# Further Orientation

## Books That Don’t Lie

You’ve seen through the official story. Now you want to dig deeper. These are the thinkers who refused to look away.

1835

Alexis de Tocqueville – Democracy in America

Not just about America. A warning about the soft despotism that arises when equality is worshipped more than liberty. Surprisingly relevant.

1896

Gaetano Mosca – The Ruling Class

Simple and brutal: a class always rules. Democracy changes the costumes, not the structure.

1911

Robert Michels – Political Parties

Where it begins. The Iron Law of Oligarchy in raw form: every organisation becomes elite-led.

1922

Oswald Spengler – The Decline of the West

Civilisations as living organisms. A worldview grounded in cycles, not fantasies of progress.

1922

Carl Schmitt – Political Theology

Power defined by decision. Who rules is who decides when the rules break.

1928

Edward Bernays – Propaganda

Written by the father of public relations. He’s not ashamed, he teaches how to control minds in democratic systems. Chillingly honest.

1932

Carl Schmitt – The Concept of the Political

The friend/enemy distinction. The essence of the political is conflict, not consensus.

1935

Vilfredo Pareto – The Mind and Society

Human behaviour decoded through residues and derivations. Ideology seen as rationalised instinct.

1943

René Guénon – The Crisis of the Modern World

The metaphysical twin of Evola. Lays bare the anti-traditional foundations of the modern West.

1951

James Burnham – The Machiavellians

Elite theory cleaned of sentiment. A manual for understanding power without illusions.

1951

Ernst Jünger – The Forest Passage

A poetic and powerful guide for the inner exile. For those who reject total mobilisation but refuse passivity. Evola meets guerrilla monk.

1961

Jacques Ellul – Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes

A devastating breakdown of how modern propaganda isn’t just lies—it’s environment. The best book on how mass opinion is manufactured.

1973

Jean Raspail – The Camp of the Saints

Prophetic fiction that captures demographic collapse and elite complicity. Not theory—vision. Useful for emotional calibration.

1974

Julius Evola – Revolt Against the Modern World (First major English edition)

A rejection of materialist modernity in favour of vertical hierarchy and transcendence.

1977

Julius Evola – Ride the Tiger

What to do when civilisation dissolves. The metaphysical shield against the Kali Yuga.

1984

Alain de Benoist – The Problem of Democracy

A frontal attack on liberal democracy from the Nouvelle Droite. Argues that “people rule” is a metaphysical fiction. Dense, but vital.

1994

Christopher Lasch – The Revolt of the Elites

A prescient critique of the post-national, post-virtue managerial class. Shows how today’s elites severed ties with place, people, and duty.

2022

Neema Parvini – The Populist Delusion

Modern synthesis. A clear lens for understanding our moment, and why mass politics always fails.