Counter-Currents
1,234 words
On Saturday, September 27, 2014, I was one of four speakers at a meeting of the London Forum in central London. More than 70 people were present.
The London Forum and similar events, such as The End of the Present World conference, are models of organization and execution.
Because such events are targets of Left-wing and government persecution, the organizers eschew advance publicity. The meetings are conducted in secret, with redirection points for security and backup venues in case of cancellation.
They are thus “inreach” rather than outreach projects, designed to foster education, fellowship, and networking among existing nationalists. Only when the event is safely over and the talks are made public on the internet do they reach out to the world at large.
The first speaker was Mark Weber of the Institute for Historical Review, whose talk was entitled “The End of the American Century: The Accelerating Crisis of the West, and Prospects for the Future.” I have seen Mark Weber speak a number of times. He is an excellent, animated public speaker. This was a frankly White Nationalist talk, and a highly inspirational call to arms. Weber spoke of the demographic crisis of European man, the role of the United States and the organized Jewish community in engineering our downfall, and the opportunities for racial renewal, particularly in Europe, offered by the decline of American power.
The second speaker was Bain Dewitt, a young Englishman, whose talk, “The God of the Whites,” was a very sophisticated examination of the role of religion in the white preservation movement. Religion, by aiming at the highest good, mobilizes our deepest energies and commitments. As I understood his argument, to secure white survival, we need to aim beyond white survival to an essentially religious conception of the highest good of our people.
I was the third speaker. My talk, “Vico and Modern Anti-Liberalism,” argues that today’s New Right has, in effect, two cultures. There are the Darwinists, who profess a kind of scientific materialism, and there are the Traditionalists, who are interested in religion, myth, and culture and embrace a cyclical rather than a linear view of history. Traditionalism has great explanatory power, but it rejects both human evolution and what is currently known of early human history and prehistory, which show no signs of a Golden Age characterized by intuitive knowledge of eternal truth.
I offer the 17th-18th-century Italian philosopher Giambattista Vico as a thinker who offers as synthesis of both the Traditionalist and scientific materialist branches of the New Right. Vico offers a cyclical theory of history that supports a socially conservative critique of Enlightenment politics. But insofar as Vico founds these views in a universal science of human nature and history, he remains committed to the rational methods of the Enlightenment.
Just as Marx sought to give the linear, progressive concept of history scientific foundations, Vico gives the cyclical, Traditional concept of history scientific foundations. In closing I quoted Giorgio Almirante of the Italian Social Movement, who said that “Evola is our Marcuse, only better,” suggesting that Vico is our Marx, only better.
It was a somewhat esoteric topic, admittedly, but many people present had listened to Jonathan Bowden’s somewhat esoteric lectures as well. So I felt that the risk was justified. And, judging from the questions and subsequent discussion, the lecture was well-received overall.
The final speaker was Adrian Davies, like Mark Weber, another highly accomplished speaker. Since this year marked the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the First World War, Davies spoke on “Two World Wars and One World Cup: Myths and Realities of the Anglo-German Relationship in the Twentieth Century.” His thesis was that the clause of the Treaty of Versailles assigning full blame for the First World War to Germany is false, indeed that Germany bore less blame for the war than the other major powers, but she was not entirely a victim of international machinations either.
After the official meeting was adjourned, 20-30 of the participants conversed and socialized well into the evening at a club.
This was my first visit to the United Kingdom, and to my surprise, I felt not that I was going abroad, but that I was returning home. Of course I had seen London a thousand times on television and movie screens. But that was true of Paris as well, and I still felt very much “abroad” there. Of course the language and place names were quite familiar in England, but I felt just as at home in Wales where the language and place names were quite different. The uncanny familiarity was, I think, based on blood. My ancestors came from England to what became the United States in the 17th century, and those much-attenuated blood ties still matter. The experience was quite close to the uncanny rapport I felt when meeting my biological parents for the first time as an adult, and for the same underlying reasons.
Wales struck me as the Pacific Northwest of the UK in its weather, landscapes, and overwhelmingly white population.
I found London enormously impressive. The weather was beautiful — although a little warm, for my tastes — and I walked many miles, taking in the major sights. But as soon as I arrived in London, I knew I would return. So I decided to spend postpone visiting some places so that I could explore others more intensively. I visited the British Museum three times, the National Gallery once, and the Tate Britain once. I put off the Imperial War Museum with its Wyndham Lewis paintings for another visit.
Of course my focus in London was on what is old and historic, but I also found modern London quite impressive: the double-decker busses, the Heathrow Express train, and Heathrow Airport are masterpieces of modern design and comfort.
Although my English comrades complain quite naturally about their demographic displacement, what impressed me most about London is the high quality of its white population, including astoundingly attractive people working on all rungs of the socioeconomic scale. (Apparently a lot of the blondes in service and labor jobs are from Poland, which makes me wish that Poland were closer and Mexico further away from the United States. However, even Polish immigration represents demographic displacement of native whites.)
But yes, signs of demographic displacement were everywhere, most shockingly swarms of women in full-on burkhas in Hyde Park and along Edgeware Road, which is a virtual Arab souk. (I picked up an Arabic translation of Mein Kampf in one shop. Somehow it seemed a suitable souvenir.)
I had hoped to use this event as an opportunity to meet with a number of Counter-Currents readers and writers. Some came from as far away as Norway and Sweden. Others, however, backed out, confessing to being a bit intimidated by the conference security measures: coming to an unfamiliar city, calling a stranger to learn the location of a redirection point, and other cloak and dagger measures. The next time I come to London — and there will be a next time — I will take a more active role in guiding in new people.
I want to thank the organizers of the London Forum, my hosts during my stay in England and Wales, and all those who attended the meeting for their warm reception.
Note
For another account of the meeting, and a sense of the quality of the audience, see Enza Ferreri, “Giambattista Vico’s Importance for the Anti-Establishment Movement.”
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27 comments
It was a pleasure to listen to your excellent speech Greg, purchase a few autographed books and to speak briefly to you in the club afterwards, somewhat impeded by British beer.
Thanks for coming out. I was a bit impared as well as the evening wore on.
I do hope you will publish your talk here on CC.
I will. I will get the audio, edit it, and put it online. I have also been writing up my notes into a more polished presentation of my ideas.
Sounds like a lovely trip. Anthony Burgess claimed that Vico’s Scienza Nuova provided the template for Finnegans Wake. Any truth to that?
Absolutely! The wholemole millwheeling vicociclometer of it.
The second time I taught a class on The New Science, we began with a reading of the first page of Finnegans Wake. The students were naturally baffled. Then we set it aside and on the last day of the class, took it out and read it again. Suddenly, it made sense.
Interesting talks. BTW, Have you read Leo Strauss’s lectures on Vico? If so, do you have a view on his interpretation vis-a-vis yours?
Years ago, I read a set of student notes on them. I don’t really recall the details though. If you know of a fuller transcript, please contact me.
I felt the same way when my wife and I took a short 5 day vacation in London back in the summer of 2011. We got back home a week before the riots broke out thankfully. I felt right at home as well. We stayed in Earl’s Court and in one day walked from there to Westminster Abbey and then from there to the Tower of London. Two places I absolutely recommend you visit, although doing it off season would be best because it was incredibly busy in July when we went. To walk past the coffins of King Henry III and his son Edward I among many others was just awesome. I could’ve stayed all day if it wasn’t for the huge line of humanity piling up behind me. Also the Victoria and Albert museum was very nice as well and not nearly as busy so you can move around easily and take your time. The Natural History museum is right next door and that was ok too. I just went to see the dinosaur fossils. The London Museum is worth a visit as well. The crypt in St Pauls Cathedral was enjoyable, Nelson’s sarcophagus is down there, quite impressive. Look forward to listening to your speech from the Forum. Everytime you post one of your speeches or podcasts it’s like Christmas morning for me, enjoy them very much. Cheers.
Ike
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giambattista_Vico
Just heard of the man, Sounds interesting, Would it be better to read his work first or listen to your speech first?
I would recommend starting here: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/vico/
Thank you kindly.
Here are some audio tapes of Strauss’ lectures on Vico. It says transcripts pending.
https://leostrausscenter.uchicago.edu/course/vico-autumn-quarter-1963
Kinsley Amis wrote beautifully as an Englishman about the extra greeness of the grass and softness of the light in Wales – so very like England, yet utterly distinct. Where in Wales did you visit?
In the North. We drove all over. I wanted to see Portmeirion to make Collin Cleary jealous. Next time, I will go there. There was a softness of light. There were a thousand small and beautiful vistas, due to the folded landscape and the constant movement from clouds to sun and back.
Will all of the speeches be made available online?
I believe so, some of them as videos, others as audio.
Yes, the audio is available at the Strauss centre – I have pdf versions of the old typed transcripts of Strauss (rather large), some transcripts (including the one on Vico are available at http://www.archive.org in djvu format.
Could you email me the PDFs?
It is truly a mark of distinction that Vico is being discussed and embraced here by Dr. Johnson. I look forward to a fuller discussion of Vico’s thought. Vico’s examination of Roman history in THE NEW SCIENCE and his frontal assault on Cartesianism in DE ANTIQUISSIMA ITALORUM SAPIENTIA are among the most brilliant accomplishments in all of Western thought. He deserves to be better known. Also, the breadth of Greg’s knowledge and reading is both impressive and humbling. If Evola is our Marcuse and Vico is our Marx then surely Johnson is-at the very least-our Fleming
Thanks for your kind words.
Enza Ferreri of Liberty GB wrote a nice article about the conference and your talk on Vico.
http://enzaferreri.blogspot.com/2014/09/giambattista-vicos-importance-for-anti.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EnzaFerreri+%28Enza+Ferreri%29&utm_content=Netvibes#axzz3FEW60t00
Yes, I linked it at the end. There were a number of good looking young women at the London Forum. You’d expect that with a solid track record and winning formula for events.
Greg, how white was London? I suppose it’s not any different than San Francisco or Chicago or NYC or LA?
When I visited London in my overnight stay back in 1990, I noted a substantial number of non-whites. And while visiting Westiminster Abbey gift store, I was somewhat shocked to see a non-white cashier there.
And Greg, for the sake of hearing-impaired readers, I hope some of the speeches are in print. I understand it’s not always practical but at least make one (or more) speech available in print.
Greg, do you plan on organizing an event like this in California at some point in the future?
Yes
The recent Polish story here is very disappointing to most nationalist English people. They tend not to mix with us and they’re the only European group to have continually played the race card against English whites. In recent decades we’ve welcomed all other European nationals who’ve contributed well and recognise themselves as our guests. Other European nationals, apart from Spanish, have never claimed social housing and benefits in such large numbers as have the Polish. The Czechs, the Slovaks, the Russians and many others from further east have demonstrated a far greater respect for the English than the Polish, and this is even more evident from looking at their high crime rates. They may not be as bad a the Mexicans are to white Americans but they wouldn’t be missed if they ever cleared out.
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