In Austria, calling Muhammad a ‘paedophile’ constitutes illegal denigration of “religious teachings”. This is what Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff was found guilty of in an Austrian court. Read on for an extensive analysis of the puzzling verdict.

Alain de Benoist's 1985 book length essay, The Problem of Democracy is now available from the Arktos publishing house. Outside of specialist circles, and certainly within English speaking countries, Alain de Benoist may not be particularly well known. However, with a more popular emergence of a new conservative political thinking, an intellectual strain divorced from traditional Buckleyist and neo-conservative schools, but grounded in more classical views of government and social relations, de Benoist's words may gain better familiarity. Our copy arrived as a well-bound hardback edition sporting either an aesthetically questionable or intentionally humorous dust jacket. The book is good quality and should hold up through many readings. No subject or name index is provided, however editor John Morgan added additional notes wherever explanatory assistance was deemed necessary. Editor Morgan also provided, if available, English language citations for sources referenced in the original French, and Tomislav Sunic authored a Preface. As with the Arktos Media edition of Faye’s Archeofuturism, Sergio Knipe is the translator. The Problem of Democracy consists of five chapters written in a general expository style along with an appended summary: Ten Thesis on Democracy. It must be noted that the author's prose style is both straightforward and eminently readable. Those expecting something typically academic, something typically arcane, or in a style similar to that of, say, Jacques Derrida, will be disappointed.

Recent developments in the Arab world led by Egypt have given rise to a new cottage industry. For the sake of that country, one would hope that the interest at its current levels would be of limited duration. Instead of recounting the past and dwelling on yet inconclusive indicators, it is time to fit the process into a larger design. Taking a step back from the immediate, helps to us to see the whole to the extent that our experience can be applied to it. Discovered tendencies help to envisage future scenarios.

This final Part 5 (B) concludes "'I See Further Than Others': Reflections On Oswald Spengler's The Decline of the West and The Hour of Decision", a serial essay by Steve Kogan.

It is rare for Spengler to speak of the actual death of a culture. The past for him is "living history," and even the end-time Cosmopolis that he envisions will be rooted in a "life-feeling" all its own. Its core impulses, however, like those of earlier city-civilizations, will be fact-oriented and materialistic rather than soulful and inward, and eventually the body itself will die, the last remains of "the great petrifact."

As in Weil's reading of the Iliad, but far less emphatically, The Decline "lies under the shadow of the greatest calamity the human race can experience - the destruction of a city" (1); yet it lacks the qualities of justice and compassion in Homer that "bathe the work in their light without ever becoming noticeable themselves, except as a kind of accent." No such accent is heard in The Decline, nor could it be, since the Iliad for Spengler belongs to "the spiritual childhood of the Doric," whereas The Decline is an "early winter" expression of an irreligious, or "unphilosophical philosophy - the last that West Europe will ever know."

1. Life writes better plots for the stories it creates than do the authors of spy novels. This is not accidental. When the outlines of stories are mapped out, their authors proceed from the reality they know. All the twists of the tale to be told originate from that condition. This remains the case even if intentionally the unlikely is being depicted. Actual events have the ability to create new and unanticipable conditions. This is why even knowledgeable predictions are likely to be no better than the forecast of next summer’s weather.

This is Part 5 (A) of "'I See Further Than Others': Reflections On Oswald Spengler's The Decline of the West and The Hour of Decision", a serial essay by Steve Kogan.

Conceived in view of an imminent world war, The Decline of the West bids a long farewell to a vanishing world, whose fate is mirrored in the "blossoming and fading" of other "once flourishing cultures" (1). Their end is all the more poignant in that they are "sublimated life-essences," like "the flowers of the field," which is also the "mother" landscape of their prime symbols, or "first visible structure, / So that what first appears, even in plants, is the child" (2). Hence Spengler's "Rural-intuitive" epoch of a culture's awakening, such as the "infant Christianity," born in the "springtime" of the Magian world, and "that deeply-felt relationship between plant destiny and human destiny which is an eternal theme of all lyrical poetry."

Guillaume Faye's Archeofuturism: European Visions of the Post-Catastrophic Age is now available for English readers. Translated from the French by Sergio Knipe and published by U.K house, Arktos Media, Archeofuturism's 250 pages begin with a foreword by Michael O'Meara. Surprisingly, there is no updated author's introduction to the new English edition; instead, the introduction appears to be from the original French. It is, however, remarkable for lacking an index although, at the same time, we are happy to find sufficient textual explanatory notes added by editor John Morgan. Without them, certain allusions and references would likely not be very well understood by most American readers. Archeofuturism is divided into two parts: the first and the bulk consists of five sections containing Faye's arguments and support; the remainder is Faye's science-fiction short story set in the coming archeofuturist era, AD 2073. Archeofuturism is not overly detailed in argument, but flows rapidly offering “glimpses and sketches, each shedding more or less light, to make the book easier to read.” In this we believe the author has generally succeeded. One must keep in mind that the book was written prior to 1998. The fact that only now does it warrant an English translation speaks not only to the on-going relevance of Faye's topic, but the state of political-right publishing—Faye is not a typical “right liberal” after Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, and the like. We therefore welcome the opportunity to encounter an author not well-known in America, and are grateful to Arktos Media.

This is Part 4 (B) of "'I See Further Than Others': Reflections On Oswald Spengler's The Decline of the West and The Hour of Decision", a serial essay by Steve Kogan.

Early in The Decline, Spengler cautions the reader that the “Destiny-idea,” like "inward certainty," will always elude strict analysis, although it makes perfect sense in the high arts and among those whose vocation seems innate, such as Spengler's "born" historian, physicist, or leader. Michaelangelo believed that his statues existed fully formed within their blocks of stone; Leonardo said that a drawing should be complete in its very first line, and Spengler would have found an exact parallel to the awakening of a cultural destiny in Delacroix's reflections on the origins of a pictorial masterpiece:

The first outlines through which an able master indicates his thought contains the germ of everything significant that the work will offer. Raphael, Rembrandt, Poussin . . . they make a few rapid strokes on the paper, and it seems that there is not one of them but has its importance. For intelligent eyes, the life of the work is already to be seen everywhere . . . it has scarcely opened to the light, and already it is complete. (1)

The Arab world is endeavoring to topple its governments. At the time of this writing the extent and the success of the effort is still undetermined. Comparable occurrences in other world neighborhoods are not unlikely.

The attempt to bring about change against resistant dictatorships is understandable. Being that, it is, therefore, also predictable. When the chapter is closed, some of these oppressive systems might continue to hold on. After all, beyond a ruthlessly applied machinery of suppression, significant supportive forces stand behind them.

Paul Belien will surely forgive me for using his well-known expression.  It was simply the first thing that crossed my mind when I read the article with the revealing title 'Breaking up is hard to do' in the European Voice a couple of weeks ago.  

Author Tim King wonders whether it would be easier for the eurozone to break apart or for Belgium to split up.  True, both scenarios are fraught with difficulties.  In King's view, both putative break-ups have in common that it is unclear whether there is an exit strategy.