Individualism
René Guénon — The Crisis of the Modern World (2)
“ By individualism we mean the negation of any principle higher than individuality, and the consequent reduction of civilisation, in all its branches, to purely human elements; fundamentally, therefore, individualism amounts to the same thing as what, at the time of the Renaissance, was called ‘humanism’; It’s also the characteristic feature of the ‘profane point of view’, which coincides with the anti-traditional outlook that lies at the root of all specifically modern tendencies.
Individualism implies, in the first place, the negation of intellectual intuition -inasmuch as this is essentially a supra-individual faculty- and of the knowledge that constitutes the true province of this intuition, namely metaphysics understood in its true sense. It also necessarily implies the refusal to accept any authority higher than the individual, as well as any means of knowledge higher than individual reason; these two attitudes are inseparable.
Consequently the modern outlook was bound to reject all spiritual authority in the true sense of the word, namely authority that is based on the supra-human order, as well as any traditional organisation, that is, any organisation based essentially on this authority, whatever be its form — for the form will naturally vary with each civilisation.
Individualism is what sponsors the spirit of debate everywhere. It is always possible to hold discussions within the realm of individual opinion, as this does not go beyond the rational order, and it is easy to find more or less valid arguments on both sides of a question when there is no appeal to any higher principle. Indeed, in many cases, discussion can be carried on indefinitely without arriving at any solution. The real motive is not the wish to attain to knowledge of the truth, but to prove oneself right in spite of opposition, or at least, if one cannot convince others, convince oneself of one’s own rightness.
Modern man, instead of attempting to raise himself to truth, seeks to drag truth down to his own level
It is very difficult to make our contemporaries see that there are things which by their very nature cannot be discussed. Modern man, instead of attempting to raise himself to truth, seeks to drag truth down to his own level, which is doubtless the reason why there are so many who imagine, when one speaks to them of ‘traditional sciences’, or even of pure metaphysics, that one is speaking only of ‘profane science’ and of ‘philosophy’.
Those who are qualified to speak in the name of a traditional doctrine do not need to discuss with the ‘profane’ or to engage in polemics; they have only to expound the doctrine as it is, and, at the same time, to denounce error wherever it arises, and expose it by casting upon it the light of true knowledge. Their function is not to compromise doctrine by taking part in strife, but to pronounce the judgement which they have the right to pronounce, if they effectively possess the principles that should infallibly inspire them.
The domain of strife is the domain of action, that is to say the individual and temporal domain; the ‘unmoved mover’ produces and directs movement without being involved in it; knowledge enlightens action without partaking of its vicissitudes; the spiritual guides the temporal without mingling with it; and thus everything remains in its proper order, in the rank that is its own in the universal hierarchy.
But where is the notion of a real hierarchy still to be found in the modern world? Nothing and nobody is any longer in the right place; men no longer recognise any effective authority in the spiritual order or any legitimate power in the temporal; the ‘profane’ presume to discuss what is sacred, and to contest its character and even its existence; the inferior judges the superior, ignorance sets bounds to wisdom, error prevails over truth, the human is substituted for the Divine, earth has priority over Heaven, the individual sets the measure for all things and claims to dictate to the universe laws drawn entirely from his own relative and fallible reason.”
René Guénon — The Crisis of the Modern World 1927
