Do Nothing

1,148 words

^[1]I’m going to go ahead and assume that the basic narrative the mainstream media is piecing together is correct: that Wade Michael Page is a white supremacist skinhead who burst into a Sikh temple and slaughtered a bunch of foreigners for being foreigners.

It’s all very early and new information could radically change the narrative, but I’m going to plow forward with my hunch that it’s pretty much true. I know he has a background in military “PsyOps.” I know the media is being biased against us in its coverage of the event and exploiting the tragedy for all it’s worth . . . and that water is wet. I know there are pieces missing from the puzzle, but for the sake of this piece, I’m going to assume the rest of the pieces will pretty much add up to the aforementioned narrative.

According to an interview, Mr. Page declared that he named his skinhead band “End Apathy” because he wanted to “figure out how to end people’s apathetic ways” and start “moving forward.” I’m going to balance some conjecture and projection atop these preliminary reports and offer the preliminary conclusion that he slaughtered these unfortunate people out of a driving need to “do something!”

After all, Western Civilization hangs in the balance. Our entire race and all of our nations and folkways are being systematically targeted for oblivion. If nothing is done, Europe will fall to Islam and America will fall to a surge of Third World invaders within my lifetime. The prospect for both ourselves and for our future generations is decidedly bleak, as the natural impulse our own forefathers indulged to exploit and oppress the weak will be amplified by the resentment these groups openly and strongly harbor for our people.

Surely, given the stakes, something must be done, right?

No. Mr. Page’s rampage was worse than doing nothing. Breivik’s rampage, while decidedly more polished than this one, was worse than doing nothing. Even my Hoosier Nation project, which incidentally didn’t involve anybody being slaughtered, was at best a waste of time and money. The blog posts, the meetings, the campaigns, the organizations, and the comments (especially the comments) are a big distracting waste of time and money . . . at best. The projects of yesteryear were a waste of time, as well. That’s not to say that the men and women involved were anything less than honorable or that their sacrifices were unappreciated, but an honest appraisal of the “White Nationalist” movement’s successes and failures is a decidedly one-sided appraisal of cascading failures.

Buffoons who think that the Confederate States of America are a model to emulate, frothing Jew-haters hellbent on persecuting those who aren’t as venomous and monomaniacal as they are, and historical hobbyists jockey to offer “the way” to a large and growing audience of sincere and intelligent people who are desperate for leadership.

I was one of those “leaders.” My leadership consisted of wandering around in circles through various doomed schemes to effectively engage mainstream politics. But to debate about whether the something to be done should be “mainstream” or “radical” relies on the the false assumption that something must be done.

A couple weeks ago, I happened upon a car that was idled at a busy intersection. I pulled into a nearby parking lot and jogged over to see if I could assist the driver. He was cursing and yelling like a madman, slamming his fists against the steering wheel and beating his foot on the accelerator . . . revving the engine without moving forward.

“Excuse me, sir. Would you like me to help push your car over to that parking lot where you won’t get rear-ended?”

“No! I’m fucking late for work again because of this goddamn car!”

I stared blankly, unsure what to say next.

“Just go!” he spat.

So I just went.

As I drove away, he was descending further into his pathetic tantrum, with billows of smoke rolling out of the grill. For whatever reason, he had a mental block against taking a step back from the problem, looking at the big picture, and calmly settling on the best possible solution. Paradoxically, his intense desire to get where he needed to go compelled him to accomplish the opposite . . . further damaging a car which was already in disrepair. He was already going to miss his appointment, but he was in denial. He couldn’t bear to face what he had already lost and soberly plan for the best possible outcome in light of his unfortunate circumstance.

Within our movement, both mainstreamers and radicals alike find themselves in a similar state of denial. “If we could just persuade enough people with a mantra or a book or something, we could restore the American system and way of life! If we could just muster up enough votes, we could turn this ship around!” Conversely, radicals often see through that charade, concluding that it’s merely a matter of going berserk on enough traitors and invaders. But even Breivik’s well-planned act and effective follow-up has almost surely failed to accomplish its intended goal. Unless Wade Michael Page has a manifesto even more carefully and thoughtfully planned than Anders Breivik or Ted Kaczynski (a rather unlikely proposition), his episode will have absolutely no other effect for us than to further alienate the general public from our movement.

Counter-Currents occupies a unique niche in the habitat of radical right organizations and publications, emphasizing education over activism. Metaphorically, reading and supporting Counter-Currents is the equivalent of the stranger with car problems accepting my offer to push him out of immediate danger, then sitting and reading some manuals on car maintenance and repair. It doesn’t fall into the “mainstreamer” error of allowing our opponents and audiences to define the parameters of our discussion and debate. It doesn’t fall into the “radical” error of setting a false timetable and ending up doing something when doing nothing would have been strategically preferable.

That’s not to say that inaction and resignation is the solution. It’s not. At some point, leadership and action will be necessary. But that leadership and action must be informed, enlightened, and inspired. That leadership must be aware of the countless detours and dead-ends that await those whose aim is to rescue our people from oblivion. It must be positive rather than reactive, philosophically grounded, spiritually healthy, politically savvy, and socially viral. It needn’t be perfect, of course, but it needs to be superior to anything currently extant. To get to that point will require stepping back from “taking action” and engaging in “activism” long enough to survey the entire situation — which necessarily entails “esoteric” and “philosophical” considerations — and approach the problem from a more promising angle.

Until then, my advice for those who ask what should be done — aside from educating yourself and those with ears to hear — is to do nothing.

See also: Greg Johnson, “First, Do no Harm ^[2]”