When examining the evolution of social stratification in relation to the characteristics of the dominant classes at any given time, we must not forget the historical period to which we refer, so that comparisons of our era with the past are essential and enlightening. For example, let us remember that, until the pre-war period before the First Great War, the European political scene continued to be greatly influenced by Christian morals, while the bourgeoisie sought to be a model of morality and sought (… in its mind) to make and keep people moral.
Thus it directed and educated the people to behave with relative responsibility, dignity and honor. Today, in the slow but generalized disorganization, the current, completely dishonest and undignified political schemers, (trapped in a blatant state of irresponsibility and dependence on the Regime), when they violate or harm the people as a whole, not only do they no longer resign, but they remain hooked on power, clinging to power, to the little power they may have (that is: to the money that their dishonest office allows them to earn). They all do so by claiming their “absolute innocence” before the eyes of the world, assuring them that they are ….. pure and white as snow, when they get into trouble.
In Western countries, one of the main reasons why fraudulent political schemers (in extremely rare cases associated with the “Great War Mafia”) no longer give up despite blatant mafia practices is that, whatever their political label, everyone depends on each other, everyone has files on each other, full of incriminating evidence: If one falls, the rest fall, the whole mafia system collapses.
As the French say, “ils se tiennent tous par la barbichette” – “everyone holds on by the beard”, a metaphorical expression meaning that everyone is involved or dependent on each other, often because they share the same secrets, responsibilities or weaknesses. [The expression comes from the traditional French children’s game of the same name (“le jeu de la barbichette”). In this game, two players hold each other by the beard, the chin (the “barbichette”) and sing a little song that ends with the first person to laugh receiving a light slap. No one can make a move without the other being constantly alert, reflecting precisely the dynamics of interdependence].
The second main reason for this situation is linked to the deeper assessments made by the French metaphysical philosopher and esotericist René Guénon about the “Great Deceiver” in the penultimate chapter of his book “The Power of Quantity and the Signs of the Times” – “Le règne de la quantité et les signes des temps” (1945). For the French Master, the term “Great Deceiver” which usually refers to the “Big Lie” does not refer to an individual historical figure, but to a collective and cosmic deception. Specifically, it encompasses and represents the following:
- Neospiritualism and Pseudo-Traditions: Guénon uses the term and concept of fraud to denounce various modern occult movements. The main exponent of this phenomenon was the infamous “Theosophical Society”, which he characterized as a “pseudo-religion” and a collection of distorted Eastern doctrines fabricated by impostors.
- The Materialistic Illusion of the Modern Age: The entire modern materialistic civilization can be broadly seen as the “Great Deception” or as the Vedic “Great Illusion” (Māyā) [Maya in Vedic and generally Hindu philosophy is the cosmic force of illusion. It literally means “non-being”, “that which is not” or “magic”. It describes the way in which we mistakenly perceive the world as real and material, when in reality it is an ever-changing projection of divine consciousness.
According to the Genoese worldview, our era is at the peak of the “Kali Yuga” (the “Dark Age” of the Hindu cosmic cycle), where everything is reversed. The emphasis on quantity over quality expresses a critical fundamental misunderstanding of spiritual reality.
The Phenomenon of the Antichrist: In the eschatology of Master Guénon, his work contains references to the Great Counterfeiter-Impostor, who imitates the authentic Spiritual Authority and attempts to deceive humanity, in order to create a “reverse spirituality”, a “counter-tradition” with the ultimate goal of the moral and social collapse of humanity, as well as its spiritual annihilation. In Christian eschatology, the Antichrist emerges as the leader of a global “Anti-society”, which promotes lawlessness and distances man from primary truth and morality. He functions as the ultimate symbol of what is today characterized as cultural deconstruction. In the esoteric tradition, the Antichrist embodies the “Anti-initiation”. It is a pseudo-spiritual path that uses egoism, illusion and black magic, gradually leading to the complete disconnection of the soul from the Divine.
This figure, placed at the top of the community, is arrogantly described by …. himself, as supposedly the fullest expression and the “incarnation” of what he will represent. The fact is that, in our days, the political schemer and schemer has become a model for the masses, who identify with him and, more or less unconsciously, would like to imitate him, according to a demonic nemesis. Contrary to what some would like us to believe, most voters are increasingly tolerant of the various scandals that have erupted around the world. In traditional cultures, people spontaneously identified with heroes. On the contrary, in modern anti-traditional and decadent societies, the people identify with the anti-heroes offered to them as role models by the media, especially since the people feel that, basically, there are no qualitative differences between them and their anti-heroes, so, therefore, they are considered and consider them as “one of them”!
Structural public corruption and the related phenomenon of global gangsterism and organized crime as one of the signs of the advent, the evolving coming of this “Fifth Social Class.”
To understand this, we must first of all give a brief description of the concept just mentioned, which is based on the idea of a regression or a descent of political power, of the type of culture and, in general, of the dominant values, along these four levels which every complete, and, we may even say, “normal” social organization encloses in a hierarchical system.
- At the top of this organization were the rulers who were invested with spiritual power.
- Next came the warrior aristocracy.
- In third place were the wealthy bourgeois and whoever concentrated his interests on the economic level (the “merchants”, the Hindu vaishya caste 3); and
- finally came the workers, the “people”.
Now, it is quite clear that in the history we know this pyramid has collapsed and we have seen a descent from one level to the next of these four levels.
From a culture characterized by the sacred, in which the authentis* or the ruling class exercised a superior right based mainly on a spiritual basis and on “divine right”, we passed to societies supported exclusively by the warrior aristocracy.
A phase that closed with the cycle of the great European dynasties. With the French Revolution, democracy, liberalism and industrialization, the Third Social Class assumed de facto power as the capitalist and plutocratic class of the bourgeoisie and the real authentis now became the masters of money, the various “kings” of coal, steel, oil, etc.
The socialist and proletarian movements, which ended with communism and Sovietism, are a prelude to the emergence of the last layer, the Fourth Social Class, which wants to undermine the culture of the Third Social Class (in principle, it is in this light that one should really understand the conflict between “East” and “West”, between the communist states and the United States, together with their satellites) and guarantee itself world domination: the Fourth Social Class against what remains of the Third Social Class in the world.
From the perspective of the Right, these are the terms in which the “meaning of history” is presented – only, in reality, we should rather call it the lack of meaning in history. But does this regressive process stop at the Fourth Social Class? The downward course of history will not stop with the Fourth Estate – that is, with the collectivized Marxist and communist world. It will rather tend to perpetuate itself with the emergence of a Fifth Social Class.
What would this Fifth Social Class be?
Here we must refer above all to the idea that every organization includes two basic elements: The forces of order on the one hand, the forces of chaos on the other. Organization results from a formative action that connects and limits the latter forces within defined structures (where they can manifest themselves creatively, as dynamic agents). And when a cycle approaches its end, this elemental substratum, the subpersonal substratum that one could almost call Goetheian “demonic”**, (which in traditional cultures was subordinated, kept under control and elevated by a higher law and by the natural prestige that invested the spiritual, heroic and aristocratic values and their representatives), this substratum tends to return to its free state, to act destructively, to gain the upper hand. This is the limit: it corresponds to the arrival of the Fifth Social Class.”
The Evolian Theory of “Caste Regression” or “Caste Regression”
To understand what the “fifth estate” is, it is necessary to frame it in Evola’s cyclical and anti-regressive – regressive – retrograde conception of history, diametrically opposed to the idea of linear progress. Evola adopts the traditional four-part social distinction of castes (present for example in ancient India or the feudal Middle Ages) and argues that political and spiritual power progressively collapsed through four historical stages:
- First Social Class: The era of sacred kingship and spiritual aristocracy (the leaders were divine guides or warrior-priests).
- Second Social Class: The era of warrior aristocracy and blood aristocracy (its decline led to its external expression towards pure military power).
- Third Social Class: The era of the bourgeoisie and capitalism (the triumph of the economy, merchants and industrialism).
- Fourth Social Class: The era of the proletariat, socialism and Marxist collectivism (power passes to the mass of workers).
What is the Fifth Social Class?
The fifth social class represents yet another phase of social and intellectual transformation, subsequent to proletarian collectivism. It is the last limit point, the conscious nihilism, characterized by:
Isolated and alienated people, without roots: If the Fourth Social Class maintained an identity linked to the value of work and production, the Fifth Social Class consists of an uprooted, empty humanity, without art, place of origin or organic ties.
The era of automation and technology: Man, freed from fatigue thanks to the machine, does not ascend spiritually but undergoes a progressive existential “dumbing down”, becoming completely peripheral in the technological ecosystem.
Anarchy and decomposition: It is the underworld of pure matter, of questioning as an end in itself, and the fall of all differentiation or human dignity.
Evola’s Defence Strategy
While progressive or Marxist historicism sees a positive development in the progress of time, Evola sees an unstoppable decline. In his later works, such as “Riding the Tiger,” he suggests that once differentiated man reaches this point of complete nihilism (represented precisely by the advent of the forces of the Fifth Social Class), the only way to defend himself is not to try to restore the past, but rather to disengage from political activism, to support the collapse of these degenerative and disintegrating forces, and to “facilitate” a new traditional rebirth. (This issue is of utmost importance, and we will return to it in due course.)
The concept of the “Fifth Social Class” suggests a new emerging social stratum. The expression was conceived and conceptualized in its contemporary social expression by the sociologist Maurizio Ferrera, Professor of Political Science at the University of Milan and President of the Network for the Advancement of Social and Political Sciences (NASP) in the essay “The society of the Fifth Estate” published by Laterza (2019), as an evolution of the industrial century of the famous proletariat, the Fourth Social Class. The fundamental characteristics of this new social constitutive condition include:
- Fragmentation and precariousness: It includes the self-employed, the freelancers, migrants and digital workers. It is a heterogeneous group without the historical protections of wage labor.
- Territorial and political dispersion: Compared to the working class, members of the Fifth Social Class do not share a physical workplace or the same neighborhoods, making it difficult for them to politically and unionize.
- Lack of guarantees: Characterized by low wages, fixed-term contracts, the absence of stable protection and a limited ability to carry out long-term projects.
The emergence of this social group is the result of what Ferrera defines as the “Great Transformation 2.0”, or the result of profound changes in production systems and the global market. This condition requires us to radically revise the welfare state, moving from a system based on permanent employment to one that offers universal protection and flexible “safety nets”, capable of accompanying the citizen in the continuous transitions between employment and unemployment.
The “Great Transformation 2.0” is a concept developed by Ferrera himself and discussed in his essay “The Fifth Grade Society”. It describes the current phase of the post-industrial and digital transition, characterized by the precariousness of work and the emergence of new social inequalities. The phenomenon is divided into three main pillars:
- Post-industrial transition: The burden of employment in the tertiary and service sectors has surpassed that of industry, deeply fragmenting the labor market.
- Fifth Social Class: This is the new social class created by these changes. It includes precarious workers, the self-employed and people with informal contracts, who are often excluded from traditional protection.
- The additional “second worker’s welfare”: Due to the inadequacy of the public system, it is necessary to resort to complementary forms of social protection, such as company welfare contracts
The term is reminiscent of the “Great Transformation” historically described by Karl Polanyi, updating the challenges of the digital economy and modern globalization
[The book “The Great Transformation” is a work by Karl Paul Polanyi, (Polányi Károly 1886-1964) a Hungarian-Jewish politician, economist and sociologist. It was first published in 1944 in New York by Farrar & Rinehart, and deals with the social and political upheavals that took place in England during the rise of the market economy. Polanyi argues that the modern market economy and the modern nation-state should not be understood as distinct elements but as a single human invention, which he calls “Market Society”. In this most important work of his, he criticizes the dominant capitalism and questions the liberal economy and the market society of the 19th century, which has many similarities with the modern society, where neoliberalism dominates.]
The Baron enlightens us: “With the French Revolution, it was the Third Social Class that actually took power as the bourgeoisie. The socialist and proletarian movements were the prelude to the advent of the Fourth Social Class. What would the fifth social class be? We must refer to the idea that every organization includes two elemental principles, forces of order on the one hand, forces of chaos on the other. When a cycle ends, the elemental substratum, the subpersonal and almost Goetheian “demonic” substratum, tends to return to its free state, to act destructively, to impose itself. This is, marginally, what may correspond to the advent of the Fifth Social Class. In this line, a symptomatic value is recognized in the contemporary phenomenon of organized and endemic crime, the first characteristic example of which was American gangsterism. As a paradox, one could say: chaos that is organized.
Evola mentions that American gangsterism and certain “demonic” aspects of Bolshevism are symptoms of the emergence of the “fifth estate.” Therefore, the question (“Avvento del “Quinto Stato”?”) is highly rhetorical.
By the arrival, the advent of the “Fifth Estate,” what is meant is its actual rise to power.
Notes – References
*The Italian word “capo”, which could literally be translated as “head”, in the same sense as we speak of “heads of state”. It is also often used to mean something like our “boss”. Evola often uses this term to refer to historical periods in which the latter term would be frankly inappropriate, while the former would be rather awkward. Therefore, I have chosen to render it as “master” – “master” in what I hope is the spirit of the sage’s intention, and so it will be rendered throughout.
**Possible reference to Goethe’s Faust, in which the Devil calls himself the spirit of denial: “I am the spirit that always denies!” he proclaims when introducing himself to Faust.
