The City of the Sun: A Poetic Dialog is a Utopian plan devised by the Hermetist and Dominican monk, Thomas Campanella to describe the ideal Solar civilization. Due to being on the wrong side of political intrigue and his alleged heresy, Campanella spent 27 years in prison, where he wrote most of his works. Despite this, he amazingly held an optimistic attitude, even for the Spanish monarchy and Roman church which were his persecutors.
The novel is presented as the report of an adventurer to questions asked by a Knight on his return. The adventurer was forced to land on an Island in the South Seas, where he stumbled upon the isolated City of the Sun, known by the alchemical symbol for the sun.
Rule
The City is ruled by the Metaphysician (or Sun), who serves as both spiritual and temporal leader. Beneath him are three assistants:
- Power, in charge of military affairs
- Wisdom, in charge of science, liberal arts and technology
- Love, in charge of breeding, agriculture, medicine, and education
Beneath these three, are specialists in each of the areas they rule over. So the Metaphysician is not only the expert in spiritual matters, but he must also have mastered the empirical sciences as well as administrative and practical techniques.
The obvious question does come up, since philosophers and contemplatives don’t seem to also have the required leadership qualities. The answer is that the Sun is much more knowledgeable than what passes for knowledge in Europe and furthermore the European system of choosing rulers on the basis of birth or power factions is hardly a wise system. We would add that, in our day, the system of democracy, or appeal to mass popularity, is not a wise system for selecting rulers.
Evola solves the problem from a different angle. For him, the Emperor also takes a sacerdotal initiation, which makes him the head of the priestly caste as well as the warrior caste. Thus he already has temporal power and then adds the spiritual authority to it.
Both schemes differ from the thought of Rene Guenon and the Roman Church, who hold to a dual leadership plan: the spiritual authority (Pope or Brahmin) and temporal power (Emperor or Kshatriya). Evola is highly critical of the dual scheme, which he calls “two suns”, an impossibility in his mind.
Thus both Evola and Campanella advocate forms of theocracy. The Guenonian position may be described as theonomy, with the spiritual authority setting the principles and the temporal power implementing them.
Religion
As the inhabitants are originally from India, their religion derives from a purified Brahminism (or we would say the Vedanta), with the Sun representing the one God. Since they are knowledgeable of all the nations in the world, they admire the great thinkers and religious leaders (including Mohammed). Their highest regard is for Jesus Christ and the apostles, although, we must point out, they never converted to Christianity. This interest in the best minds in all of history anticipates Comte’s religion of humanity by two centuries.
The Solarians believe in two principles: the sun as father and the earth as mother. These are obviously the Solar and Lunar principles.
Campanella describes it as a natural religion, in perfect harmony with Christianity, lacking only the sacraments. However, we must point out, for the Church the sacraments are essential to living a virtuous life, but apparently not for the City of the Sun. The implication is that the natural religion of the island produces a society superior to the Christian societies of Europe.
Lifestyle
In the City, all goods are held in common and everyone’s needs are taken care of. Meals and lodging are also in common, and people are seldom alone. Lodgings are periodically rotated. Utopians are usually attracted to this sort of communism as the way to mitigate against the problems arising from material inequality. Since the City is so successful economically, there is no need for private property and everyone is taken care of. Everyone has his assigned work, so there is no unemployment. Nevertheless, there is ample time for leisure, which is spent in athletic games, since the workday is just four hours.
There is near equality between the sexes, with the exception that women are not in leadership positions and are exempt from certain physical tasks. They even participate in the military.
Breeding
In the City, women are also held in common, and permanent male-female relationships don’t exist. Mating is determined by the authorities who match up couples based on physical characteristics and astrological signs. The latter implies that the citizens are all born around the same time in any given year, rather than randomly throughout the year. Those unfit to breed are offered sexual release either with barren (i.e., post-menopausal) or pregnant women. Children are raised in common after they are weaned (around two years old).
The City justifies this with the comment that Europeans are more careful with breeding horses and dogs than their own peoples. The problem with this logic is that we don’t really breed the perfect horse or dog; rather, we create breeds of those animals geared for a specific purpose. Similarly, we can’t say there is one “ideal” human type, since a properly functioning society needs people of various skills and interests. If we were to breed humans with as many varieties as we have for dogs, it is hard to imagine what sort of society would result; however, it would certainly be dysfunctional.
Nevertheless, in a limited sense, it has value. One is to maintain the racial purity of the City and the second to eliminate congenital diseases. It is hard to imagine that this assigned breeding would work well in practice, since there would be jealousy around who gets the most desirable mates. There are two other options we can mention.
The first is described by Rousas Rushdoony as the system in Armenia. There, he claims, the parents find suitable mates for their children based on genetic qualities. He claims that this has reduced congenital diseases in Armenia over the generations, though I am not aware of any empirical studies that back this up.
The other is the system of racial education proposed by Julius Evola, which he makes a part of general education. This counts on the citizenry themselves making wise mating choices. Note that all these schemes assume that children are produced for society, not just for the parents.
Education
In the City, education is based on a complex system of pictorial representations which is apparently very effective in imparting education to the children.
Immigration and Trade
Since the City is mostly self-sufficient, trade with foreigners is held to a minimum. However, the foreign merchants and the slaves acquired in warfare are not permitted to disrupt the orderliness of the City. A small number of immigrants are accepted, provided they demonstrate their willingness and ability to integrate into the lifestyle of the Solarians.
Conclusion
Campanella concludes this work with the claim that the Solarians, based on their astrological calculations, have revealed to him the many major changes coming to the world. Campanella rightly points out that the 16th century produced more history and inventions than the preceding 4000 years; this trend is even accelerating in our time. One of his more interesting predictions is the increasing feminization of the West. He points to the increasing acceptance of pederasty, sodomy, and whoring among the literary elite. He claims, too, that “men are becoming effeminate.” He claims to know about other impending changes — and without doubt there have been many since Campanella’s time — although he ends the book without revealing them. Nevertheless, whether because of the astrological influence of Venus or some other reason, the negative effects can be traced back to the epicenity of Western manhood.
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