Anti-Tradition and Counter-Tradition

<p><span>A number of readers have asked me to write a short article clarifying the distinction between two concepts I often invoke, anti-Tradition and counter-Tradition. So here we are.</span></p><div><figure><a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!9O7U!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F17a81bd2-76af-4ccc-8a67-bb5cc770bb7e_2880x1800.png"></a><div><a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!9O7U!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F17a81bd2-76af-4ccc-8a67-bb5cc770bb7e_2880x1800.png"></a><source type="image/webp"><a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!9O7U!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F17a81bd2-76af-4ccc-8a67-bb5cc770bb7e_2880x1800.png"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!9O7U!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F17a81bd2-76af-4ccc-8a67-bb5cc770bb7e_2880x1800.png" width="1456" height="910" alt=""></a></source><a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!9O7U!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F17a81bd2-76af-4ccc-8a67-bb5cc770bb7e_2880x1800.png"></a><div><a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!9O7U!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F17a81bd2-76af-4ccc-8a67-bb5cc770bb7e_2880x1800.png"></a><div><a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!9O7U!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F17a81bd2-76af-4ccc-8a67-bb5cc770bb7e_2880x1800.png"></a></div><a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!9O7U!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F17a81bd2-76af-4ccc-8a67-bb5cc770bb7e_2880x1800.png"></a></div><a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!9O7U!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F17a81bd2-76af-4ccc-8a67-bb5cc770bb7e_2880x1800.png"></a></div><a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!9O7U!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F17a81bd2-76af-4ccc-8a67-bb5cc770bb7e_2880x1800.png"></a></figure></div><p><span>These are not terms of my own coinage. Rather, they are well established in the Perennialist lexicon. In order to fully appreciate the import of anti- and counter-Tradition, we must first rehearse the meaning of ‘Tradition’.</span></p><p><span>Tradition, from the Latin traditio, means to ‘hand down’. In ordinary speech it is a synonym for custom, but as used by Perennialists it has a more particular and elevated meaning. The distinction in our usage is indicated by the use of an upper case ‘T’ when referring to the specifically Perennialist sense of Tradition (although this practice is not universal among Perennialists). Tradition in this sense denotes all the particular disclosures of the eternal Truth or </span><em><span>Sophia Perennis </span></em><span>within conditioned reality. These are usually, but not always, religions in the sense of both their original Revelation as well as their subsequent orthodox elaboration and what I have called ‘civilization’ (i.e. all that is created by humans on the foundation of this Revelation such as, for example, Gothic architecture). Tradition is also sometimes used by some to indicate the </span><em><span>Sophia Perennis </span></em><span>itself, although I have resisted this usage for the sake of clarity.</span></p><p><span>Anti-Tradition is a straightforward concept. It is the negation, denial or refusal of Tradition. Philosophically, the most obvious example of anti-Tradition is atheism. Being as my focus is on the politics, I will focus on the political manifestations of anti- and counter-Tradition. Those proper to anti-Tradition are liberalism and Marxism.</span></p><p><span>Counter-Tradition is a decidedly more complicated matter, and something much more difficult to distinguish from Tradition. For this reason it, rather than anti-Tradition, has been the focus of my critiques.</span></p><p><span>Counter-Tradition is the inversion, perversion, distortion and parody of Tradition. Its political forms are far more variegated than anti-Tradition. They include, among others: fascism, ‘Christian’ nationalism, Hindutva, Zionism, Islamism, Eurasianism, Juche, Evolianism, and the various figures ranging from Jordan Peterson to Andrew Tate who call for a ‘reclamation of Western civilization’. Although counter-Tradition bears many of the features of Tradition where anti-Tradition does not, and so superficially bears a greater resemblance to Tradition, it is in fact </span><em><span>more </span></em><span>distant from authentic Tradition than is anti-Tradition.</span></p><p><span>To understand why this is, it must be appreciated that anti-Tradition represents an intermediate point between Tradition and counter-Tradition. This can be visualized metaphorically by imagining a sacred scripture being turned upside down. To invert this book completely so that it is not only upside down but back to front, it must for a moment be held in such a way that only the pages of the book can be seen. Here we see the scripture is as close to being completely negated as it possibly can be. Visually, a minimum of the book is present, and we cannot identify what the book is. This, metaphorically, represents how anti-Tradition seeks to erase Tradition but can never do so completely successfully. This sets the stage for what, superficially, appears to be a </span><em><span>return</span></em><span> of Tradition, as the cover of the book comes back into view. However, although the scripture is once more as visible as it was before, the text is now upside down so that it cannot properly be read. In the case of a Bible, the cover image provides a convenient further layer of meaning. What was before the vehicle for the Heavenly savior has become that of the infernal deceiver.</span></p><p><span>It is called </span><em><span>counter</span></em><span>-Tradition in the sense of a </span><em><span>counter</span></em><span>feit. It has been suggested by my readership that the distinction between anti- and counter- may be confusing to many, as the general public take these prefixes to carry synonymous meanings. This I concede, but I have chosen to abide by the conventions of the Perennialist school. I can say in defense of this convention that ‘counter’ can carry the connotation of directing something to an opposite course from its original one, where ‘anti’ is a simple negation. Think of the difference between ‘countervailing forces’ and an ‘antipersonnel mine’.</span></p><p><span>A final note before concluding. A consequence, hinted at earlier, of counter-Tradition occupying a space more distal from Tradition than that of anti-Tradition is that it also coincides with a state of further descent from primordial unity. In other words, it is (even) more of quantity and multiplicity. This accounts for its far greater internal variation than anti-Tradition. Think not only of the examples previously given, but the dizzying array of names a single form may take. To demonstrate, where all communist regimes called themselves “communist”, European fascists were “National Socialists”, “Ustaše”, “Hungarists”, “Legionnarists”, “Falangists”, “Rexists” etc. On reflection, this should be unsurprising. The number of ways a thing may be negated is fairly limited, partly because negation by its nature is something total. But parody allows for a greater profusion of forms, as perversion can be accomplished without inversion of each and every feature of the original. Indeed, a parody is all the better for allowing certain features to remain as in the genuine article. And so a number of different counter-Traditions can be produced from a single Tradition according to which elements are inverted or distorted, and in what manner, just as for every authentic currency a multitude of counterfeits exist. This maximization of dissolution will, however, itself be negated – at least in some regards – when counter-Tradition reaches its climax with the advent of the Antichrist.</span></p><p><a href="https://politicalperennialism.substack.com/p/anti-tradition-and-counter-tradition?utm_source=substack&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_content=share&amp;action=share"><span>Share</span></a></p><div><div><div><p>Political Perennialism is a reader-supported publication. 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