“That the reactionary protests against progressive society, judges it, and condemns it, and yet is resigned to its current monopoly of history, seems an eccentric position. The radical progressive, on the one hand, does not comprehend how the reactionary condemns an action that he acknowledges, and the liberal progressive, on the other, does not understand how he acknowledges an action that he condemns. The first demands that he relinquish his condemnation if he recognizes the action’s necessity, and the second that he not confine himself to abstention from an action that he admits is reprehensible. The former warns him to surrender, the latter to take action. Both censure his passive loyalty in defeat.”
-Nicolás Gómez Dávila, “The Authentic Reactionary“
October 25th, 2012 | 5:07 pm
Here’s a 2004 book review from Die Zeit which provides a little more information (in German) about Nicolás Gómez Dávila:
“There are writers who love him. He haunts the essays of Botho Strauss; the late Ernst Jünger was influenced by him; George Steiner knows him; Martin Mosebach has visited him. Gabriel García Márquez is reputed to have said that if he were not a Communist, he would think like Nicolás Gómez Dávila. Some eyes light up when the conversation turns to him, but there are also people who hold the mere mention of his name as evidence of a semi-fascist commitment.”
http://www.zeit.de/2004/10/L-Davila
October 26th, 2012 | 8:44 am
[...] Dávila on the Authentic Reactionary – Matthew Schmitz, First Thoughts [...]
October 27th, 2012 | 10:23 am
Readers may be interested to read some of my translations of Nicolas Gomez-Davila into English. The selections reflect my own interest in architecture and urbanism.
Nicolas Gomez-Davila
I communicated with the publishers of the Spanish edition of Gomez-Davila’s works, who told me that a comprehensive English edition is being prepared. But so far I haven’t seen it.
Best wishes,
Nikos
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