Counter-Currents
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
4,152 words
A friend of mine got doxed recently. I have other friends who live in fear of being exposed, vilified, and fired from their jobs. I’ve accepted the danger for over a decade now. But the danger is greater now than it has ever been before. The danger of physical violence is also now very real. Our people are being recognized and attacked on the street, and Antifa and others have called for violence — claiming that it’s okay if you’re attacking a “Nazi” (which now basically means any white person at all, especially one who isn’t racked with guilt over being white).
The dangers we now face — doxing, firing, de-platforming, physical violence, and so on — exist because Leftists are no longer laughing at us: they genuinely feel threatened. And so they’re lashing out with every weapon at their disposal — in ways that are frequently insane and irrational, to say nothing of dishonorable. A mere three years ago or so things were very different. I had essentially resigned myself to the fact that I would continue writing heretical essays under various pseudonyms until the day I died or went gaga (whichever came first), and that if there were any concrete results from these efforts they would come after my death.
But things have changed very fast. Our message is getting around in a big way, and more and more people are hopping on board – including young, attractive, smart people. (As opposed to the grizzled, old jack o’lantern-faced misfits you used to meet at right wing dinners, forever trying to link the Jews and the Masons to fluoridation.) And I never expected to see Counter-Currents and Greg Johnson denounced (repeatedly) in the pages of The New York Times. My friends are doing plenty of gloating, but they are also plenty nervous. I know some folks who are going around in hats and sunglasses, like Hollywood celebrities avoiding paparazzi, and other friends who are getting out of town and going places where there are fewer white Leftists (there’s lots of affordable real estate in Detroit, I hear).
“I feel like the walls are closing in,” one friend said to me the other day. He’s afraid of being doxed — but the general cultural insanity really gets to him (and me): the hysterical reactions to Trump, the violence of Berkeley and Charlottesville, the Las Vegas shootings, and so on. (Every night when I go to sleep I pray I won’t wake up in France or England or Sweden — that’s the best thing I can say about this situation.) Another friend is now on prescription tranquilizers and downing them with vodka (“It makes ’em work faster,” quoth Patty Duke in Valley of the Dolls). And, yes, a couple of friends have decided that they want “out” of our movement — that this is more than they bargained for.
The purpose of this essay is to establish some practical guidelines for dealing with, and surviving, these tumultuous times. I can’t guarantee that you are going to physically survive — your life could be taken at any moment by a crazed Hillary supporter, a gun-toting anti-gun pussy-hat-wearing Leftist, or an exploding kebab. But I think I can guarantee that if you follow my recommendations, you can survive with your soul intact. So let us begin.
First of all, if any of the above describes how you feel you need to wake the hell up and stop your whining! What did you think this was going to be, a tea party? Did you maybe think this was just yet another subculture you could join and participate in after work, online and from the safety of your Ikea-furnished high-rise apartment with the solid concrete walls? Were you just LARPing? As Lenin memorably remarked, “A revolution is not a girl’s dormitory.” And this is a revolution, folks, and we are revolutionaries. Act like it. Become it.
So, the first step in dealing with the present madness is to accept the reality of the fact that everything you’ve been saying and thinking for years is right (yes, you were right!), that everything really is falling apart – much quicker than you thought it would – and that you are among the vanguard. You are making world history. And like most other historical figures, you are going to lead a life – probably a relatively short life – in which you will be attacked and vilified. You may lose things important to you. Indeed, you may lose everything. Folks are going to abandon you. This could mean your friends, your parents, your children, and your spouse or significant other (that at least some of these will abandon you is as certain as the sun rising tomorrow). You’re probably never going to be able to settle down in one place and be “happy.” You may be on the run. If things get really bad, you may have to become an outlaw and you may die in a convenient prison accident, or in a hail of bullets.
Accept your fate. Accept, right now, that you are going to lead a life filled with conflict and discord and loneliness and violence. But you must also love your fate. Yes, this is going to be hell. But it’s also going to be glorious. You are going to lead an extraordinary life — the kind of life people read about. (Don’t worry: in the future we are building, people are going to read again.) If the term “revolutionary” conjures up distasteful images of Bolsheviks, then think of yourself as a warrior.
It’s a universal warrior practice — the samurai are a familiar example of this — to wake up each morning and to accept that you will die that very day. Not just that, but to affirm “Today is a good day to die.” I recommend you start your day like this. Rise from your memory foam (which you must do without when you’re on the lam) and say, “Today is a good day to be doxed.” (This should preferably be said in front of a statue of Odin.) Today is a good day to be exposed, ostracized, de-platformed, de-monetized, abandoned by your family, and fired from your job. But hell, you might as well say “Today is a good day to die,” because at the rate things are going they’ll start trying to kill us pretty soon.
And when the day comes that they go after you — in whatever form, whether it’s your boss confronting you, or Antifa attacking you with crowbars and bear mace — you need, above all else, to avoid falling into one major trap. You must never for a moment allow yourself to waiver in your convictions. You must never for a moment feel that you might deserve whatever punishment is visited upon you. I know that you will feel surprised by this suggestion, and think that perhaps it does not apply to you: “I would never feel that way.” But think again. Like every human being in every society throughout time, we have been raised since infancy to respect authority: the authority of institutions, the authority of laws, and the authority of individuals in certain positions, whether it’s the police, or the mayor, or the dean of your college, or “the boss.” And when all the weight of that authority comes crashing down on our heads it’s perfectly natural that many of us will emotionally revert, if only very, very briefly, to childhood. We may get that ominous “I’ve been a bad boy” feeling and then steel ourselves for the punishment we think we’ve probably been deserving all along.
Needless to say, we have to see that we are programmed for these kinds of feelings, and see that they are illegitimate. If we do not, if we are taken by these feelings then we will wind up like those pathetic, cringe-inducing cases we’ve all seen (too many to mention) where the poor S.O.B. who’s caught saying something un-p.c. begs for forgiveness (and gets fired anyway). Vox Day in his very useful book SJWs Always Lie advises us not to apologize if exposed, because it will only be used against us. But surely the primary reason not to apologize is to preserve your self-respect. And that’s a lot more important than your job. They can take your job, and your friends and your family, and even your freedom and your life, but they cannot take your self-worth, not unless you give it to them yourself by melting down.
We must learn to see the entire system of authority as illegitimate — from the President, who must still parrot the language of diversity even as he promises (again and again) to build a wall to keep out diversity, down to your boss, who must fire you if you refuse to use the correct pronouns with the transgender receptionist, lest he himself be fired. Now, yes, I know: most of us are working on seeing things this way, and some are already there. But the illegitimacy of the system needs, in most of us, to become even more vividly and constantly perceived. And we must keep always in mind one basic, unshakeable conviction: that the system is genuinely evil, that it is set against life and against our people and our culture. We, on the other hand, are fighting for . . . how do I sum it up? I might as well just say everything that is good and holy, because that’s what it amounts to. We must keep this in mind perpetually: when we rise from the bed each morning to face the day, when we look at the news, when we attend events and find ourselves attacked, when they try to go after our jobs, and when we are faced with the relentless lies at work, at school, or wherever.
Earlier I used the terms “revolutionary” and “warrior,” but I find that “dissident” is also extremely helpful. This term immediately conjures up memories of the U.S.S.R. and the “Soviet dissidents.” Perhaps the most famous of these was Andrei Sakharov, who once said, “Everyone wants to have a job, be married, have children, be happy, but dissidents must be prepared to see their lives destroyed and those dear to them hurt.” When we look at the situation of the Soviet dissidents we see them (correctly) as heroic rebels protesting against a system that was monolithically evil. But that’s easy, not just because the evil was often more blatant than it is here (torture chambers, gulags, forced commitment to mental asylums, etc.), but because it was over there. We, on the other hand, have to see it in the place we call home, in the place we have been taught to regard as the land of the free and home of the brave, and the “greatest country in the world” (obviously, I am writing mainly for my American readers).
Whatever you may consciously think, you are still deeply invested in this system. For instance, most of us on the Right want to defend the police against the madness of Black Lives Matter — but after Charlottesville there can be no illusions about the police defending us. So, we just have to say goodbye to all such noble sentiments. I was raised in a military family and despised the protestors of the ’60s and ’70s who threw eggs at the ROTC. But, aside from this juvenile behavior, those protestors were kind of right: the military is a force for evil, because it serves the globalist, multicultural state — and simultaneously the ethnonationalist state of Israel. The support many of us showed for Trump (and still show) is an indication of how deeply invested we are in the system, or at least in the idea that it can be “fixed.”
All this needs to go — we need to disengage from all this, deep down in our souls. The system as a whole is evil, and we are the dissidents who oppose it. Etymologically, a dissident is someone who “sits apart.” We must sit apart from the system, while remaining within it: as much as possible, our words and our deeds must express our apartness. What is eminently possible, 100% of the time, is to at least feel and know our apartness in our hearts and minds, whether we are confronting political happenings, popular culture, or anything else.
The language of “dissidence” claims the moral high ground. To be a dissident is to (usually) be a peaceful protestor against a tyrannical system. When we are confronted, when we are called out on our beliefs or called into that fateful meeting with the boss, we need to identify ourselves not as “conservative” (whatever that means) or “Alt Right” (which is too heavily associated with Richard Spencer) or “revolutionaries” (which is far too Red) but as “dissidents.” To identify yourself as such, when faced, for example, with a representative of authority, communicates “You represent a corrupt and oppressive system. I am protesting against that system. To penalize me is to crush dissent.” To call ourselves dissidents in the face of, to take another example, Antifa thugs, is to say “You are frauds and fools. You think you are rebels, but in fact you represent the worst, most nakedly evil element within a corrupt and tyrannical system. We are the true dissidents.”
To position ourselves as dissidents is good for the soul — it trains us to overcome our attachments to the system, and to clearly see ourselves as agents of the good. And it changes the conversations we have with others. To say you are a dissident is to say that you are the conscientious voice of dissent, and have a right to stand apart. Soviet dissident Lyudmila Alexeyeva once said, “What would happen if citizens acted on the assumption that they have rights? If one person did it, he would become a martyr; if two people did it, they would be labeled an enemy organization; if thousands of people did it, the state would have to become less oppressive.” As more and more of us position ourselves as dissidents and stand firm on the legitimacy of our cause and our speech, then what the Left fears most will come to pass: the Right will become “normalized.” In other words, we will become an accepted, and, to a greater and greater extent, tolerated part of the political landscape. Our influence will grow, and the system will become more and more unstable. Once again, the case of the Soviet Union is a useful example to study.
In sum, the first and most important lessons in dealing with the madness of our times is to see yourself as a dissident fighting a truly decadent and oppressive system, to never waiver in your conviction that your cause is right (no matter what they do to you), and to accept that you are going to suffer for your cause. If you are able truly to adopt these attitudes, you will be armored against all that the forces of evil can sling at you. You will be an effective fighter for our cause, and you will spiritually invulnerable.
I now turn to some lesser, but not unimportant considerations.
- You must free yourself from dependence on people and things. Learn to become a stoic. Remember that nothing lasts forever and that the fate of most people, things, and situations is almost entirely beyond your control. Know — really know — that many, if not all of your human relationships may wither and die. And this may be due, as discussed already, to others being unable to reconcile themselves not just to the radicalness of your views but to their truth. In particular, you must not be a slave to possessions. Remember Tyler Durden’s immortal words “The things you own end up owning you.” And read D. H. Lawrence’s story “Things” (which illustrates Tyler’s point beautifully). You must ruthlessly expunge every trace in your character of the bourgeois ideal of “gracious living.” Have as little as possible. And if you already have a lot or must have a lot, then learn to stop caring about it. If it could all burn down tomorrow and you wouldn’t shed a tear, then you’re doing something right.
- Adopt a Romantic view of yourself and your life and your destiny. Yes, it is perfectly fine to think of yourself as a “warrior,” as I suggested earlier. Because that is, in fact, what you are. See your life as a saga that you are creating through your words and deeds. Do not take any action that you would not want to be part of the story. See yourself as a world-historical individual who has a mission to accomplish in the cosmic scheme of things, and whose life will not end until he’s done it. (Though you may never know exactly what it is and when it’s done; don’t worry, the bards who sing about you will see the thread that you may miss.) Again, don’t be embarrassed: you can do this. Indeed, you need to do it for the Cause: on the sensible pragmatic principle that those who believe themselves capable of great deeds are much more likely to actually perform them, when given the chance, than those who do not think themselves capable.
- Do not entertain negative, defeatist thoughts. You have a moral obligation to the Cause not to do this. The reason is that defeatism breeds defeat. Those who allow themselves to wallow in negativism, defeatism, and (God help us) self-pity regularly fail to seize opportunities for victory or advancement when such opportunities present themselves. Thus, you have an obligation to your race to be positive. “Easier said than done,” I hear you saying. I understand that, but I will give you an ancient Tibetan exercise for loosening the hold that negative thoughts have on you. Since you do not want them, begin to think of them as not you, or not yours. The really negative thing about negative thoughts is that we identify with them: we believe them, we think that in them we glimpse the truth. Come to see these thoughts like bad weather: something that happens to you, but that is not you. Learn to recognize your undesirable thought patterns (which, as you well know, are often not fully rational). “Oh, there they are again,” you should say. “The thoughts are back.” Objectify them as The Other (don’t worry, they won’t get offended). Better yet, see them as demons continually bedeviling you, and see yourself as the warrior saint who must fight them, often on a daily basis, in order to carry out his great work. Our struggle is both an external one, in the world, and an internal one.
- Set aside times in the day where you give yourself permission to completely disengage from all thought about the problems of the world, and your personal problems. For me there are two such times. One is when I meditate in the morning, usually for 30 or 35 minutes. Part of the beauty of meditation, for me at least, is that it is a time when I give myself permission not to think about anything — which means it is a time when I am totally free. Indeed, to meditate I must not think about anything, for the meditation practice I follow consists of gently batting away all stray thoughts and attempting to make my mind a total blank, while following my breath. The other time when I completely disengage is the very end of the day. Every night, I make myself a relatively strong drink and lie down on the sofa and watch a movie, or YouTube videos (on non-political subjects). I sometimes drift off to sleep that way. In all honesty, given how dicey things have become as of late, I sometimes look forward to this time more than anything else in the day.
- As just noted, drink alcohol. But in moderation. We’ve earned this. And it is extremely useful for relaxation. I never get drunk, but just a moderate amount is enough to relax me and help me put all the madness in perspective. I often wind up laughing about it. Maniacally.
- Lift weights, take martial arts, do CrossFit, or something else. Just do something. It will relieve some of your tension and anger, relax you, and make you healthier (thus you will be stronger and live longer and be a better servant of our Cause).
- Have long term plans, but (sorry about the cliché) live one day at a time. Plan every day, each morning, and have a system for doing it. The first step is to remind yourself of your life priorities. #1 on this list should be the Cause. Plan what you are going to do that day as a warrior, revolutionary, or dissident. It could be reading an article on this website, writing an article, listening to a podcast, red-pilling a friend, whatever. Also, list all your mundane tasks and try to get these out of the way as swiftly and efficiently as possible. Finally – and this is important – every morning list all the things that are good in your life, and that you are grateful for. Obviously, this is to combat that “walls are closing in” feeling. The list can be as long and as personal as you like. Items could include the people in your life that you love, the things you enjoy doing, the book you are enjoying reading right now – or even just facts about the world that you take joy in. The sun, the coming cold weather, hot showers, cats that look like Hitler, whatever. Give special attention to things you are looking forward to doing, participating in, etc. (And, by the way, just in case you think this “list the stuff you’re grateful for” business seems too touchy-feely, I got this idea from a Navy Seal.)
- Practice situational awareness. Earlier I mentioned the growing danger of physical violence against folks on the Right. Be vigilant. Know your surroundings. Find the exits. Identify possible threats. Never go around daydreaming — always be awake. And get the damned ear buds out of your ears, and NEVER look at your phone when walking or in a crowd. Investigate the laws in your area regarding carrying concealed weapons. If it’s lawful, carry one or more. But never, ever use them unless you are really being attacked. And if you must fight back and must injure someone (or worse) here is one of the best pieces of advice I ever got (from an ex-Army Ranger): always tell the police “I was in fear for my life” (which is true), and then say absolutely nothing else.
- Have a plan for what you are going to do if you get doxed — at work, for example. Vox Day’s aforementioned SJWs Always Lie has lots of good advice about this. Here’s my plan (which might not fly at everybody’s place of employment): (1) Say that you will not discuss whatever charges are being made against you until they are put in writing; (2) State that the letter must contain the following pieces of information, and put them in explicit terms, without generalities: the names of those making these accusations (“I will not respond to anonymous accusers”), exactly what the accusations are, the specific reasons why the company/place of work thinks this is their business, and what’s at stake (are you threatening my job, or what?); (3) Say that you will be happy to have a discussion once you have received such a letter, but that getting the letter is non-negotiable; (4) Say that you will require plenty of notice about a subsequent meeting, as it will need to be at a time when your attorney is free; (5) Finally, if necessary, assert your First Amendment rights (sorry, Europeans) as a dissident. Many employers will back down when faced with this sort of strategy. As Vox Day points out, they want you to voluntarily resign — because they really don’t want the hassle of having to fire you, and the potential legal repercussions.
- Lastly, going back to creating that to do list where you are going to list all the things you will do for the Cause: do, do, do, do, and do! Life is short, and I’ve repeatedly warned you that the lives of dissidents tend to be very short. Make your time on this earth count by doing as much as you possibly can for the one cause that, for us, dwarfs all others: saving our people and our culture.
So, there you have it. The foregoing is the philosophy I have adopted, and the practical measures I have undertaken, to help me live as a dissident in these rapidly-changing circumstances. I know some of this can work for you. We live in dangerous times, and sometimes it’s pretty scary. But we must also admit that we live in exciting times. The very reason why the danger has amped up is because we have been so successful. I wish you the best, comrades.
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38 comments
Our message is getting around in a big way, and more and more people are hopping on board – including young, attractive, smart people. (As opposed to the grizzled, old jack o’lantern-faced misfits you used to meet at right wing dinners, forever trying to link the Jews and the Masons to fluoridation.)
Oh, so this crusade is just for the hip, is it?
If you’re hip to the cause, you’re hip in my book, oldtimer!
One crazy thing that happens when you become racially aware as a Millennial is that suddenly you realize, “All these old fogeys I dismissed as crazy kooks… They were right!”
Thanks, Rad. 40 yr. ago, when I was barely out of adolescence and a truly mindless liberal, I had some relatives telling me every chance they got about the dangers of “communism” – but not the economic aspects so much as what is today called cultural Marxism. Much rolling of eyes from me. Now, look.
Those old folks are dead and I wish I could bring them back to apologize and thank them.
Excellent article – a good book on political & spiritual survival is Tommy Robinson’s “Enemy Of The State” ; https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tommy-Robinson-Enemy-State/dp/0957096496/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1507643115&sr=1-1&keywords=tommy+robinson+enemy+of+the+state
Good information, all of which I adopted, and began practicing (except for the alcohol, and what to do if accused on the job) a long time ago. I wish to add some of my own practices:
1.) Learn to hate the enemy with every fiber of your being; go to the “dark side”–it gives you great strength. One caveat, let your actions be ruled by your intellect. Never listen to the Christian twaddle, “Love thy enemy;” this saying creates cognitive dissonance, and makes you weak. In fact, throw all Christian teachings into the dustbin where they belong.
2.) Always assume that the white people you meet have a non-white significant other (yes, it has become that bad) until proven otherwise. Beware those whites that like to fantasize about the 2% American Indian blood that was obscurely inserted in their lineage a hundred years ago; they are just waiting for you to say something politically incorrect, so that they can say “I was offended,” and put you on the defensive. For most people conversation is just another weapon, and they are forever “on the prod,” and forever trying “to trip you up.”
3.) This has been said before, but it needs to be said again; “Never say in private what you would not say in public.”
4.) Remember we live in a “snitch culture!” Most people have smart phones with cameras, and most businesses have surveillance cameras. Assume that your actions are constantly being recorded, and that your words are being recorded–because they are.
5.) Remember that we live in a “predatory culture,” capitalistic cultures are jewish in nature, and destroy racial loyalty. Try to figure out the other person’s “angle” when doing business.
6.) Never trust a Christian! Christians are bigoted, small minded, and heavily invested in the system. Anything you say to a Christian will “make the rounds.” White Christian clerics are especially bad about breaking trusts, and rumor mongering.
7.) Remember that non-whites, especially blacks live “closer to the ground.” Blacks are always scanning for weaknesses, and will work-up a psychological profile on you within twenty minutes–so always exude strength, and confidence. I read about this black trait many years ago, and have found this to be true. I just wish I could find the article again. But, all non-whites practice this in a lesser degree.
8.) If you are going to drink alcohol, always do it at home. I never drink alcohol, or take drugs; I try to maintain a high as level of situational awareness as possible. Remember, “you are living behind enemy lines.”
9.) Move to a small town if you can, twenty thousand or less. Non-whites, and liberal freaks gravitate to cities. You might have to deal with close-minded Christian morons, but as long as they don’t know your views, you will be all right.
10.) Go to the gym, take creatine, and protein supplements. When I could afford to go to the gym on a daily basis I was bench pressing 300 lbs on a regular basis. One black described me as “big as fuck.” I can no longer afford to go to the gym every day, so I have switched to running long distances most days and doing lots of push-ups, etc. everyday. I am still big, and it has helped me in my confrontations with non-whites.
11.) Last, but not least, I know you already said this, but it is worth saying again. Get a concealed carry permit. Carry a gun everywhere, places that you cannot carry a gun into, carry a knife instead. Believe me, word gets around that you are packing heat. Make sure you have a “lock box” chained to the cab of your vehicle to secure your gun when you cannot take it with you.
Thank you. Most of the additional points you’ve made I agree with completely. Especially #1.
Excellent comments.
The author of this piece chose a photo of Solzhenitsyn, but made no mention of what sustained that particular dissident’s soul.
Parts of his article remind one of an article by the Russian-born Archbishop Averky – “See then, that ye walk circumspectly.”
The accounts in I.M. Andreyev’s “Russia’s Catacomb Saints” would be worthy for anyone wishing to be a dissident to read.
Thanks for that reference, Sepp. I will look up that title.
Tsk, Tsk, Tsk; did I offend your christian sensibilities. You are wrong, Christianity is a long-term psychological operation to keep the masses quiescent, and in-check, created under the auspices of the Roman, Flavian emperors. Read Joseph Atwill’s excellent books. Have you never wondered why the Christian religion has never mounted a tenable defense against homosexual marriages, miscegenation, desegregation, and multiculturalism. It is because the christian churches, and white christian clerics don’t care. White christian clerics do not care if you marry a non-white, member of the same sex, pedophilia, or bestiality. Wake up christ-insane; look at the world as it really is, do some exercise, and for god’s sake turn off the television.
Thanks for your comments Leon. I certainly agree with you. My studies have been varied (and always will be) but I find myself always circling around the question of European Christian identity, Greco-Christianity, and the influence of Christianity on all European categories. It is not possible, except if one did away with Occidental intellect, to remove the influence of Christian thought and metaphysics from the Occidental person.
I am inclined to see Peter’s perspective as shallow and contingent, if I can use that term. I am sure that it is a genuinely understood and felt perspective but it is wrong-headed. Yet I do not want to come across as critical because I think I understand where he is coming from. I am more interested in finding a way to bridge understandings.
However, it is hard to find a radical Christianity or Catholicism that would seem capable of ‘getting behind’ a specifically white identity movement. E. Michael Jones is an interesting figure but dismisses ‘race’. I do not agree with him. It is undeniable though that Christianity ‘suffers from’ a too universalist and too empathic and accommodating mind-set.
If you do read this, and if you do have thoughts on the topic, please do let me know.
My own opinion is that an Occidental metaphysics has to be revived/redefined and become powerful within individuals as a base for a ‘white identity movement’. You cannot have a really rooted and grounded white identity if it is not linked, holistically and really, to Occidental categories. And this means Greco-Christian categories.
When this is lost, one element that slips away is the capacity to self-identity, and the rigorous intellectual processes necessary to holding to one’s cultural and self-identity. We have lost this capacity to identify because our intellect has been undermined and we allowed this to happen.
We have to recover the intellectual base that will allow all other identifications to re-accrete to us. Does that make sense?
Yes, most unfortunately. Patriotism or love of the Patria or Fatherland is considered part of human nature and law, but they refuse categorically to discriminate between country and nation. And in their definitions, they go with country – breaking the link with the ancient tribal past and of course the genotype of which it was comprised. That would be Pagan after all….
https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=1125
“I am inclined to see Peter’s perspective as shallow and contingent, if I can use that term.”
You’ve misinterpreted the article, it is about individual conduct, and survival, not about reviving a moribund religion.
As I said above, I do not judge your comments because, at least in some senses, I believe I understand what you mean and why you say it. I think you are right to notice that Christianity is moribund. But this must also mean that our conceptual order toward a *real* and a meaningful and life-affirming metaphysics is in terrible disarray. So, I wish to affirm that if we appear here, here in this comment section on a website that outlines radical ideas and programs for ‘our people’, what we must at least work to understand our differing perspectives.
In my own view, and I say this after at least some considerable study of Vedic metaphysics, the Occident became what it was because of the understructure, or the overstructure, of Christian metaphysics. But this means, to me in any case, a relationship with a *real thing*, and that is Being in the philosophical sense. It may seem as though Christian metaphysics is a tale told but that it has no content and refers to nothing *real*, but I question this. Christian metaphysics, and an internal *path*, opens into a relationship with Being, and thus is anything but *unreal*.
Only what is not real can be *moribund*. What is real is by definition alive. Therefor, and again in my view, the challenge is to seek again, and to define again, and then to hone, a new metaphysical conception that grounds the individual in life, in culture, in the social world, in the family, and in the sustaining of the cultural forms which are, quite literally, the stuff of life.
When you refer to the *moribund* I must agree with you — in the Nietzschean sense. But this is also an ironic sense and an ironical statement. That is, the false God of false conception certainly died, and we certainly did kill *him*, but this only affirms that real meaning, and a real metaphysical underpinning is entirely real and worthy of discovery. Therefor, and again in my own case, I tend to a sort of abstract Johannine mode-of-relationship to Christianity. That is to say, that there exist metaphysical truths that are part-and-parcel of Creation. They emerge with Creation, they are part-and-parcel of the fabric of reality. And the first order of things is, in a Greco-Christian sense, that if ‘intellectus’ and awareness: the mind that conceives of Being and forges a relationship to it.
In my own case I find that I have to back-track into scholastic categories (The Great Chain of Being, et cetera) and also into Thomist metaphysics and definitions in order to reclaim the *meaning* that is possible within the Christian revelation (if you will permit that loaded word ‘revelation’). I find that non-emotional intellect is necessary to defeat and deflate the emotionalism and sentimentalism of the present, and it is this *infection* that has brought (is bringing) ruin to Our People. Myself, I could not separate my metaphysical orientation from my terrestrial activism. And in my own case my awakening (the Red Pilling) has come about because of my increased metaphysical awakening (and I assume this is so for many who write on these pages).
The other side of the God is Dead statement is that — again in sheer irony! — that *dead God* has no choice within the construct of Nietzsche’s statement but to resurrect. And that is the meaning, as I see it. But it is a complex meaning, and Nietzsche’s statement was complex and multivalent.
One of the things that Greg has often pointed out is that to reverse decay, to reverse the trends of the present, will take not a week or a year but a really rather vast cultural movement toward regeneration of Our People. We have ourselves become infected and it is our own selves who are *moribund* insofar as we cannot define a clear relationship to an empowering metaphysics. But once we do this, and once we communicate the spirit of this to others, then our movement will gain force and power. The metaphysical aspect (eg Traditionalism) cannot be pushed out of the picture.
Thanks for your comments. You have touched on many many important things. I responded first to Peter Quint and, you will notice, a good deal of this was also comments more or less to what you have written.
I find that, outside of what I have already said, I can’t contribute much to your comments except to say that I am fighting a very personal and inner battle to get to the *proper perspective*. I have found Houston Chamberlain’s ‘Foundations of the Nineteenth Century’ to contain a great deal of very valuable information useful to the construction of an ideological platform that could support a ‘white nationalist’ perspective. But then too I have been influenced by Hans FK Gunther in his ‘Religious Attitudes of the Indo-Europeans’. My own sense is that we have to define a Christian platform through an Indo-European sense of self-definition.
You have written a great deal and what I now write in response is rather slight. I will look for your comments in other threads and on other topics. Sincere regards.
This from Madison Grant:
“The Church of Rome has everywhere used its influence to break down racial distinctions. It disregards origins and requires only obedience to the mandates of the universal church. In that lies the secret of opposition of Rome to all national movements. It is the imperial as contrasted with the nationalistic ideal, and in that respect the ‘inheritance’ is direct from the Empire.”
Because I am — and certainly hope to continue to be — a proponent of *Europe* and European identity, I choose to identify myself with this *Europe* and attempt to discover what this means, what it has meant, and what it may still mean. To get to this kernal, as it were, requires careful analysis and careful sifting. It requires historical perspective and going back through older ideation. In order to ‘discover Europe’ one has to deliberately voyage back in time and I mean this in the sense of avoiding post-WW2 liberalism and hyper-liberalism.
Though one cannot long for the past or hope to recreate a past modality within the present, one is still left with the task of determining ‘what went wrong’. If we understand The Present to show forth signs of declension we have to be able to say where the decline began. Thus, we live in a present which has in certain senses been contaminated by bad choices, and we too are the *outcomes* of bad choices by those who have gone before us. We live to rectify.
It is generally understood by so-called Traditionalism (perennial philosophy) that in order to reclaim what has been lost, or to correct where wrong turns were made, that one has to recover and, perhaps, reimplement philosophical and metaphysical notions that have deteriorated. Most who write in this comment section, to one degree or another, lament the deteriorations we notice in our present. Yet we are (I venture to say) unsure how to recover our own selves, our own power and destiny, and to resist everything that operates against this. Yet we cannot *go back* to the past and in a sense longing of this sort is vain and non-helpful. We can only recover valuable ideas and become activists, in a constantly mutating present, for directing, empowering ideas. If we recognize that the Era is in decline, we have to link to and solidify a relationship to that which, metaphysically, represents creative reconstruction in accord with high ideals. We have to do this even if in our own lives we will not see the counter-movement. This is a metaphysical act. To see that, in time, at some time, another order will be established.
Critical discrimination is crucial. It is in fact the necessary element. I would say that one of the principle negative characteristics of the present is the profusion of sensations and images (and henid-like ideas) that divide focussed consciousness. The true man-of-the-present is in this sense unable to assemble himself fully. He cannot ‘locate’ himself within himself, within creation. He is aimless and uncertain. He is thus prey to myriad dissolving forces. He is drunk. Seduced. Yet to really and truly *assemble oneself* implies and I suggest presupposes a metaphysical base on which to build. My understanding is that such a metaphysical base has been — is being — dissolved right under our feet. To reassemble therefor requires a reiteration of metaphysics. To recover this metaphysics, for us, occurs through back-tracking through our own traditions and history. One element of that is our religious history. And there is no way to side-step Greco-Christianity. These are ideas which sprange from ‘a chaos of peoples’ as Houston Chamberlain put it but they can be purified and made powerful and sharp. (That is my hope in any case).
If in our present The Church has been given over to a universalizing project, and if it only *demands obedience* and subservience, I suggest that this idea must be false. A ‘proper metaphysic’ would not ever demand such a thing. A ‘proper metaphysic’ must involve a radical intensity in relation to one’s own self. The first order of fascism (if you will permit this turn of phrase) is self-fascism. A rigorous and demanding project, a focus of life.
I do not think that a proper Thomist metaphysic could support such a ‘universalist idea’ as this is taken to mean. So, in my own case, this is the area I have seen as important to explore. That is to say a metaphysics that enables hard discrimination between high and low, inferior and superior, and within all categories. I do not think this is disharmonious with even a universalist metaphysics. It is European ideation in many different areas and fiellds which has transformed the world. It now is time to turn this around by resisting what is operating against US as *acid*. We have to turn back — somehow! — the influences that are dissolving us. This begins at an internal point. Something internal and invisible.
So, my present understanding is that we have been weakened and *infiltrated* by elements (‘acids’) that eat away at our capacity to discriminate, and we live in a time and in a *general mood* where hard discriminations are rejected as ‘evil’. All I can really say is that I hold to the belief that if we are to *recover Europe* and in this sense to save ourselves and what we value, that we have to resign ourselves to the historical long-haul and, I suppose this follows, to understand that things will have to get far worse and more chaotic before they may then get better. We are in the midst of epic battles which extend over generations.
Haller wrote: “WN intellectuals like Greg Johnson think they can develop a philosophy of heroic sacrifice even if built on a foundation of metaphysical naturalism, but I think that’s very unlikely to ‘take’, at least as a mass phenomenon. I am old-fashioned: if there is no God and no soul, there is no meaning that transcends one’s own physical sensations. Life is an accident; I am an accident; the world is not only physically but spiritually chaotic and random; when I die, I am past all cares. If that picture of existence is correct, why in the hell should I care about the long term fate of the White race? What’s it to me? That Dr. Johnson accepts this vision, but does care enough about the fate of the race to devote his life to perpetuating it, shows only that he is extraordinary – or extraordinarily odd. For most persons, this metaphysics leads to civilizational ‘ennui’ and political apathy (or short-termism). In a spiritually barren cosmos, a person who sacrifices himself for the benefit even of distant genetic ancestors (let alone mere racial kinsmen) is metaphysically mad, whether he realizes it or not.”
I have been thinkin a good deal about Jef Costellos post, which I liked, and then the additional comments. I do recognize, as all likely recognize, that we are more than likely all interested in the same issues, and desire similar things (changes in our present), and yet we are differently-oriented people with different idea-backgrounds, differing spiritual and metaphysical conceptions, et cetera. And yet it is crucial that we do not break ranks and do not allow our differences to derail our intentions.
I have been thinking about the paragraph I quoted because, for me, gaining a hold on a workable metaphysics is essential. I will try to avoid getting too arcane — yet I am sure that most here are versed in these ideas — but it is clear that when we think in terms of First Causes and such it becomes necessary to think of ‘God’ in the sense of creator of the entire order (of creation) in which we exist. If this is so, the specific forms of various religions, with their anthropocentism and all sorts of different foibles, can be seen as *masks* or *overlays* which need to be seen through. I attempt to practice a sort of ur-Catholicism and discern that I constantly have to mentally transcend the specific to better lay hold of the transcendent (if this makes sense). Yet my view is that we undoubtedly require the transcendent, just as we as a people, and a people who defines themselves through specific achievements and a specific manifestation in time, trace the origin ouf our *selves* in this sense to men and to thinkers who thought in metaphysical and transcendent terms. I refer to Greco-Christianity in the sense of Werner Jaeger in ‘Paideia: The Ideals of Greek Culture’. We most certainly cannot deny, or excise, the Pagan world-of-ideas, but similarly we cannot deny or excise the Greco-Christian and thus the Pagan-Christian synthesis. And it seems to me that the more we understand it, and the greater familiarity we have with it, the better equipped we will literally be to defend our people, our accomplishments, our uniqueness, and our being. The more knowledge we have, the more powerful we are potentially and actually.
I have found that the larger part of the argument against Christians is against a certain cultural form that is the Christian. In this sense, then, I would suggest that this typical Christian is a perversion of the form. From a Thomist and possible also a scholastic perspective the object is to define ideas absolutely free of sentimental and emotional contamination. In this sense Jonathan Bowden marvelled at Savitri Devi’s radicalism and noticed that it followed from her mathematical predicates. I hope to define and strengthen a similar metaphysical definition around which I can then order, and reorder, my contingent existence, my lived life. It does seem to me — I am willing to be corrected however — that a metaphysics and epistemology defined through a Greco-Christian lens can be as powerful and articulate as a Pagan metaphysics as that which Savitri Devi resorted to. Christianity does seem weak in its metaphysics in comparison to other conceptual systems, and yet it does not seem to me that it can be abandoned. Even when it is abandoned as a formal, external practice, nevertheless it continues to *exist* simply because all of its terms are part-andparcel of Occidental ideation. (See: The Oxford Companion to Christian Thought, but then also ‘The Legacy of Greece’ and WR Inge’s essay on Religion and (Occidental) religion’s deep Greek underpinning).
God and Soul are parts-and-parcels of a conceptualization of the human, and I do not think that anyone would deny the humanity and humanness of those we do not necessarily desire to live with and certainly not to be forced to blend and breed with. Yet I do not think a program to visualize any other as ‘non-human’ or ‘sub-human’ is workable nor logically possible. If ‘love’ is taken in a more Thomist and intellectual sense (which I think it should be) it means I think a recognition that all humans, and even natural animals, have rights to flourish, to improve, to define themselves, to ‘flow into their forms’. But this does not mean, and should not mean, bringing them in as next door neighbors or becoming the victim of a falsely-conceived sentimentalism. It will I think mean quite the opposite: stay in your sector and if I can help you, I will. But you are obligated to improve yourdself, and your own stock, through your own efforts, just as I will do the same through my own.
I would suggest — it is certainly not a new idea! — that *we* have brought powerful ideas into the world within all categories because of our metaphysical underpinning, and because of our link to transcendentals. Religion, philosophy, mathematics, natural science, biology, medicane, literature and history and historiography: these are the powerful manifestations, within us, of things that are transcendental to life and contingency. To be ourselves, to understand ourselves, and thus to become free of all that is acting against ourselves and is weakening and dividing us: these are our necessaries. But you will notice that when I speak of *ideas* I am speaking of non-physicals and in this sense abstracts and also transcendentals. It seems to me that we Occidentals are uniquely favored insofar as we bridge the two realms, as it were. We are amphibians in this sense and this is a source of our power.
To recover, therefor, what we mean when we refer to the white race is really what the project of recovery depends on. It is a question of definition, clarification, sorting-through and expunging what operates against this. And *all that* needs to become part-and-parcel of our existential and also our religious endeavor. And one that extends through time, and between generations. The object, in this sense, is *transcendental* to our contingent existence.
Quite so. We adopt the Flag a la Anglin or we fall. The Founding Fathers had a wide variety of views on God and Christianity: they were wise enough to keep their unorthodox ideas and doubts to their own Class for the most part. The People have the need – and therefore the right – of a coherent cult and culture.
Fighting to save our race is good enough for me. I do not have to create false gods to motivate me. My race is my god. The white race is the greatest in history, and a viable species; we have not come close to achieving our potential–that is what scares the jews.
Great article and very relevant.
Gotta make it sexy
Stronza.
This is a fantastic piece. I hope it gets spread far and wide. The JQ is the most important thing to understand intellectually but the AQ (attachment question) is the most important issue we face daily. It is the cause of our deepest terrors. We cannot have an anti-system movement comprised entirely of people who are invested in the system. Thank you for writing this.
Thank you sincerely for your kind words.
It’s funny how Jews like Chomsky have solemnly condemned antifa because they’re afraid they’ll provoke a Fascist party to rise to defend against various assaults. Chomsky is projecting 1920s Germany onto the US.
If the enforcers of political correctness would make a couple concessions, maybe stop immigration and scale back affirmative action, then maybe it would sufficiently allay whites’ concerns about their decline. But the left’s fervent insanity won’t let them permit such a concession. I’m surprised they condemned antifa.
I weighed up the state of Britain – I am English – and just got the hell out to Central America. Consider emigrating.
White flight is not the answer.
I agree, but for me it was not possible to remain in the UK. I don’t know if you are abreast of developments there, but it is effectively becoming the Soviet Union 2.0. I potentially face a prison sentence in England for ‘online hate speech’ and, as a consequence, am seriously considering claiming political asylum here in Costa Rica. I am a great admirer of Counter Currents, and do please keep up the excellent work you do. Best wishes, Mark Gullick.
That is important context to add! Yes, stay out of prison and in the fight. Expatriation is a time-honored tool of revolutionaries.
This is full of gold!
“Wake the hell up and stop your whining!”
“As Lenin memorably remarked, ‘A revolution is not a girl’s dormitory.'”
“Rise from your memory foam (which you must do without when you’re on the lam) and say, “Today is a good day to be doxed.” (This should preferably be said in front of a statue of Odin.)”
Not only does it contain these quotations which earn a place on the bathroom mirror, but very practical advice. This was much needed- thanks Jef! May we continue to raise our “Nazi-tot”s *insert eye roll* with the truth, in spite of the insane media freak out.
Thank you! This comment has made my day.
Excellent article….. When you are a true dissident, you are most likely to be a lone warrior. Therefore, to read this enlightenment and wisdom, you know that there IS humanity. Material circumstances have no power if the reality of the real self.
Glad about these positions. I´m very often pondering how one can cope with the expected challenges, what to recommend the fighter, and my position is: meditation; i.e. existentialism, if you want so. To be in harmony with existence. Then you can take it (but admittedly, this is quite theoretical, and practical proof remains to be seen). Whites generally need to free themselves from mindfuck, that would change a lot!
I think this poem by Cavafy should set our example:
Thermopylae
Honour to those who in their lives define and defend a Thermopylae.
Never shunning their duty; just and decent in all their affairs, yet also given to pity and compassion; generous when rich, and when poor generous still, in small ways, helping others as their resources permit; always speaking the truth yet without rancour for those who do not.
And greater honour still is owed those who foresee (and many do) that Ephialtes will appear in the End, and the Medes will break through after all.
The hardest thing I see for White Nationalists to adopt is the Love of Folk. You have to love your people. All those kids you saw waiting in line to “meet” Hitler were just regular kids. Hitler was only a man, with huge pressures on his time and efforts, yet in movie and photograph we see him loving; Loving his people, the land, the animals, the very idea of Germany.
Somehow we must adopt this inclusive love, this love of folk.
The White people who hate us are damaged. The indoctrination they have received is time tested and proven and will turn the general population evil. This does not mean they are evil, it means they are broken. We must learn to love them, to desire to fix them, to make them understand that the lies of (((Marxism))) are grounded in Mountains of bodies. Mountains. That Marxist ideology is sick and deranged to its very core and its end product is a broken Country. Every time.
Further, the browns and the semitics are not us. They are nothing but usurpers and parasites. They are sophists, laughing at Culture, religion, music, history and our love of duty, honor, loyalty, chastity, innocence, logic and our ancestors for the sole reason of bringing it down.
That being said, We must love our people or we accomplish nothing.
Zundel said they always over-reach and so they have, throwing the Flag on the ground. Surely we must pick it up, and make it our own – and let the masses rally around it? The Tri-Color can be for the inner party, and for later if we must fall back geographically.
Good article. An up to date version of Nechayev’s Catechism of Revolutionary. It famously begins: The revolutionary is a doomed man. He has no private interests, no affairs, sentiments, ties, property nor even a name of his own. His entire being is devoured by one purpose, one thought, one passion – the revolution. Heart and soul, not merely by word but by deed, he has severed every link with the social order and with the entire civilized world; with the laws, good manners, conventions, and morality of that world. He is its merciless enemy and continues to inhabit it with only one purpose – to destroy it. –
— Catechism of a Revolutionary, opening lines.[7]
Great article!! A real “Manual for Survival” in a world gone totally insane, and almost 100 percent evil! Many thanks for such a great article! It will undoubtedly become a WN “Classic”.
“Practice situational awareness” Highly useful link to http://www.artofmanliness.com.
Next time I enter an Afghan village, when nobody is herding goats, I will enter “condition yellow” to make sure I’m ‘left of bang’.
Best piece I’ve read on here for a while. Nice work son.
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