Welcome to a New Old World
|
I have always been fascinated by hero stories.
There is something in us, I believe, that longs for the heroic: We are driven by danger; we are driven by the need to stand, fight, and bleed, in the name of something greater than ourselves, side by side with those we call our own. Because in the midst of all this, we discover ourselves, and perhaps even more importantly, we discover that there is more to this world that we know. Tragically, the many luxuries of the modern world have destroyed what is best in us. For as Seneca once said, "No man is more unhappy than he who never faces adversity. For he is not permitted to prove himself." But where are we to prove ourselves today? Where are we to discover what is best within us when strength, manhood, competition, and victory, have all been condemned? We have lost something special, even something spiritual; we have lost the Master Within. |
|
When I was young, I went looking for something I could never seem to put into words. The question evaded me; the answer more so. But after much wandering, I discovered I had more in common with Stoic philosophers and Samurai warriors than I did my own contemporaries. So I turned to old books about heroes, to the martial arts, and to the study of warrior cultures. These saved me from a fate worse than death, that slow wasting away of the human spirit so typical today.
This is how I discovered the Tradition. Though called by many names, the Tradition represents that body of ancient ideals that had up until recently been handed down from father to son through countless generations, and that had thus served as the foundation for all human society. The abandonment of this Tradition has been our downfall, and now, in life and in literature, I wish to revitalize that Tradition. This goal of revitalization, which has been inspired by a wide range of philosophers, including Friedrich Nietzsche, Carl Jung, Victor Frankl, Joseph Campbell, and others, I call Heroic Theory. |
|
This site is therefore dedicated not only to the Tradition, but to Heroic Theory, and to my various projects, including my written works, Slay the Maiden; Tyger, Tyger; Brothers in Blood, and Other Tales; Oracle: Ninety Days to a New Life; Oracle: Nine Rules for a New Spirit; and Profiling the Left. My hope is to inspire a return to a New Old World wherein those long-held truths of our forefathers are honored once again. The abandonment of the Tradition has been disastrous, and has in some way affected everything from crime to single motherhood to the deterioration of mental health to sex addiction to drug addiction to the rampant philosophical nihilism, etc, etc, etc. Fortunately, the problem is not without solution: We may always return to the path our forefathers knew; we may always rediscover the Master Within.
Joshua van Asakinda
Las Vegas, NV
+1-702-716-2906
Joshua.van.Asakinda@gmail.com
Las Vegas, NV
+1-702-716-2906
Joshua.van.Asakinda@gmail.com