2013: Looking Forward

1,144 words

wanderer [1]Originally, I planned to publish this piece on New Year’s Day. But on Christmas Day I started coming down with the terrible influenza that is going around the country. A week ago, my energy started coming back, and I am only just now over it. I have not been this sick since I was hospitalized with pneumonia as a child.

Judging from how quiet things have been in “this thing of ours” over the last month, quite a few other people have been sick as well. Prolific writers and commenters have gone silent. (What has happened to Fourmyle, for instance?) It is slim consolation, of course, but some of the worst trolls and troublemakers seem to be out sick as well.

Now that I am finally looking forward to (the rest of) 2013, I want to outline what you can expect.

First, after a long gestation, the new Counter-Currents Radio Network site will debut next week. We will then work through a backlog of material from our existing hosts. After that, we will be in the position to finally start developing new shows and training new hosts. Some time in the spring, we will host a podcasting workshop where people can get hands-on training in recording and editing high quality podcasts. I want to thank Matt Parrott, Mike Polignano, and all the hosts for the work they have done.

Second, in 2012 we published 907 posts on the Counter-Currents/North American New Right website. Our traffic has increased dramatically, from 56,633 unique visitors in January of 2012 to 109,265 unique visitors in December. In 2013, we hope to publish about the same number of pieces, but we want the quality to continually rise. As for the number of visitors, we hope to see steady growth. There is no reason why we cannot aim to double our traffic again in 2013.

Third, since late last year, changes have been afoot in terms of our intellectual agenda and editorial focus. My great love is philosophy, and I want to better integrate that love with the project of the North American New Right. The intellectual foundations of the European New Right are largely divided between post-Nietzschean continental philosophy and Traditionalism. A third strand of thought is Darwinian biology, sociobiology, and evolutionary pyschology. These schools of thought are not really consistent, and although they of course point backward to the tradition, they are largely products of the 19th and 20th centuries. I would like to deepen the intellectual foundations of our project by reappropriating the whole Western intellectual tradition.

Fourth, I would like to find Contributing Editors who are qualified in the following fields and who can survey their history and current literature and write regular essays and reviews relating them to our intellectual project:

My goal is to make Counter-Currents into a kind of alternative university/encyclopedia, which will give a New Right perspective on everything, eventually, and will provide an alternative to mainstream politically-correct miseducation. If you would like to take part, please contact me at mailto://[email protected] [2] for more details.

Fifth, in 2012 we published 7 books. I had hoped to publish 10, but taking on the Counter-Currents Radio project caused significant delays. Expect 10 to 12 books in 2012, including volume 2 of North American New Right.

Counter-Currents was founded as a publishing company with a webzine, but we have evolved into a webzine that also publishes books. I am satisfied with that emphasis, because our goal is to change the world, thus the immediate and free distribution of ideas over the web [3] has to take precedence over printing and selling physical books. We will continue to publish books, but they are and will remain a secondary medium for our ideas.

Sixth, because we are more concerned with giving away ideas than making them artificially scarce so we can monetize them, Counter-Currents will continue to depend upon donations. In 2013, we will again do a Summer fundraiser running from June 11 until October 31. We also want to encourage our readers to sign up to do monthly donations to Counter-Currents. Please visit our Donate [4] page.

To make it easier for Americans to donate, in 2012 we created the Counter-Currents Foundation and applied to the IRS for 501c(3) tax exempt status as an educational organization. This will make it possible for Americans to deduct their donations from their Federal Income Taxes. The IRS has, however, been sitting on that application for the better part of a year. Given the recent restrictions on the tax deductibility of charitable donations, the system is obviously not eager to grant tax-exempt status to new organizations. We will try to shake loose some sort of decision, and if we are denied, we will have to come up with a plan B.

Seventh, metapolitics is not just about ideas, but also about building concrete communities. Last year, Counter-Currents held two weekend retreats for writers, donors, and friends. This year, we will hold one weekend podcasting workshop and one general retreat. In October, 2012, I also held a dinner and gave a talk in Seattle. In 2013, we will do at least five such events around the country: one in Philadelphia and four in the West (Portland, Seattle, Northern Idaho, and Kalispell). We would like to do a lot more than that, but given the costs and our current workload, it is not really realistic.

In closing, I want to thank our writers, donors, podcasters, designer, proofreader, translators, and managing editor for all their creativity and hard work.

As I did last year, I specifically want to draw attention to one of our most versatile and talented writers, Andrew Hamilton [5], who since March 25, 2011 has been writing at least one article for Counter-Currents every week. Such a marriage of talent and idealism to discipline and rock-solid reliability is exemplary and absolutely necessary for our cause. I also want to thank Gregory Hood [6], who in recent months has been contributing at least one high quality article every week.

My gut conviction is that Counter-Currents is poised to really take off in 2013, and I hope that all of our writers will follow their example and go “all in.”

Last but not least, I want to thank you, dear reader, for your loyalty and support.

Happy New Year!

Greg Johnson
Counter-Currents Publishing Ltd.
North American New Right