Read the fragment of Alexander Dugin's essay “Children's Crusade” and answer the following questions: a) what is initiation? b) how, in the understanding of the national philosopher, is the “desire for initiation” connected with the worldview orientations of modern teenagers? c) how does Alexander Dugin substantiate the connection between the “archaic layers” of the soul and the suicidal tendencies of some modern teenagers?

“What is initiation? In the crudest approximation, it is a ritual in which a member of an archaic community passes from an irresponsible, natural, inertial existence (childhood) to a new life. He becomes a full member of the collective, which always has a certain sacral loading. In the language of Polynesian tribes, a person then receives “mana”, a special power, a “spirit”, a “double”. And after initiation, he enters a special magical or religious brotherhood - tribal, confessional, professional or whatever....
...the desire for initiation is the deepest impulse of the most archaic aspects of the human soul. It is an ancestral heritage, an element of the “collective unconscious” that we all carry within us. Teenage romanticism, extremism, radicalism, belief in goodness, dreams of “Prince Charming/Lady Charming” - all of these are not naive stamps inspired by a hypocritical culture, nor are they transient aberrations. No. Quite the opposite. It is adolescents who carry the secret memory of how things should be in a normal, traditional society, where adult life is not a boring routine of mechanical pragmatists and social cogs (imbued with hysterical narcissism and nervous cynicism) like ours, but a continuous complicity in a myth, in a fabulous reality, in the fabric of a single uninterrupted cycle. In this cycle, the line between normal and supernormal, ordinary and miraculous, human and divine is erased, blurred. The windows and doors opened in the first initiation remain open until the end of the earthly journey. Entities of the subtle plane enter and leave them, enlivening nature, everyday life, sex, war, labor, rest, suffering and joy. This is the meaning of the sacred. It is what is lost in our normal life. And it is it that speaks of itself in the heavy and terrible statistics of child and adolescent suicides.
Archaic layers of the soul tell the attentive teenager: you are approaching the line where natural existence will cease. That line is death. Beyond it is new life. The insidious mind can suggest any arguments - failed love, problems in the family, insecurity, etc. But it is not the mind, but the spirit that speaks in young men and women who have chosen such a terrible path. It is the unconscious, hidden will to the sacred, imprinted in the soul, a sign of the special spiritual dignity of man as a species, that pushes to suicide. Since today there are no initiatic rituals and sacral rites, instead of initiatic death and sacral drama, everything ends in total death, which, alas, is not followed by a new birth. But even then, the one who does so is more right than the one who does otherwise. To recognize the adult world as it is today, not to challenge it, not to rebel against a desacralized society where there is no place for myth or the Sacred, can only be a being spiritually defective, even more dead than the corpses of the unfortunate suicides”.

Question

Read the fragment of Alexander Dugin's essay “Children's Crusade” and answer the following questions: a) what is initiation? b) how, in the understanding of the national philosopher, is the “desire for initiation” connected with the worldview orientations of modern teenagers? c) how does Alexander Dugin substantiate the connection between the “archaic layers” of the soul and the suicidal tendencies of some modern teenagers?

“What is initiation? In the crudest approximation, it is a ritual in which a member of an archaic community passes from an irresponsible, natural, inertial existence (childhood) to a new life. He becomes a full member of the collective, which always has a certain sacral loading. In the language of Polynesian tribes, a person then receives “mana”, a special power, a “spirit”, a “double”. And after initiation, he enters a special magical or religious brotherhood - tribal, confessional, professional or whatever....
...the desire for initiation is the deepest impulse of the most archaic aspects of the human soul. It is an ancestral heritage, an element of the “collective unconscious” that we all carry within us. Teenage romanticism, extremism, radicalism, belief in goodness, dreams of “Prince Charming/Lady Charming” - all of these are not naive stamps inspired by a hypocritical culture, nor are they transient aberrations. No. Quite the opposite. It is adolescents who carry the secret memory of how things should be in a normal, traditional society, where adult life is not a boring routine of mechanical pragmatists and social cogs (imbued with hysterical narcissism and nervous cynicism) like ours, but a continuous complicity in a myth, in a fabulous reality, in the fabric of a single uninterrupted cycle. In this cycle, the line between normal and supernormal, ordinary and miraculous, human and divine is erased, blurred. The windows and doors opened in the first initiation remain open until the end of the earthly journey. Entities of the subtle plane enter and leave them, enlivening nature, everyday life, sex, war, labor, rest, suffering and joy. This is the meaning of the sacred. It is what is lost in our normal life. And it is it that speaks of itself in the heavy and terrible statistics of child and adolescent suicides.
Archaic layers of the soul tell the attentive teenager: you are approaching the line where natural existence will cease. That line is death. Beyond it is new life. The insidious mind can suggest any arguments - failed love, problems in the family, insecurity, etc. But it is not the mind, but the spirit that speaks in young men and women who have chosen such a terrible path. It is the unconscious, hidden will to the sacred, imprinted in the soul, a sign of the special spiritual dignity of man as a species, that pushes to suicide. Since today there are no initiatic rituals and sacral rites, instead of initiatic death and sacral drama, everything ends in total death, which, alas, is not followed by a new birth. But even then, the one who does so is more right than the one who does otherwise. To recognize the adult world as it is today, not to challenge it, not to rebel against a desacralized society where there is no place for myth or the Sacred, can only be a being spiritually defective, even more dead than the corpses of the unfortunate suicides”.

Ask a Philosopher · Accepted Answer

Initiation, as described by Alexander Dugin, is a transformative ritual in which an individual transitions from a state of irresponsible, natural existence to a new life as a full member of a collective with a certain sacral significance. It is a passage from childhood to adulthood, from inertial existence to a more purposeful and meaningful existence. In this transition, the individual gains a special power, a spirit, a double, which marks their entry into a special brotherhood with magical or religious undertones. The desire for initiation, according to Dugin, is deeply rooted in the most archaic aspects of the human soul, serving as a testament to our ancestral heritage and the collective unconscious that we all carry within us.

The connection between the desire for initiation and the worldview orientations of modern teenagers lies in the inherent yearning for a more mythic, fabulous, and continuous existence that transcends the mundane routine of modern life. Teenagers, with their romanticism, extremism, radicalism, and belief in goodness, are not merely rebellious youth inspired by a hypocritical culture, but rather bearers of a secret memory of a more traditional society where life was imbued with a sense of magic and mystery. The archaic layers of the soul compel teenagers to seek a deeper connection to the sacred, a longing for a reality where the boundaries between the normal and supernormal, the human and divine, are blurred.

Alexander Dugin substantiates the connection between the archaic layers of the soul and the suicidal tendencies of some modern teenagers by highlighting the absence of initiatic rituals and sacral rites in contemporary society. The lack of meaningful rites of passage results in a spiritual void, leaving adolescents feeling lost and disconnected from the sacred. The suicidal impulse in some teenagers, according to Dugin, stems from a deep-seated yearning for a transformative experience that marks a transition from one life to another. Without the guidance of initiatic rituals, the journey towards death becomes a tragic end in itself, devoid of the promise of rebirth and renewal. In a desacralized society, where myth and the sacred are marginalized, those who challenge the status quo and rebel against the prevailing culture are seen as spiritually alive, even in their act of defiance and self-destruction. Thus, the suicides of modern teenagers can be seen as a desperate attempt to reclaim a sense of spiritual dignity in a world that has lost touch with the sacred and the transcendent.