Hello James!

Given our recent discussion on Ernst Junger, as well as your reviews of his novel “Eumeswil” ( as his brother Georg’s book on Technology ( I began reading “Storm of Steel”.

It is absolutely fantastic!

In pursuance of this, I came across a short 19 page article he wrote about the Spiritual Significance of WWI. and the role of Modern Progress in causing all manner of chaos.

The article is entitled “Total Mobilization”, and as I understand it, this article was written during the Inter-War Period, possibly during the Weimar Republic Era.

It is linked below:

Reading this article, it seems as if he and Georg were cross-pollinating (a metaphor Ernst would have liked given his love of bugs and nature).

As I read these pieces, I find a few things interesting.

First, Ernst and Georg strike me as being very similar to Julius Evola in terms of style and outlook. I think this is because they are coming from a school of Kantian and Hegelian German Philosophy with emphasis on the Ideals of Plato and Deductive Reasoning

This school of thought was very popular on the European Continent.

Compare this to British and American Thinkers of the 19th and 20th Century. If they weren’t old school Aristotelian Classicists (like Madison Grant and Lothrop Stoddard were), they were strictly Empiricists basing everything around Inductive Reasoning.

This kind of Empirical Inductive Reasoning approach is one of the major flaws of the Modern World that Julius Evola notes in his masterful book “The Fall of Spirituality”, written in 1935 and updated in 1948 and 1972.

Readers further interested in this topic should consult R.R. Reno’s 2019 book “Return of the Strong Gods”, as in it he explains in detail how the Postwar Consensus of the Western World is based around this kind of Empirical Inductive Reasoning Evola decried.

Second, I find it interesting that you noted Ernst Junger rejecting the Demagoguery of that Hooked Cross Regime and its infamous Mustachioed Chieftain ( .

I find this interesting because both Julius Evola and Alfred Rosenberg also rejected this Demagoguery, and alongside Ernst Junger, were regarded with a kind of dark suspicion as well as supernatural awe by the Axis Authorities.

Ernst Junger and Julius Evola are on record being fine with this state of affairs, in fact, preferring things that way!

However, this turn of events hurt Alfred Rosenberg deeply. He was always loyal to the Party, and his book was a best-seller. And yet he was continually sidelined by Goebbels and Himmler, both of whom embraced the power of Demagoguery with open, welcoming arms.

Because Rosenberg didn’t embrace this Demagoguery, he never got the recognition he worked so hard for. And in the end, he was left holding the bag at Nuremberg, while Goebbels and Himmler were getting drunk with the Valkyries in Valhalla.

In many ways, this reminds me of Edgar Rice Burroughs continuing disappointment that he was never seen as a “literary figure” like Jack London was, even though he was just as good if not better, and sold just as many if not more books.

This all reminds me of what you wrote in your initial review of “Eumeswil” ( :

“Enthusiasm is held suspect by those in power, especially those stamped with the same ideological brand.”

Alfred Rosenberg and Edgar Rice Burroughs were two enthusiastic guys.

And today, Ernst Junger, Julius Evola, and Jack London are well known in literary circles.

While Alfred Rosenberg and Edgar Rice Burroughs are sadly forgotten by most of the world.

Yet they are not forgotten at Pulp Fiction Renaissance!

But hey…who ever said Pulp Fiction Renaissance was like the rest of the world anyway?

It’s too an enthusiastic of place for all that…it’s a good thing I don’t care about gaining power!

Sincerely,

Richard Barrett

P.S. Joseph Goebbels was known to have loved Ernst Junger’s “Storm of Steel”, and made it mandatory reading for German Military Personnel. He hated “All Quiet On the Western Front” and put it on top of the banned book burn list. I write about the greater context of this in my article below: