Evola on Being a Reactionary (and Cuckservatives)

I received a copy of Men Among the Ruins by Julius Evola in the mail today.  I read this in the first pages, and thought that it was worth sharing here, given the title and theme of my blog.

     Otherwise, another watchword is to be preferred, namely reaction.  To adopt it and call oneself  "reactionary" is a true test of courage.  For quite some time, Left-wing movements have made the term "reaction" synonymous with all kinds of iniquity and shame; they never miss an opportunity to thereby stigmatize all those who are not helpful to their cause and who do not go with the flow, or do not follow what, according to them, is the "course of History."  While it is very natural for the Left to employ this tactic, I find it unnatural the sense of anguish that the term often induces in people, due to their lack of political, intellectual, and even physical courage; this lack of courage plagues even the representatives of the so-called Right or "national conservatives," who, as soon as they are labeled "reactionaries," protest, exculpate themselves, and try to show that they do not deserve the label.  

     What is the Right expected to do?  While activists of the Left are "acting" and carrying forward the process of world subversion, is a conservative supposed to refrain from reacting and rather to look on, cheer them on, and even help them along the way?

This is as relevant today as it was when it was written, in 1972.  At the end, Evola aptly describes cuckservatives, who are today as liberal as the Liberals of Evola's day.  As flattering as the second sentence is, in my own case I don't think that calling myself a reactionary is particularly courageous.  I have nothing to lose, so I might as well speak up.

Men Among the Ruins looks like an interesting read.