Counter-Currents
1,380 words
When American Renaissance had its first conference in 1994, the American media were dominated by the big three television networks, magazines and newspapers were primarily printed, and the internet was still in its infancy.
Thus, if one wanted to publicize the importance of racial realism and white racial consciousness, it made sense to have a public conference in which credentialed experts stood up and made their case not just to a hundred or two hundred people assembled in a hotel ballroom, but to whatever mainstream media outlets would provide coverage, potentially carrying the message to millions. And it worked. American Renaissance conferences were covered by the major media, and some talks were even rebroadcast by CSPAN and National Public Radio.
Why have a live audience at all? First, because a paying audience covers the cost of the conference, including transportation and lodging for the speakers, and even generates a profit for the organizers. Second, a live audience provides empirical proof that people want to hear these ideas, with the attending social validation. Third, conferences provide opportunities for fellowship and networking, a sense of real world community, to the dissidents who attend.
The world has changed dramatically, however, in the last 20 years. In 2010 and 2011, American Renaissance conferences were canceled because private venues caved in to “anti-racist” pressure. Since then, American Renaissance has had its conferences at a state park in Tennessee, which cannot discriminate because of the First Amendment to the US Constitution.
The National Policy Institute has had two conferences in Washington, D.C. at the Ronald Reagan Building, under the protection of the First Amendment (and the watchful eyes of the Department of Homeland Security). When NPI tried to host its 2014 conference at a private hotel in Budapest, it was shut down by the Hungarian government.
In short, the days when American White Nationalists could court global media attention by holding public conferences at private facilities are over. And the media are far less willing to relay our message accurately anyway.
So maybe it is time to rethink the conference model altogether. The internet and digital audio production and film-making technologies have dramatically undermined the monopoly of the mainstream media. Jared Taylor can sit in his family room, address a digital camera, upload his talk to the web, and practically everyone on the planet with computer access can view it.
Every American Renaissance speech could be professionally filmed and distributed the same way. The cameraman could travel to the speakers and film them in their homes with proper lighting and sound. They would also have the leisure to get every presentation perfect, without being hurried along by the conference schedule.
But what about the audience? The first function of a paying audience, namely to fund the event, would be obviated by sending a single camera man out to film the speakers. The second function of the audience, to be extras at a media event, would be obviated as well, because we have our own media now. To put it crassly, laughter and applause can be professionally dubbed, and nobody will miss the Q&A sessions.
If we don’t need conferences to deliver speeches and garner media attention, then the only remaining function of a conference is fellowship and networking among attendees. The model I propose does not, however, provide such opportunities. But I have to ask: is a national or international conference really the best way to facilitate networking? As I see it, there are two major problems.
First, conferences are very expensive. Conference costs break down to: registration + transportation + lodging + food. We are told that around 150 people registered for the NPI conference in Budapest. Let’s be conservative, and estimate that the average cost of the conference per attendee was $750. That is $112,500. The next American Renaissance conference may attract 200 people, and the average cost will probably be about the same. That is $150,000.
Most of these large sums does not go into the movement. The money goes out of the movement into the pockets of airlines, hotels, car rental firms, restaurants, etc.
In short, for the amount of money that goes out of the movement to attend the annual American Renaissance conference, the movement could employ a full-time activist with a decent salary and benefits package for 2 years. The trick is to get our people to invest that money into the movement, rather than put it in the pockets of the system.
Second, for movement organizers and writers, the networking that goes on at national and international conferences is highly valuable. But for most other attendees, the effects are rather ephemeral, since when the conference ends, they scatter in all directions. Unless they happen to meet someone from the same large city, almost all of them return to their original social isolation until the next expensive annual conference.
Fortunately, there are ways to network far more effectively for far less money.
Writers and organizers do not need large, public conferences, which are targets for spies and protesters and vulnerable to being shut down after people have spent time and money to attend. Instead, they can attend smaller, private, less vulnerable gatherings.
As for the broader racially conscious community, the best kind of networking events are local, because local gatherings can be done much more cheaply and repeated far for frequently than national and international ones.
When I was the Editor of The Occidental Quarterly, I began doing regional “Editor’s Dinners” for TOQ writers, subscribers, and donors. (I did events in Atlanta, Orange County, and San Francisco.) This year, I have done talks in London and Philadelphia. In the New Year, I have talks scheduled in New York City, Seattle, Atlanta, London, and Stockholm, and I am planning others in Baltimore, Washington, and Boston. Such a model could be easily adapted by American Renaissance, which has a considerably larger mailing list and more resources.
Of course, it is important not just to bring people together for networking at a one-time event, but also to provide them with a model for future local meetings. The purpose of my talks is to set forth such a model, and over the next five months, I hope to polish and perfect that model with a group in my current area.
Do I think that the White Nationalist movement can do away entirely with national, public conferences? Yes, I do. When the model was first created, it was optimized to a very different world, in which Jared Taylor could hire private hotels, invite the global press, and actually get his message out through mainstream channels. Those days are gone, but fortunately, we can now get our message out, and foster real world community, in far cheaper and more effective ways.
Now, surely someone will object that even though we might be able to perform all the functions of a conference more cheaply and effectively in other ways, we still have to do conferences simply to “show the world” that we can do them. Unfortunately, as we have learned in 2010, 2011, and 2014, our enemies can also stop us from doing them. Thus if the sole reason that remains for conferences is to defy our critics and enemies, it strikes me as a rather expensive and risky way to pursue little more than bragging rights.
I am sure that those avid for scandal and infighting will interpret this essay as nothing but an “attack” on Jared Taylor and American Renaissance. That is not my intention. I have the highest regard for Jared Taylor and his work. I have used the American Renaissance conferences as examples because of their virtues: they are the most successful White Nationalist conferences and the models for pretty much all the rest. But I believe that the model needs to be rethought, and even if this were just about Taylor, I know he is big enough and reasonable enough to give my ideas a fair hearing.
Note: Over the last couple of months, I have been contacted by a number of people asking me to put them in touch with people in their areas. As you may have noticed, Counter-Currents has recently been plagued by website problems, which are now almost completely rectified. I have also had problems with my email and database programs. If you have not heard back from me, please get back in touch.
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23 comments
Alain Soral now asks people for a small $2 contribution to watch his monthly news commentary videos. He typicall gets 100 000 views. That’s a lot of money. He uses Dailymotion for now but plans to have his own platform. This is another model worthy of study.
Putting feet on the street, I think is more important than holding conferences or making videos. In Northern Ireland, we (not me personally) march through each others districts, not because we like the view but to make a statement that we are the dominant group, that we are prepared to fight. I’m in no way advocating that a handful of white nationalists saunter through Baltimore but marches are a show of strength and I don’t hear of many nationalist marches in the US. The other problem is the vastness of the US. Creating a system that gives nationalists the opportunity to contact each other, gather and organize locally is vital and I hope to see such a system in place soon.
Slightly off topic but would love too see counter current books in audible format.
In the new year, we will get back into doing weekly podcasts, including audio versions of some of our articles.
Dear Dr. Greg Johnson, (and counter-currents readers)
I have noticed this past year that Dr. Johnson has been pushing this idea in his interviews with Mr. Le Brun and Ms. Lotkieff of getting people (especially Counter-Currents readers) together for networking. Earlier this year on my own volition I attempted to meet up and network with “White Nationalists” but have decided to go “solo and incognito”. I am not going to give a long, drawn-out anecdote of what happened
1. One “White Nationalist” I met was a former heroin-addict who had let’s just say “relations” with another former drug-addict “WN”. When she felt burned because she didn’t get the relationship and family she wanted, she put out a podcast on the internet with people’s personal information as some sort of “revenge”. There is a cohort of “White Nationalists” who are alcoholics, former drug-addicts, and “perverted” (would you want perverts around your female relatives?). Your readers deserve to know if they get involved with meeting other White Nationalists online that they will find abysmally dysfunctional, not serious people. Perhaps the average counter-currents readers are cleaner, better, more honorable people so if you pair them up with others it won’t be a big deal.
2. A great wonderful guy that I did meet who wrote an pretty useful informative blog was outed by an anti-White organization and the local newspaper attempted to smear and destroy the career’s of his family members (who don’t share his views), including future college careers of his children!
I am not putting this out there to be mean or negative, I am trying to be brutally honest. I am in my mid-twenties and am legitimately concerned about us telling younger people to meet up with random dysfunctional strangers who can end up not only hurting their personal lives but the lives of their FAMILY.
Honestly, I think a better idea was the one you and Mr. Patrick Le Brun had about young people maybe joining a college organization supporting access to birth control in urban areas and the non-White developing world. For me, I’ve dropped personal contact with WN’s and will keep my racial views to myself. I support the “solo and incognito” secret-agent strategy. No marches, no conferences.
Perhaps you should write an article, since you have more wisdom and lifetime-experience on this matter than I do, about how to go about meeting up with a White Nationalist in person. Advice like: not giving your address and personal info, what to do if they get drunk and talk about you behind your back to a non-WN and your community later confront you about it, etc. Things like that.
From,
Young Anon
PS:
Off topic, but someone posted a comment earlier in the year about how great James Rolfe from Cinemassacre was and how the Jews in Hollywood were keeping him down. Well I saw that clusterfuck of a movie he produced “AVGN” (don’t worry I didn’t pay to see it) and guess what? He put a damn interracial kiss scene with that negro-assistant (that was never in the show) at the end (even though the White Nerd saved the planet in the story). This discounts EVERYTHING he has ever made in my book. Remember, if you go to his website and give him page-and-video views he is making ad-revenue and you’re giving money to a race-mixing supporter!
Since we DO want to support pro-White racial artists how about interviewing the electronic music band “Aryan Legacy”. Here’s a sample of their music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yalrpVL4Rp8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaGT_IGWS38
Why would anyone think that someone who refers to himself the Angry Video Game Nerd was one of us to begin with?
If you can be effective solo, that is great. However, it will be very difficult to sustain yourself for the struggle if you are truly without comrades.
It seems like most of the “Activist” (like the drug addicts you met) who publish their contact info online broadcast their views for their own pleasure without a single thought given to achievable demands.
Where possible, Clandestine cells are preferable to being totally alone (with pseudonyms and burn phones if necessary) but solo is preferable to taking risks with lunatics.
These cells need one credible person (actively in the cell or outside it) to verify that new members are not infiltrators or lunatics. They also need to have the strength to say no to dead weight and risky people. Quality over quantity.
Best of luck in your journey.
-Patrick
“Where possible, Clandestine cells are preferable to being totally alone (with pseudonyms and burn phones if necessary) but solo is preferable to taking risks with lunatics.”
Agreed. I chuckled at your reference to burner phones. It’s darkly amusing that we have to consider using technology that was employed a decade ago, by black gangs in The Wire. Maybe someone with experience in these matters can “nerd out” and offer a set of protocols. Best practices for meeting fellow dissidents, if you will.
I understand that people make mistakes in life, and I am genuinely happy for those who turn their lives around. I’m proud of them. Still, given our situation, I would personally not feel comfortable getting close to people with a serious criminal record or a history of substance abuse. As WN, it’s just too risky. On the other hand, it is absurd to pretend that most people that we might meet will have a troubled past. Most, assuredly, will not. And as Young Anon allows, it is likely that the Counter-Currents readership is a considerable cut above.
Ultimately, Greg Johnson is on the right track: we have to create networks. But building trust takes time, often quite a bit of time, and people should take the necessary precautions along the way.
I’ll also say that political movements in general attract a lot of good people, but also a lot of weirdos. I particularly remember this from the days of my misspent youth, as a libertarian. But back then, there was no threat to family or career, just the annoyance of dealing with people who simply did not possess basic social skills. How hard is it, for example, to meet at a restaurant, order a meal, and conduct an intelligent conversation in a normal tone of voice? Harder than you might imagine, for some folks.
Still, that resulted only in minor annoyance and embarrassment. In our situation today, the stakes are higher.
But nothing worthwhile comes without risk, and the rewards are real. I’m fortunate in that the one full WN that I know in real life, who actually has my personal information, has proven quite trustworthy, and has become a good and valued friend – but it took years to get there. It’s also worth noting that we have a lot in common, in terms of cultural background, education, and general outlook on life.
In any event, I hope more and more networks, under the radar and informal, get off the ground. It needs to become a major trend. I particularly like Jack Donovan’s idea of the co-op gym, as expressed in his article “How to Start a Gang: The Co-op Gym.” http://www.jack-donovan.com/axis/2013/01/how-to-start-a-gang-the-co-op-gym/ Remember, networks can take a wide variety of forms.
“I’ll also say that political movements in general attract a lot of good people, but also a lot of weirdos”
Derbyshire wrote a memorable column about this:
http://www.johnderbyshire.com/Opinions/USPolitics/ronpaul.html
From Derbyshire’s story that fnn relays I’d infer Derb’s Mr. X was Jared Taylor and the conference was AmRen.
Another strategy for the “solo and incognito” agent is to first seek out more mainstream right-leaning libertarian or conservative gatherings. At these one might be less likely to meet avant-garde types like Counter Currents readers, but you would likely find and be able to get to know respectable people who are amenable to what seems a more taboo but rational discussion of race realism and politics.
For example, you can raise the “Alternative Right”, “Dark Enlightenment”, and “Human Biodiversity” discussions happening online as worthy of consideration, also Steven Pinker’s scientific critique of “The Blank Slate” belief which perpetuates misguided universalist policies, Nicholas Wade’s “A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race, and Human History”, then feel people out for like-mindedness. These are gateways…
What is powerful and effective about Pinker’s book, Wade’s book, and the Dark Enlightenment and Human Biodiversity circles, is their appeal to evidence-based reason and science, which hold *normative* power in mainstream discourse, even if such work does not a political movement make. Once people break through the barriers of politically-correct ideology via evidence-based reason, the ideas of forums like Counter Currents become less taboo.
Frankly, my own position is not WN anyhow, which I find problematic in a number of ways, but more a citizens-first nationalism such as Steve Sailer has suggested. It just strikes me as more realistic. But I read Counter Currents for the historical, philosophical, and intellectual quality. Most of the ideas on Counter Currents will never be mainstream even if the mainstream was more amenable to the politics advocated here, for the same reasons that serious history and philosophy are generally inaccessible to most people.
One of the things not being mentioned (but should be) is that, if we are relegated to ‘small cells’ and ‘anonymous’ names, we are exactly in the place the Samizdat publishers, and the ‘political agitators’ were in the deepest hours of the Judeo-Marxist Soviet Union!
If this is so, it is THIS angle that needs to be screamed to the people who think we are free agents in our own countries. Also, where is the historical corroboration of one’s views- what Chesterton used to call the ‘Democracy of the Dead’? If we cannot say, ‘But this is how Englishmen/Americans thought for five hundred years- it’s YOU who are the aberration!’ we hold no long-term legitimacy for the cause, or for the restoration of Christendom, itself.
Just sayin’….
Greg is right! The whole “conference model” needs to be re-thought. Like Greg I have great respect for Jared Taylor and AmRen. But at this point the best thing about such conferences is meeting others who agree with your views. (All the ideas are available online.)
As Greg points out, however, the people you meet are from all over creation, and you often never see them again. Once the conference is over many return to towns and cities where they do not know ANYONE who shares their views. What we need to do is to make contact with people closer to home.
This can be done through social media, and the kind of small, local meet-and-eat events Greg is organizing around the country (and overseas). Of course, we all have to exercise caution in meeting “locally.” It’s easier for people in very large cities. (And my recommendation is to always use an alias.)
These big national or international conferences are now mainly like weekend “support intensives” for right wingers. But my experience has been that while you leave them full of enthusiasm and a feeling that “now the Movement is actually going to move!” they do not lead to anything much. Once you are back in your local isolation, surrounded by the boobs you work with, the high quickly wears off. Until you get your “fix” at the next conference.
Conferences are the opium of the movement! Nothing ever really changes until people form bonds with others they see and talk to regularly. Until they form circles of like-minded friends — that then expand until the circles overlap.
Right now we are acting globally (e.g., Budapest) and thinking about acting locally. It needs to be the other way around. The Leftists are right: think globally, act locally. Act locally — and tomorrow the world!
Fabrice Robert, Head of Bloc Identitaire held a conference on Remigration in Paris this year. It was announced in advance and occurred without incident. If public conferences can’t be hosted by American White Nationalists in the US or abroad without exposure to the Feds or cannot held in citadels of power and influence, then it is definitely time to consider a more discreet model. If the White Nationalists are totally unorganized in recreating their communities, then they need to start locally to create networks which are capable of effecting change.
Excellent points about efficiency of spending for the cause.
I often travel around the US for work and would gladly participate in the conferences that might work out with my schedule.
C-C readers who are ready to move beyond comment boards and into activism should reach out to Greg now. Don’t wait any longer, stop gnashing your teeth at the monitor and commit yourself to change.
-Patrick
I think showing up in the real world is important and that your model and their model are both good in principle. HOWEVER, regarding the two conferences that you mentioned, my sentiment is that support should be withheld because of inadequate program content not because there is no value in meeting in the real world. The two conferences that you mentioned are sponsored by functional philo-Semites who don’t tell the whole truth which brings brings the value of the event into question.
Yes, thank you. This was beginning to sound like a Jared Taylor love fest. He’s good at what he does, but he doesn’t deserve that. Given his resounding silence on the Jewish question, and the treatment he metes out to those who speak out anyway, a case could be made that he controlled opposition. In any case, he’s not one of us. He occupies a position between Paleo-Conservatism and White Nationalism, just as a Paleo-Conservatism is between him and Neo or Kosher Conservatism.
Good reference, Lorenz Kraus. There is much that we can learn from any group that has successfully created parallel institutions, whether religious types or immigrant groups, hippies or jews.
We should also remember that networks can take many forms and serve many purposes: economic, cultural, educational, artistic, social, romantic, entertainment, etc. Interested in one thing and not another? That’s fine, just join or create a network that suits your interests and talents. This approach may sound a bit consumerish, but the reality is that if a project is not sustainable, it doesn’t matter, so it is best to work on one that you are compatible with instead of trying to be something that you are not.
I would particularly like to see business networks, with certain groups quietly buying up land and businesses, gradually establishing a de facto hegemony in a given area. I wish that I had business acumen, but alas, my talents are elsewhere.
In any event, as the mainstream culture hollows out, there are countless needs that are going unfilled. Each one of these unfulfilled needs opens up an opportunity for yet another form of networking for our people, an opportunity for us to build cohesion – just as those around us are becoming more atomized, isolated and demoralized.
Once this trend reaches critical mass, all sorts of opportunities will present themselves. For one example among many, can you imagine a world in which white activists enjoy real support, as opposed to being picked off, lonely and isolated? For example, what if a WN got fired from his job, but a network could provide him with an equal or better job? What if his status as a dissident won him real admiration within a real group, perhaps including a charming young lass? What if he got real pats on the back, instead of just virtual ones? Such a man would care little that he is despised by the anti-white system. Real dissident movements have these things. They meet all of their people’s needs.
We are social creatures, and require the support of a pack. Without that support, few men can or will do much of anything. A network can provide the nucleus of that pack. It is no coincidence that, as things stand today, our strong suit consists of a stable of gifted and talented writers. Writing is one of the relatively few things that can be done well by the lonely, isolated dissident. But it’s on a short list.
I’m convinced that under the radar network formation is a critical step on the road to the ultimate goal: the ethnostate.
Hello
I am a writer who wrote a long short story which could have more to come if only someone might help me get the first work published. If anyone here knows of any white nationalist publishers that might be interested in taking a look at my work please just send me a email with a list. Thank you
I like the young Turks format. It couldn’t cost much and we have people capable of putting the message out in a convincing way. Clothing is also important. It sends a message to the public. Many of the book covers at counter currents would make wonderful t-shirts.
Lectures, conferences, and YouTube videos are all great. But to build a movement you need (a) a very clear set of ideas about how we want to live and (b) local communities who embody such ideas to draw in new followers. The future looks very grim, and these tight communities will increasingly be necessary to deal with the psychological and physical challenges ahead.
Don’t get fixated on building a “perfect” one-size-fits-all community for all white folks, forget it. We will be a loose collection of varied communities who, hopefully, can respect and cooperate with each other to maximise our strength. So, what we need are old-fashioned “prophets” i.e. charismatic story-tellers who can offer a concrete vision of how we should live, and who can gather up followers into communities. And from all these small groups, hopefully big things can grow.
I’m not an activist, but I feel compelled to chime in to ask white dissident activists to please not forget the idea of White Student Unions on college campuses.
The idea they represent is promising on so many levels, the most obvious being that if this movement is going to establish deep roots and really grow it needs engage today’s youth as much as possible.
Also, it’s important to understand that the idea of WSUs is moving from sort of a single act of provocation or a kind of trolling for media attention to something that white college students actually need. Whites are no longer a majority in the under 20 yr old cohort. For our youth, our future dispossession is their present reality, and only getting more so.
I very much appreciate this article and the assertion that we need to develop local “roots” with our folk right where we are. We are very much going to need to have communities that we can rely on and with which we can support ourselves, because the society, as it stands now, is not going to be of any use to White people in the very near future. We are already discriminated in every economic strata and we are not even allowed to assemble or enjoy freedom of association, as guaranteed in our quaint Bill of Rights. I don’t see things getting much better with mass immigration and two more years of a rabid community disorganizer, so we need to have IRL support networks.
Since we have been indoctrinated with V for Victimhood(tm) propaganda, our people no longer trust their instincts or their keen abilities of discernment. If someone who claims to be a WN feels untrustworthy or seems a bit “off”, then honor that. However, the reality is we cannot do this alone. Isolation will make our survival impossible.
I was one of the folks who contacted you, Greg, and I hope that I will be able to meet with other Bay Area folk to create a community dedicated to the survival and eventual thriving of our race.
I am in the Bay Area as well, would love to meet up with some folks casually over some good food, drink, and great discussions of all things that have brought us into this peculiar subculture. The bonding experience in being a part of socially-taboo subject I imagine would heighten the mood and create a very creative atmosphere. Feel free to reach out.
Greg,
Reading this and the comments, I was reminded of my days wasted reading VNN … where the same debate occurred over ten years ago. If I didn’t know you to be a man capable of coming up with his own opinions, I’d think you’d lifted that line about employing a full-time activist from Linder himself, who also, as you know, despised the idea of conferences as putting the cart before the horse. The Bohemian corporal also derided such hobbyism in a hilarious passage of ‘Mein Kampf’.
I was always of two minds about conferences – indubitably premature, dreary and amateurish, but also the only thing beyond internet pseudonyms.
I’ve always been derided as a naysayer for being skeptical and dismissive of certain WN pretensions, and probably that was mostly due to my approach; nonetheless, as the years pass, and the world we inhabit becomes less and less favorable to whites, much less WNs, with no sign of the mythical “collapse” in which not only WNs but many disaffected whites in general believe – need to believe – your position becomes less optimistic and more like my own. I sometimes wonder if you’re aware of that, but it doesn’t matter. I view all of it as an exercise in cognitive dissonance: quite obviously it’s game over for white America, but for an unaffiliated collection of dissidents, the foundation of whose ideology *is* a white America, there is no reward in admitting it.
I have never met a single civilian who had heard of Jared Taylor. I met one Jewish girl who had read ‘The Turner Diaries’. The only tactic that ever works for me, and the guys I know, is having a handful of one-liners that quickly reframe the conversation. Most of those came from D, MajorityRights, Linder, and you.
The rest is hot air and playing at politics. The only way ‘forward’ is to abandon WN theology as a whole – the ‘return’ to a “golden age”, the coming ‘collapse’, the myth of enough ‘awakened’ to shift the social balance, in fact the very belief in numbers, etc. – and focus on giving those with a backbone the dialectical means to oppose the narrative in everyday life, and perhaps sway those around them. No one cares about Carl Schmitt and conferences. It’s a dead-end. Always was.
M
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