul_ by Italian counter-revolutionary theorist Baron Julius Evola is a manual for a certain spiritual type of man - the man of Tradition - faced with the nihilistic reality of the modern world. Tradition is characterized by a recognition of transcendence and hierarchy as opposed to the mass levelling which has taken place in modernity - at root in nihilism. Evola, a gloomy figure on the marginalized radical right in postwar Italy, writes of the modern world as witnessing a new dark age, the Kali Yuga of Indian tradition (as noted by the father of Traditionalism, Rene Guenon). In the philosophy of Traditionalism, the world is said to have fallen from a past Golden Age (as witnessed to by the ancient Greeks, Hesiod, and the Hindus) and approaching the end of a cycle has entered the Kali Yuga, an era characterized by dissolution. Kali is a dark goddess of sexuality and orgiastic rites in Hindu mythology - said to be asleep in previous eras but in the Kali Yuga said to be wide awake. The modern age is characterized by the "death of God" (the end of the transcendent), the beginning of European nihilism as explained by Nietzsche. In such a world, the spiritual type Evola writes for is totally alienated. Topics covered in this book include Nietzsche's philosophy and the world in which "God is dead", the "lost youth" and the postwar generation of Beatniks, the dead end of existentialist philosophies, Heideggerianism and Husserlian phenomenologies, the new physics and scientism, moral decline, an excursus on drugs, the failure of modern art, sexuality and marriage, the "new religiosity, and death. Evola finds little to recommend for his ideal type except for a sort of neo-Gnostic complete withdrawal from the modern world characterized by what he terms "apolitea". In terms of Tradition, little remains left to recognize and hierarchy has been completely abolished. This form of apolitea may be described as "riding the tiger", a Far Eastern saying meaning that if one succeeds in riding a tiger not only does one avoid having to leap on one, but one may eventually get the better of it. This is Evola's only recommendation for coming to terms with modernity and making one's way across the Kali Yuga that completes the traditional cycle. As in his previous book _Revolt Against the Modern World_, Evola offers many profound insights into both the nature of modernity and the means for achieving counter-revolution giving the prevailing winds of the time.