2014: Looking Forward

Posted By Greg Johnson On In North American New Right | Comments Disabled

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New Year’s is one of my favorite holidays, which I spend quiet reflection rather than in raucous partying. It is good to review a year’s worth of achievements and failings, learn what one can, vow to do better in the New Year, and then—most importantly of all—shut the door on the past and try not to think of it again.

The greatest thing I learned from Nietzsche is his vitalism. Life is lived forward, in the future, and the striving of life upward and onward can be impeded by the wrong orientation to the past. Regret, nostalgia, and bitterness all arise from an unhealthy fixation on the past. Thus one needs to learn from the past and then forget it. A healthy mind, like a healthy digestive tract, extracts the lessons of experience and swiftly discards the dross.

I am particularly pleased to close the door on 2013, which in many ways was the worst year of my life. First, it began with the longest illness I have ever suffered: six weeks of the ’flu and bronchitis that would not die. Then there was the move. Then there was Mike Polignano’s departure, which necessitating training myself in a whole range of new skills. Then my mother ended the year with a near-fatal car accident (she is still in the hospital in rehabilitation).

At the beginning of 2013, I was filled with plans, but none of them included a margin for major upheavals. But, my mother aside, all of that is history. It’s so 2013.

In spite of it all, a lot was accomplished in 2013. Counter-Currents published 841 posts, including a major symposium on the 200th birthday of Richard Wagner. I wrote 64 new articles and reviews (not including newsletters, announcements, and other insubstantial pieces), translated 15 pieces from French, released 31 philosophy lectures, conducted 8 audio and print interviews, took part in 3 roundtables, gave 4 interviews, and organized a couple of gatherings in the real world.

Counter-Currents also brought out six books in 2013:

  1. Trevor Lynch’s White Nationalist Guide to the Movies [2]
  2. Savitri Devi’s And Time Rolls On: The Savitri Devi Interviews [3], 2nd edition
  3. Jonathan Bowden’s Pulp Fascism: Right-Wing Themes in Comics, Graphic Novels, and Popular Literature [4]
  4. Juleigh Howard-Hobson’s “I do not belong to the Baader-Meinhof Group” and Other Poems [5]
  5. Leo Yankevich’s Journey Late and Night: Poems and Translations [6]
  6. Andy Nowicki’s Lost Violent Souls [7]

We also brought out four E-book editions:

  1. Anthony M. Ludovici’s The Lost Philosopher [8]
  2. Savitri Devi’s Gold in the Furnace [9]
  3. Savitri Devi’s Defiance [10]
  4. Savitri Devi’s The Non-Hindu Indians and Indian Unity [11]

Plus we did E-books of our regular titles as well.

But there were some epic failures:

1. Our attempt to launch a new podcasting network to replace the Voice of Reason had to be scrapped. But we did fight our way back to running three podcasts per week: The Stark Truth, a philosophy lecture, and a Friday Counter-Currents Radio show.

2. A number of books that I planned for 2013 have been pushed into 2014, including The Lightning and the Sun, the release date of which has been continually postponed.

With all that said, in 2014, Counter-Currents will bring you more of the first rate books, articles, reviews, interviews, podcasts, and translations that you have come to expect and that we are so happy to deliver. More from Collin Cleary and Jef Costello, Andrew Hamilton and Gregory Hood, Kerry Bolton and Matt Parrott, James O’Meara and Ted Sallis, Robert Stark and Jack Donovan, Leo Yankevich and Juleigh Howard-Hobson, F. Roger Devlin and John Morgan, etc.

But there will be some changes for the better. So these are my resolutions for Counter-Currents in 2014:

1. Leave a margin for catastrophe. It really boils down to the old Delphic injunctions: “Know thyself” and “Everything in moderation.”

2. Manage expectations. When a book appears on a given day, that event can be perceived as a pleasant surprise or a grave disappointment based simply on the release date we set.

The same sum of money at the end of a fundraiser can be either a success or a failure depending on the goal we announced. Our fundraiser brought in $43,095.29 in 2013, which was about the same as in 2012. But in 2012, we aimed for $40,000 and overshot our goal, whereas in 2013 we aimed for $50,000 and failed to meet it. (Click here [12] if you want to get a head start on the 2014 fundraiser.)

The facts remain the same, but their perceptions as success or failure are based on the expectations we set. So in 2014, I am not going to set myself up for such easily avoided failures.

When it comes to release dates, I will announce them only when the book is actually being printed. That worked well with our most recent titles, Leo Yankevich’s Journey Late at Night and Andy Nowicki’s Lost Violent Souls. Or we will not announce them at all until they are available. This worked well with our recent Savitri Devi E-book releases.

3. Publish more book reviews. We are working to increase our review coverage of all significant books published in “this thing of ours,” plus mainstream books of interest to our readers. So expect more reviews of books from Arktos, Black House Publishing, Washington Summit Publishers, and others in 2014. We want Counter-Currents to be the reviewer of record for New Right books.

4. Resume monthly newsletters, with traffic statistics. When Counter-Currents migrated to a new webhosting company, we no longer had traffic statistics commensurable with our previous statistics. Since then, we have been pretty much flying blind. But as I write, we are migrating to a new host that supports our old statistics program. So at the end of January, I should be able to resume newsletters which will contain detailed traffic statistics and lists of our top articles and podcasts.

5. Resolve the tax-deductibility issue. We are working toward the final resolution of the US federal income tax deductibility of the Counter-Currents Foundation in early 2014. Stay tuned.

I want to thank our writers, donors, proofreaders, and all of our readers for their continued loyalty and support.

Happy New Year!

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