A Modern Man, Bound by Tradition

Tommaso Aniello, known as
"Masaniello" (1620-1647)

Though formed by the modern age, I remain deeply attached to tradition. That does not mean I am a Luddite, nor that I wish to turn the clock back to the Middle Ages. The past, as it was, cannot be restored—and should not be imitated wholesale. What matters is fidelity to the principles that gave rise to the structures and traditions we aspire to.

To call oneself a monarchist is often misunderstood. It is not an expression of personal ambition, nor a quiet fantasy of elevation. I am content with my station. I do not dream of crowns or titles, nor do I indulge in illusions of power. Rather, it is a recognition that order, hierarchy, and continuity have their place in the proper arrangement of society.

There is something admirable in figures like Masaniello, who, despite being thrust into leadership, never mistook it for his natural place. When offered a gold chain by the Viceroy, he refused it outright, insisting he wished to return to selling fish once the moment had passed. On another occasion, he drove away curious nobles, declaring he preferred the company of simple people like himself. Whatever became of him, there is a clarity to that instinct—a refusal to confuse circumstance with calling.

In this, I stand apart from the revolutionary impulse—whether clothed in utopian language or material promises. I have no desire to tear down in hopes of ruling over the ruins. History shows too clearly how such dreams end: not in justice, but in blood and disillusion.

If anything, my instinct is the opposite—to serve rather than to dominate. As the inversion of Milton’s adage suggests, better to serve in heaven than to rule in hell. And if our present age often feels unmoored, even infernal at times, the task is not to seize power within it, but to remain grounded in something higher than it.

This same instinct extends into more personal domains, including the question of continuity within family and culture. I find myself sympathetic to Carlo Rossi di Lauriano’s understanding of endogamy as the recognition that inheritance is not merely material, but spiritual.* Traditions, habits, beliefs, and ways of seeing the world are carried, preserved, and transmitted through living communities, most immediately through the family and lineage across generations.

The old Neapolitan saying captures this well: “A crianza fa ’o signore, no ’a lira.” Good breeding makes a gentleman, not money. It is not wealth or sudden elevation that confers dignity, but formation—something cultivated over time, not seized in a moment.

To uphold continuity in this sense is not merely to reject the outside world, but to resist dissolution within it. It is an acknowledgment that what has been handed down is fragile and, without conscious preservation, easily lost. In an age that celebrates rootlessness as freedom, there is something quietly radical in choosing to remain rooted.

~ By Giovanni di Napoli, May 23rd, Feast of Sant’Eframo di Napoli

Notes:
* Duke Carlo Rossi di Lauriano was a Piedmontese nobleman, diplomat, and intellectual active during the first half of the twentieth century. He is best known for his involvement in the UR Group (Gruppo di Ur), a short-lived but influential circle of esotericists and philosophers. The ideas referenced here are drawn primarily from Spirito aristocratico e casta aristocratica, published in La Torre: Foglio di espressioni varie e Tradizione una, 2nd rev. ed. (Edizioni Mediterranee, 2020).