A polemical collection of essays arguing that modern Western civilization is in spiritual and cultural decline and must be rejected in favor of a revival of transcendent, traditional principles; it combines political critique of liberalism, democracy and Marxism with esoteric metaphysics, advocates a hierarchical, elitist social order and warrior-like virtues, and calls for an inner spiritual renewal as the basis for political and cultural restoration, ideas that have resonated with various radical right-wing currents.