Mr. Holland’s second book in the projected Political Soldier trilogy (mentioned in
previous post) was published in 1989 as Thoughts on Sacrifice and Struggle. Never as successful as its predecessor, the second volume appears to have been suppressed, for reasons that are not entirely clear. It is, however, a continuation of the same theme with a more detailed development of the intellectual basis of Third Positionist/National Revolutionary ideology. Like Marxists, the Political Soldiers treat the "capitalist" as the chief culprit in their neo-fascist politics of envy. As conservative thinker Kenneth Minogue puts it:
The ideologist distinguishes himself from the generality of mankind in his role as a critic of society. Others are intermittently critical of vice, abuse and injustice, but the ideologist engages in a continuous process of criticism of the very rules and conventions [of society].... [T]he ideological critic discovers oppression where the generality of mankind finds only an accepted condition of things (Alien Powers: The Pure Theory of Ideology).
Mr. Holland’s idea of "spiritual struggle" is reminiscent of the Marxist inspired Liberation Theology phenomenon of the 1970s—a fuzzy pseudo-mysticism. The quasi-religious themes are distinctly reminiscent of the immanentist millenarian creeds discussed by conservative philosopher Eric Voegelin, which place the eschatological struggle for good and evil here on earth (in that respect being akin to Communism). "To the Political Soldier," says Holland, "it must be said:
we stand before the Apocalypse! Gird yourself and prepare for battle!"
The materialists and relativists, the tyrants of the modern world, fear Death because for them Death is the End. But for us, revolutionary warriors, Death is not the End, but the Beginning. It is the doorway through which the Political Soldier alone can pass, for it leads to the world of the Elect - of those who fought on the Way of Truth, who sacrificed and struggled, and who merited their Just Reward.
As a point of interest, Derek Holland did not originate the concept most closely linked to his name, though he undoubtedly perfected it. The terms "Political Soldier" and "New Man" come from the syncretist and pantheistic fascist writings of
Julius Evola, transmitted to British nationalists like Holland by Roberto Fiore and the Italian Terza Posizione movement. A recent follower of Evola helps put Holland's political "traditionalism" in clearer context:
[P]rimordial Tradition can be applied to all or nearly all existing religions if you do not focus on the dogmas, but rather on the way the fighting spirit is to be embodied. Christian chivalry does not differ much from the Jihad fighters or the Samurai, outside of the large distinctions in their religious mythology ("Tradition, Religion, and Modern Europe: Synthesis Interviews Martin Schwarz," Synthesis, 2001).
