THE CULT OF INCOMPETENCE

Émile Faguet was an important French writer and political philosopher. This extract, from his seminal work, "The Cult of Incompetence," was published in Aristokratia II, a journal of philosophy dedicated to the ideas of Nietzsche, Plato, Evola, Cioran, Aristotle, Socrates, and others. Aristokratia III: Hellas was recently published, and is highly recommended.

THE PRINCIPLES OF FORMS OF GOVERNMENT

By Émile Faguet (Translated by Beatrice Barstow)

The question has often been asked, what is the animating principle of different forms of government, for each, it is assumed, has its own principle. In other words, what is the general idea which inspires each political system?

Montesquieu, for instance, proved that the principle of monarchy is honour, the principle of despotism fear, the principle of a republic virtue or patriotism, and he added with much justice that governments decline and fall as often by carrying their principle to excess, as by neglecting it altogether.

And this, though a paradox, is true. At first sight it may not be obvious how a despotism can fall by inspiring too much fear, or a constitutional monarchy by developing too highly the sentiment of honour, or a republic by having too much virtue. It is nevertheless true.

THE GLADIATORS

With Europe in the public eye over the next few days thanks to the European Parliamentary Elections, we are re-running some relevant and informative articles on Euro-nationalism, like this one from 11th October, 2012.

by Dimitrios Papageorgiou

Two days have passed since Angela Merkel's visit to Greece, a visit that was viewed by the Greek people as an “imperial visit.” It was treated as such, with a large crowd of about 50,000 people demonstrating in front of the parliament.

The pictures of rock throwing youths and clashes with the police were typical of the footage that usually accompanies stories about Greece in the world media. But what is the real situation in Greece nowadays?

One can best describe it as a resurgence of the “extremes.” Only three months after the July election, which wounded the political establishment but did not kill it, it seems that the political feeling in the country is flowing to the opposite ends of the political spectrum. Both SYRIZA (extreme left) and Golden Dawn (nationalists) are gaining in popularity, and are providing the main theses to the opposition. Both are self-branded anti-establishment parties, and both want to see an end the loaning agreement between the EU-IMF-CEB and Greece.