Continental-Conscious

Doctoral exam passed! Thanks be to the Divine!

"Our intent with this work is to arm him who feels dogged by something unseen, like a hagstone placed in the hand of Peredur. Its purpose is to lend form to suspicion. It functions to quiet the orderlies, and to assure the reader that his misgivings about the Kafkaesque box — which he calls home on account of a paucity of personal agency — are, in fact, well-founded, regardless of the purse-lipped protests of his well-paid therapist. This book is, to borrow the word from Nietzsche, a rhapsody, arranged to accompany the movements of him who was already dancing, alone, without it. Is this 'traditionalism?' Who can say. It hardly matters; the word is too rife and many who attire themselves with it succeed only in reducing the idea to an issue of modern aesthetics anyhow. What we describe is no City of Ezekiel, but only the inclination to laugh in the faces of those who would. It defies terminology, that great siege-weapon of all degeneracy — useless without a metropolis against which to unleash it. Is it humanism? Nonsense. The very notion is a redress of hubris after the fashion of French revolutionaries. What we see, not ahead like judgement day or above like the cross of Constantine, or rather what we observe, not what we envision, is a recollection as opposed to a prophecy — not humanism, but humane in the sense that we remind man to affirm himself rather than deny himself... Perhaps by these observations it will be argued that we mean some sort of a revolution, nonetheless — Prolix. It’s an exorcism, more nearly. Only ‘the people’ are so cursed as to believe that the meaning of the golden age myth is in what’s before us, in the future; no, futurism is incompatible with heroism. Could all this be “conservative?” Impossible, when the mentality described here constitutes nothing short of exile from the mundus ut est. The conservation of man, yes, but first the golems whom we’ve dressed up and called ‘men’ out of some ghastly etiquette will have to be, once again, seen through. Reactionary? 'Alright,' says Cioran, 'But in the same way God is.'" - from the Foreword to A Slow Death or, The Silence of the Old World by Alexander J. Ford and Jack R. Parnell NOW AVAILABLE in paperback and ebook from PRAV Publishing https://pravpublishing.com/product/slow-death/

THE WAIT IS OVER! NOW AVAILABLE from PRAV Publishing: A Slow Death or, The Silence of the Old World by Alexander J. Ford and Jack R. Parnell https://pravpublishing.com/product/slow-death/ 136 pages. Available in paperback and ebook editions. *** It has been now two hundred thirty-one years since Edmund Burke wrote of the materialistic revolutionaries in France: “The age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded, and the glory of Europe is extinguished forever.” The passage of time has long since rendered the verdict that those were vatic words rather than reactionary contrivances, nearer to the spirit of Cassandra than to those of the last Pisistratids. In A Slow Death or, The Silence of the Old World, Alexander Ford and Jack Parnell unveil a no-holds-barred assault on the citadels of Burke’s sophists, revealing that modernism and all of its progeny are essentially linguistic phenomena. What emerges from two centuries of academic haze is a lucid and elemental picture of the metaphysical disposition which defined the pre-industrial world. In this collection of swift essays and striking aphorisms, Nietzsche and Cioran talk to priests, Wittgenstein and Dugina face the eschaton, Krier and Evola critique consumerism, and Soviet and American Housing are haunted by the spirits of the home. A Slow Death is a dramatic confrontation too long in the making, an urgent questioning, and a radical answering. ***

Somewhere in Serbia

It is beautiful, moving, and a call for celebration when friends grow, succeed, and overcome. Today, one of my best friends and closest collaborators, John Stachelski, became Dr. Stachelski. He was conferred the title of Doctor of Philosophy at the graduation ceremony at Yale University, which was marked by protests in which he also took part. His dissertation, "The Geopoetics of an Undiscovered Continent: Eurasianism as a Writing Practice", is one of the best (and one of the only hermeneutically serious) contributions to Eurasianist scholarship ever authored in the West.... where Eurasianism has been reserved the place of being one of the cultures and ideas that are not allowed to be understood, only caricatured and scapegoated to the tune of so many generous foreign-policy grants. And yet, one person decided to be serious, to think seriously, and to seriously dare to go through the institutions. Dr. Stachelski already knows how it is to be praised as well as persecuted, promoted as well as challenged and blocked, read and discussed as well as shelved and passed over in calculated silence, to feel at home as well as far away. This is the experience and fate of thinkers, scholars, and students in the modern world who at one point or another go through the old institutions. Today is not only — or maybe even not at all — a celebration of academic achievement, but a celebration of a man who is authentic and unbreakable. What is so valuable in the contemplative life (bios theoretikos), among other things, is the “uneasy equilibrium” of thinking, struggle, and piety, or in other words: wading through and standing upright fully in the midst of hermeneutic tension. A real scholar, as opposed to an academic bureaucrat or opportunist pseudo-intellectual, demands thinking instead of “journalism,” understanding and interpretation instead of “exorcising,” content and context instead of “consensus,” critically retrieving “rejected knowledge” instead of selling the soul of oneself and others for “rejecting knowledge,” and holding oneself to higher standards beyond whatever may be the “standards” of the day. Ever since John and I became friends more than a decade ago, I have witnessed and joined him in going through the whole drama. Once upon a time, we discussed the ideas being worked out in his dissertation while I was in the jungle of Laos and he was in the center of Moscow. Once upon a time, we discussed the ideas being worked out in his dissertation while I was in the concrete jungle of Warsaw and he was teaching in a Yale classroom. Once upon a time, we discussed the ideas being worked out in his dissertation while I was at Lake Baikal and he was near Lake Chicago. Once upon a time, we discussed the ideas being worked out in his dissertation when I was in the desert of Arizona and he was in the capital of Chechnya. Once upon a time, when travel and gatherings were extremely restricted during the Covid lockdowns, we smuggled ourselves to the hospitality of the woods of Northern Michigan to discuss what it’s all for and why. We even once discussed the ideas with his grandma in a small town in Illinois. All along the way, here and there and in-between, thinking and camaraderie were the way, the open-ended borderland of transcontinental scale. And now, my friend, colleague, and comrade has beaten all the odds, those posed from the outside as well as those within his ever doubting self as a thinker and feeler of the world. He has become a Doctor of Philosophy emerging beyond the mists/midsts of so many “doctorings” and “honorary stooges”. The world awaits his further thinking, writing, and acting. I ask for celebrations and inspirations around Dr. Stachelski's grand achievement and, with my own doctoral exams and defense looming in the coming weeks, I hope for Dr. Stachelski’s blessings! P.S. Once upon a time, Daria Platonova Dugina said that we looked like brothers. Of course, she was right!

Puddle at your feet Global warming Is a blessing to those Ruled by an ice queen who has taken men down with A cold glare and frostbite for a heart-oh-so-mean Your toes blanched, white, waxy, then black and dead at last For overstepping her borders like Stalingrad - She will wait you out Grinning, clenching teeth, pursing lips Without moving her eyes, ever. Jaw locked (Her only tight embrace) But what will remain Of that biting heat if met with a quiet hearth? Not even a primordial sea, a puddle at most. Austerity and solitude once erected toweringly high icicles who look so silly now wetting your pulsing warm feet No more castration Or self-flagellation To please a despotic heart No more breaking things Just because it’s easier to do and harder to repair when frozen. It’s all said and done. I shall never forget how my punishing winter had me bereave myself I rule by different means now And let a golden summer crown my soul

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THE HORNS HAVE SOUNDED: PRAV GEAR IS HERE https://pravpublishing.com/product/prav-gear/ True book publishing is not a business, but an art, a dedication, a passion, even “philosophy” in the original sense of the word as “love for wisdom.” Alas, in the world into which we were born — a regime of markets, virtuality, censorship, and conformism, where the Dollar desperately wishes to remain king and where taking the time to read and think is a real challenge — maintaining and growing an independent book publishing house is no easy feat. Especially when books like ours go against the grain, suggest a different reality, and encourage paths of Thinking and Being that can’t be accounted for by “algorithms” and “data”. In the four years since we got started, PRAV Publishing has been blessed with dedicated readers and inspiring interlocutors. As PRAV finds itself at a crossroads of new opportunities, new challenges, and newfound aspirations, we are humbled to be asking for your support for the first time — a time when your support is more vital, needed, and potentially farther-reaching than ever before. We want to do both more and better. By purchasing a PRAV t-shirt, sweatshirt, tote bag, coffee mug, or decal sticker, you are helping lay part of the foundation for the grand agora, library, and temple of Thinking and Being that we are striving to build. The proceeds of each piece of apparel and gear which you take your precious time and resources to purchase don’t go to some corporation or ideological corner. They go to help bring to you the ideas, authors, and books that open up horizons for understanding and living better in the world in which we find ourselves, a world in which something like PRAV Publishing appeared and has dared to take the leap and explore what calls for (re)thinking above and beyond the reigning illusions. Moreover, we dare to share that wearing and brandishing the PRAV symbol has been proven to be a highly effective way of cleansing a place of bad spirits, cancelling out the emissions of corporate logos, and turning unexpected people onto the path of great questions. Without further ado, we are pleased to unveil the first batch of PRAV gear, available worldwide for all “with eyes to see and ears to hear.” For a limited time only, we’re able to offer 5% off with the discount code: prav5 https://prav-publishing.creator-spring.com/