Eliade was a fascist

Right, well, Andy, it's probably not that simple, although you may be right insisting that it should be. He had made the wrong allegiances back in the thirties. Whether it matters is a difficult question which should be answered on a case-by-case basis. For instance, Sartre's idiotic support of various forms of communism (including Stalinism, then Maoism etc, all with a headcount way surpassing Nazi Germany) should not detract from our reading of, say, Les Mouches or other of his literary gems.

But it all turns on what the man had contributed otherwise to the world.

And Eliade was one of those stratospheric intellectuals. His contributions to literature, albeit much loved and appreciated in Romania (he wrote literature almost exclusively in Romanian) were but a tiny part of his gigantic intellectual contribution. He has, for instance, remained one of the foremost historians of religion of the last century.

I read his literature was a constant struggle to re-enchant the world, to cultivate its mysteries, lost to the modern world. I sincerely do not believe his literature has anything to do with his political choices.

Some people call Nietzsche a Nazi "avant la lettre". Others, regard Plato as the father of all totalitarianism (!). Eliade had supported the Romanian ultra-nationalist movement before WWII. Now, having seen its (the War's, that is) pictures and heard its horror stories, all too easily we judge everything and everyone that came before it. I think that's a strange and bitter way to look at history.

What kind of idiot douchebag would, without knowing anything about the man, make this statement? It's like reading Bill O'Reilly's opinion on Al Franken and proclaiming it to the world as if it were irrefutable truth, rather than one partisan's ridiculous ramble.

Eliade was my friend. He was not a fascist. I say this because, unlike you, I actually knew him, and knew him well, not because I read it in some revisionist history from seventy years ago.

You are, without putting to fine a point on it, an ignorant moron.

Many thanks, Mineah and Sattara, for once again proving the stupidity of revisionism.

The Iron Guard was not fascist but only patriotic and right-wing? Well, apart from the Iron Guard's overt extremist anti-semitism, I suppose this could also be said of the movements of Franco, Pinochet etc. If right wing nationalist totalitarian supremacist dictatorship is not fascist, maybe you've got a new word for this?

Apart from that, supporting an organization like this (like e.g. Spengler was sympathetic of the Nazis in their early years), even if this doesn't make you a fascist, it makes you a supporter of fascism, and all it's consequences.

By the way, Sartre was a Marxist, but he was publicly speaking against the violence of the German RAF terrorists. Are there any supporters of the Iron Guard who voted against their violence and help in deportation of Jews? Or supporters of Franco and Pinochet who voted against their excesses?

Grow up!