As an experiment in historiography, I was planning to analyze the recent election in the USA. However, it became obvious that some prefatory notes are necessary. It is pointless to repeat what has already been said ten thousand times, words that convince no opponent and shed little light for their supporters because they are based on unsupported opinion rather than metaphysical principles. We take it for granted, at least in small things, that acting against reality will lead to dissatisfactory results. At the physical level, the negative outcome may be immediate: a child learns that falling or touching a hot object leads to immediate pain.
Unfortunately, the feedback may not be immediate. For example, a woman may go from one abusive relationship to the next before she understands, if ever, the role she herself was playing. At the social level, it may take generations for the lesson to be learned. As it is said, the iniquities of the fathers fall on the children. Very few men have the acuity to see how decisions made today will affect their descendants three generations hence. Fundamentally, this is because the deciders themselves are ignorant of the cosmic Order and act against it. They seldom experience the consequences of their acts.
So in the midst of this endless discussion, no one ever bothers to pause to ask why people hold the opinions they do, why they persist in holding them in the face of all illogic and counterfactual evidence, and why all debate ends in aporia rather than a higher resolution. If we start with the reasonable assumption that all rational men act in accordance to what they consider to be real, the only conclusion is that men have different notions of what is real. The remarkable fact is that men will not budge from their positions. No matter how poorly he may have done in school or on tests—which should certainly bring a measure of intellectual humility—every man is convinced he understands the real.
For a few, there is an understanding of the transcendent as real. For others, it is nobility and virtue. A much larger group can only accept the material world as real, while the masses have no reality beyond their own satisfactions. These various understandings of the real are characteristic of caste. It is important to keep in mind that caste is a metaphysical principle, i.e., an expression of the very nature of things, hence it surpasses any moral or psychological considerations. Specifically, caste is not detectable by psychological methods, nor is it “curable”. Furthermore, there is no moral significance to caste, so any discussion of their characteristics does not imply any moral judgment, whether positive or negative.
Nevertheless, the same cannot be said for any disorder in their power relationships. In a Traditional society those who know, will lead, and the rest will believe depending on their positions. For example, the man whose concern is with the physical world will nevertheless be able to participate in the transcendent through his faith in his leaders. Of course, the modern world rejects this, because of its commitment to egalitarianism; all men are equal insofar as they are animals, but not in respect to their Intellects. Only in the primordial state are there no caste distinctions.
Fundamental to this historiography is the notion of Order in general, and specifically how that manifests in the relationship of the different castes to each other. Although we have written enough posts about the castes of those who pray (Brahman) and those who fight (Kshatriya), their influence on the modern world is essentially negligible. Since he rule of the modern world is in the hands of those who work, the characteristics of the relevant castes need to be more fully fleshed out.
Frithjof Schuon’s discussion of castes provides a fuller discussion of this topic. The castes categorize the different way that men understand what is real.
- Brahman. Those who pray. This is the intellectual, contemplative and sacerdotal type. For him, the changeless and the transcendent are real. He is an idealist (i.e., ideas are real) and objective (he can transcend his own perspective).
- Kshatriya. Those who fight. This is the warrior or the administrator type. For him, it is action that is real. His aggression is tempered by generosity, and his passionate nature by nobility, self-control, and greatness of soul. He values action, honour, virtue, glory and nobility. This caste is also idealist, but in a subjective way.
- Vaishya (or bourgeois). This is the first division of those who work. He is the merchant, the peasant, the artisan, the man whose activities are directly bound up with material values. For him, it is riches, security, prosperity and well-being that are real. He even thinks of religion in a material and economic way, which he understands as the need to accumulate merit. This caste is materialist and objective.
These three castes constitute the twice-born, or spirits with a body. Beyond them, men can be described only as a body with a human consciousness.
- Shudra (or serf). Of those who work, the shudra who can only perform manual work of a quantitative type. For him, it is bodily things that are real, such as eating, drinking, the satisfaction of physical needs, and all other corporeal or sensual activities. This caste is materialist and subjective. Thus, the shudra is passive in relation to matter, hence he cannot govern himself. Therefore, he is dependent on the will of another which, in a well-ordered society, would be the spiritual authorities who guide and protect him. Their religion is the one that makes them feel good.
- Chandala. This is the outcast, the man lacking caste because of his chaotic character. He exists because he realizes the possibilities that other men reject and exists on the fringe of a normal society. Schuon claims he may appear as a “chimney sweep, acrobat, comedian, or executioner, not to mention illicit occupations.”
Those who have understood thus far will come to some immediate conclusions. The USA is under the dominance of the bourgeois, serfs, and even outcasts. It is their rivalries and power struggles that determine events. There is no possibility of returning to “traditional values” in this milieu. Just as the woodsmen can determine what animals surround him at night in the woods just by listening carefully to their sounds, so can we hear the words rise up from the various castes. Those of the bourgeoisie insist that “it is the economy, stupid.” The serfs are interested in physical satisfactions, hence they want to keep feticide, sodomy, and drug use or drunkenness (meant in the larger sense as the deliberately induced impairment of normal conscious activities) all legal. Even the outcasts have a place in this society. An entire generation of American youths get their news from a comedian. Rock stars and actors mould public opinion. The USA admires in a crude way the gangster, the prostitute, the pusher, and so on. The ugly, the dissonant, the unusual, the freakish, the perverted have destroyed their taste for the beautiful, the harmonious, the normal, the sane, the healthy.
There are some direct quotations from Castes and Races by Frithjof Schuon.
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