Counter-Currents
  • Private Events
  • T&C
  • Contact
  • Webzine
  • About
  • Books
  • Podcasts
  • Videos
  • Donate
  • Paywall
  • Crypto
  • RSS
    • Main feed
    • Podcast feed
    • Videos feed
    • Comments feed
  • Advertise

LEVEL2

Donate Now Mailing list
  • Webzine
  • About
  • Books
  • Podcasts
  • Videos
  • Donate
  • Paywall
  • Crypto
  • RSS
    • Main feed
    • Podcast feed
    • Videos feed
    • Comments feed
  • Advertise
  • Recent posts

    • The Worst Week Yet: January 29-February 4, 2023

      Jim Goad

      26

    • Strength Through Joy: An Interview with Béla Incze of Légió Hungária

      Ondrej Mann

    • Why Crime & Punishment is Garbage

      Nicholas R. Jeelvy

      8

    • Correspondence between Gaston-Armand Amaudruz & Julius Evola

      Gaston-Armand Amaudruz & Julius Evola

      1

    • Limited Edition Clearance Sale

      Greg Johnson

    • Remembering Charles Lindbergh

      Anthony Bavaria

      25

    • Spencer J. Quinn Interviewed About The No College Club

      Spencer J. Quinn

      1

    • David Duke & Louisiana’s 1991 Gubernatorial Election

      Morris van de Camp

      4

    • Jobbik a stručná historie jeho politického obratu o 180°

      The Visegrád Post

    • Black Invention Myths

      Black Invention Myths

      5

    • Race War in the Outback

      Jim Goad

      62

    • A Woman’s Guide to Identifying Psychopaths, Part 7 More of the Most Common Jobs for Psychopaths

      James Dunphy

      1

    • Black History Month Resources

      Greg Johnson

      9

    • 40% Off Selected Titles

      Cyan Quinn

      5

    • The Union Jackal, January 2023

      Mark Gullick

      3

    • Spencer J. Quinn’s The No College Club: A Review

      Anthony Bavaria

      7

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 521 Daily Zoomer & Spencer J. Quinn Discuss The No College Club

      Counter-Currents Radio

      1

    • Everything Whites Do Is Bad . . . According to the Mainstream Media

      Beau Albrecht

      15

    • Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio

      Margot Metroland

      9

    • American Krogan on Louis C. K. Advocating for Open Borders

      American Krogan

      11

    • Traditional French Songs from Le Poème Harmonique

      Alex Graham

      1

    • The Worst Week Yet: January 22-28, 2023

      Jim Goad

      25

    • Sports Cars & Small Penises

      Richard Houck

      29

    • Opiates for America’s Heartland

      Morris van de Camp

      13

    • The Whale

      Steven Clark

      3

    • Are Qur’an-Burnings Helpful?

      Nicholas R. Jeelvy

      15

    • Bullet Train to Babylon

      Trevor Lynch

      7

    • The Wave: Fascism Reenacted in a High School

      Beau Albrecht

      6

    • Edred Thorsson a jeho kniha Historie Runové gildy

      Collin Cleary

    • Silicon Valley’s Anti-White Racial Dysgenics Program

      Jason Kessler

      33

    • The Silent Plague of Elderly Asian Mass Shooters in California

      Jim Goad

      36

    • What Went Wrong with America’s Universities?

      Stephen Paul Foster

      3

    • Greg Johnson Speaks to Horus the Avenger About Charles Krafft

      Greg Johnson

      7

    • A Woman’s Guide to Identifying Psychopaths, Part 6 The Most Common Jobs for Psychopaths

      James Dunphy

      13

    • Davos, or the Technocrats’ Ball

      Mark Gullick

      5

    • A Political Prisoner on the Meaning of January 6

      Morris van de Camp

      3

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 520 Inside Serbia with Marko of Zentropa

      Counter-Currents Radio

    • The $50 Million Conservative Inc. Internet Spat

      Spencer J. Quinn

      16

    • Yet Another Woke Remake of a Classic

      Beau Albrecht

      25

    • Spencer J. Quinn & Pox Populi Discuss The No College Club

      Counter-Currents Radio

    • The Populist Moment, Chapter 11, Part 4: “Multitudes” Against the People

      Alain de Benoist

    • The Worst Week Yet: January 15-21, 2023

      Jim Goad

      35

    • Q&A with Jim Goad on The Redneck Manifesto

      Jason Kessler

      3

    • Against Political Hipsterism

      Nicholas R. Jeelvy

      6

    • The Populist Moment, Chapter 11, Part 3: “Multitudes” Against the People

      Alain de Benoist

    • Against White Unionism

      Greg Johnson

      7

    • Hitchcock vs. Visconti

      Derek Hawthorne

      9

    • The Populist Moment, Chapter 11, Part 2: “Multitudes” Against the People

      Alain de Benoist

    • Public Transit in Multicultural Hell

      Gunnar Alfredsson

      12

    • No, You Wasn’t Kings

      Jim Goad

      36

  • Classics Corner

    • Remembering A. R. D. “Rex” Fairburn (February 2, 1904–March 25, 1957)

      Greg Johnson

      1

    • Denis Kearney & the Struggle for a White America

      Theodore J. O'Keefe

      1

    • Posthuman Prospects:
      Artificial Intelligence, Fifth Generation Warfare, & Archeofuturism

      Christopher Pankhurst

      5

    • Earnest Sevier Cox:
      Advocate for the White Ethnostate

      Morris van de Camp

      15

    • Remembering Jack London
      (January 12, 1876–November 22, 1916)

      Greg Johnson

      2

    • Remembering Robinson Jeffers:
      January 10, 1887–January 20, 1962

      John Morgan

      3

    • Remembering Pierre Drieu La Rochelle:
      January 3, 1893–March 15, 1945

      Greg Johnson

    • Remembering Rudyard Kipling (December 30, 1865-January 18, 1936)

      Greg Johnson

      10

    • Restoring White Homelands

      Greg Johnson

      34

    • Remembering Hinton Rowan Helper

      Spencer J. Quinn

      11

    • What’s Wrong with Diversity?

      Greg Johnson

      10

    • Redefining the Mainstream

      Greg Johnson

      3

    • Edward Alsworth Ross:
      American Metapolitical Hero

      Morris van de Camp

      8

    • The Talented Mr. Ripley & Purple Noon

      Trevor Lynch

      19

    • Christmas & the Yuletide:
      Light in the Darkness

      William de Vere

      3

    • Thanksgiving Special 
      White Men Meet Indians:
      Jamestown & the Clash of Civilizations

      Thomas Jackson

    • Colin Wilson’s The Outsider

      Sir Oswald Mosley

      4

    • Dostoyevsky on the Jews

      William Pierce

      4

    • Jefferson &/or Mussolini, Part 1

      Ezra Pound

      5

    • I Listened to Chapo Trap House So You Don’t Have To

      Doug Huntington

      98

    • The Homeric Gods

      Mark Dyal

      13

    • Toward a Baltic-Black Sea Union:
      “Intermarium” as a Viable Model for White Revival

      Émile Durand

      55

    • The Politics of Nuclear War, Part 3

      John Morgan

      30

    • The Politics of Nuclear War, Part 2

      John Morgan

      6

    • Columbus Day Special
      The Autochthony Argument

      Greg Johnson

      9

    • The Politics of Nuclear War, Part 1

      John Morgan

      8

    • The Jewish Question for Normies

      Alan Smithee

      13

    • Human Biodiversity for Normies

      Alan Smithee

      10

    • Bring Back Prohibition!

      Alan Smithee

      65

    • Ethnonationalism for Normies
      (Or, “On the Sense of Coming Home”)

      Alan Smithee

      8

  • Paroled from the Paywall

    • Tár: Reflections on the Artist vs. the Hive

      Steven Clark

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 517 Special Hangover Stream on The Writers’ Bloc

      Counter-Currents Radio

      5

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 516 The New Year’s Special

      Counter-Currents Radio

      5

    • The French Emperor, the German Nutcracker, & the Russian Ballet Part 2

      Kathryn S.

      4

    • The French Emperor, the German Nutcracker, & the Russian Ballet Part 1

      Kathryn S.

    • Death on the Nile (1978 & 2022)

      Trevor Lynch

      13

    • Error & Pride

      Nicholas R. Jeelvy

      12

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 515 The Christmas Special

      Counter-Currents Radio

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 514 The Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, & Yet to Come on The Writers’ Bloc

      Counter-Currents Radio

    • Race & the Bible

      Morris van de Camp

      2

    • PK van der Byl, African Statesman

      Margot Metroland

      3

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 513 The Writers’ Bloc with Horus on the Implicit Whiteness of Liberalism

      Counter-Currents Radio

      4

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 512 Jim Goad on Answer Me!

      Counter-Currents Radio

      3

    • Cleese on Creativity

      Greg Johnson

      6

    • A Woman’s Guide to Identifying Psychopaths, Part 1 Diagnostic Criteria, Associated Personality Disorders, & Brain Attributes

      James Dunphy

      6

    • Death of a Gadfly:
      Plato’s Apology

      Mark Gullick

      1

    • The Populist Moment, Chapter 8:
      Ernesto Laclau & Left-Wing Populism

      Alain de Benoist

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 511
      Christmas Lore with Hwitgeard on The Writers’ Bloc

      Counter-Currents Radio

    • Bringing Guns to an Idea Fight:
      The Career of Robert DePugh

      Morris van de Camp

      4

    • War Is Our Father

      Gunnar Alfredsson

    • The Foremost Threat to Life on Earth

      James Dunphy

      2

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 510
      The Writers’ Bloc with Jason Kessler on the Kanye Question

      Counter-Currents Radio

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 509
      New Ask Me Anything with Greg Johnson

      Counter-Currents Radio

      6

    • The Problem of Gentile Zionism

      Nicholas R. Jeelvy

      1

    • The Populist Moment, Chapter 7:
      Money & the Right

      Alain de Benoist

      2

    • The Populist Moment, Chapter 6:
      Liberalism & Morality

      Alain de Benoist

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 507
      The Best Month Ever on The Writers’ Bloc with Anthony Bavaria

      Counter-Currents Radio

    • Who Is Not Going to Save the Nation?

      Beau Albrecht

      4

    • J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Fall of Númenor

      Alex Graham

      3

    • The Most Overlooked Christmas Carols

      Buck Hunter

      4

  • Recent comments

    • Antipodean

      Remembering Charles Lindbergh

      Thanks for your reply but I don’t see why you feel the need to denigrate people (who should know...

    • James Dunphy

      Black History Month Resources

      Jonathan Bowden called black history "a pretty short subject."

    • Antipodean

      Correspondence between Gaston-Armand Amaudruz & Julius Evola

      Enjoyed reading this correspondence from a time when the enemy had infiltrated the city but had not...

    • Antipodean

      The Worst Week Yet: January 29-February 4, 2023

      There is no reason to give up on territory which represents well more than half of the fertile  land...

    • Antipodean

      The Worst Week Yet: January 29-February 4, 2023

      She looks to me like a quite dark subcontinental. I don’t understand how a child of hers could be so...

    • Anthony Bavaria

      Remembering Charles Lindbergh

      I've read very little Vidal, and I need to fix that; maybe I'll start with this. Thanks for the...

    • Anthony Bavaria

      Remembering Charles Lindbergh

      All great points, particularly about FDR aching to get into the war by the late 30s. Scott's mention...

    • Kök Böri

      Remembering Charles Lindbergh

      Some interesting infromation you can got from the book Jewish Domination of Weimar Germany. 1919-...

    • Fire Walk With Lee

      The Worst Week Yet: January 29-February 4, 2023

      You made me recall this from Delirious… https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rtt9daBt1RQ

    • Kök Böri

      Remembering Charles Lindbergh

      The Apollo program, like Sputnik and Gagarin before that, were great deeds, but at practical sight...

    • Kök Böri

      Remembering Charles Lindbergh

      I suppose the causes of a new German anti-Semitism of 1920-1930's were mostly invasion and behaviour...

    • Beau Albrecht

      The Worst Week Yet: January 29-February 4, 2023

      Q:  Why did chickens cross over into Africa? A:  To get to the other continent.

    • Dain Smocks

      Why Crime & Punishment is Garbage

      Demons is not similar to Crime and Punishment. You rebuke this article by saying that Demons is the...

    • Kök Böri

      Why Crime & Punishment is Garbage

      The well-known Russian detective Arkadiy Koshko (1867-1928) described (not on his own experience,...

    • Joe Gould

      The Eternal Fedora

      "Still, it seems religiosity has something to do with having kids." I agree with that. In...

    • James Dunphy

      The Eternal Fedora

      Something like Judaism would keep whites in mixed race nations from miscegenating, but Jews have 50...

    • James Dunphy

      The Eternal Fedora

      Religiosity is highly correlated with greater fertility rates globally. It's just that other things...

    • T Steuben

      The Worst Week Yet: January 29-February 4, 2023

      The RINO Orange County DA Todd Spitzer was soft on the black woman who ran her car into a stop the...

    • James Dunphy

      The Eternal Fedora

      Elevatorgate triggered the schism between the neurotic element and facet two psychopathy element of...

    • Scott

      Remembering Charles Lindbergh

      >> I also believe that it is highly probable that Pearl Harbour was an earlier 9/11, to force...

  • Book Authors

    • Alain de Benoist
    • Anthony M. Ludovici
    • Beau Albrecht
    • Buttercup Dew
    • Charles Krafft
    • Christopher Pankhurst
    • Collin Cleary
    • F. Roger Devlin
    • Fenek Solère
    • Francis Parker Yockey
    • Greg Johnson
    • Gregory Hood
    • H. L. Mencken
    • Irmin Vinson
    • J. A. Nicholl
    • James J. O’Meara
    • Jef Costello
    • Jim Goad
    • Jonathan Bowden
    • Juleigh Howard-Hobson
    • Julius Evola
    • Kerry Bolton
    • Leo Yankevich
    • Michael Polignano
    • Multiple authors
    • Savitri Devi
    • Spencer J. Quinn
    • Tito Perdue
    • Trevor Lynch
  • Webzine Authors

    Editor-in-Chief

    • Greg Johnson, Ph.D.

    Featured Writers

    • Beau Albrecht
    • Morris V. de Camp
    • Jim Goad
    • Mark Gullick, Ph.D.
    • Nicholas Jeelvy
    • Spencer Quinn

    Frequent Writers

    • Aquilonius
    • Anthony Bavaria
    • Alain de Benoist
    • Kerry Bolton, Ph.D.
    • Collin Cleary, Ph.D.
    • Jef Costello
    • F. Roger Devlin, Ph.D.
    • Stephen Paul Foster, Ph.D.
    • Alex Graham
    • Richard Houck
    • Margot Metroland
    • John Morgan
    • Trevor Lynch
    • James J. O’Meara
    • Kathryn S.
    • Thomas Steuben
    • Michael Walker

    Classic Authors

    • Maurice Bardèche
    • Jonathan Bowden
    • Julius Evola
    • Guillaume Faye
    • Ernst Jünger
    • Kevin MacDonald, Ph.D.
    • D. H. Lawrence
    • Charles Lindbergh
    • Jack London
    • H. P. Lovecraft
    • Anthony M. Ludovici
    • Sir Oswald Mosley
    • National Vanguard
    • Friedrich Nietzsche
    • Revilo Oliver
    • William Pierce
    • Ezra Pound
    • Saint-Loup
    • Savitri Devi
    • Carl Schmitt
    • Miguel Serrano
    • Oswald Spengler
    • P. R. Stephensen
    • Jean Thiriart
    • John Tyndall
    • Dominique Venner
    • Leo Yankevich
    • Francis Parker Yockey

    Other Authors

    • Howe Abbott-Hiss
    • Michael Bell
    • Buttercup Dew
    • Giles Corey
    • Bain Dewitt
    • Jack Donovan
    • Richardo Duchesne, Ph.D.
    • Emile Durand
    • Guillaume Durocher
    • Mark Dyal
    • Fullmoon Ancestry
    • Tom Goodroch
    • Andrew Hamilton
    • Robert Hampton
    • Huntley Haverstock
    • Derek Hawthorne
    • Gregory Hood
    • Juleigh Howard-Hobson
    • Alexander Jacob
    • Ruuben Kaalep
    • Tobias Langdon
    • Julian Langness
    • Travis LeBlanc
    • Patrick Le Brun
    • G A Malvicini
    • John Michael McCloughlin
    • Millennial Woes
    • Michael O’Meara
    • Christopher Pankhurst
    • Michael Polignano
    • J. J. Przybylski
    • Quntilian
    • Edouard Rix
    • C. B. Robertson
    • C. F. Robinson
    • Herve Ryssen
    • Alan Smithee
    • Fenek Solere
    • Ann Sterzinger
    • Robert Steuckers
    • Tomislav Sunic
    • Donald Thoresen
    • Marian Van Court
    • Irmin Vinson
    • Aylmer Wedgwood
    • Scott Weisswald
  • Departments

    • Book Reviews
    • Movie Reviews
    • TV Reviews
    • Music Reviews
    • Art Criticism
    • Graphic Novels & Comics
    • Video Game Reviews
    • Fiction
    • Poems
    • Interviews
    • Videos
    • English Translations
    • Other Languages
      • Arabic
      • Bulgarian
      • Croatian
      • Czech
      • Danish
      • Dutch
      • Estonian
      • Finnish
      • French
      • German
      • Greek
      • Hungarian
      • Italian
      • Lithuanian
      • Norwegian
      • Polish
      • Portuguese
      • Romanian
      • Russian
      • Slovak
      • Spanish
      • Swedish
      • Ukrainian
    • Commemorations
    • Why We Write
  • Archives
  • Top 100 Commenters
  • Private Events
  • T&C
  • Contact
Sponsored Links
Above Time Coffee Antelope Hill Publishing Paul Waggener IHR-Store Asatru Folk Assembly Breakey Imperium Press American Renaissance The Patrick Ryan Show Jim Goad The Occidental Observer
Print September 24, 2015 4 comments

Octave Mirbeau on Voting

Octave Mirbeau

1,578 words

mirbeauTranslated by Ann Sterzinger

One thing amazes me prodigiously—I’d say it stuns me: that even during the scientific era in which I write, after umpteen examples, after all the newspaper scandals, there can still exist, in our dear France (as they say in the budget committee), a voter, one single voter—that irrational creature, unnatural and hallucinatory—who consents to interrupting his affairs, his dreams, or his pleasures, to go vote in favor or anything or anyone. 

If you think for one second, isn’t this surprising phenomenon the perfect way to derail the most subtle philosophies and muddle our reason? Where is the new Balzac who will describe for us the physiognomy of the modern voter? Or the Charcot who will explain the anatomy and the mentality of this incurable nutjob?

We’re waiting!

I understand that a scammer always finds investors, the censor his defenders; the comic opera has its fans, Le Constitutionnel its subscribers, and Mr. Carnot will always find painters to celebrate his triumphal and rigid entry into any town in Languedoc. I understand why Mr. Chantavoine continues to insist upon seeking for rhymes; I understand it all.

But that a member of Parliament, or a senator, or a president of the republic, or any one of these bizarre clowns who seek any sort of elected office, can find a voter—that is, that he can find that dreamed-of creature, that improbable martyr, who feeds you with his bread, clothes you with his wool, fattens you with his flesh, enriches you with his money, hoping only to receive, in exchange for these prodigalities, to be cudgeled about the neck and kicked in the behind, when he isn’t being shot in the chest with a pistol—truly, this tops the already rather pessimistic notions I already held about human stupidity in general, and the French brand of idiocy in particular, our dear and immortal nationalistic idiocy!

Of course, I’m speaking here of the informed and convicted voter, the sort who has theories, the type who—poor bugger—imagines himself to be performing the act of a free citizen, to be expanding his sovereignty, expressing his ideas, and imposing—oh, admirable and troubling folly!—political policies and social statements. I don’t speak of the voter who’s sussed it, who makes fun of what he’s doing, who only sees in the “results of his total power” but a taste of the butchery of monarchy, or a tipple at the wine of republicanism.

This fellow’s “sovereignty” consists of copping a bit of a buzz off universal suffrage. He clings to truth, because that’s all that matters to him, and he doesn’t care about the rest.

But the others?

Ah, those others! The serious, the austere, the sovereign commoners, those who feel an intoxication overcome them when they look in the mirror and say: “I’m a voter! They can’t do anything without me. I’m the foundation of modern society. At my will, Floque makes laws which force the hands of thirty-six million men, and Baudry d’Asson and Pierre Alype as well.” How can these characters still exist? However stubborn as they are, however proud and paradoxical, still, how is it possible that they didn’t long ago become discouraged and ashamed by what they do?

How did it happen that you still can find, even on the desolate heaths of Brittany—even in the inaccessible caverns of Cevennes or the Pyrenees—a fellow so stupid, so unreasonable, so blind to what’s in front of his noise, so deaf to all he hears that he’ll vote blue, white, or red, voluntarily, without being paid a cent or given booze?

To what baroque sentiment, to what mysterious influence could this thinking biped be obeying? They say he’s equipped with free will, and yet off he goes, proud of his rights, assured that if he waddles off to drop some ballot in some box, no matter what he’s written on it, then he’s carrying out his duty. What can he possibly be saying to himself that justifies or even explains this ridiculous act? What can he be hoping for?

Because in the end, in order to consent to give himself over to these greedy masters who cheat him and bash him, he must be telling himself something extraordinary that we can’t even guess at. It must be that, via some pretty powerful mental contortions, that to him the ideas of his senators come to resemble ideas of science, of justice, of devotion, of work and integrity; it must be that in the very names of Barbe and Baihaut, no less than in those of Rouvier and Wilson, he finds a special magic, and that in Vergoin and Hubbard he sees, through some mirage, promises of future happiness and immediate relief flower and expand.

And this is what’s truly frightening.

Nothing can teach him, neither the most raunchy comedies nor the most ominous tragedies. And yet look how, over all the long centuries which the world has endured, as societies unfurl and succeed each other, each the same as the last, one unique fact dominates all their histories: protection for the great, and oppression for the small. He never can manage to comprehend that he has only one historical reason to exist, and that’s to pay for a heap of things he will never enjoy, and to die for political machinations that have nothing to do with him.

What’s it to him whether it’s Peter or John who demands his money and takes his life, since he’s obliged to strip himself of the one and hand over the other anyway?

But amongst those who steal from him and those who execute him, he has his preferences: he votes for the most rapacious and the most ferocious.

He voted yesterday, he’ll vote tomorrow, he’ll vote forever.

The sheep go to the slaughter. They don’t think anything and they don’t hope for anything. But at least they don’t vote for the butcher who’ll kill them, or for the bourgeois who will eat them. Stupider than dumb beasts, more sheep-like than the sheep, the voter nominates his butcher and chooses his bourgeois.

He fights revolutions to achieve this right.

Oh, good voter, inexplicable imbecile, poor prey animal. If, instead of letting yourself be taken in by the absurd refrains that are dumped on you every morning for a quarter by your newspapers—big or small, blue or black, white or red, and which get paid to skin you alive—if, instead of believing in the chimerical flatteries with which they pet your vanity, by which they dress your poor sovereignty in rags—if, instead of standing there gaping like an eternal rube before the clumsy dupery of their plans—if once in a while you would sit by the fire and read some Schopenhauer and Max Nordau (two philosophers who know all about you and your masters)—perhaps you would learn some amazing and useful things.

Perhaps as well, after having read them, you would be in less of a hurry to dress yourself back up in your serious air and your pretty coat and trot off to the homicidal urns where, no matter which name you stuff inside, you’re already putting in the name of your deadliest enemy. As connoisseurs of humanity, they will tell you that politics are an abominable lie, that everything in them goes against good sense, justice, and right; and that there’s nothing in it for you, you whose account is already settled in the great book of human destinies.

After that, go on and dream if you like, of a paradise of light and perfume, of impossible brotherhood, of unreal happiness. It’s good to dream, and that douses one’s suffering. But never mix mankind into your dreams. Because wherever you find man, you find pain, hatred, and murder.

Above all, remember that the fellow who seeks your vote is, by that fact alone, a dishonest man. Because in exchange for the job and the fortune you push him up toward, he promises you a heap of marvelous things that he will never give you, and which aren’t in his power to give you anyway. The man you raise up does not represent your poverty, nor your aspirations, nor anything about you: he only represents his own passions and his own interests, which are both contrary to yours. To comfort yourself and revive those hopes which will be quickly disappointed, don’t fool yourself into imagining that the depressing spectacle you participate in today is particular to an age or a regime, and that it shall pass.

Every epoch is worth as much as every other, and ditto for governments—since none of them are worth a thing. Therefore, go home, good fellow, and go on strike against universal suffrage. You have nothing to lose, I tell you; and it may amuse you for a while. On the threshold of your door, closed to the panhandlers asking for your electoral largess, you’ll watch the whole mess parade by you, quietly smoking your pipe.

And if, in some forgotten corner, there indeed exists an honest man who’s capable of governing you and loving you, don’t feel bad. He would be too jealous of his dignity to throw himself into the mudwrestling match of political parties; too proud to accept the mandate which you only ever award for cynical audacity, low blows, and lies.

I’m telling you, buddy. Stay at home and strike.

Le Figaro, November 28, 1888

 

Related

  • The Populist Moment, Chapter 11, Part 4: “Multitudes” Against the People

  • The Populist Moment, Chapter 11, Part 3: “Multitudes” Against the People

  • The Guardians

  • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 512 Jim Goad on Answer Me!

  • Revolution of the Nation

  • The Left & Democracy

  • The Populist Moment, Chapter 4, Part 2:
    What Is Populism?

  • The Populist Moment, Chapter 4, Part 1:
    What Is Populism?

Tags

Ann Sterzingerdemocracytranslations

Previous

« Notes sur le nihilisme

Next

» When Socialists and Cucks Fear Us, Borders Are Closed

4 comments

  1. rhondda says:
    September 24, 2015 at 5:53 pm

    This is hilarious. I am almost hysterical. We in Canada are having an election too. I find it very funny because I do not watch TB (intended) and there is really nothing else going, unless I make the effort to find out. Why should I do that? It really is amazing that politicians really think people are involved with this kind of propaganda willingly. I was brought up with this idea of civic duty to vote. When I asked myself why, Mirbeau really has the answer. They don’t come to the door anymore and they don’t ask what your concerns are anymore. They just assume you give a shit and they have the solution. Well, sadly no. Even if you told them your concerns, say immigration, you will just get labelled racist. I find it very funny because a Muslim man was sent to the Arctic and he had a terrible time figuring out which way was East. Sorry, everything is south from there. Oh sorry, I was supposed to feel sorry for him. I am just so sorry.

  2. Sandy says:
    September 25, 2015 at 12:00 am

    I was shocked when I came to when the essay was written. How little has changed.

    In Canada the big difference between the parties standing in the current election are the number of immigrants each is promising to bring in. The two left wing parties vying over how many refugees to bring in have probably given the election to the ruling Conservatives who want to hold the line on immigration (something like 250,000/annually).

    I’m uncertain if in the long run a change of masters will make much difference but I am certain that we have reached the end of both the welfare state and the multi-cultural society of ours. What comes next is unclear to me and to be honest I don’t really want to know!!!!!

  3. Proofreader says:
    September 29, 2015 at 7:52 am

    If I had to characterize this article in one word, that word would be “Menckenian.” Consider that high praise.

    In a roundabout way, this article reminds me that I should get around to reading the writings of Octave Mirbeau’s contemporary Édouard Drumont, “the pope of anti-Semitism.” Interestingly, Drumont has been characterised by François Richard as a “right-wing anarchist.” One of the characteristics of “right-wing anarchism,” as Richard has defined it in his two books on the subject, is scorn for democracy and other institutions of mass society.

Comments are closed.

If you have Paywall access,
simply login first to see your comment auto-approved.

Note on comments privacy & moderation

Your email is never published nor shared.

Comments are moderated. If you don't see your comment, please be patient. If approved, it will appear here soon. Do not post your comment a second time.

  • Recent posts

    • The Worst Week Yet: January 29-February 4, 2023

      Jim Goad

      26

    • Strength Through Joy: An Interview with Béla Incze of Légió Hungária

      Ondrej Mann

    • Why Crime & Punishment is Garbage

      Nicholas R. Jeelvy

      8

    • Correspondence between Gaston-Armand Amaudruz & Julius Evola

      Gaston-Armand Amaudruz & Julius Evola

      1

    • Limited Edition Clearance Sale

      Greg Johnson

    • Remembering Charles Lindbergh

      Anthony Bavaria

      25

    • Spencer J. Quinn Interviewed About The No College Club

      Spencer J. Quinn

      1

    • David Duke & Louisiana’s 1991 Gubernatorial Election

      Morris van de Camp

      4

    • Jobbik a stručná historie jeho politického obratu o 180°

      The Visegrád Post

    • Black Invention Myths

      Black Invention Myths

      5

    • Race War in the Outback

      Jim Goad

      62

    • A Woman’s Guide to Identifying Psychopaths, Part 7 More of the Most Common Jobs for Psychopaths

      James Dunphy

      1

    • Black History Month Resources

      Greg Johnson

      9

    • 40% Off Selected Titles

      Cyan Quinn

      5

    • The Union Jackal, January 2023

      Mark Gullick

      3

    • Spencer J. Quinn’s The No College Club: A Review

      Anthony Bavaria

      7

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 521 Daily Zoomer & Spencer J. Quinn Discuss The No College Club

      Counter-Currents Radio

      1

    • Everything Whites Do Is Bad . . . According to the Mainstream Media

      Beau Albrecht

      15

    • Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio

      Margot Metroland

      9

    • American Krogan on Louis C. K. Advocating for Open Borders

      American Krogan

      11

    • Traditional French Songs from Le Poème Harmonique

      Alex Graham

      1

    • The Worst Week Yet: January 22-28, 2023

      Jim Goad

      25

    • Sports Cars & Small Penises

      Richard Houck

      29

    • Opiates for America’s Heartland

      Morris van de Camp

      13

    • The Whale

      Steven Clark

      3

    • Are Qur’an-Burnings Helpful?

      Nicholas R. Jeelvy

      15

    • Bullet Train to Babylon

      Trevor Lynch

      7

    • The Wave: Fascism Reenacted in a High School

      Beau Albrecht

      6

    • Edred Thorsson a jeho kniha Historie Runové gildy

      Collin Cleary

    • Silicon Valley’s Anti-White Racial Dysgenics Program

      Jason Kessler

      33

    • The Silent Plague of Elderly Asian Mass Shooters in California

      Jim Goad

      36

    • What Went Wrong with America’s Universities?

      Stephen Paul Foster

      3

    • Greg Johnson Speaks to Horus the Avenger About Charles Krafft

      Greg Johnson

      7

    • A Woman’s Guide to Identifying Psychopaths, Part 6 The Most Common Jobs for Psychopaths

      James Dunphy

      13

    • Davos, or the Technocrats’ Ball

      Mark Gullick

      5

    • A Political Prisoner on the Meaning of January 6

      Morris van de Camp

      3

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 520 Inside Serbia with Marko of Zentropa

      Counter-Currents Radio

    • The $50 Million Conservative Inc. Internet Spat

      Spencer J. Quinn

      16

    • Yet Another Woke Remake of a Classic

      Beau Albrecht

      25

    • Spencer J. Quinn & Pox Populi Discuss The No College Club

      Counter-Currents Radio

    • The Populist Moment, Chapter 11, Part 4: “Multitudes” Against the People

      Alain de Benoist

    • The Worst Week Yet: January 15-21, 2023

      Jim Goad

      35

    • Q&A with Jim Goad on The Redneck Manifesto

      Jason Kessler

      3

    • Against Political Hipsterism

      Nicholas R. Jeelvy

      6

    • The Populist Moment, Chapter 11, Part 3: “Multitudes” Against the People

      Alain de Benoist

    • Against White Unionism

      Greg Johnson

      7

    • Hitchcock vs. Visconti

      Derek Hawthorne

      9

    • The Populist Moment, Chapter 11, Part 2: “Multitudes” Against the People

      Alain de Benoist

    • Public Transit in Multicultural Hell

      Gunnar Alfredsson

      12

    • No, You Wasn’t Kings

      Jim Goad

      36

  • Classics Corner

    • Remembering A. R. D. “Rex” Fairburn (February 2, 1904–March 25, 1957)

      Greg Johnson

      1

    • Denis Kearney & the Struggle for a White America

      Theodore J. O'Keefe

      1

    • Posthuman Prospects:
      Artificial Intelligence, Fifth Generation Warfare, & Archeofuturism

      Christopher Pankhurst

      5

    • Earnest Sevier Cox:
      Advocate for the White Ethnostate

      Morris van de Camp

      15

    • Remembering Jack London
      (January 12, 1876–November 22, 1916)

      Greg Johnson

      2

    • Remembering Robinson Jeffers:
      January 10, 1887–January 20, 1962

      John Morgan

      3

    • Remembering Pierre Drieu La Rochelle:
      January 3, 1893–March 15, 1945

      Greg Johnson

    • Remembering Rudyard Kipling (December 30, 1865-January 18, 1936)

      Greg Johnson

      10

    • Restoring White Homelands

      Greg Johnson

      34

    • Remembering Hinton Rowan Helper

      Spencer J. Quinn

      11

    • What’s Wrong with Diversity?

      Greg Johnson

      10

    • Redefining the Mainstream

      Greg Johnson

      3

    • Edward Alsworth Ross:
      American Metapolitical Hero

      Morris van de Camp

      8

    • The Talented Mr. Ripley & Purple Noon

      Trevor Lynch

      19

    • Christmas & the Yuletide:
      Light in the Darkness

      William de Vere

      3

    • Thanksgiving Special 
      White Men Meet Indians:
      Jamestown & the Clash of Civilizations

      Thomas Jackson

    • Colin Wilson’s The Outsider

      Sir Oswald Mosley

      4

    • Dostoyevsky on the Jews

      William Pierce

      4

    • Jefferson &/or Mussolini, Part 1

      Ezra Pound

      5

    • I Listened to Chapo Trap House So You Don’t Have To

      Doug Huntington

      98

    • The Homeric Gods

      Mark Dyal

      13

    • Toward a Baltic-Black Sea Union:
      “Intermarium” as a Viable Model for White Revival

      Émile Durand

      55

    • The Politics of Nuclear War, Part 3

      John Morgan

      30

    • The Politics of Nuclear War, Part 2

      John Morgan

      6

    • Columbus Day Special
      The Autochthony Argument

      Greg Johnson

      9

    • The Politics of Nuclear War, Part 1

      John Morgan

      8

    • The Jewish Question for Normies

      Alan Smithee

      13

    • Human Biodiversity for Normies

      Alan Smithee

      10

    • Bring Back Prohibition!

      Alan Smithee

      65

    • Ethnonationalism for Normies
      (Or, “On the Sense of Coming Home”)

      Alan Smithee

      8

  • Paroled from the Paywall

    • Tár: Reflections on the Artist vs. the Hive

      Steven Clark

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 517 Special Hangover Stream on The Writers’ Bloc

      Counter-Currents Radio

      5

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 516 The New Year’s Special

      Counter-Currents Radio

      5

    • The French Emperor, the German Nutcracker, & the Russian Ballet Part 2

      Kathryn S.

      4

    • The French Emperor, the German Nutcracker, & the Russian Ballet Part 1

      Kathryn S.

    • Death on the Nile (1978 & 2022)

      Trevor Lynch

      13

    • Error & Pride

      Nicholas R. Jeelvy

      12

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 515 The Christmas Special

      Counter-Currents Radio

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 514 The Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, & Yet to Come on The Writers’ Bloc

      Counter-Currents Radio

    • Race & the Bible

      Morris van de Camp

      2

    • PK van der Byl, African Statesman

      Margot Metroland

      3

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 513 The Writers’ Bloc with Horus on the Implicit Whiteness of Liberalism

      Counter-Currents Radio

      4

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 512 Jim Goad on Answer Me!

      Counter-Currents Radio

      3

    • Cleese on Creativity

      Greg Johnson

      6

    • A Woman’s Guide to Identifying Psychopaths, Part 1 Diagnostic Criteria, Associated Personality Disorders, & Brain Attributes

      James Dunphy

      6

    • Death of a Gadfly:
      Plato’s Apology

      Mark Gullick

      1

    • The Populist Moment, Chapter 8:
      Ernesto Laclau & Left-Wing Populism

      Alain de Benoist

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 511
      Christmas Lore with Hwitgeard on The Writers’ Bloc

      Counter-Currents Radio

    • Bringing Guns to an Idea Fight:
      The Career of Robert DePugh

      Morris van de Camp

      4

    • War Is Our Father

      Gunnar Alfredsson

    • The Foremost Threat to Life on Earth

      James Dunphy

      2

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 510
      The Writers’ Bloc with Jason Kessler on the Kanye Question

      Counter-Currents Radio

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 509
      New Ask Me Anything with Greg Johnson

      Counter-Currents Radio

      6

    • The Problem of Gentile Zionism

      Nicholas R. Jeelvy

      1

    • The Populist Moment, Chapter 7:
      Money & the Right

      Alain de Benoist

      2

    • The Populist Moment, Chapter 6:
      Liberalism & Morality

      Alain de Benoist

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 507
      The Best Month Ever on The Writers’ Bloc with Anthony Bavaria

      Counter-Currents Radio

    • Who Is Not Going to Save the Nation?

      Beau Albrecht

      4

    • J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Fall of Númenor

      Alex Graham

      3

    • The Most Overlooked Christmas Carols

      Buck Hunter

      4

  • Recent comments

    • Antipodean

      Remembering Charles Lindbergh

      Thanks for your reply but I don’t see why you feel the need to denigrate people (who should know...

    • James Dunphy

      Black History Month Resources

      Jonathan Bowden called black history "a pretty short subject."

    • Antipodean

      Correspondence between Gaston-Armand Amaudruz & Julius Evola

      Enjoyed reading this correspondence from a time when the enemy had infiltrated the city but had not...

    • Antipodean

      The Worst Week Yet: January 29-February 4, 2023

      There is no reason to give up on territory which represents well more than half of the fertile  land...

    • Antipodean

      The Worst Week Yet: January 29-February 4, 2023

      She looks to me like a quite dark subcontinental. I don’t understand how a child of hers could be so...

    • Anthony Bavaria

      Remembering Charles Lindbergh

      I've read very little Vidal, and I need to fix that; maybe I'll start with this. Thanks for the...

    • Anthony Bavaria

      Remembering Charles Lindbergh

      All great points, particularly about FDR aching to get into the war by the late 30s. Scott's mention...

    • Kök Böri

      Remembering Charles Lindbergh

      Some interesting infromation you can got from the book Jewish Domination of Weimar Germany. 1919-...

    • Fire Walk With Lee

      The Worst Week Yet: January 29-February 4, 2023

      You made me recall this from Delirious… https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rtt9daBt1RQ

    • Kök Böri

      Remembering Charles Lindbergh

      The Apollo program, like Sputnik and Gagarin before that, were great deeds, but at practical sight...

    • Kök Böri

      Remembering Charles Lindbergh

      I suppose the causes of a new German anti-Semitism of 1920-1930's were mostly invasion and behaviour...

    • Beau Albrecht

      The Worst Week Yet: January 29-February 4, 2023

      Q:  Why did chickens cross over into Africa? A:  To get to the other continent.

    • Dain Smocks

      Why Crime & Punishment is Garbage

      Demons is not similar to Crime and Punishment. You rebuke this article by saying that Demons is the...

    • Kök Böri

      Why Crime & Punishment is Garbage

      The well-known Russian detective Arkadiy Koshko (1867-1928) described (not on his own experience,...

    • Joe Gould

      The Eternal Fedora

      "Still, it seems religiosity has something to do with having kids." I agree with that. In...

    • James Dunphy

      The Eternal Fedora

      Something like Judaism would keep whites in mixed race nations from miscegenating, but Jews have 50...

    • James Dunphy

      The Eternal Fedora

      Religiosity is highly correlated with greater fertility rates globally. It's just that other things...

    • T Steuben

      The Worst Week Yet: January 29-February 4, 2023

      The RINO Orange County DA Todd Spitzer was soft on the black woman who ran her car into a stop the...

    • James Dunphy

      The Eternal Fedora

      Elevatorgate triggered the schism between the neurotic element and facet two psychopathy element of...

    • Scott

      Remembering Charles Lindbergh

      >> I also believe that it is highly probable that Pearl Harbour was an earlier 9/11, to force...

  • Book Authors

    • Alain de Benoist
    • Anthony M. Ludovici
    • Beau Albrecht
    • Buttercup Dew
    • Charles Krafft
    • Christopher Pankhurst
    • Collin Cleary
    • F. Roger Devlin
    • Fenek Solère
    • Francis Parker Yockey
    • Greg Johnson
    • Gregory Hood
    • H. L. Mencken
    • Irmin Vinson
    • J. A. Nicholl
    • James J. O’Meara
    • Jef Costello
    • Jim Goad
    • Jonathan Bowden
    • Juleigh Howard-Hobson
    • Julius Evola
    • Kerry Bolton
    • Leo Yankevich
    • Michael Polignano
    • Multiple authors
    • Savitri Devi
    • Spencer J. Quinn
    • Tito Perdue
    • Trevor Lynch
  • Webzine Authors

    Editor-in-Chief

    • Greg Johnson, Ph.D.

    Featured Writers

    • Beau Albrecht
    • Morris V. de Camp
    • Jim Goad
    • Mark Gullick, Ph.D.
    • Nicholas Jeelvy
    • Spencer Quinn

    Frequent Writers

    • Aquilonius
    • Anthony Bavaria
    • Alain de Benoist
    • Kerry Bolton, Ph.D.
    • Collin Cleary, Ph.D.
    • Jef Costello
    • F. Roger Devlin, Ph.D.
    • Stephen Paul Foster, Ph.D.
    • Alex Graham
    • Richard Houck
    • Margot Metroland
    • John Morgan
    • Trevor Lynch
    • James J. O’Meara
    • Kathryn S.
    • Thomas Steuben
    • Michael Walker

    Classic Authors

    • Maurice Bardèche
    • Jonathan Bowden
    • Julius Evola
    • Guillaume Faye
    • Ernst Jünger
    • Kevin MacDonald, Ph.D.
    • D. H. Lawrence
    • Charles Lindbergh
    • Jack London
    • H. P. Lovecraft
    • Anthony M. Ludovici
    • Sir Oswald Mosley
    • National Vanguard
    • Friedrich Nietzsche
    • Revilo Oliver
    • William Pierce
    • Ezra Pound
    • Saint-Loup
    • Savitri Devi
    • Carl Schmitt
    • Miguel Serrano
    • Oswald Spengler
    • P. R. Stephensen
    • Jean Thiriart
    • John Tyndall
    • Dominique Venner
    • Leo Yankevich
    • Francis Parker Yockey

    Other Authors

    • Howe Abbott-Hiss
    • Michael Bell
    • Buttercup Dew
    • Giles Corey
    • Bain Dewitt
    • Jack Donovan
    • Richardo Duchesne, Ph.D.
    • Emile Durand
    • Guillaume Durocher
    • Mark Dyal
    • Fullmoon Ancestry
    • Tom Goodroch
    • Andrew Hamilton
    • Robert Hampton
    • Huntley Haverstock
    • Derek Hawthorne
    • Gregory Hood
    • Juleigh Howard-Hobson
    • Alexander Jacob
    • Ruuben Kaalep
    • Tobias Langdon
    • Julian Langness
    • Travis LeBlanc
    • Patrick Le Brun
    • G A Malvicini
    • John Michael McCloughlin
    • Millennial Woes
    • Michael O’Meara
    • Christopher Pankhurst
    • Michael Polignano
    • J. J. Przybylski
    • Quntilian
    • Edouard Rix
    • C. B. Robertson
    • C. F. Robinson
    • Herve Ryssen
    • Alan Smithee
    • Fenek Solere
    • Ann Sterzinger
    • Robert Steuckers
    • Tomislav Sunic
    • Donald Thoresen
    • Marian Van Court
    • Irmin Vinson
    • Aylmer Wedgwood
    • Scott Weisswald
  • Departments

    • Book Reviews
    • Movie Reviews
    • TV Reviews
    • Music Reviews
    • Art Criticism
    • Graphic Novels & Comics
    • Video Game Reviews
    • Fiction
    • Poems
    • Interviews
    • Videos
    • English Translations
    • Other Languages
      • Arabic
      • Bulgarian
      • Croatian
      • Czech
      • Danish
      • Dutch
      • Estonian
      • Finnish
      • French
      • German
      • Greek
      • Hungarian
      • Italian
      • Lithuanian
      • Norwegian
      • Polish
      • Portuguese
      • Romanian
      • Russian
      • Slovak
      • Spanish
      • Swedish
      • Ukrainian
    • Commemorations
    • Why We Write
  • Archives
  • Top 100 Commenters
Sponsored Links
Above Time Coffee Antelope Hill Publishing Paul Waggener IHR-Store Asatru Folk Assembly Breakey Imperium Press American Renaissance The Patrick Ryan Show Jim Goad The Occidental Observer
Donate Now Mailing list
Books for sale
  • El Manifiesto Nacionalista Blanco
  • An Artist of the Right
  • Ernst Jünger
  • Reuben
  • The Partisan
  • Trevor Lynch’s Classics of Right-Wing Cinema
  • The Enemy of Europe
  • Imperium
  • Reactionary Modernism
  • Manifesto del Nazionalismo Bianco
  • O Manifesto Nacionalista Branco
  • Vade Mecum
  • Whiteness: The Original Sin
  • Space Vixen Trek Episode 17: Tomorrow the Stars
  • The Year America Died
  • Passing the Buck
  • Mysticism After Modernism
  • Gold in the Furnace
  • Defiance
  • Forever & Ever
  • Wagner’s Ring & the Germanic Tradition
  • Resistance
  • Materials for All Future Historians
  • Love Song of the Australopiths
  • White Identity Politics
  • Here’s the Thing
  • Trevor Lynch: Part Four of the Trilogy
  • Graduate School with Heidegger
  • It’s Okay to Be White
  • The World in Flames
  • The White Nationalist Manifesto
  • From Plato to Postmodernism
  • The Gizmo
  • Return of the Son of Trevor Lynch’s CENSORED Guide to the Movies
  • Toward a New Nationalism
  • The Smut Book
  • The Alternative Right
  • My Nationalist Pony
  • Dark Right: Batman Viewed From the Right
  • The Philatelist
  • Confessions of an Anti-Feminist
  • East and West
  • Though We Be Dead, Yet Our Day Will Come
  • White Like You
  • Numinous Machines
  • Venus and Her Thugs
  • Cynosura
  • North American New Right, vol. 2
  • You Asked For It
  • More Artists of the Right
  • Extremists: Studies in Metapolitics
  • The Homo & the Negro
  • Rising
  • The Importance of James Bond
  • In Defense of Prejudice
  • Confessions of a Reluctant Hater (2nd ed.)
  • The Hypocrisies of Heaven
  • Waking Up from the American Dream
  • Green Nazis in Space!
  • Truth, Justice, and a Nice White Country
  • Heidegger in Chicago
  • End of an Era: Mad Men & the Ordeal of Civility
  • Sexual Utopia in Power
  • What is a Rune? & Other Essays
  • Son of Trevor Lynch’s White Nationalist Guide to the Movies
  • The Lightning & the Sun
  • The Eldritch Evola
  • Western Civilization Bites Back
  • New Right vs. Old Right
  • Journey Late at Night: Poems and Translations
  • The Non-Hindu Indians & Indian Unity
  • I do not belong to the Baader-Meinhof Group
  • Pulp Fascism
  • The Lost Philosopher
  • Trevor Lynch’s A White Nationalist Guide to the Movies
  • And Time Rolls On
  • Artists of the Right: Resisting Decadence
  • North American New Right, Vol. 1
  • Some Thoughts on Hitler
  • Tikkun Olam and Other Poems
  • Summoning the Gods
  • Taking Our Own Side
  • Reuben
  • The Node
  • The New Austerities
  • Morning Crafts
  • The Passing of a Profit & Other Forgotten Stories
Copyright © 2023 Counter-Currents Publishing, Ltd.

Paywall Access





Please enter your email address. You will receive mail with link to set new password.

Edit your comment