Counter-Currents
  • Private Events
  • T&C
  • Contact
  • Webzine
  • About
  • Books
  • Podcasts
  • Videos
  • Donate
  • Paywall
  • Crypto
  • RSS
    • Main feed
    • Podcast feed
    • Videos feed
    • Comments feed
  • Advertise

LEVEL2

Donate Now Mailing list
  • Webzine
  • About
  • Books
  • Podcasts
  • Videos
  • Donate
  • Paywall
  • Crypto
  • RSS
    • Main feed
    • Podcast feed
    • Videos feed
    • Comments feed
  • Advertise
  • Recent posts

    • This Weekend’s Livestream
      Greg Johnson, Pox Populi, & American Krogan on Machiavellianism & More

      Greg Johnson

    • The Machiavellian Method

      Greg Johnson

      8

    • IQ Is a Phenotype

      Spencer J. Quinn

      36

    • Trevor Lynch’s Classics of Right-Wing Cinema

      Anthony Bavaria

      15

    • Curriculum Vitae of Muriel Gantry, Part 5

      Muriel Gantry

      1

    • Race and Ethics in John Ford’s Stagecoach

      Jim Goad

      78

    • Curriculum Vitae of Muriel Gantry, Part 4

      Muriel Gantry

    • My Breakout from the Modern World: The Hungarian Day of Honour Tour 2023, Part 2

      Tizenegy

      4

    • Enoch Powell, poslední tory

      Gregory Hood

    • Dr. Roger Pearson: Doyen of Anglo-American Racial Science

      Peter Rushton

      3

    • Collateral Damage: The United Kingdom’s Lockdown Files

      Mark Gullick

      5

    • Obituary for Prof. Roger Pearson, M.Sc. (Econ.), Ph.D., (London): 1927–2023

      Mark Cotterill

      4

    • The Estonian Election & Nationalist Strategy

      Nicholas R. Jeelvy

      10

    • Hunter S. Thompson as Psyop

      James J. O'Meara

      7

    • Institutional Racism Explained

      Richard Knight

      8

    • A “Novel” Approach to the Understanding of Evil

      Stephen Paul Foster

      18

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 526 Cyan Quinn Reports from CPAC & More

      Counter-Currents Radio

      3

    • The Worst Week Yet: March 5-11, 2023

      Jim Goad

      23

    • John Wayne’s The Alamo & the Politics of the 1960s

      Morris van de Camp

      1

    • Thielemann Conducts Bruckner’s Eighth in Berkeley

      Donald Thoresen

      2

    • John Fante’s Ask the Dust

      Anthony Bavaria

      6

    • Remembering Gabriele D’Annunzio
      (March 12, 1863–March 1, 1938)

      Greg Johnson

      4

    • This Weekend’s Livestream
      Cyan Quinn on CPAC, Project Veritas, Jan. 6, & East Palestine

      Greg Johnson

      4

    • Do You Have What It Takes to be a Dissident?

      Spencer J. Quinn

      35

    • Personal Finance Tips for Dissidents

      David Lewis

      20

    • Survival of the Fittest: Interview with Alexander Deptolla of Kampf der Nibelungen

      Ondrej Mann

    • Curriculum Vitae of Muriel Gantry, Part 3

      Muriel Gantry

    • Dr. Roger Pearson on His Life & Work

      Dr. Roger Pearson

      6

    • 40,000 Brown Sardines Packed Into One Prison

      Jim Goad

      71

    • Curriculum Vitae of Muriel Gantry, Part 2

      Muriel Gantry

    • The Banshees of Inisherin

      Nicholas R. Jeelvy

      3

    • The Quiet Man: John Foxx’s Ultravox!

      Mark Gullick

      12

    • The British Brass Band

      Alex Graham

      6

    • Curriculum Vitae of Muriel Gantry, Part 1

      Muriel Gantry

      2

    • Charles de Gaulle a válka v Alžírsku

      Jean-Marie Le Pen

    • CPAC 2023: The Republican Party is Dying Out

      Cyan Quinn

      27

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 525 On Capitalism, Socialism, & the Ethnostate

      Counter-Currents Radio

      10

    • Remembering the German POW Camp at Bretzenheim

      Clarissa Schnabel

      11

    • Daylight Savings as Maladaptive Faustianism

      James Dunphy

      1

    • The Abolitionists as Virtue-Signalers: Nehemiah Adams & A South-side View of Slavery

      Spencer J. Quinn

      22

    • Biden’s Open Border

      Morris van de Camp

      2

    • Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch

      Steven Clark

      12

    • Equilibrium

      Buttercup Dew

      1

    • This Weekend’s Livestream
      Capitalism, Socialism, & the Ethnostate

      Greg Johnson

      8

    • Forgotten Roots of the Left: Fichte’s Moral & Political Philosophy, Part III

      Collin Cleary

      1

    • The Elite Are Those Who Refuse to Lie

      Nicholas R. Jeelvy

      22

    • Plato’s Apology

      Greg Johnson

      1

    • Remembering Richard M. Weaver
      (March 3, 1910–April 1, 1963)

      Greg Johnson

      2

    • Chicago, Then & Now

      Stephen Paul Foster

      12

    • Body Cams Never Lie

      Jim Goad

      12

  • Classics Corner

    • The Searchers

      Trevor Lynch

      29

    • Gabriele D’Annunzio

      Jonathan Bowden

      2

    • Remembering A. R. D. “Rex” Fairburn (February 2, 1904–March 25, 1957)

      Greg Johnson

      1

    • Denis Kearney & the Struggle for a White America

      Theodore J. O'Keefe

      1

    • Posthuman Prospects:
      Artificial Intelligence, Fifth Generation Warfare, & Archeofuturism

      Christopher Pankhurst

      5

    • Earnest Sevier Cox:
      Advocate for the White Ethnostate

      Morris van de Camp

      15

    • Remembering Jack London
      (January 12, 1876–November 22, 1916)

      Greg Johnson

      2

    • Remembering Robinson Jeffers:
      January 10, 1887–January 20, 1962

      John Morgan

      3

    • Remembering Pierre Drieu La Rochelle:
      January 3, 1893–March 15, 1945

      Greg Johnson

    • Remembering Rudyard Kipling (December 30, 1865-January 18, 1936)

      Greg Johnson

      10

    • Restoring White Homelands

      Greg Johnson

      34

    • Remembering Hinton Rowan Helper

      Spencer J. Quinn

      11

    • What’s Wrong with Diversity?

      Greg Johnson

      10

    • Redefining the Mainstream

      Greg Johnson

      3

    • Edward Alsworth Ross:
      American Metapolitical Hero

      Morris van de Camp

      8

    • The Talented Mr. Ripley & Purple Noon

      Trevor Lynch

      19

    • Christmas & the Yuletide:
      Light in the Darkness

      William de Vere

      3

    • Thanksgiving Special 
      White Men Meet Indians:
      Jamestown & the Clash of Civilizations

      Thomas Jackson

    • Colin Wilson’s The Outsider

      Sir Oswald Mosley

      4

    • Dostoyevsky on the Jews

      William Pierce

      4

    • Jefferson &/or Mussolini, Part 1

      Ezra Pound

      5

    • I Listened to Chapo Trap House So You Don’t Have To

      Doug Huntington

      98

    • The Homeric Gods

      Mark Dyal

      13

    • Toward a Baltic-Black Sea Union:
      “Intermarium” as a Viable Model for White Revival

      Émile Durand

      55

    • The Politics of Nuclear War, Part 3

      John Morgan

      30

    • The Politics of Nuclear War, Part 2

      John Morgan

      6

    • Columbus Day Special
      The Autochthony Argument

      Greg Johnson

      9

    • The Politics of Nuclear War, Part 1

      John Morgan

      8

    • The Jewish Question for Normies

      Alan Smithee

      13

    • Human Biodiversity for Normies

      Alan Smithee

      10

  • Paroled from the Paywall

    • How to Prepare for an Emergency

      Beau Albrecht

    • Henry Mayhew’s London Labour & the London Poor

      Mark Gullick

      1

    • The American Regime

      Thomas Steuben

      3

    • The Populist Moment, Chapter 12: Liberty — Equality — Fraternity: On the Meaning of a Republican Slogan

      Alain de Benoist

    • The Eggs Benedict Option

      Howe Abbott-Hiss

    • Religion & Eugenics

      Paul Popenoe

      2

    • Ian Kershaw’s Personality & Power

      Margot Metroland

      3

    • Correspondence between Gaston-Armand Amaudruz & Julius Evola

      Gaston-Armand Amaudruz & Julius Evola

      1

    • David Duke & Louisiana’s 1991 Gubernatorial Election

      Morris van de Camp

      4

    • A Woman’s Guide to Identifying Psychopaths, Part 7 More of the Most Common Jobs for Psychopaths

      James Dunphy

      1

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 521 Daily Zoomer & Spencer J. Quinn Discuss The No College Club

      Counter-Currents Radio

      1

    • Traditional French Songs from Le Poème Harmonique

      Alex Graham

      1

    • The Whale

      Steven Clark

      4

    • The Wave: Fascism Reenacted in a High School

      Beau Albrecht

      6

    • What Went Wrong with America’s Universities?

      Stephen Paul Foster

      3

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 520 Inside Serbia with Marko of Zentropa

      Counter-Currents Radio

    • The Populist Moment, Chapter 11, Part 4: “Multitudes” Against the People

      Alain de Benoist

    • The Populist Moment, Chapter 11, Part 3: “Multitudes” Against the People

      Alain de Benoist

    • The Populist Moment, Chapter 11, Part 2: “Multitudes” Against the People

      Alain de Benoist

    • The Populist Moment, Chapter 11, Part 1: “Multitudes” Against the People

      Alain de Benoist

      1

    • The Secret of My Success

      Steven Clark

      2

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 519 An Update on South America on The Writers’ Bloc

      Counter-Currents Radio

      1

    • The Populist Moment, Chapter 10, Part 2: The Ambiguity of “Communitarianism”

      Alain de Benoist

    • The Populist Moment, Chapter 10, Part 1: The Ambiguity of “Communitarianism”

      Alain de Benoist

    • The Eternal Fedora

      Nicholas R. Jeelvy

      16

    • The Kennedy Assassination & Misreading Data

      Morris van de Camp

      18

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 518 Blair Cottrell & Josh Neal on The Myth of Mental Illness

      Counter-Currents Radio

    • The Bene Gesserit Books: Frank Herbert’s Heretics of Dune & Chapterhouse: Dune

      Greg Johnson

      3

    • Tár: Reflections on the Artist vs. the Hive

      Steven Clark

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 517 Special Hangover Stream on The Writers’ Bloc

      Counter-Currents Radio

      5

  • Recent comments

    • ArminiusMaximus

      IQ Is a Phenotype

      Jim Goad - Perfect. My guess is the answer would depend on the class of the white person. Upper...

    • DarkPlato

      The Machiavellian Method

      So you’re saying his formal meaning was different from his intended purpose. 😉

    • Greg Johnson

      The Machiavellian Method

      That's how he presented himself, but in fact he was advancing an alternative set of norms by which...

    • DarkPlato

      The Machiavellian Method

      Machiavelli states that classical political philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle wrote about...

    • Greg Johnson

      The Machiavellian Method

      Whenever Machiavelli rebukes utopianism, virtue, and high standards of behavior, he is referring to...

    • Jim Goad

      IQ Is a Phenotype

      Maybe it’s a personal aversion to the word “moral,” because I’ve been clubbed over the head since...

    • Desert Flower

      Trevor Lynch’s Classics of Right-Wing Cinema

      (I also posted this comment under Jim Goad's review of Stagecoach.) I just read Trevor Lynch’s...

    • Desert Flower

      Race and Ethics in John Ford’s Stagecoach

      As for Jim Goad’s statement in his review of Stagecoach: “There’s a racial and an ethical lesson...

    • Antipodean

      IQ Is a Phenotype

      You are the resident counter-currents expert in unsupported assertions.  Many of the character...

    • Desert Flower

      Race and Ethics in John Ford’s Stagecoach

      I just read Trevor Lynch’s online reviews of The Searchers and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. It...

    • Joe Gould

      The Machiavellian Method

      Remember to read your Machiavelli, and do not take anyone else's opinion for what he said, what he...

    • Antipodean

      IQ Is a Phenotype

      For me too, even when the typo is corrected. This article by Dr Pierce may provide an introduction...

    • ArminiusMaximus

      IQ Is a Phenotype

      Interesting. Yes. It seems like there also needs to be some sort of helplessness vs. self-reliance...

    • Philippe Régniez

      Race and Ethics in John Ford’s Stagecoach

      My Darling Clementine beats them all.

    • Anthony Bavaria

      Trevor Lynch’s Classics of Right-Wing Cinema

      Sounds about right. There was also recently a Waco miniseries on Netflix which also surprisingly...

    • Caleb

      IQ Is a Phenotype

      That link is dead (for me)

    • Richard Chance

      Race and Ethics in John Ford’s Stagecoach

      Unpopular opinion: I liked the Kevin Costner Wyatt Earp movie better than Tombstone.  Come at me.

    • Greg Johnson

      The Machiavellian Method

      Modernity was not a "fate." It was a utopian project launched by people like Machiavelli under the...

    • Will Williams

      Do You Have What It Takes to be a Dissident?

      Scott (responding to me): I lost faith in Movement politics a long time ago..,  I am not really...

    • Thomas Franche

      Collateral Damage: The United Kingdom’s Lockdown Files

      I guess what I still don’t understand is what was/is the ultimate goal? Just getting jabbed ? And if...

  • Book Authors

    • Alain de Benoist
    • Anthony M. Ludovici
    • Beau Albrecht
    • Buttercup Dew
    • Charles Krafft
    • Christopher Pankhurst
    • Collin Cleary
    • F. Roger Devlin
    • Fenek Solère
    • Francis Parker Yockey
    • Greg Johnson
    • Gregory Hood
    • H. L. Mencken
    • Irmin Vinson
    • J. A. Nicholl
    • James J. O’Meara
    • Jef Costello
    • Jim Goad
    • Jonathan Bowden
    • Juleigh Howard-Hobson
    • Julius Evola
    • Kerry Bolton
    • Leo Yankevich
    • Michael Polignano
    • Multiple authors
    • Savitri Devi
    • Spencer J. Quinn
    • Tito Perdue
    • Trevor Lynch
  • Webzine Authors

    Editor-in-Chief

    • Greg Johnson, Ph.D.

    Featured Writers

    • Beau Albrecht
    • Morris V. de Camp
    • Jim Goad
    • Mark Gullick, Ph.D.
    • Greg Johnson, Ph.D.
    • Spencer Quinn

    Frequent Writers

    • Aquilonius
    • Anthony Bavaria
    • Alain de Benoist
    • Kerry Bolton, Ph.D.
    • Collin Cleary, Ph.D.
    • Jef Costello
    • F. Roger Devlin, Ph.D.
    • Stephen Paul Foster, Ph.D.
    • Alex Graham
    • Richard Houck
    • Margot Metroland
    • John Morgan
    • Trevor Lynch
    • James J. O’Meara
    • Kathryn S.
    • Thomas Steuben
    • Michael Walker

    Classic Authors

    • Maurice Bardèche
    • Jonathan Bowden
    • Julius Evola
    • Guillaume Faye
    • Ernst Jünger
    • Kevin MacDonald, Ph.D.
    • D. H. Lawrence
    • Charles Lindbergh
    • Jack London
    • H. P. Lovecraft
    • Anthony M. Ludovici
    • Sir Oswald Mosley
    • National Vanguard
    • Friedrich Nietzsche
    • Revilo Oliver
    • William Pierce
    • Ezra Pound
    • Saint-Loup
    • Savitri Devi
    • Carl Schmitt
    • Miguel Serrano
    • Oswald Spengler
    • P. R. Stephensen
    • Jean Thiriart
    • John Tyndall
    • Dominique Venner
    • Leo Yankevich
    • Francis Parker Yockey

    Other Authors

    • Howe Abbott-Hiss
    • Michael Bell
    • Buttercup Dew
    • Giles Corey
    • Bain Dewitt
    • Jack Donovan
    • Richardo Duchesne, Ph.D.
    • Emile Durand
    • Guillaume Durocher
    • Mark Dyal
    • Fullmoon Ancestry
    • Tom Goodroch
    • Andrew Hamilton
    • Robert Hampton
    • Huntley Haverstock
    • Derek Hawthorne
    • Gregory Hood
    • Juleigh Howard-Hobson
    • Alexander Jacob
    • Nicholas Jeelvy
    • Ruuben Kaalep
    • Tobias Langdon
    • Julian Langness
    • Travis LeBlanc
    • Patrick Le Brun
    • G A Malvicini
    • John Michael McCloughlin
    • Millennial Woes
    • Michael O’Meara
    • Christopher Pankhurst
    • Michael Polignano
    • J. J. Przybylski
    • Quntilian
    • Edouard Rix
    • C. B. Robertson
    • C. F. Robinson
    • Herve Ryssen
    • Alan Smithee
    • Fenek Solere
    • Ann Sterzinger
    • Robert Steuckers
    • Tomislav Sunic
    • Donald Thoresen
    • Marian Van Court
    • Irmin Vinson
    • Aylmer Wedgwood
    • Scott Weisswald
  • Departments

    • Book Reviews
    • Movie Reviews
    • TV Reviews
    • Music Reviews
    • Art Criticism
    • Graphic Novels & Comics
    • Video Game Reviews
    • Fiction
    • Poems
    • Interviews
    • Videos
    • English Translations
    • Other Languages
      • Arabic
      • Bulgarian
      • Croatian
      • Czech
      • Danish
      • Dutch
      • Estonian
      • Finnish
      • French
      • German
      • Greek
      • Hungarian
      • Italian
      • Lithuanian
      • Norwegian
      • Polish
      • Portuguese
      • Romanian
      • Russian
      • Slovak
      • Spanish
      • Swedish
      • Ukrainian
    • Commemorations
    • Why We Write
  • Archives
  • Top 100 Commenters
  • Private Events
  • T&C
  • Contact
Sponsored Links
Above Time Coffee Antelope Hill Publishing Paul Waggener Asatru Folk Assembly IHR Breakey Imperium Press American Renaissance The Patrick Ryan Show Jim Goad The Occidental Observer
Print April 1, 2011 28 comments

Against Happiness

Jef Costello

Hieronymus Bosch, "The Haywain," after. 1510

1,673 words

A few days ago I had dinner with a co-worker. She knows nothing of my secret identity (i.e., Jef Costello) and I have never clued her in to the full extent of my political incorrectness. Nevertheless, as I do with so many others, I relish little opportunities to slip something into the conversation to make her think. Usually it consists in unfurling a bit of my colossal pessimism – my sense that everything is going to complete and utter hell. On this particular occasion she listened to me for awhile and then said, wearing a look of grave concern, “Are you happy?”

The question took me by surprise and I did not want to answer it. The honest answer, of course, is that no, I am not happy. But I didn’t want to say this, and for a variety of reasons. First of all, I knew what she was up to. She’s one of those people who think that if your outlook on the world makes you unhappy, something must be “wrong” with your outlook. My mother used to try the same jazz on me. I did reveal the full extent of my political incorrectness to her, and it made her worry. She was afraid of my being ostracized, and also of my views making me unhappy. And my mother had a simple solution to this: change your views. I patiently tried to explain to her that I could not just “change” my views like I change my clothes; that to simply refuse to see the things that I see would require a kind of self-delusion and intellectual dishonesty of which I’m not capable. But she’d just stare at me with that look that demands accompaniment by chirping crickets. It was like we spoke two different languages.

If I had simply said to my friend “Yes, I am unhappy,” she would have counted this as a victory of sorts. “You see,” she would say, or want to say, “You see what your sort of thinking leads to?” I just didn’t want to deal with this, so I simply smiled and said “Yes, of course I’m happy.” I don’t think she believed me, but the conversation moved onto something else. This is the sort of relationship I have with most of my “friends.” I’m not able to fully reveal myself to them. I present to them a censored version of myself. I hold my tongue (for the most part) when I hear them make patently absurd, naïve assertions about politics or culture. I like these people, for one reason or another, but the way I feel about them is kind of like how I feel about children. It seems like it would be sheer cruelty on my part to reveal too much of what I think, and to shatter their cherished illusions (including their illusions about me). I’ve lost more than one “friend” that way. And I don’t like dining alone.

No, I am not happy. How can I be, in a world like this? I am not weeping as I type this, nor is there an open, half-emptied bottle of J. T .S. Brown sitting beside my computer. I am not moping all the time, and there are aspects of my life with which I am quite satisfied. But I am not happy. There is simply too much that is wrong, and I get reminded of it far too often. I am profoundly disgusted with the modern world and with modern people. This culture is fatuous and vulgar, the people soulless, spineless, and narcissistic. And we’re poised to lose whatever is left that has any value, as our countries continue to undergo their barbarian invasions. The soulless, spineless people grin and wave as the barbarians stream in, morons lobotomized by political correctness. And that’s really the worst of it: the great feel-good, sensitive, gusher of pap that chokes us all today; the tissue of lies and childish platitudes before which we must all grovel.

I am not happy – and frankly I am proud of that. I couldn’t respect myself if I were happy and “well adjusted.”

The key problem with clinical psychology is that it uses “adjustment” as a criterion of mental health. But whether or not being “well adjusted” is a good thing depends entirely upon what one has adjusted to. If the world we are living in is rotten to the core, if it requires that we avoid thinking about or affirming obvious truths, if it requires us to censor our perception of reality and to lie all the time, if it cuts us off from nature, from our families, from our people and their history and traditions, and even from our own bodies — then being “well adjusted” to that world is a sign of profound mental and spiritual sickness.

Of course, the very concept of “adjustment” is pretty vague. One could certainly say that I have “adjusted” to the modern world, in a manner of speaking. I have adjusted to it by vowing to destroy it (see my essay “How I Found My Mission in Life”). I have adjusted to it by policing my thoughts, words, actions, and even my wardrobe for any signs of influence from the cultural rot. Of course, in the eyes of most this would not make me well adjusted.

Still, I can imagine someone reading this and wondering if it might be possible to see all the problems with the world and be “happy” just the same. I am simply not interested in debating this point, however. The reason is that I do not believe that happiness is a goal we should strive for at all.

Nietzsche famously said “Man does not strive for happiness; only the Englishman does.” If only Nietzsche had known America! It was in America that the bourgeois, English pre-occupation with happiness really sprouted wings. Jefferson even made “the pursuit of happiness” one of the fundamental “rights of man.” What is shocking is that so many have seen this as a lofty sentiment. But isn’t there something entirely ignoble (and unmasculine) about a man who makes “being happy” the aim of his life – especially considering that in most cases “the pursuit of happiness” winds up being the pursuit of material comfort and security?

I do not seek happiness. Instead, I seek what one might call a certain sort of “satisfaction.” My aim is to live a life that I can be proud of. I want to take no actions, say no words, and think no thoughts that cause me shame. I am striving to be a noble man. And I am fully aware that the achievement of this goal (to whatever degree I can achieve it) will make me more of an outsider in the modern world. We have reached a point where qualities such as dignity, nobility, and reserve produce strongly negative, even hostile responses. I remember telling someone that I resented the indignity of having to take my shoes off in the security line at the airport. He said nothing, but the look on his face said “What makes you think you’re so special?”

I fully expect things to get far worse within my lifetime, and I fully expect that as I grow as a person — as I learn more and as my character improves — I will find it even more impossible to be happy in the modern world. I do not think it is implausible to think that I, and those like me, will be openly persecuted and physically threatened. In short, happiness is not just around the corner for me. But regardless of what happens, I know that I have, in a sense, risen above it. I am proud of the person I am. Becoming an excellent human being is the noblest and best goal that one can strive for in life.

Besides, striving for happiness makes no sense. Happiness depends upon factors that are not entirely within our control. At any moment we can be struck down by illness or by a bus, we can lose someone we cherish, lose our jobs, our homes can be burglarized or burned to the ground, etc. To strive to be “happy” all the time is to strive for the impossible. That was why Immanuel Kant (in his ethical writings) advised us not to strive for happiness, but to strive to be worthy of happiness. In other words, aim to be the best person you can be. That way, if happiness winds up being unattainable for you, you can at least take solace in knowing that you deserve better, and suffer through no fault of your own.

I also take some solace in knowing that while my life isn’t terribly happy, it is certainly interesting. In just about every conceivable way I live a life completely at odds with the modern world. And I must conceal a great deal of that life from others. I must write under multiple pseudonyms. I must keep friends compartmentalized, and not allow certain friends to meet others. I guess I’m sort of a secret agent — whose mission is to destroy the modern world. And I am using every modern convenience — such as the internet — to advance that mission. And I am trying to take Evola’s words to heart and “ride the tiger.”

I found long ago that I almost never enjoy my life as it is happening to me – yet I often look back with great fondness on periods which, at the time, I thought contained nothing but suffering. I am quite happy to be a member of the small fraternity of those who are too busy making themselves hard to be concerned with happiness. And I will probably look back at that process of making myself hard and smile. One of my aims is to reach the point of death with no major regrets about the life I have led.

Any fool (and any scoundrel) can be “happy.”

Related

  • The Machiavellian Method

  • Plato’s Apology

  • Remembering Richard M. Weaver
    (March 3, 1910–April 1, 1963)

  • New Video! Don’t Blame Your Parents!

  • Forgotten Roots of the Left: Fichte’s Moral & Political Philosophy, Part I

  • Religion & Eugenics

  • Remembering Anthony M. Ludovici
    (January 8, 1882–April 3, 1971)

  • Neurotic Bond

Tags

ethicshappinessJef Costelloliving wellphilosophy

Previous

« White Awakenings 
A Jew for Jesus & a Girl in the Library

Next

» Amy Biehl:
Eine weiße Linke auf dem Dunklen Erdteil

28 comments

  1. Fourmyle of Ceres says:
    April 1, 2011 at 6:57 pm

    Thank you for a well-written essay.

    I notice a theme that is implied, more than expresed, and is most heartening for those of us concerned with the metapolitical project.

    One, I do not hear the mindset of victimization, particularly the victimization by two percent of the po;ulation that allows them to be all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful, and this, allow us to rationalize our lives of quiet desperation as being the best, well, Charlie Brown can do.

    Two, I hear in the soft echo of a phrase used by Kevin Alfred Strom, that sums up the difference in mindset in terms of future awareness, and developing oneself as a tool through which your life becomes the foundation for that better, much better, future.

    “WE’RE GOING TO WIN!” (HT: Kevin Alfred Strom)

    When the declaration was formed, Paine orginally adoped Locke’s formulation, “Life, liberty, and property.” That was a bit too honest for the Founders, men who had property and wanted what they had protected, and when they got more property, they wanted that protected, as well.

    It’s the people who were NOT attached to the “property” that win, ocer time, because they shift the cultural reference point to one that they support, and end up with the best insight the New Left ever had; the Old Left wanted to OWN and control property, while the New Left wanted to simply CONTROL property, and what you could do with it.

    It’s that intellectual framework that shapes the political framework, in time, as people ascribe meanings to terms they can not define, but make them feel good, and even a tiny bit superior.

    “Democracy” is such a term.

    And that takes us back to your essay, and its critical points.

    You wrote:

    Any fool (and any scoundrel) can be “happy.”

    In reply:
    This is the sole purpose in life of the Child.

    Do you notice an increase in the infantilization of Westerners, to the point that they would just as soon live on soma, and accept the Consensus Trance without question?

    They would not even think to ask themselves the great question for “1984,” “How much is two and two?” They would not care to even formulate the question, for that would require a degree of abstract thought that is not only beyond them, but painfully beyond them.

    That is how political correctness is working on us, and it is working all too well for most of us, and failing, miserably for those of us who join, and commit our lives to, the metapolitical project.

    A critical issue that you have addressed deserves more attention than I can give to it here.

    You wrote:

    The key problem with clinical psychology is that it uses “adjustment” as a criterion of mental health. But whether or not being “well adjusted” is a good thing depends entirely upon what one has adjusted to. If the world we are living in is rotten to the core, if it requires that we avoid thinking about or affirming obvious truths, if it requires us to censor our perception of reality and to lie all the time, if it cuts us off from nature, from our families, from our people and their history and traditions, and even from our own bodies — then being “well adjusted” to that world is a sign of profound mental and spiritual sickness.

    In reply:
    The modern practice of clinical psychology is aimed at “adjustment,” to “fitting in,” to (in the words of your school report cards) “getting along well with others.”

    It defines the Other as the Norm, and allows the Other to be flexible enough in what it values as to be meaningless as a benchmark for human achievement.

    And, if you need to grow beyond this framework, in the furtherance of Individuation to address your soul’s awakening, then the Consensus Trance kicks in, with the new thoughtcrimes defined by Political Correctness coming to the fore externally, and, if that isn’t enough, the functional equivalent of the Red Guards, who will make sure your suffering serves as an object lesson.

    And that is the refiner’s fire that will harden your soul, your psyche, and allow you to move forward.

    Good.

    Incidentally, given what the New Normal is becoming, there is no disgrace in faking normalcy; really, if you think about it, most people are, and most people, given the choice, would just as soon live different lives.

    We can lead them by quiet example.

  2. Ryan Oblivion says:
    April 1, 2011 at 7:42 pm

    Today we are forced to live as if we were happy.

  3. James J. O'Meara says:
    April 1, 2011 at 8:57 pm

    Don’t worry, the Ziontists are already at work on it.

    From the newest DMS handbook:

    Oppositional Defiant Disorder

    What is ODD?

    ODD is a persistent pattern (lasting for at least six months) of negativistic, hostile, disobedient, and defiant behavior in a child or teen without serious violation of the basic rights of others.

    What are the symptoms of ODD?

    Symptoms of ODD may include the following behaviors when they occur more often than normal for your age group:

    * losing your temper
    * arguing with adults; defying adults or refusing adult requests or rules
    * deliberately annoying others
    * blaming others for your own mistakes or misbehavior
    * being touchy or easily annoyed
    * being angry and resentful
    * being spiteful or vindictive
    * swearing or using obscene language
    * having a low opinion of yourself

    The person with ODD is moody and easily frustrated, has a low opinion of him or herself, and may abuse drugs.

    What causes ODD?

    The cause of Oppositional Defiant Disorder is unknown at this time.

    http://nyp.org/health/psychiatry_opposdefia.html

    Actually, a pretty good description of the Judaic modus operandi, but as per usual, employed to stigmatize those among the goyim who may kick against the pricks.

    1. Fourmyle of Ceres says:
      April 1, 2011 at 10:08 pm

      In reply to James J. O’Meara:

      Remarkable, thank you very much.

      This is the section that tells us all:

      The cause of Oppositional Defiant Disorder is unknown at this time.

      Keep your eye on that, because the “solutions” to this – otherwise known as “adolescence” – will undoubtedly be a focus on forcing them to conform to the New Normal, with persuasion, and then, if that fails, sanctions, and, per “Brave New World,” soma. As well, they shall remain, perpetually, psychologically, Children – the fulfillment of the Dream of the Soft Totalitarians throughout history, making Mankind over in THEIR conception of what Humanity’s image out to be.

      It really signifies their relentless attack on the human spirit, doesn’t it?

      On the one hand, the soft totalitarianism of “Animal Farm,” where they are driven slowly mad by the disconnect between what their senses tell them, and what their Mind says their senses must not be telling them – in a phrase, cognitive dissonance.

      It is useful to recall the Cultural Mission of the Adolescent: to transform the Culture, softly, on the margins, with the arts, then language, and then – and only then – new behaviors.

      In short, they are rejecting the Consensus Trance, without understanding what they are doing, or why.

      If they are too effective, then medication will be called in, and, if the parents reject this (they don’t have to be notified, you know), then Child Protective Services will be called in. Incidentally, as their long-term Plan has been to destroy the Masculine Foundation of the Priest/Warrior Caste, watch for traditional Masculine behavior be penalized, softly criminalized, and treated by “medication.” After all, too much testosterone might lead to Leaders, and, given the Archetypal Force of Male Exceptionalism, unconventional, even uncontrollable, Leaders.

      Edgar Steele spoke of what to do, based on his painfully gained experiences with CPS, in his famous mp3, “Let’s Get Small.”

      In the linguistic perversion that is their hallmark, you will be required to be “happy,” and this “happiness” will ONLY be found in Conformity to the Community – adopting and enthusiastically supporting the Consensus Trance, one way or another.

      WHat I admire about the focus here it that people are not merely blindly reacting in the anger of the self-selected impotent, but are looking for Creative Alternatives to a collapsing social order, all along the lines suggested by VNN/F’s “Hugh” in his thread, “A World View,” all done in an “apple pie, strictly legal, sort of way.”

      Effectiveness, for a very welcome change.

      Focus Northwest.

  4. Chechar says:
    April 1, 2011 at 9:03 pm

    Nice confessional essay, Mr Costello. Thanks.

  5. Gregor says:
    April 1, 2011 at 10:02 pm

    Nobody has ever voiced how I feel inside so accurately.

    When I was 14 years old I had a little journal, and one entry was, “You can have friends, or you can be true to yourself.” I think Jef knows this feeling well.

    Krishnamurti once said, similarly, that “it’s not a sign of health to be well-adjusted to a sick society.”

    The take home point for me was: ” I have “adjusted” to the modern world by vowing to destroy it.”

    Thanks Jef.

  6. Uncle Fritz says:
    April 2, 2011 at 2:32 am

    Are there any among us who haven’t wrestled with the, “be true to yourself” versus “just be happy” or, that is to say, to just keep your mouth shut(relative to critical and “taboo” matters) and go-with-the-flow, regardless of how you really think and feel?

    The way in which the OP describes his dinner companions may be a metaphor for much of my adult life. ‘Don’t say too much, at least not to the “wrong” people, because you will alienate them(and you often will!) and don’t wish to, and thus, live something of an ideological double life…’ It’s all too familiar.

    But it is good that we recognize that simply “being happy” is not only not necessarily important(or noble), but not all that likely to be an issue for those of us who are decidedly UNHAPPY with the state of affairs regardong our race, our cultures, our nations, etc.

    I’m not sure if I had a broader point when I started writing this – just a personal observation I suppose!

  7. Baron Adams says:
    April 2, 2011 at 3:24 am

    Thank you for this essay, Jef. You reminded me that I am not alone, not absurd and not insane.

  8. Graham Cawthorn says:
    April 2, 2011 at 6:55 am

    Jef,

    I think you speak for a lot of us in your piece, particularly those of us who lack the solidarity of like-minded people in our daily lives .

    How can we be happy as we watch the things we hold dear crumble before us? How can we not feel like Cassandra of Troy, condemned to speak of the dangers facing our people to deaf ears?

    It seems to me, that faced with such things, we are forced to go through a cycle of grief not unlike the five stages identified by Elizabeth Kübler-Ross. Most people we know are still at the “denial” stage. We’re well past that, and hopefully also the “anger” and the “bargaining” stages too.

    As the future unfolds, and denial is no longer an option for most people – even your Pollyanna friends – those of us who have already been through the initial stages must step forward and show some leadership.

    Hang on in there.

  9. Karsten says:
    April 2, 2011 at 12:16 pm

    I think the finest treatise on happiness is the Patrick McGoohan series The Prisoner, which I’m sure everyone here knows. In The Village, everyone is “happy,” in the sense that they are living a medicated, lobotomized life, like mindless farm animals, all under the custodianship of the state. Number 6 is the only unhappy person in The Village, and he is also the only one who is truly alive. That is a higher form of existence than numbed happiness.

    Besides, the only reason we are unhappy is because of the repugnant condition of the society in which we live. I’ll bet that there were a lot of Germans who were very happy in the Bismarck Reich, as their nation had finally been reunited, their eternal enemy (France) defeated. And when you look on the faces of the young men in Germany from 1933-1939, at the rallies and so forth, they are jubilant, and with good reason.

    When the day comes that we can live in a society that agrees with our inner nature, then we will be happy. Until that time, we will be Number 6, straining against our shackles and seeking to shatter the menagerie in which we find ourselves.

  10. meh says:
    April 2, 2011 at 2:17 pm

    “She’s one of those people who think that if your outlook on the world makes you unhappy, something must be “wrong” with your outlook. My mother used to try the same jazz on me. I did reveal the full extent of my political incorrectness to her, and it made her worry. She was afraid of my being ostracized, and also of my views making me unhappy. And my mother had a simple solution to this: change your views.”

    This is a typically female outlook: conformism for the sake of happiness, “truth” defined as what makes one happy by conforming to the opinions of others. Not to denigrate females; there may be necessity of such an outlook by women in a healthy society, but in a sick society such as ours, when this becomes the dominant outlook not only of women but of men as well, this can only result in catastrophe.

    I simply cannot conceive of a healthy, self-respecting male who can knowingly change his opinions based not on a dispassionate examination of the facts, but merely on what popular opinion dictates (unconscious conformity to public opinion out of ignorance is an entirely different matter of course). To castrate one’s self in such a way is the very definition of unmanliness. To be wrong is one thing; but to knowingly surrender one’s judgment to the herd for the sake of “happiness” is far worse than merely being wrong; for a man, especially for a White man, it is worse than death. It is an undoing of his very Being.

    Ignorance is a lesser crime than knowing and disregarding the truth for the sake of “happiness”. It is inconceivable to me that a man could change his opinions for the sake of “happiness”; this may make sense for women, but for men, never. I can respect women for being women but I could never respect a man who knows the truth and “unknows it” for the sake of happiness and conformity – I can’t even conceive of how such a thing is possible. Hide your true opinions from others for the sake of not being socially destroyed? Yes. Actually “unknow” what one knows for the sake of social happiness? How is this even possible? How could someone think that it is possible?

  11. Happy Guy says:
    April 2, 2011 at 3:52 pm

    There is nobility in humility. Maybe you are humble, but that certainly doesn’t come through in this post.

    1. Peter says:
      April 3, 2011 at 10:46 am

      “Happy Guy”: your comment reminds me of the mainline Protestant teachings I received as a young adult that pride is a sin, to turn the other cheek, to forgive AND FORGET, and to render unto Caesar. Our past humility has led to us being humiliated, which is a major step toward our physical destruction as a people. It’s time to start acting like Zionists for White homelands — solely in the interests of our racial group. If at times that requires a strategic display of humility, then so be it. But like the Jews’ display of themselves as cuddly fiddlers and such, it will be coldly calculated to seem warm and fuzzy while balanced by other means. White Nationalism isn’t happiness, but like Zionism has been for Jews, it is the path to our happiness.

  12. Barbara says:
    April 2, 2011 at 4:04 pm

    No wonder you’re not happy. If you are too scared to speak the facts that can be verified then you should be unhappy.

    I cannot believe that so many people refuse to live freely. How can you allow jews to have so much control over your lives? I believe I am free and I act like it.

    Example, I stood in line to get vouchers to get stray cats spayed and neutered, at a local rescue. A few women in line behind me were talking about one of their sons in Iraq. I ventured to tell them we shouldn’t be fighting for jews and israel and that we should bring all our troops home. Oh they said, we have to defend Israel. Why I asked, why should we spill our children’s blood and bankrupt ourselves for the little hellhole in the middle east.

    One woman actually raised her voice so that everyone in the area could hear her scream at me about how we have to defend israel. Then she turned her back on me and cut me out of further conversation. There I was, nobody would talk to me after that.

    Finally I turned back to those women and told the Mother that I hoped her son comes home safely. To hell with all of them if they don’t have sense enough to realize the truth in what I said. It was hurtful and upsetting but now I can live with myself. If I didn’t speak out, I have learned that is something I cannot live with. Denying the truth and pretending would make me unhappy, just like you are. No thank you.

    I hope I planted a seed in their minds that won’t let them rest. And if I got a chance I would have told them everything about the sorry jew, but they’ll be cheated out of that because they didn’t want to listen, their mistake, not mine.

    1. Fourmyle of Ceres says:
      April 2, 2011 at 10:17 pm

      In reply to Barbara:

      I am not writing this to be argumentative, but to make a point about where we have often failed, and that is effectiveness.

      You can well afford to lecture people at a shelter who are buying reduced cost spay-neuter coupons. Bluntly, these are not very effective people in the larger political sphere, and they do not matter – you will never see them again, and just as well.

      I was in a discussion with the old guy who ran the warehouse where I used to work. I saw him reading the Carto newspaper, “The American Free Press,” and figured he was ok to speak to in vague terms.

      Horrific mistake – I was simply addressing NSDAP solutions to an economic problem, and, by the time word got to the High Command, I has become the company Nazi. This perception cost me dearly, at a later time, in the corporation, first with a visit to the President, and then, not getting the tap to move with the company during our big mass layoffs and firings “consolidation.”

      There are too many people who are simply afraid of what is happening to them economically – declining real income, declining real standard of living – and politically, as they see their requests to simply be heard are ignored by The Powers That Be.

      So, they put greater effort into holding onto the few things they believe are right; your arguments, while intellectually and morally valid, are not EMOTIONALLY valid in their reference framework. As well, they break the social cohesion of their lives, and invalidate part of the social proof, the Consensus Trance, that shapes so much of their lives.

      A friend of mine worked for a member of Congress who was appointed to an Intelligence Committee. After the briefings he received, the Congressman was much more quiet and somber, in private, than he had ever been, in all the years my friend knew him. One night, he discussed the change in the Congressman’s attitude with the Congressman, who said, “Nothing you see on tv, read in the newspapers, or hear on the radio, is to be believed. Nothing works the way we were told. And, believe me, IF YOU TOLD PEOPLE THE TRUTH THEY WOULD NOT BELIEVE YOU, AND WOULD TURN ON YOU.”

      People are addicted, for now, to the Consensus Trance, and there is precious little we can do about it.

      That is changing; people with nothing – 99ers, people with houses underwater, people with student loans that can never be reapid – have nothing to lose, and soon lose it altogether.

      We need to be there with intelligent explanations, and smart solutions they can relate to. We need to be there with creative alternatives, which reject the victimization that works so well to further empower our Racial Enemies, and demoralize, and disempower, us.

      I used to believe the way you do: “People want to know the truth, and they will appreciate it when I tell them.”

      No.

      People NEED to hear the truth, but they WANT to hear their particular version of the Truth; that they are a little better, a little prettier, a little smarter, than the rest of us.

      If the price of this Illusion is their freedom, well, they never wanted to exercise that freedom with counterbalacning responsibility to a much greater Purpose, so it was all for naught, anyway.

      You can not change the mind of one person with anything other than your example.

      I act, daily, in my dress, and demeanor, as if I was the Ambassador from the Northwest Republic. It requires wearing suits more than I have, but my goal is one that will probably not be met in my lifetime, but MUST be met, for the survival of Mankind.

      That’s a strong incentive to be diplomatic, and no less effective.

    2. Fourmyle of Ceres says:
      April 3, 2011 at 8:14 am

      In reply to Barbara (2):

      You have raised a most important issue for the metapolitical project, and it deserves more attention.

      I think your seeds will not bear much frusit, because it is all too easy for them to compartmentalize you as a thought criminal – the emotional attachment to the Zionist entity is simply too deep in their indoctrination. Further, the Consensus Trance (HT: Horus the Avenger) works with their desire for social proof to reinforce this.

      What might have worked is to begin to lay the foundation for a nw counter-culture; or, a counter-SUBculture, at any rate.

      Bob Whitaker’s Mantra works, althought I modify it to deal with the genocide of White CHILDREN. This seems to get through the filters pretty well; I’ve literally had people start and jerk their heads back, as they realized I was talking about THEIR children, and THEIR grandchildren. The White RACE remains a brand that has been aggressively countermarketed for the last fifty years, and MEN have been systematically marginalized and devalued for the same time fame; put them together, and you are trying to sell what the MediaCorps have attached only a negative value to. Children, however, are a topic women can relate to.

      We then learn from the example given us by VNN’F’s “Hugh,” in his thread “A World View,” and the examples given by Peter Schank, when he realized the magnitude of what we were up against.

      We learn, and we learn to be effective, over the long haul; decades, generations, centuries and millenia. This is very possible; this is the great strength of the Jews as a RACE, and that is a single, overarching, unifying theme driving all decisions, no matter how great or small they may be.

      That takes us to, in our time, the importance of a single, simple, consistent message, delivered without the idea that you will change one person today; in time, you wil change the nation.

      Sound is like light – soft, weak, and incoherent, it accomplishes little. Indeed, if a tree falls in the forest, does it even make a sound?

      Light is incoherent, and bounces off most everything; even absorbed, it offers a little bit of heat, for an instant.

      Make the light coherent, remove all noice from the signal, and move all the energy in one direction; this creates a laser, which can cut through diamonds and the hardest steel.

      EFFECTIVE.

      My concern is the building of the temporal foundations for the metapolitical project, and having morbidly obese losers dressing up in ununiform Nazi uniforms works for the Opposition.

      Having organizations that do not focus on political effectiveness, starting with personal effectiveness, is another spectacular waste of time. Think of the Kevin Alfred Strom and William Luther Pierce ADV broadcasts as being seeds. What fruit have the put forth? Within a narrow handful of people, quite a bit, but only to the point of beginning to have a precious few green shoots, that are a long way from bearing fruit.

      So, we need two things:

      One, an overarching Goal that will take us generations to meet, centered around doing the things that bestt serves the Race.

      Every sector of society can be changed in the furhterance of this; can, and MUST be changed. What does not support this must be allowed to wither away.

      Two, a set of Tools that facilitates the organization of our efforts in the furtherance of the fulfillment of this Goal.

      The first Tool is Bob Whitaker’s Mantra, which begins the process of Awakening.

      The second Tool is effective people, building better lives for themselvs and fosteritn the development of the third Tool.

      The third Tool is effective organizations – in time, political organizations, leading to the development of a new nation-state, and the best analytical model for such organization remains the Northwest Republic.

      It starts with sound – soft, quiet words that convey very effective thoughts, which express very powerful Ideas. Life changing, world changing Ideas.

      Organized and disciplined, it can overthrow and control governments without a shot being fired, as it did for the Jews in Twentieth Century America.

      Organized, disciplined, and effective, all done in an “apple pie, strictly legal sort of way.”

  13. rev odin says:
    April 2, 2011 at 4:17 pm

    I’ve often heard a racist pessimist say “If you can be happy when you are being submerged by the blacks and browns, then you are either diseased or overdosing on happy pills.”

    Unhappiness, bitterness, and even hate are Christ-like responses to the assault upon our White Humanity. If you aren’t angry, you aren’t worthy of your Whites Only ancestors and should consider either suicide.

    Race prejudice against the feral afrovoodo blacks is a sacrament of race love for our own White Humanity.

  14. Isola says:
    April 2, 2011 at 6:21 pm

    I don’t have anything particularly insightful to add except that, like others here, I can completely relate to what you’re saying, Jef. Thank you for so eloquently describing the feelings that churn within me – feelings that are at times extremely isolating and depressing but also make me feel oddly “good” as if I’m in on a big, bad secret that no one else knows about.

    I’ve often lamented the fact that I can’t have what I would call “100% friends.” I wish that there were more people that I could completely bare my soul to and find some sense of belonging, comradeship, kinship, etc. Instead, there are elements of my personality and beliefs that are completely off-limits and untouchable, that I can share with no one. It’s tragic that we have been put in such a position that we can bare those thoughts and feelings to others online, but only anonymously and to people that we’ll likely never meet.

  15. Junghans says:
    April 2, 2011 at 8:18 pm

    There are some very relevant and truthful statements here from both Jef and others. Alienation is what we face every day, when interacting with so many ideologically toxified people. Compartmentalization and balance are the best ways to handle any frustration or depression that one may feel. This is a long, drawn out war for the soul of our people, so perseverance, faith and tact are the order of the day, every day.

  16. Alexander says:
    April 3, 2011 at 12:15 am

    Jef’s friend probably believes that her pension plan and her own investments are as safe as the Rock of Gibraltar. Just be happy and your house will double in value in a couple of years time at which point you can sell it and live happily ever after.

  17. Brett Stevens says:
    April 3, 2011 at 7:32 am

    I love this article.

    As you point out, our society suffered a soul-death first, and then began its process of accepting destructive behavior as “good.”

    Even more, the average delusional idiot wants us all to claim we’re “happy” or to blame our awareness of the problem for our unhappiness.

    The fact is that everyone should be awake to the problem and working to fix it. Kaczynski’s ship of fools metaphor fits quite well here.

  18. Mimir's Well says:
    April 3, 2011 at 3:35 pm

    Jef,

    There are more of us out here then you realize. I, like you, feel isolated most of the time. However, I have had the oppurtunity over the years to meet several people that think we do, and I know there are many others. More are “being made” everyday. Like will find like. Give it time.

  19. Alfred Rosenberg says:
    April 4, 2011 at 7:14 am

    This is one of the best articles I’ve ever read. Part of me wants to read more on the topic, by the same author. Most of me thinks that elaboration would detract from it. It’s exact and complete.

    1. Matt says:
      April 7, 2011 at 10:35 am

      Agreed – great article. The eternal dilemma: how do we communicate what, to us, is so self-evident that it screams form the roof tops, and yet ……

  20. LawrenceofAppalachia says:
    April 5, 2011 at 10:52 pm

    A well written piece, Mr. Costello. Made all the more significant by the fact that it hits so close to home.

  21. Matt says:
    April 7, 2011 at 9:18 am

    This article was, in a word, uncanny. It was almost as if someone read my mind and put it all to words. It’s the Emperor’s clothes all over again.

    Once upon a time a traveller came to a country where he found the inhabitants living in a state of constant fear (sound familiar?). The fields surrounding the settlement, he was told, were infested with dangerous creatures that were out to kill whoever dared to venture out beyond the safety limits. This traveller, being a curious man (and probably smelling a rat) decided to have a look for himself and what he found out there astounded him – the homicidal creatures were no more than pumpkins growing in the field. Unfortunately his courage was greater than his wisdom. He ran back and told them the good news and … they strung him up from the nearest tree.

    After all, if you inform a madman in an asylum that he really isn’t Napoleon, the only result you can expect is that he will consider YOU the madman.

Comments are closed.

If you have Paywall access,
simply login first to see your comment auto-approved.

Note on comments privacy & moderation

Your email is never published nor shared.

Comments are moderated. If you don't see your comment, please be patient. If approved, it will appear here soon. Do not post your comment a second time.

  • Recent posts

    • This Weekend’s Livestream
      Greg Johnson, Pox Populi, & American Krogan on Machiavellianism & More

      Greg Johnson

    • The Machiavellian Method

      Greg Johnson

      8

    • IQ Is a Phenotype

      Spencer J. Quinn

      36

    • Trevor Lynch’s Classics of Right-Wing Cinema

      Anthony Bavaria

      15

    • Curriculum Vitae of Muriel Gantry, Part 5

      Muriel Gantry

      1

    • Race and Ethics in John Ford’s Stagecoach

      Jim Goad

      78

    • Curriculum Vitae of Muriel Gantry, Part 4

      Muriel Gantry

    • My Breakout from the Modern World: The Hungarian Day of Honour Tour 2023, Part 2

      Tizenegy

      4

    • Enoch Powell, poslední tory

      Gregory Hood

    • Dr. Roger Pearson: Doyen of Anglo-American Racial Science

      Peter Rushton

      3

    • Collateral Damage: The United Kingdom’s Lockdown Files

      Mark Gullick

      5

    • Obituary for Prof. Roger Pearson, M.Sc. (Econ.), Ph.D., (London): 1927–2023

      Mark Cotterill

      4

    • The Estonian Election & Nationalist Strategy

      Nicholas R. Jeelvy

      10

    • Hunter S. Thompson as Psyop

      James J. O'Meara

      7

    • Institutional Racism Explained

      Richard Knight

      8

    • A “Novel” Approach to the Understanding of Evil

      Stephen Paul Foster

      18

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 526 Cyan Quinn Reports from CPAC & More

      Counter-Currents Radio

      3

    • The Worst Week Yet: March 5-11, 2023

      Jim Goad

      23

    • John Wayne’s The Alamo & the Politics of the 1960s

      Morris van de Camp

      1

    • Thielemann Conducts Bruckner’s Eighth in Berkeley

      Donald Thoresen

      2

    • John Fante’s Ask the Dust

      Anthony Bavaria

      6

    • Remembering Gabriele D’Annunzio
      (March 12, 1863–March 1, 1938)

      Greg Johnson

      4

    • This Weekend’s Livestream
      Cyan Quinn on CPAC, Project Veritas, Jan. 6, & East Palestine

      Greg Johnson

      4

    • Do You Have What It Takes to be a Dissident?

      Spencer J. Quinn

      35

    • Personal Finance Tips for Dissidents

      David Lewis

      20

    • Survival of the Fittest: Interview with Alexander Deptolla of Kampf der Nibelungen

      Ondrej Mann

    • Curriculum Vitae of Muriel Gantry, Part 3

      Muriel Gantry

    • Dr. Roger Pearson on His Life & Work

      Dr. Roger Pearson

      6

    • 40,000 Brown Sardines Packed Into One Prison

      Jim Goad

      71

    • Curriculum Vitae of Muriel Gantry, Part 2

      Muriel Gantry

    • The Banshees of Inisherin

      Nicholas R. Jeelvy

      3

    • The Quiet Man: John Foxx’s Ultravox!

      Mark Gullick

      12

    • The British Brass Band

      Alex Graham

      6

    • Curriculum Vitae of Muriel Gantry, Part 1

      Muriel Gantry

      2

    • Charles de Gaulle a válka v Alžírsku

      Jean-Marie Le Pen

    • CPAC 2023: The Republican Party is Dying Out

      Cyan Quinn

      27

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 525 On Capitalism, Socialism, & the Ethnostate

      Counter-Currents Radio

      10

    • Remembering the German POW Camp at Bretzenheim

      Clarissa Schnabel

      11

    • Daylight Savings as Maladaptive Faustianism

      James Dunphy

      1

    • The Abolitionists as Virtue-Signalers: Nehemiah Adams & A South-side View of Slavery

      Spencer J. Quinn

      22

    • Biden’s Open Border

      Morris van de Camp

      2

    • Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch

      Steven Clark

      12

    • Equilibrium

      Buttercup Dew

      1

    • This Weekend’s Livestream
      Capitalism, Socialism, & the Ethnostate

      Greg Johnson

      8

    • Forgotten Roots of the Left: Fichte’s Moral & Political Philosophy, Part III

      Collin Cleary

      1

    • The Elite Are Those Who Refuse to Lie

      Nicholas R. Jeelvy

      22

    • Plato’s Apology

      Greg Johnson

      1

    • Remembering Richard M. Weaver
      (March 3, 1910–April 1, 1963)

      Greg Johnson

      2

    • Chicago, Then & Now

      Stephen Paul Foster

      12

    • Body Cams Never Lie

      Jim Goad

      12

  • Classics Corner

    • The Searchers

      Trevor Lynch

      29

    • Gabriele D’Annunzio

      Jonathan Bowden

      2

    • Remembering A. R. D. “Rex” Fairburn (February 2, 1904–March 25, 1957)

      Greg Johnson

      1

    • Denis Kearney & the Struggle for a White America

      Theodore J. O'Keefe

      1

    • Posthuman Prospects:
      Artificial Intelligence, Fifth Generation Warfare, & Archeofuturism

      Christopher Pankhurst

      5

    • Earnest Sevier Cox:
      Advocate for the White Ethnostate

      Morris van de Camp

      15

    • Remembering Jack London
      (January 12, 1876–November 22, 1916)

      Greg Johnson

      2

    • Remembering Robinson Jeffers:
      January 10, 1887–January 20, 1962

      John Morgan

      3

    • Remembering Pierre Drieu La Rochelle:
      January 3, 1893–March 15, 1945

      Greg Johnson

    • Remembering Rudyard Kipling (December 30, 1865-January 18, 1936)

      Greg Johnson

      10

    • Restoring White Homelands

      Greg Johnson

      34

    • Remembering Hinton Rowan Helper

      Spencer J. Quinn

      11

    • What’s Wrong with Diversity?

      Greg Johnson

      10

    • Redefining the Mainstream

      Greg Johnson

      3

    • Edward Alsworth Ross:
      American Metapolitical Hero

      Morris van de Camp

      8

    • The Talented Mr. Ripley & Purple Noon

      Trevor Lynch

      19

    • Christmas & the Yuletide:
      Light in the Darkness

      William de Vere

      3

    • Thanksgiving Special 
      White Men Meet Indians:
      Jamestown & the Clash of Civilizations

      Thomas Jackson

    • Colin Wilson’s The Outsider

      Sir Oswald Mosley

      4

    • Dostoyevsky on the Jews

      William Pierce

      4

    • Jefferson &/or Mussolini, Part 1

      Ezra Pound

      5

    • I Listened to Chapo Trap House So You Don’t Have To

      Doug Huntington

      98

    • The Homeric Gods

      Mark Dyal

      13

    • Toward a Baltic-Black Sea Union:
      “Intermarium” as a Viable Model for White Revival

      Émile Durand

      55

    • The Politics of Nuclear War, Part 3

      John Morgan

      30

    • The Politics of Nuclear War, Part 2

      John Morgan

      6

    • Columbus Day Special
      The Autochthony Argument

      Greg Johnson

      9

    • The Politics of Nuclear War, Part 1

      John Morgan

      8

    • The Jewish Question for Normies

      Alan Smithee

      13

    • Human Biodiversity for Normies

      Alan Smithee

      10

  • Paroled from the Paywall

    • How to Prepare for an Emergency

      Beau Albrecht

    • Henry Mayhew’s London Labour & the London Poor

      Mark Gullick

      1

    • The American Regime

      Thomas Steuben

      3

    • The Populist Moment, Chapter 12: Liberty — Equality — Fraternity: On the Meaning of a Republican Slogan

      Alain de Benoist

    • The Eggs Benedict Option

      Howe Abbott-Hiss

    • Religion & Eugenics

      Paul Popenoe

      2

    • Ian Kershaw’s Personality & Power

      Margot Metroland

      3

    • Correspondence between Gaston-Armand Amaudruz & Julius Evola

      Gaston-Armand Amaudruz & Julius Evola

      1

    • David Duke & Louisiana’s 1991 Gubernatorial Election

      Morris van de Camp

      4

    • A Woman’s Guide to Identifying Psychopaths, Part 7 More of the Most Common Jobs for Psychopaths

      James Dunphy

      1

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 521 Daily Zoomer & Spencer J. Quinn Discuss The No College Club

      Counter-Currents Radio

      1

    • Traditional French Songs from Le Poème Harmonique

      Alex Graham

      1

    • The Whale

      Steven Clark

      4

    • The Wave: Fascism Reenacted in a High School

      Beau Albrecht

      6

    • What Went Wrong with America’s Universities?

      Stephen Paul Foster

      3

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 520 Inside Serbia with Marko of Zentropa

      Counter-Currents Radio

    • The Populist Moment, Chapter 11, Part 4: “Multitudes” Against the People

      Alain de Benoist

    • The Populist Moment, Chapter 11, Part 3: “Multitudes” Against the People

      Alain de Benoist

    • The Populist Moment, Chapter 11, Part 2: “Multitudes” Against the People

      Alain de Benoist

    • The Populist Moment, Chapter 11, Part 1: “Multitudes” Against the People

      Alain de Benoist

      1

    • The Secret of My Success

      Steven Clark

      2

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 519 An Update on South America on The Writers’ Bloc

      Counter-Currents Radio

      1

    • The Populist Moment, Chapter 10, Part 2: The Ambiguity of “Communitarianism”

      Alain de Benoist

    • The Populist Moment, Chapter 10, Part 1: The Ambiguity of “Communitarianism”

      Alain de Benoist

    • The Eternal Fedora

      Nicholas R. Jeelvy

      16

    • The Kennedy Assassination & Misreading Data

      Morris van de Camp

      18

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 518 Blair Cottrell & Josh Neal on The Myth of Mental Illness

      Counter-Currents Radio

    • The Bene Gesserit Books: Frank Herbert’s Heretics of Dune & Chapterhouse: Dune

      Greg Johnson

      3

    • Tár: Reflections on the Artist vs. the Hive

      Steven Clark

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 517 Special Hangover Stream on The Writers’ Bloc

      Counter-Currents Radio

      5

  • Recent comments

    • ArminiusMaximus

      IQ Is a Phenotype

      Jim Goad - Perfect. My guess is the answer would depend on the class of the white person. Upper...

    • DarkPlato

      The Machiavellian Method

      So you’re saying his formal meaning was different from his intended purpose. 😉

    • Greg Johnson

      The Machiavellian Method

      That's how he presented himself, but in fact he was advancing an alternative set of norms by which...

    • DarkPlato

      The Machiavellian Method

      Machiavelli states that classical political philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle wrote about...

    • Greg Johnson

      The Machiavellian Method

      Whenever Machiavelli rebukes utopianism, virtue, and high standards of behavior, he is referring to...

    • Jim Goad

      IQ Is a Phenotype

      Maybe it’s a personal aversion to the word “moral,” because I’ve been clubbed over the head since...

    • Desert Flower

      Trevor Lynch’s Classics of Right-Wing Cinema

      (I also posted this comment under Jim Goad's review of Stagecoach.) I just read Trevor Lynch’s...

    • Desert Flower

      Race and Ethics in John Ford’s Stagecoach

      As for Jim Goad’s statement in his review of Stagecoach: “There’s a racial and an ethical lesson...

    • Antipodean

      IQ Is a Phenotype

      You are the resident counter-currents expert in unsupported assertions.  Many of the character...

    • Desert Flower

      Race and Ethics in John Ford’s Stagecoach

      I just read Trevor Lynch’s online reviews of The Searchers and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. It...

    • Joe Gould

      The Machiavellian Method

      Remember to read your Machiavelli, and do not take anyone else's opinion for what he said, what he...

    • Antipodean

      IQ Is a Phenotype

      For me too, even when the typo is corrected. This article by Dr Pierce may provide an introduction...

    • ArminiusMaximus

      IQ Is a Phenotype

      Interesting. Yes. It seems like there also needs to be some sort of helplessness vs. self-reliance...

    • Philippe Régniez

      Race and Ethics in John Ford’s Stagecoach

      My Darling Clementine beats them all.

    • Anthony Bavaria

      Trevor Lynch’s Classics of Right-Wing Cinema

      Sounds about right. There was also recently a Waco miniseries on Netflix which also surprisingly...

    • Caleb

      IQ Is a Phenotype

      That link is dead (for me)

    • Richard Chance

      Race and Ethics in John Ford’s Stagecoach

      Unpopular opinion: I liked the Kevin Costner Wyatt Earp movie better than Tombstone.  Come at me.

    • Greg Johnson

      The Machiavellian Method

      Modernity was not a "fate." It was a utopian project launched by people like Machiavelli under the...

    • Will Williams

      Do You Have What It Takes to be a Dissident?

      Scott (responding to me): I lost faith in Movement politics a long time ago..,  I am not really...

    • Thomas Franche

      Collateral Damage: The United Kingdom’s Lockdown Files

      I guess what I still don’t understand is what was/is the ultimate goal? Just getting jabbed ? And if...

  • Book Authors

    • Alain de Benoist
    • Anthony M. Ludovici
    • Beau Albrecht
    • Buttercup Dew
    • Charles Krafft
    • Christopher Pankhurst
    • Collin Cleary
    • F. Roger Devlin
    • Fenek Solère
    • Francis Parker Yockey
    • Greg Johnson
    • Gregory Hood
    • H. L. Mencken
    • Irmin Vinson
    • J. A. Nicholl
    • James J. O’Meara
    • Jef Costello
    • Jim Goad
    • Jonathan Bowden
    • Juleigh Howard-Hobson
    • Julius Evola
    • Kerry Bolton
    • Leo Yankevich
    • Michael Polignano
    • Multiple authors
    • Savitri Devi
    • Spencer J. Quinn
    • Tito Perdue
    • Trevor Lynch
  • Webzine Authors

    Editor-in-Chief

    • Greg Johnson, Ph.D.

    Featured Writers

    • Beau Albrecht
    • Morris V. de Camp
    • Jim Goad
    • Mark Gullick, Ph.D.
    • Greg Johnson, Ph.D.
    • Spencer Quinn

    Frequent Writers

    • Aquilonius
    • Anthony Bavaria
    • Alain de Benoist
    • Kerry Bolton, Ph.D.
    • Collin Cleary, Ph.D.
    • Jef Costello
    • F. Roger Devlin, Ph.D.
    • Stephen Paul Foster, Ph.D.
    • Alex Graham
    • Richard Houck
    • Margot Metroland
    • John Morgan
    • Trevor Lynch
    • James J. O’Meara
    • Kathryn S.
    • Thomas Steuben
    • Michael Walker

    Classic Authors

    • Maurice Bardèche
    • Jonathan Bowden
    • Julius Evola
    • Guillaume Faye
    • Ernst Jünger
    • Kevin MacDonald, Ph.D.
    • D. H. Lawrence
    • Charles Lindbergh
    • Jack London
    • H. P. Lovecraft
    • Anthony M. Ludovici
    • Sir Oswald Mosley
    • National Vanguard
    • Friedrich Nietzsche
    • Revilo Oliver
    • William Pierce
    • Ezra Pound
    • Saint-Loup
    • Savitri Devi
    • Carl Schmitt
    • Miguel Serrano
    • Oswald Spengler
    • P. R. Stephensen
    • Jean Thiriart
    • John Tyndall
    • Dominique Venner
    • Leo Yankevich
    • Francis Parker Yockey

    Other Authors

    • Howe Abbott-Hiss
    • Michael Bell
    • Buttercup Dew
    • Giles Corey
    • Bain Dewitt
    • Jack Donovan
    • Richardo Duchesne, Ph.D.
    • Emile Durand
    • Guillaume Durocher
    • Mark Dyal
    • Fullmoon Ancestry
    • Tom Goodroch
    • Andrew Hamilton
    • Robert Hampton
    • Huntley Haverstock
    • Derek Hawthorne
    • Gregory Hood
    • Juleigh Howard-Hobson
    • Alexander Jacob
    • Nicholas Jeelvy
    • Ruuben Kaalep
    • Tobias Langdon
    • Julian Langness
    • Travis LeBlanc
    • Patrick Le Brun
    • G A Malvicini
    • John Michael McCloughlin
    • Millennial Woes
    • Michael O’Meara
    • Christopher Pankhurst
    • Michael Polignano
    • J. J. Przybylski
    • Quntilian
    • Edouard Rix
    • C. B. Robertson
    • C. F. Robinson
    • Herve Ryssen
    • Alan Smithee
    • Fenek Solere
    • Ann Sterzinger
    • Robert Steuckers
    • Tomislav Sunic
    • Donald Thoresen
    • Marian Van Court
    • Irmin Vinson
    • Aylmer Wedgwood
    • Scott Weisswald
  • Departments

    • Book Reviews
    • Movie Reviews
    • TV Reviews
    • Music Reviews
    • Art Criticism
    • Graphic Novels & Comics
    • Video Game Reviews
    • Fiction
    • Poems
    • Interviews
    • Videos
    • English Translations
    • Other Languages
      • Arabic
      • Bulgarian
      • Croatian
      • Czech
      • Danish
      • Dutch
      • Estonian
      • Finnish
      • French
      • German
      • Greek
      • Hungarian
      • Italian
      • Lithuanian
      • Norwegian
      • Polish
      • Portuguese
      • Romanian
      • Russian
      • Slovak
      • Spanish
      • Swedish
      • Ukrainian
    • Commemorations
    • Why We Write
  • Archives
  • Top 100 Commenters
Sponsored Links
Above Time Coffee Antelope Hill Publishing Paul Waggener Asatru Folk Assembly IHR Breakey Imperium Press American Renaissance The Patrick Ryan Show Jim Goad The Occidental Observer
Donate Now Mailing list
Books for sale
  • El Manifiesto Nacionalista Blanco
  • An Artist of the Right
  • Ernst Jünger
  • Reuben
  • The Partisan
  • Trevor Lynch’s Classics of Right-Wing Cinema
  • The Enemy of Europe
  • Imperium
  • Reactionary Modernism
  • Manifesto del Nazionalismo Bianco
  • O Manifesto Nacionalista Branco
  • Vade Mecum
  • Whiteness: The Original Sin
  • Space Vixen Trek Episode 17: Tomorrow the Stars
  • The Year America Died
  • Passing the Buck
  • Mysticism After Modernism
  • Gold in the Furnace
  • Defiance
  • Forever & Ever
  • Wagner’s Ring & the Germanic Tradition
  • Resistance
  • Materials for All Future Historians
  • Love Song of the Australopiths
  • White Identity Politics
  • Here’s the Thing
  • Trevor Lynch: Part Four of the Trilogy
  • Graduate School with Heidegger
  • It’s Okay to Be White
  • The World in Flames
  • The White Nationalist Manifesto
  • From Plato to Postmodernism
  • The Gizmo
  • Return of the Son of Trevor Lynch’s CENSORED Guide to the Movies
  • Toward a New Nationalism
  • The Smut Book
  • The Alternative Right
  • My Nationalist Pony
  • Dark Right: Batman Viewed From the Right
  • The Philatelist
  • Confessions of an Anti-Feminist
  • East and West
  • Though We Be Dead, Yet Our Day Will Come
  • White Like You
  • Numinous Machines
  • Venus and Her Thugs
  • Cynosura
  • North American New Right, vol. 2
  • You Asked For It
  • More Artists of the Right
  • Extremists: Studies in Metapolitics
  • The Homo & the Negro
  • Rising
  • The Importance of James Bond
  • In Defense of Prejudice
  • Confessions of a Reluctant Hater (2nd ed.)
  • The Hypocrisies of Heaven
  • Waking Up from the American Dream
  • Green Nazis in Space!
  • Truth, Justice, and a Nice White Country
  • Heidegger in Chicago
  • End of an Era: Mad Men & the Ordeal of Civility
  • Sexual Utopia in Power
  • What is a Rune? & Other Essays
  • Son of Trevor Lynch’s White Nationalist Guide to the Movies
  • The Lightning & the Sun
  • The Eldritch Evola
  • Western Civilization Bites Back
  • New Right vs. Old Right
  • Journey Late at Night: Poems and Translations
  • The Non-Hindu Indians & Indian Unity
  • I do not belong to the Baader-Meinhof Group
  • Pulp Fascism
  • The Lost Philosopher
  • Trevor Lynch’s A White Nationalist Guide to the Movies
  • And Time Rolls On
  • Artists of the Right: Resisting Decadence
  • North American New Right, Vol. 1
  • Some Thoughts on Hitler
  • Tikkun Olam and Other Poems
  • Summoning the Gods
  • Taking Our Own Side
  • Reuben
  • The Node
  • The New Austerities
  • Morning Crafts
  • The Passing of a Profit & Other Forgotten Stories
Copyright © 2023 Counter-Currents Publishing, Ltd.

Paywall Access





Please enter your email address. You will receive mail with link to set new password.

Edit your comment