The time would come for the first stroke of the consecrated sword, piercing the darkness like a lightning flash. For this reason individuals have the duty of living in alliance with others, gathering the treasure of a new rule of law…
– Ernst Jünger, On the Marble Cliffs (1939)
In the aftermath of the great fratricidal war which tore humanity between the extremes of chaotic anarchy and base inhuman subservience, there emerged men and women of great moral clarity, heroic action, and concern for the future of a world scarred by unspeakable horrors. Offering belief in the rule of the Natural Moral Law as a light to a fragmented and benighted world, these Legitimists provided a compelling vision of the Common Good, and though their work is largely dismissed and abandoned today, it is not forgotten. This manifesto is an invitation to all men of good will to join in an alliance for the preservation of the rule of Natural Law, and the restoration of the state and society in proper relation to it, informed by our perspective sub specie Æternitatis, that we never place our hope for paradise in this world but in Eternity. In this dark and chaotic yet fateful night of modernity let us go forth ensigned by an eight-pointed star, representing the light of our eight fundamental and eternal principles, Authority, Faith, Responsibility, Restoration, Tradition, Truth, Freedom, and Nobility through which we seek the Highest Good and ultimate End of Man in political society.
The Eight Points of the Legitimist Alliance:
Authority – Man, the Image of God, is inherently gifted with Authority; the hierarchy of community reflects the hierarchy of goods to which the community is ordered. It must be exercised by the Person for the Community.
Faith – All Authority proceeds from Faith, from Trust, and from the Divine Creator. Without Faith, there is no ultimate good in Man’s existence, and thus no moral responsibility.
Responsibility – Authority and Faith imply Responsibility, the existence of Rights moral and legal which we have the duty to fulfill for the Good of the Community and for our own person.
Restoration – In this fallen world, there is no Good without decay. Thus, we as a community have a responsibility to the Restoration of Good and to fight against decay until we witness the Creation by God of a new Heaven and a new Earth.
Tradition – Man exists not as an individual, but as a Person, which contains the whole of his self, and all of his relations to other Persons. These are expressed as Tradition, of which the Family is the prime guardian and transmitter.
Truth – For the Man of Tradition and Faith, Truth exists not only as a moral reality, but as a fundamental aspect of reality which must also find its place in political life. A man’s word is sacred, even that of a politician, and to lie is a form of sacrilege.
Freedom – Political Freedom is a necessary means to the true Freedom of the Person, which is by no means anarchy, rather it is a fullness of Belonging, the Person ordered to the Authority of Reason and Faith.
Nobility – The Service of the Common Good in Political Life is not a “job” or a career, it is a Divinely ordered Vocation. This is the true meaning of Nobility, to give one’s whole life to the Common Good, and for that honor and privilege are justly given, and ought, so long as its recipients are worthy, be passed on through the family as a good and holy Tradition.
Together these principles form a common moral framework, a Civilization maintained through continual vigilance and sacrifice. Only within this Civilization can the most Divine activity of Man, contemplation and participation in Eternal Truth, be achieved. Let us stand together as allies against the obscuring darkness of nihilism and the false promises of totalitarianism, and let us stand united together as one preserving his own small flame in imitation of the morning star, awaiting in hope the coming dawn.
ET LUX IN TENEBRIS LUCET
