onsdag 27 april 2016

An Interview With Lennart Svensson, Author of "Borderline"


This is an interview. Technically I conduct it with myself = an auto interview. The focus is on my works, past and present.




Q: Can you state your name and place of birth?

A: Certainly. I'm Lennart Svensson, born in the north of Sweden in 1965. I turned 50 in December last year, 2015.

Q: Do you like being 50?

A: I do. But as Ernst Jünger said, "spirit has no age". So I'm not indulging in being this or that age. I simply am.

Q: Speaking of Ernst Jünger you published a biography of him in 2014. Comments?

A: None, other than that the book is still to be bought. From a creative point of view I knew the subject, Jünger, I enjoyed writing the book and now my fellow brethren and sistren can read about Jünger and be amazed and intrigued, being led to spiritual clarity.

Q: Spiritual clarity indeed. Your essay "Borderline" is receiving coverage here and there these days. Like this review on Heathen Harvest.

A: Indeed. They even seem to like the book.

Q: Why is "Borderline" so important?

A: It's a beacon of hope for a culture bogged down in relativism and nihilism. The science community of today advocates reductionism which is absurd; holism is the only way ahead. There has to be an element of metaphysics in physics, otherwise it gets totally unintelligible. That's what "Borderline" is about -- as well as being a strategic overview of Plotinus's eidetic, "ideas-based" ontology. I also discuss how his followers brought the doctrine into our times, followers like Goethe, Ernst Jünger and Hugo Fischer. As Fischer has demonstrated, Plotinus can teach today's scientists a lot about metaphysics.

Q: Is that all?

A: No. In addition to this, "Borderline" tells about holistic ethics, how to act as a human being given that the world is an organism and not a machine. Man is not a robot; man is a microcosmic organism mirroring the organic macrocosm. Man has will, thought and compassion in his being and in the book I teach how to acknowledge this. Also, I speak about literature and art in this respect, depicting people like C. D. Friedrich, T. S. Eliot and Edith Södergran and their holistic opuses. Ernst Jünger also gets a chapter; he's referred to throughout the book and specifically, his approach to "life, universe and everything" is covered in chapter 25.

Q: Strictly speaking, "Borderline" was published last year. This year, 2016, you've published another book-length essay, "Science Fiction Seen From the Right". What's this?

A: This is a study summing up 20th century science fiction and fantasy, seen from a conservative point of view. Now, it doesn't cover every author in the field, not even every author having once held some conservative view. However, it does cover a lot regarding an overview of the field from a traditionalist standpoint. Authors like Heinlein, Herbert, Lewis, Tolkien, Bradbury, Pournelle, Niven, Dick, van Vogt, Howard, Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith are covered, along with Borges and Castaneda and some additional names like Moorcock and Bradbury. Even Ernst Jünger gets a chapter...!

Q: He's always there.

A: He is, when there's reason to mention him.

Q: Apart from this, the conservative angle, what made you write the book?

A: It was a labor of love. I mean, I do have a polemical message with it all, an errand of snatching back sf from leftists and Social Justice Warriors who currently seem to occupy the genre. The conceptual-political battle is raging and I'm on the right side. That said, the book is also about the wonder and glory sf and fantasy give us, about ideas and visions, about fantastic stories in the realms of future lands, lost worlds and parallel demesnes. I've been reading sf and fantasy for over thirty years and this is my report.

Q: And the future? Of your operation at large?

A: I can give no details but I currently write this and that, both works of fact and fiction.

Q: But as for fiction, you have already published novels?

A: I have. In Swedish I've published the novels "Antropolis" and "Till Smaragdeburg". Here's a presentation in English of "Antropolis".

Q: In Swedish, you say. Those books were published in 2009-2010. Since then you've written and published yourself in English. Do you still consider yourself a Swedish author?

A: You could say: if a Swedish editor mails me and asks about manuscripts in Swedish I can send him that. And if an English speaking editor asks me about manuscripts in English, I can give him that too. I'm rather bilingual, you might say.

Q: Briefly, the world situation at large. Are we in for it? Is this the end?

A: No, of course not. There's no risk for major war as this link will tell you. The world might seem a mess right now but the forces of Light are advancing. The Russian leader Putin has done a lot, in intervening in MENA 2015-2016, to rectify the situation. He might not be a saint and I don't support his every move -- and I remain being a SWEDISH nationalist -- but he is on the good side. The Westworld, for its part, is enmeshed in evil. With the US as a linchpin it's a corrupt regime in need of reformation and this will also come about, on legal grounds and not with an all-out shooting war. That's what I see before me. The fear-based thinking has to give way to a more constructive approach.

Q: Constructive? Isn't there a propaganda war raging, isn't this a time to fight and not to build?

A: OK. I mean, the situation is dire and we need to stand firm in opposing evil. But the situation isn't as bad as many internet pundits, even on the right side, seem to think. A war it is but it's a propaganda war and a frequency war -- thus, tune in to your own frequency and don't become dejected by reading false visions of a looming war. Stand firm in your personal being, employing "C3", that is, meditate and be "calm, cool and collected". A man who controls his breath controls the world.




Related
Ernst Jünger -- A Portrait (2014)
Borderline
Heathen Harvest reviews Borderline
Science Fiction Seen From the Right
Antropolis

måndag 25 april 2016

Review: The Illuminoids (Wilgus 1980)



Secret History can be interesting. And Neil Wilgus might be the right man to guide the reader through its nooks and crannies. His book is entitled ”The Illuminoids” and was issued in USA in 1978. This is based on the British 1980 NEL issue.




1.

We live today in a kind of virtual war: propaganda war, frequency war, a war of nerves. Your inner mind is the battlefield.

To win in this war we must stay cool and stay informed. As for spreading information about grey area operations, fact books is one way to go. 

From this view, that of highlighting the viable factbook, the readable, succinct factbook, I will now take a look at Neil Wilgus’s ”The Illuminoids”. It was issued over 30 years ago but it still has something to tell us. Wilgus admits the grey area character of his subject -- the secret history of the West -- and in doing this portrays an area of research often shunned by manistream academics. At the same time Wilgus tries to stay critical of the worst excesses of conspiracy research.

As intimated, you should not fictionalize this subject. In this respect, Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea’s ”Illuminatus” trilogy from 1975 has not aged as well as Wilgus’s book. Their novel is rather lively and intriguing as such – but to have the elite club in question not as villains but as some kind of ”give them the benefit of the doubt, who knows what’s right or wrong” is out of sync with the zeitgeist. Sinister forces has run the Westworld from the sidelines since at least the 1700s – and Neal Wilgus, in his factbook-cum-essay, portrays this better than Shea-Wilson in their hip novel trilogy.

Wilgus was right in writing a nonfiction book on the subject. He had read the Wilson-Shea trilogy, however, as intimated his own ”The Illuminoids” takes a critical approach to the written sources concerned. This attitude holds its ground. This approach to the material still benefits us today, 35 years later, when we are in the process of ridding the world of the globalist elite club empire.




2.

Neil Wilgus writes about the historical Illuminati, secret dealings, crimes, wars and rigged ”secret history moves” in ”The Illuminoids”. The title per se is meant to be a derivation of the Illuminati, meaning ”like / of the Illuminati” or somesuch. Wilgus’s sources include Nesta Webster’s ”World Revolution – The Plot Against Civilization” (1921) and ”Secret Societies and Subversive Movements” (1924), John Robison’s ”Proofs of a conspiracy” (1797) and Clarence Kelly’s ”Conspiracy Against God and man” (1974).

Now let’s take a look at the contents. The first half of the 190 page book is a captivatng narrative of elite club doings in Europe and the US from the 1700s and on. The latter half of the book is made up of diverse timelines and chronicles, repeating some of what’s gone before and adding some new facts.

Chapter one, for its part, is called ”Some Founding Fathers” (p 17), telling of the founding of the Illuminati in 1776, its prosperity and subsequent forbidding ten years later (but the group continued to exist in spite of it). Then is depicted secret aspects of the American Revolution: it is told in detail about George Washington, secret club involvment and the occult imagery of the US government seal. This was unknown to many in 1978 but today it’s common knowledge.

Chapter two is called ”A Rogue’s Gallery” (p 34), covering the French revolution. With figures like Mirabeau, abbé Sieyes, Talleyrand, the Duke of Orléans, Cagliostro, the diamond necklace affair, the German Union (1787) as a new Illuminati form, dr. theol Karl Bahrdt, Anarcharsis Clootz, and the Count Saint Germain as alchemist. Of the latter I’ve blogged here.

Chapter three is called ”Evolution of Revolution” (p 50), containing more about the French revolution. This chapter succinctly treats figures like Franz Anton Mesmer, the Marquis de Sade and Meyer Amschel Rothschild, p 51-52. Then there are some notes on the secret history of the 1700s before the revolution, with Diderot and the Encyclopaedists, Montequieu, Voltaire and Rousseau. We even read of Beaumarchais who wrote the plays ”The Barber of Seville” and ”The Marriage of Figaro,” later set to music by Mozart. Also, we read about Casanova, Tom Paine, Philippe Buonarroti and Louis de Saint-Just, a Jacobin, all of it told in a witty style, trying to capture the grey area of secret society Europe.




3.

Chapter four is entitled ”The Illuminoids” (page 68), taking up a few loose ends and giving us the secret history development to the present day (= the day of Wilgus’s writing, the mid 1970s). Here are mentioned such as Spanish alumbrados, Saint-Martin, Willermooz, Raymond Lull and the Middle East’s assassins (hashishin). On page 75f is told the story of the Nine Unknown, also covered by Pauvels and Bergier in ”Morning of the Magicians” (Fr. 1960, Eng. 1963, reportedly, a survey of the debunk kind, however, might still be worth the effort). – Furthermore are treated Manichaeism, Sufism, Atlantis, Guy Warren Ballard and the I AM strain. Any follower of this my blog knows that I AM is the moral-ontological statement of all times. The rest of the chapter (p 84-110) provides many clues to America’s secret history during the 1800 and 1900s, some of which I will elaborate upon below.

Chapter five is called ”An Illuminated Chronology” (p 113). This is a timeline from shortly before 1776, the Illuminati founding, to today.

Chapter six is called ”An Outline of Illuminated History” (p 137). This is a timeline from Atlantis to today, with various digressions in the maze of facts surrounding secret history.

Finally, we have ”Sources of Illumination” (p 177), a list of sources and some additional information.




4.

As we have seen Wilgus begins his book by talking about the 1700s, ”the times of Wigs, Horses and Muskets” with names like Washington, Mirabeau, Robespierre and Casanova etc. etc. All this has its interest but I will not go into it here. In the rest of this review I will look into various aspects of secret history of recent times, phenomena Wilgus elaborates upon with a rather balanced and – important! – not dismissive style. He is not out to debunk, like many other ”respectable” writers of the subject tend to be. Overall, Wilgus has noted the circumstantial evidence and deemed that it can not be ignored. You can’t debunk him because he’s got vast resources of bunk...!

A subject treated in chapter four is the establishment of the US Federal Reserve bank, as such, a privately owned cartel issuing debt notes, pretending to be a national bank issuing money. Wilgus relates some already known, yet interesting facts such as the following. – In the US state of Georgia there is an island called Jekyll Island. In a mansion on this island some top names in banking and finance held a meeting in November 1910. Two top politicians who attended were Deputy Minister of Finance A. Platt Andrew and Senator Nelson Aldrich. From the banking sector participated J. P. Morgan-men such as Henry P. Dawson, Charles D. Norton and Benjamin Strong and the Rockefeller-man Frank Wanderlip. The meeting resulted in plans that led to the founding of America’s privately owned Federal Reserve.

- - -

Wlgus also tells of the Anti-Mason movement in the United States, a failed attempt in the 19th century to stop the elite club governance. – That the United States was founded by Masons is not a secret. Washington, Jefferson and other fathers of the republic were active in the secret society of Freemason. Freemasonry as such may have some spiritual strains but on the top levels it soon got hi-jacked and co-opted by power-mad operators of the illuminoid kind.

Then came an American opposition to Freemasonry. A significant example is William Morgan’s book from 1826 in which Masonic activities were revealed: ”Illustrations from Freemasonry”. This gave rise to a protest movement against this secret club. For example, in 1830 was held anti-Masonic conventions in Massachusetts and Vermont where they presented evidence that the Freemasons had been taken over by the subversive, atheist-nihilist Illuminati, founded in 1776 in Bavaria. Illuminati had on his program the abolition of the family, private property, inheritance rights, patriotism and religion, and the establishment of a world state, so you can understand that people were upset. In light of the revelations, a new political party in the United States became the Anti-Masonic Party. They stood in the presidential election in 1832. But no breakthrough was reached either then or later this decade. The party was disbanded in 1838.




5.

Then there are som lines on the silver standard and uts drama. Even in the Bible, under King Solomon, silver was belittled. ”Silver was not considered valuable in the days of Salomon,” it says in 2 Chronicles 9:21. This is seen as an early devaluation of silver coining by the pseudonym R. E. Search in ”Lincoln Money Martyred” (1935). But the Bible passage does not speak of the coin, but how Solomon preferred gold for household items and art objects. Coins didn’t begin to be used until several centuries later, according to established history. About Search and the antique currency debate we read in page 87 of Wilgus’s book.

- - -

Can political murders generally be attributed to conspiracies? Is the theory of ”the lone madman” a routinely put up cover story? Indeed, there are indicia that many famous presidential, prime minister and head of state murders may have been planned. Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914, Stolypin, President McKinley, Kennedy, M. L. King, Malcolm X and so on and so on.

For instance, Wilgus relates suspicions concerning Secretary of Defese James Forrestal’s death in 1945 at Bethesda Hospital Neuroligical Ward. Even Joseph McCarthy died there in 1957, officially of jaundice but according to secret history theory, a deliberately injected drug overdose (mescaline or LSD), which may have made him suicidal. Cooper has more details on the Forrestal-murder.

Drugs: it is since the 1970s proved that the CIA experimented with drugs on people. According to Wilgus, the CIA, for example, admitted that it gave Dr. Frank Olsen LSD in 1953 so that he died (= this triggered him to suicide). In addition to LSD, the CIA developed drugs that would brainwash people or trigger the programming they received, or have retired agents forget information they received when they were in active service. In other instances, the CIA has been experimenting with mind control, arising out of such as B. F. Skinner’s behavioral sciences and ”aversion therapy” (= make people dislike something by associating it with discomfort). In addition, there are such things as brain surgery / lobotomy and surgical implanting of electrodes in the brain. To some extent, the brain works as a computer that can be programmed. All organizations, from the church and the army to the prison system, know this says Wilgus (page 90). On a smaller scale, this applies on such a case as the 1970s SLA terrorist group who kidnapped the millionaire daughter of Patty Hearst and had her take part in a bank robbery.

Behavior manipulation can also be used to control gunmen and killers. This may be suspected of Robert Kennedy’s assassin Sirhan Sirhan, and Lee Harvey Oswald, the grey area figure and patsy of the JFK murder. – More about the theories of Sirhan can be found on page 91 in Wilgus’ book.

Already in the 1700s there were behavioral manipulation in the form of hypnosis, developed by Franz Anton Mesmer. He was a German who lived from 1734 to 1815. The subject of behavioral control in connection with the Jacobins time in power (and Weisshaupt, the founder of the Illuminati), Wilgus treats on the pages 92-93.




6.

A theory that Wilgus discusses is this: that it is the Democratic Party of the United States that draws the country into war, and possibly the Democrats have been a little more elite club-influenced than the Republicans. Just look at the Democratic presidents Wilson (World War I), Roosevelt (World War II), Truman (Korean War) and Johnson (Vietnam War). Truman and Roosevelt were both highest degree Freemasons (33rd level) and Roosevelt placed the Illuminati pyramid symbol on the back of the one dollar note. Besides Democrats the elite club Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) has been the haunt of America’s elite in general, where the member list included people like Nixon, Eisenhower and Kissinger and Henry Cabot Lodge, Zbigniew Brzezinsky and Jimmy Carter.

- - -

A note on the subject ”Wall Street and Bolshevism,” from Wilgus’ book. Banker J. P. Morgan had spent money on President Wilson’s campaign in 1912. Then he financed Lenin’s and Trotsky’s Russian Revolution, as well as selling weapons to the English before the First World War. The affair of Lusitania played a part in this. A central player in these times was President Wilson’s adviser Colonel E. M. House. House participated in the founding of the CFR. He also wrote a novel painting a picture of an elite club operator: ”Philip Dru, Administrator”.

- - -

Overall, Wilgus book is crisply written, a popular history rendering with a certain depth. Wilgus takes no position on the material but he seems to suggest that the topic of secret history has substance. The official history of our times, that history can only be created by decisions made by official bodies, is incorrect. Elite clubs and secret groups with hidden agendas have characterized the history of the West since the 1700s.

Moreover, I am proud that I own the English edition of this book. It has among other things a memorable cover (see picture). The American edition was much simpler.




Related
Propaganda War as Total War
Ascended Masters

onsdag 13 april 2016

Book News: Science Fiction Seen from the Right (Svensson 2016)

My new book is out now on Amazon. It's a massive, book-length essay about 20th century science fiction and fantasy. "[W]ith a title like Science Fiction from the Right, one can consider this an automatic purchase for anyone on the “Alt Right.”" -- James O'Meara on Counter-Currents. -- Buy the book on Amazon. Buy the book on Adlibris.




"Science Fiction Seen from the Right" is now to be bought from an internet bookstore near you. This study examines 20th century SF and fantasy, focusing on works having a relation to eternal values like faith, responsibility, duty, honor and courage.

This is the angle employed. This is what you might call a conservative, traditionalist way of looking at SF. Otherwise we always hear from leftist pundits that SF is a genre about change and that no eternal values exist.

The chapters of the current book depict American and European authors like Heinlein, Frank Herbert, C. S. Lewis, Tolkien, Jünger, Boye, R. E. Howard, Lovecraft, Borges, Pournelle, Dick, Bradbury et cetera. In addition, there are chapters about the development of the genre and a look at comics, films and specific themes such as nihilism, history and war.

Some product details:

Paperback: 378 pages
Publisher: Manticore Books (March 24, 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0994252595
ISBN-13: 978-0994252593
Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.8 x 9 inches

Some quotes from the book could come in handy. For instance, this I say about Clarke's "2001":
This is more than literature, this is an initiation, a raising of man to a higher level -- the next level, the space-faring, alien-encountering level. -- What made Childhood's End fail is here rectified; 2001 intimates that man has to be on a higher mental level, on par with the space-faring aliens, to be able to meet them, encounter them and meaningfully communicate with them. [p 124]
And this I say about Ray Bradbury:
We all know that Ray Bradbury (1920-2012) was a man longing for years gone by, for the American 1920s with T-Fords, striped cotton suits and icecream sundaes. But this kind of sentimentality can’t be tolerated in a study like this. Tradition isn’t about being sentimental, it’s about acknowledging Eternal Values, values that still can lift us, inspire us and guide us, offering an alternative to the current materialism and nihilism. For in essence, sentimentality is a form of nihilism. Therefore it takes some time to sort out the Bradbury stories having to say something to us even today, stories about Faith, Musicality, Awareness and Courage. [p 299]
The following is another take on the subject of nihilism in science fiction:
[N]ovels like Gene Wolfe’s The Book of the New Sun (1980-1983), Sam J. Lundwall’s No Time for Heroes (1971) and Harry Harrison’s Bill, the Galactic Hero (1965) are all rather enjoyable, the first for its accomplished style, the latter two for their drive and wit. -- That said, to have an executioner as main character (Wolfe) overall leads out into nothingness, as does the banterings of the other two, I figure. A hero is led by Will, Truth and Compassion; an antihero is a symbol of the opposite, of decadence, whose core concept is nihilism. If you accept that, then these books can be estimated at their true value. Just don’t come and say that they’re some kind of alltime, essential classics pointing the way ahead. For this some embracing of ideals is needed, some spiritual elevation. [p 332]
The following I say about J. G. Ballard:
The strategy he [= Ballard] used is called "Death of Affect as an approach to character". Because, in the usual prose story the reader is manipulated to sympathise with the protagonist. Syrup is smeared over the dish. Ballard, in contrast, is disconnecting such sentimentality. He portrays his characters with some emotional distance but thus manages, paradoxically, to have them come closer. He doesn't manipulate, he portrays. [p 144]
A portal figure of the book is Robert A. Heinlein. In chapter one I for instance say this regarding his topical fiction:
The ideals of olden times are still viable. Self-restraint, self-reliance, responsibility and nobility of character must be remembered and imparted, again and again. And in his 1950s novels Heinlein did just that. [p 16]
In other words, this is what you get in "Science Fiction Seen From the Right" -- a venturing out into the vistas of wonder and glory, traditional style.




Related
The Book Reviewed by Counter-Currents
Red Ice Interview About the Book
Heinlein's Role in the Study
Presentation on the Publisher's Site
Buy the Book on Amazon
Buy the Book on Adlibris

onsdag 6 april 2016

Borderline Reviewed


All praise for "Borderline -- A Traditionalist Outlook for Modern Man".




On the Manticore Press site there was recently a review of my book "Borderline". In it, N.M. Phoenix praises the book’s synthesis of holism, anti-reductionism and mysticism. The survey of perennially minded, traditionally inclined authors treated in the book is also appreciated:
The ending chapters cover Nietzsche and a few profound poets whom portray Tradition and holistic thought. It is difficult for me to reiterate his chapter on Nietzsche, which also discusses Evola in depth, but it is certainly one of the best chapters. It ties in much of what was recently mentioned and its relevance to the teachings of both Evola and Nietzsche. Following this chapter is a discussion on Södergran, T.S. Eliot, Freidrich, Swedenborg, and Jünger respectively. These were no less enjoyable chapters, and I have personally fell in love with Södergran whom I was unaware of until this work.
As a coda of the review Phoenix has this:
"Borderline" by Svensson is worth reading, contemplating, and applying in practice. Even weeks later I recall parts and allows me to shift how one thinks about things. It is an excellent survey of Perennialism, and is filled aplenty with writers and philosophers to further study. Think of it as a college course, or lecture, and contemplate the content. It is well worth the time and effort.
Edit 2024: the review isn't online anymore. So I can't link to it.




Related
More Info About the Book
My Bibliography

torsdag 10 mars 2016

Online Now: Finnish Review of "Borderline -- A Traditionalist Outlook for Modern Man"


In 2015 Numen Books published my philosophical essay "Borderline -- A Traditionalist Outlook for Modern Man". Now it's been reviewed by the Finnish site Sarastus.




Sarastus is a Finnish langauge site for traditional culture. Maybe typical of the site is writer Markku Siira, describing himself as "a traditionalist from Northern Finland. Among his interests are the history of Europe, esotericism, religion, metapolitics, poetry, literature, and etymology". Now Mr. Siira has written and posted a review of "Borderline" on Sarastus. He has also kindly provided me with an English translation, which I will publish below with only some marginal, introductory notes by myself. In other words, here is given the whole of Mr. Siiras text, complete and unabridged.

The title of the review is "The Boundary Lines of Traditionalism". Siira begins the text with an overview of the world situation, a situation that could warrant pessimism:
National-radical circles throughout Europe often flirt with Western or Indian esotericism, not to mention the Spenglerian cyclical worldview. Radical traditionalists may mention the Kali Yuga of Hinduism; the dark era, when after some greater or more prosaic event the world sinks yet deeper into the decay brought about by liberal modernism. For cultural pessimists, this negative undertone is not unfamiliar, whatever their religious context, and I admit that I have often thought so myself during the decades of my esoteric truthseeking.
Then we're told of an instance of optimism:
Apparently one needs to be born Swedish to achieve a particular mixture of bright optimism and traditionalism, as is the case with Lennart Svensson. Svensson, who was born in 1965, is a writer who in addition to his Swedish works has previously written English portraits on Ernst Jünger and the composer Richard Wagner. Svensson lives in Northern Sweden, and has a degree in Indology; in the course of these studies, Svensson became convinced of the truth inherent in the Traditionalist school of thought.

In 2015, Numen Books published Svensson's latest book Borderline: A traditionalist Outlook for Modern Man. I purchased this book after reading Svensson's blog and after having followed his Facebook updates, which interested me, but also irritated me somewhat because of his lavish future optimism and excessive esoteric syncretism. However, it is at times broadening to step beyond one's own stubborn trains of thought, and read something different.
Below is given the rest of the review, which I won't comment on:
Svensson's view is indeed somewhat different. Drawing from the Vedic tradition, meditation, as well as the metapolitics of the European New Right, he has the nerve to claim that the grim and depraved Kali Yuga belongs to the past, and we have in fact stepped again into the time of Sat Yuga, the new golden age of peace and beauty, even though many in the midst of the world's turmoils are not yet aware of it. Svensson also believes that the devastation of a third world war is unlikely, even though many major powers speak of a new Cold War and rattle their sabres verbally and even physically.

To get to the the core of this kind of thinking, Svensson has written Borderline. In this book, he aims to present integral traditionalism for today's man, and at the same time opens the border areas of philosophy, science, art and morality. Svensson serves a holistic table setting, and highlights the historical characters from the ancient Greek Plotinus to Goethe, Carl Jung and to Swedish Emanuel Swedenborg.

Svensson's traditionalism also integrates Nietzscheanism in it, which at first glance seems a little strange, but the reader gets used to these arguments in the context of the book. According to Svensson, Nietzsche, who talked about the death of God, was not an advocate of nihilism and materialism, but one of the European idealistic "grey area" philosophers: the man of Will, who channelled ancient Greece's Dionysian and Apollonian energies.

Borderline is a comprehensive package: it includes metaphysics, quantum physics, reductionism, romance and ethics. The reader will become familiar with Ernst Jünger's friend and a kind of mentor, the German philosopher Hugo Fischer; with Fichte, T.S. Eliot and many other "borderline cases". Svensson even delves into the more dubious secrets of spiritual awareness, with reference to Rudolf Steiner's anthroposophy and Christology.

Also part of the book are "Nietzschean" poet Edith Södergran, as well as the painter of the Romantic movement and the European soul landscape artist, Caspar David Friedrich.

Despite this breathtaking character cavalcade, Svensson's work is held together by a clear red thread of perennial philosophy. This thread bridges together the holy writings of the Indian Bhagavad Gita, Christian mysticism, as well as Western arts and sciences. Svensson has also read his Julius Evola, and encourages readers to give him a chance, even in the midst of our seeming chaos and nihilism, for a worldview based on order and balance, as well as for the meditative "I AM"-way of life. As is always the case in human spiritual development, everything starts with oneself; this is how the Evolian spirit of nobility can be excavated from under the internal indolence through esoteric knowledge and active action.
Siira ends his review with this quote from the book, an aphorism by me LS summarizing my creed:
You have to be an Aristocrat of the Soul exerting order, not a Chaos Man exerting chaos. And truly, these are chaotic, decadent times. The Chaotic Mindset rules seemingly supreme. So then, how is it to be an Aristocrat of the Soul in this time of decay? What does it mean today to be an esotericist having order within; how does he project this order to the outside world? Does he even do it; is he maybe satisfied with being a quietist, reclining in splendid isolation? This is also feasible. To abstain from direct action is also a way of acting. The Aristocrat of the Soul is the key figure of today, when the esoteric and mythical forces are rejuvenated. Kali Yuga is over. Sat Yuga is here, an era dedicated to art, science and spirituality. [Borderline, p 216]




Related
Original Finnish Text of the Review on Sarastus
Info about "Borderline" on Svenssongalaxen
Buy the book on Amazon
Buy the book on Adlibris
Svensson Interview

lördag 27 februari 2016

No Risk for Major War


Despite all the current hullabaloo, there's no risk for major war. So stop being a Cassandra, stop being a doomsday prophet...! I'd say, the ones prophesying war today are nihilists with chaos inside, people enmeshed in fear-based thinking. -- The text has previously been published on the site Motpol.




At the time of writing this, ”there's war and rumours of war”. And still there are nuclear weapons around to ”obliterate” us. But is there really a risk of major world in the world today? No, I’d say, not in the least. The war trend is going down. The Zeitgeist is essentially peaceful. Thus, the war mongering, even by seemingly sane commentators, has to stop.




The Powers That Be

There is war and rumours of war. The Powers That Be indeed seem bent on starting the Third World War. But the current Zeitgeist is against a major war to break out. Also, the US-EU-Russia-China deal with Iran, 14 July, 2015, was a way toward a calming down of the global situation. For instance, in this treaty Iran promises not to acquire nuclear arms – and these arms they gave up trying to build already in 2003, according to a National Intelligence Estimate from 2007 (”Iran, Nuclear Intentions and Capabilities”).

So peace will prevail. All the internet pundits prophesying ”war this, war that” are way out of line. Also, in the long perspective, the level and intensity of wars has gone down since 1945. The late 1990s saw another turn for the better. The war situation deteriorated a bit in the 2010s; that’s true. The Ukraine and Syria conflicts have had many deaths. But the war situation of today is not anywhere near that of the 1970s and 1980s.




Figures

Hereby some figures to back up my claims. For instance, in 2013 two (2) significant civil wars were ongoing, Syria and Congo. I call that, overall, a peaceful world. My opinion is supported by a report from the peace researcher Peter Wallensteen, published in July 2012. My reading of Wallensteen is based on a Dagens Nyheter article by Anders Bolling from 6/9 2012. Bolling’s article may be somewhat biased. The headline is, on the basis of the big picture given in the article, misleading. The title is ”Minskande krigstrend bröts” = ”Declining war trend broken”.

I mean, that statement might be true in itself. But this was only about the development for 2010-2011. Looking at the period after 1950, the wars have both become less frequent and less bloody. In all, this declining war trend continues.

Bolling’s article focuses on the negavtive aspects of the report, blowing them up. It’s true that the number of armed conflicts increased in 2011. ”The Arab Spring” with the focal point in Libya was behind the increase. But generally, Bolling writes, the trend is pointing downward. In the long term, it’s obvious that we live in a more peaceful world after the Cold War ended: ”In recent decades, the number of armed conflicts in the world has shown a clearly declining tendency.” [Bolling, translated by the author]




In My Crystal Ball

This is worth remembering. In 2010-2011 Wallensteen and his researchers at the Uppsala Conflict Data Program UCDP could note an increase. Wallensteen thinks that this is a trend, that the trend of peace processes and agreements ”may be threatened.” I disagree. Of course, Wallensteen doesn’t say that we’re going back to the Cold War. And this is what we have to remember: the Cold War isn’t coming back. This is an important factor when taking a look at the world of today.

I mean it like this: in my crystal ball I can’t see that the great powers would suddenly begin to openly threaten each other with nuclear arms again. And overall, the armed forces of the world are too small for a new cold war. The conflicts that used to rage over the whole world, they occurred more or less in the context of this former great power conflict. They were incited by the United States and the Soviet Union in order to sell arms to the contestants. This large-scale arms trafficking and ”assistance in the form of weapons” doesn’t exist anymore, at least, nowhere near the same levels as in the 1980s. Having, among other things, this in mind, I am an optimist.




Wallensteen Optimist

In the topical article Bolling also says that Wallensteen, overall, is an optimist: ”At the same time he emphasizes that the level is still far below the darkest years of the early 1990s, when almost 53 armed conflicts raged.” You should also remember that Wallensteen mathematically counts the number of conflicts, all of which have at least 1,000 dead. But there’s another criterion available in making these trend estimates: the number of dead in battle in each of the conflicts. And this, in studying the global war situation, is a number which has plummeted dramatically. This, according to Bolling, researchers in Canada has stated. They say the number of dead in battle by conflict decreased by 90% between the 1950s and the 2000s.

This is a staggering figure. And a compelling figure. This must be considered when discussing our world and its supposed bellicosity. You must see the big picture. To believe in a return to a warlike world à la the 1950s, with bloody conflicts in Korea, the Middle East and Africa, or believing that we get back conflicts as the Vietnam War, Afghanistan 1979-89, the war Iran-Iran at the same time or that Central America would become a war scene as it was in the 80s – this is totally irrelevant. It’s a pessimism that’s somewhat silly.




No Nukes

Indeed, silly? But what about nuclear arms then? They are still around. And they may be used. And a single atomic bomb going off could trigger a nuclear deluge because of misunderstanding. – To this I say: nonsense. This is defeatist nihilism, advocated by people having chaos inside.

Since 1945 the so-called nuclear threshold is insurmountable. There won’t be a nuclear war.

But then the war-mongering Cassandra might say this, as for the scenario of these times being so peaceful, as I claim: Before the First World War the world was also peaceful, the wars were few and far between and distant. The all hell broke loose 1914-1918, getting an even moore bloody reprise in 1939-1945. OK I say to this, but the zeitgeist is totally different now. Since after 11/11 2011 we reportedly live in the Sat Yuga of peace, harmony and spirituality. The preceding era was Kali Yuga where wars, so to speak, went with the territory.




Sat Yuga

You might ask: Sat Yuga is here, indeed? But overall, like domestically, we still see strife and violence. – True that, I say, The Powers That Be currently use every means of instigating Chaos. Like mass-immigration to white countries. But overall I think we do live in the Sat Yuga – an era realized, an era essentially coming true, by each one of us acknowledging the Inner Light of our beings. I mean, we must still fight the NWO. We must 24/7 advocate the ideals of co-nationalism, self-reliance and self-determination, the right of every people to exist in its place of origin. We must fight. But ”when fighting demons, beware that you don’t become a demon yourself” as Nietzsche said. Spiritually, Sat Yuga won’t be realized until we, each one of us, affirm our Inner Light.

Sat Yuga is here and it will be an overall reality when we acknowledge our beings as Responsible Men. When we stop regurgitating the war propaganda of the NWO.

How can I be so sure about this, then? Am I some last court of appeal for the metaphysical truth of the world situation? No. I’m merely making an en estimate in the gray area between contemporary events, pol-sci studies and my impression of the look and feel of it all – the Zeitgeist.




The Dawning of a New Era

The old-school era of wars is over. My guess is that hyper war, the kind of war where two states attacked each other with everything they had – that form of war is history. Vietnam was such a war, Korea another. And in the 1980s such a war raged between Iran and Iraq. Later, in 1990-91, the UN Alliance in Kuwait staged a war against Iraq in a similar hyper-war scenario. A few such wars have occurred since then (Iraq 2.0, Georgia). But now it’s probably over. Until about 2007 the US threatened to attack Iran. And I know, some Americans even talk about doing it today. But the current, autumn 2015 talk of ”attacking Iran,” is absolute nonsense. It will never come about. The window of opportunity for this and any hyper war, big league-attack-scenario anywhere in the world, is closed forever. Libya 2011 was the last show of this kind.

The US defence forces have been cut in half by the current president. Russia (and China) may have more troops available than the US, but the sentiment that allowed hyper war simply doesn’t exist anymore. Overall it’s a peaceful world and the civil wars that are raging are manageable. The current battles in the Middle East are not equal to the Battle of Stalingrad. A tank knocked out by an ISIS rebel is not a major battle of the Kursk type. But this you are led to belive by mainstream media. And pundits and media players, even those of the dissenting, critical kind, should stop repeating these NWO war memes. They should stop scaring people with saying that World War III is looming.




Layman Outlook

Personally, I'm something of a layman in this area of conflict estimate. This doesn’t mean that I’m a frivolous observer. I was born in 1965. Since at least 1980, I’ve observed the world and reflected on the wars being waged. Earlier than that, I had some knowledge of the US war in Vietnam. I never saw it on TV but I do remember television images of the abandoned capital of neighboring Cambodia, Phnom Penh, in 1975, which was a conflict in the same context. China’s attack on Vietnam in 1979 and the Soviet foray into Afghanistan in the same year, are in my memory still clear, as well as the media reporting of 1983 from the Falkland Islands and Grenada. Not to speak of Desert Storm in 1991 and what, before and after, has occurred in the Middle East. And in 1984-85 I served in the Swedish Army as an NCO, seeing the Cold War from ringside.

So I would argue that I, for being a layman in this subject – peace and conflict research, strategic outlooks, foreign and security policy – have a specific, non-professional but unmistakable background. Thereto I hold a BA in Indology, I’m a freelance writer and author of the novel Antropolis, the essay Borderline and bios on Jünger and Wagner. I’ve been published in innumerable magazines and anthologies. And what I overall see, with the main support of Wallensteen’s study and the esoteric theory of Sat Yuga having begun, is that we now live in an essentially peaceful world, about to become a wholly peaceful and prosperous world in every sense. We’re not there yet but for the future we have to acknowledge our personal beings of light as part of the situation. There are no ”random observers” anymore. Everything that we do, every sentiment, every word, counts in building Sat Yuga, the coming Golden Age.




Addenda: a list, given by Dagens Nyheter (ibid), on ”the average number of deaths on the battlefield by conflict and years”:

1950-1959: 9,800
1960-1969: 6,000
1970-1979: 7,000
1980-1989: 5,200
1990-1999: 2,200
2000-2007: 1,100




Related
Borderline
Antropolitan -- The Only Way to Fly
Pic: Östra kanalen, Härnösand

torsdag 25 februari 2016

Interview With Me


The word is spread.




Lithuanian writer Mindaugas Peleckis has conducted an interview with me. It's for his cultural site Radikaliai. We talk about my new book Borderline, tradition, new age, my other books etc. etc. You find it here.

A sample quote from the interview could be this one. Asked about how I perceive the Swedish I for instance say:
From north to south Sweden is studded with churches, today not so very frequented but this will change. Maybe some Christian mysticism, some official recognition of Swedenborg will again fill the churches...? As for Swedenborg he actually happens to be buried in the national cathedral in Uppsala but this is a mere acknowledgment of his worldly greatness, he was famous and therefore he had to be buried in grand fashion, but the Lutheran church (which rules Uppsala cathedral) doesn’t acknowledge Swedenborg’s doctrines. That’s odd.
On a personal note, I enjoyed talking to Mr. Peleckis. The questions made sense and covered about everything, from culture to politics and more. Here's a link to the interview.




Related
Interview
Ascended Masters -- Some Notes

torsdag 28 januari 2016

Responsible Man (poem)

Hallelujah.




Hereby a poem called "Responsible Man". It's about a new-style hero, conceptualizing the world in a different way. Enjoy.


He wrote the rules for
the Game of Life: how to
always win, always be successful,
Winning As Propensity taught to
the people, to all and sundry, to you
and to me, my sister and my brother,
my uncle and my cousin and the village oaf.

He conceptualized military history
into ten basic tenets, condensing
History of Man into a powder, just add
water, drink it and be reanimated.

He taught man I AM, willpower and
affirming of the Inner Light, thus enabling a
liberation movement freeing earth from
alien influence. He was the first Responsible
Man, he was the rebirth of God in Man, the
founder of the First Human Civilization,
taking man to interstellar realms and establishing
contacts with positive aliens, the race of gods, raising
man to their level, creating the ultimate apotheosis.




Related
Actionism -- How to Become a Responsible Man
Borderline
My Author Page on Amazon
Swedish Mystique

torsdag 14 januari 2016

Book News: Borderline -- A Traditionalist Outlook for Modern Man (Svensson 2015)


Universal acclaim for Borderline... "Svensson writes with a smooth ease..." (Heathen Harvest) -- "[A]n excellent survey of Perennialism." (N. M. Phoenix) -- "Svensson's work is held together by a clear red thread of perennial philosophy." (Sarastus) [Links to all these sites below.]




Buy the book on Amazon

Buy the Book on Adlibris

Buy the book on Bokus



Do you want the answers to The Big Questions...? Are you pondering "the nature of reality"...? Are you asking yourself, "what is truth," "are there eternal values"...? -- Then Borderline -- A Traditionalist Outlook for Modern Man is the book for you.

Borderline -- A Traditionalist Outlook for Modern Man is an attempt at unifying Man with God, Action with Being, and the East with the West. In its pages are eradicated the dualism of the thinker and the thought, the dreamer and the dreamed, the doer and the deed.

At the beginning of the 21st century Man stands in a transit zone between reductionism and holism, between materialism and idealism, a glorified grey area in which only an old-new esotericism, a revived tradition of spirituality, will show the way ahead. Borderline is the main document in this respect, a clarion call for a resurgent Philosophy of Being in a time of decay.

This is a popular rendering of serious philosophy. Read about the ontology of Plotinus, the poverty of reductionism and the need for a metaphysical outlook in modern science. Read about the "integral esotericism" of Jung and Goethe, delve into the esoteric strains of Nietzsche and get acquainted with Finnish poet Edith Södergran, "more Nietzschean than Nietzsche himself". Read about the esoteric Christianity of Rudolf Steiner, of Ernst Jünger's metaphysical strains and T. S. Eliot's holistic worldview.

Some quotes from Borderline:

Scientists dream about ”a theory of everything”. But we’ll never find the answer strictly theoretically. We must realize that we ourselves are co-creators of the Cosmos. The future is open because will is free. And once we realize that, then we might be ”given access to the quiet chamber where God ponders the objects” (Södergran). [chapter 7, Anthropic Principle]

Ideas of the eternal quality of the essence of man, of his True Self, will come to the fore in the new era we’re heading for, the Sat Yuga of truth. In all courtesy I say, acknowledge this aspect of reality, give room for it and join me in the Light. [chapter 11, Veda Philosophy]

Today the Zeitgeist is in the throes of (...) chaos and confusion. A new sense of order is needed, a responsibility for the things in life that promote structure and harmony. In short, we need a more spiritual, holistic outlook. [chapter 17, The Chaotic Mindset]

Borderline is written by Lennart Svensson (1965-). He's otherwise known for titles such as Ernst Jünger -- A Portrait and Richard Wagner -- A Portrait. In Swedish he has written the novel Antropolis, a fictional rendering of the same topics treated in Borderline: science versus esotericism, art versus titanism, the need for a holistic outlook in life.

Borderline is published by Australian imprint Numen Books, known for titles such as Twelve Resolutions For a Happy Life (2015) by Abir Taha and Primordial Traditions 1 (2014), edited by Gwendolyn Taunton. Borderline comprises 234 pages, it's a trade paperback and the cover shows the Caspar David Friedrich painting "The Abbey in the Oakwood". Buy the book on Amazon now.




Related
Buy the book on Amazon
Buy the Book on Adlibris
Buy the book on Bokus
Gangleri/nl Review of the Book
The Book Reviewed by N. M. Phoenix
Sarastus Review
Heathen Harvest Review

tisdag 12 januari 2016

Bertel Gripenberg: The Voice in the Dark


In the 1920s Finnish poet Bertel Gripenberg wrote the poem "Rösten i mörkret". Here I've translated it as "The Voice in the Dark". The poem showcased Gripenberg's dissatisfaction with the then liberal Finnish regime. This could remind you of feelings against the current nihilist liberal regimes in Sweden and the West at large. To this, the poem has a timeless quality of an accuser bringing The Powers That Be to justice.




I whisper constantly, again and again the same,
blowing at a half-smothered glow that once high will flame.

As Finland’s bad conscience, I want to watch in the night,
and conjure up visions of evil, forgotten vistas of fright.

For those who now enjoy their success, wrongly received,
I am the ghost living in the cellar, not easily deceived;

and when the day is done, they lie down and can’t hide,
I'll rise threateningly and dark to their side.

I am the little worm finding the sick spot firm,
the secret abyss of the soul where you squirm.

I am the witness peppered with lead
but in the dark each night standing up from the dead.

I’m an ignominious crime that in your house is hidden –
the heavy threat of vengeance, never minding your I didn’,

sounding discreetly like the ticking clock,
yet unrelenting, prepared to give you a shock.

Above the high lords' houses I loom,
as the owl, whose cries are speaking of doom.

I sing the same, the enemy of fawning,
I cry out for justice ’til judgment’s dawning...!




Related
My Author Page on Amazon
Hubbard Anecdotes
Swedish Mystique

lördag 19 december 2015

Son of Sweden (poem)


I'm a poet. I sing for my existence as a white man in a time of PC decay.




I live in the Swedish county of Angermanland, by the Bothnian Sea. I haven't always lived here; some 50 years ago I was born in the county of Lapland, situated inland and to the north-west of Angermanland.

Both Lapland and Angermanland are northern provinces. They are part of NORRLAND as we call it, a mythical part of Sweden just like Scotland of the Bristish Isles or, say, Texas or some other rough-hewn part of the US.

I'm a Northlander. "En norrlänning" as we say. The following poem tells about my northern heritage.

My voyage began in the heart of Lapland
as a Son of Arya, son of log-floaters and farmers,
eyes blue as the blue sky above,
hair yellow as the fields of rye.

I listened to the myths, sang to the northern light,
praised my creator and began my journey.
I lived among the flowers and the trees,
I read about events past and present,
praising my Nordic heritage as a man of the Svea tribe.

This is my land, this is my people; this is
Norrland, part of Sweden. And Norrlanders
are part of the Svea tribe. The Swedes
were Asatru believers in the past, now
sacrificing on other altars,
always affirming their being,
always proud of their heritage --

a small, striving, hardened people
currently under the thumb of The Powers
That Be -- Swedes, a people hectored
and harrassed, a people crying out for
Freedom -- freedom from the irresponsible
punks ruling them, freedom from debauchery
and treason, freedom from indulgence and
idiocy. Freedom to be what they are:
Swedish, and proud of it.




Related
Nordic Sphinx: A Svensson Poem
My presentation of "Ernst Jünger -- A Portrait" on this blog
Living Traditions' (Australia) review of the Jünger book

torsdag 10 december 2015

Idag


Summary in English: some gibberish in my native tongue, Swedish.




Vi måste skapa ett tryggare och mänskligare samhälle. Vi måste skapa en god utbildning för människorna i det här landet. Utvecklingens framsteg måste prioriteras. Vi måste trygga vår livsmedelsförsörjning enligt gängse praxis.

Ett fint liv åstadkoms med gemensamma ansträngningar.

Generell information gynnas av utvecklingen.

- - -

Landets vandel bedrivs i allmänna samhällskategorier.

Relevanta händelser speglas i media.

Allmänna sammanställningar informerar medborgarna.




Relaterat
Ballard: Solens rike (1984)
Ernst Jünger: På marmorklipporna (1939)
Ballard: Miracles of Life: Shanghai to Shepperton (2008)
Bilden föreställer ett sceneri från Härnösand.