"Nor do we speak of the 'different gods' of different peoples, or of the gods as 'Barbarian' and 'Greek,' but as common to all, though differently named by different peoples, so that the One Reason that orders all these things, and the One Providence that oversees them, and for the minor powers [i.e., gods, angels] that are appointed to care for all things, there have arisen among different peoples different epithets and services, according to their different manners and customs." - Plutarch, Isis and Osiris
"One must not lose sight of the fact that peoples with a very 'differentiated' and 'cerebral' civilization are lead to underestimate certain modes of intelligence to which they are unaccustomed. There is more intelligence in African rhythms than in most psychological novels." - Frithjof Schuon, Thought and Civilization
"The anthropologist is rather too much inclined to consider the particularities of "primitive" people in isolation, neglecting the possibility or probability that these particularities may not be of local origin, but may represent only provincial or peripheral survivals of theories held by some or all of the more sophisticated communities from which the primitive peoples may have declined." - Ananda Coomaraswamy, "Spiritual Paternity" and the "Puppet Complex"
Here then is the question: what exactly does race and culture (for the two can hardly be separated) mean from the traditionalist perspective? Furthermore, what are the limitations of ethnic nationalism as an ideology?
An answer can be found to the first question if we begin by examining the perspective necessary for the "transcendental unity of religions," which all genuine traditionalists (in the sense that the traditionalist is also de facto a perennialist) should have an understanding of, and thus come face to face with this fundamental principle; that the inward unity is not compromised by the existence of an outward plurality. So while the transcendent unity of religions requires an esoteric conception of all the world's sacred traditions, so would a "transcendent unity of races" be found from an esoteric understanding of all cultural customs and religions. What this means is that any and all ethno-cultures truly connected with Tradition can be rightfully said to be "inwardly equal." With this point of view, true (inward) inequality only ever arises if one race severs itself from its vital connection to Tradition, which is what has happened in large part to the Western European race (particularly Germanics) since the end of the Middle Ages. This is why we can rightfully say that Australian aborigines or Balinese tribesman (both of whom are mentioned in the aforementioned Coomaraswamy essay) have more in common with Dante or Plato than most modern Europeans have with Dante or Plato. Similarly, in the realm of art, Chartres cathedral and the Parthenon are more akin to the Dome of the Rock and the Taj Mahal than modern concrete factories are to Chartres and the Parthenon, despite being manufactured by the same race. One could think of dozens of similar examples (including the one by Schuon above). The case in point is that the "race of the Spirit" always takes primacy over the race of the body.
So here is the caveat: despite this "inward equality," we must never lose sight of the fact that the existence of bodily race is still part of reality. Similar to the existence of outward or exoteric religious forms, ethno-culture is certainly a relative reality, but a reality nonetheless. As such, we should realize that this is diametrically opposed to the modern notions of "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" that became popular during the French Revolution. The fact is that race, like gender or exoteric religious form, can only ever be transcended from within, not simply denied from without. This latter is the opposite of unity, it is uniformity. It should also go without saying that the current popular notion of "multiculturalism" (which in reality amounts to a cruel, dehumanizing, crypto-totalitarian agenda) should be entirely rejected on this same principle. The operative assumption behind these various "Wills-to-Uniformity" is that the only way to harmonize and pacify two struggling opponents is by effectively strangling them both to death (to borrow another saying of Schuon). We must also reject the liberal pseudo-tolerance that pretends to "respect other cultures" only insofar as said cultures do not to any significant degree contradict the fundamental morality of the West (the current controversies over clitoral circumcision, corporal punishment, and other so-called "human-rights violations" are among only a few examples). We can only ask, what is the point of maintaining outward diversity amongst peoples if all said peoples are inwardly Westernized?
This then leads into the second question, regarding ethnic nationalism and its limitations. Obviously the traditionalist would be in complete agreement with the nationalist regarding the reality of race and its subsequent interconnectedness with culture. However, whereas the liberal makes the mistake of assigning no reality to race, the nationalist commits the exact inverse mistake and assigns absolute reality to race. The nationalist is then inclined to suppose that interracial unity is only possible on the political level (via all respective peoples embracing nationalism). But where he can be said to most radically differs with the traditionalist is in the latter's all-too-frequent kind of racialist solipsism, which conveniently assumes that each ethno-cultural group creates its own entirely distinct reality (based on cultural norms), perhaps completely and in all ways incompatible with with those of another ethno-cultural group. This is because the nationalist often times actively denies any universalism and the very reality of Tradition as such. From this perspective, it may very well be impossible for an Italian to have any spiritual dialogue with an Arab, a Chinaman, a Peruvian, or a Jew simply because of his ethnicity! An observing person should only reject this type of assertion as ludicrous, but nonetheless it is important to understand that when one takes a relevant truth as an absolute, one is bound to wind up with these kinds of absurdities. By a similar principle, the traditionalist would also naturally disagree with the nationalist's common presumption that all religion and mythology is merely a product of a "collective racial unconscious," and therefore has no universal, but only relative value. The tendency to reduce every myth and every religion to a kind of isolated "cultural relic" (while at the same time never bothering to penetrate its transcendental essence) is precisely the method of the "religious anthropologist" whom Coomaraswamy so rightly denounced in the above quotation.
We can say in conclusion that I now only ever make one absolutely fundamental distinction between peoples: who are Traditional, and who are not. Thus if we are ever going to arrive at any kind of genuine interracial, intercultural, or interreligious understanding, we will first and foremost have to entirely reject modernity, which is hostile to all three categories. The so-called "West" has done more to annihilate and vandalize Tradition in the last 500 years, not only within its own race but also within the races of others, than any transnational empire of the past. This is not due to some inherent "evil" within the white race (as has been supposed by some), but rather the inherent evil within modernity. Secondly, Westerners (who unlike any other people actively deny the reality of race) will have to start accepting the validity and relevance of race, culture, and religion, not only in their own people, but also in the other peoples. Once this is accomplished, they will in fact cease to be "Westerners" and simply become stations of Tradition clothed in European ethnicity. As I see it, this is the only way to create anything resembling a genuine World Citizenry, so far from the extortive, uniformist, passive-aggressive crusade against Tradition in all its forms that currently passes as such.