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

    • Three Upcoming Livestreams
      Karl Thorburn on Bank Crashes plus Greg Johnson on White Rabbit Radio & Patriotic Alternative’s Book Club

      Greg Johnson

      1

    • D. C. Stephenson and the Fall of the Second Klan

      Alex Graham

      18

    • Confessions of a White Democrat

      Spencer J. Quinn

      8

    • Scott Howard’s The Plot Against Humanity

      Gunnar Alfredsson

      5

    • Kooptace levice a její fatální nepochopení Marxe

      Christopher Pankhurst

    • IQ Doesn’t Matter

      Hewitt E. Moore

      39

    • The Future’s So Dumb, I Gotta Wear Shades

      Jim Goad

      19

    • The Fabulous Pleven Boys

      P. J. Collins

      2

    • Žluté vesty zviditelnily tu nejfrancouzštější část Francie

      Alain de Benoist

    • We Need Your Help

      Greg Johnson

      8

    • My Memories of South Africa’s Twilight Years

      Caoimhín Anthony

      2

    • The Reality of the Black-White IQ Gap Is Undeniable

      Lipton Matthews

      9

    • Nuclear Families: Threads

      Mark Gullick

      4

    • Východ a Západ – gordický uzel: kniha Ernsta Jüngera Der gordische Knoten

      Julius Evola

    • Of Donkeys and Men: A Review of The Banshees of Inisherin

      Pox Populi

      12

    • Why The Prisoner Still Matters

      Collin Cleary

      3

    • Joseph Sobran on Envy and Anti-White Hatred

      Joseph Sobran

      13

    • Reviewing the Unreviewable

      Margot Metroland

      3

    • The Worst Week Yet: March 12-18, 2023

      Jim Goad

      37

    • Harry Potter & the Prisoner of the Trans Phenomenon

      Morris van de Camp

      18

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 527 Machiavellianism & More

      Counter-Currents Radio

      2

    • Buddha a Führer: Mladý Emil Cioran o Německu

      Guillaume Durocher

    • This Weekend’s Livestream
      Greg Johnson, Pox Populi, & American Krogan on Machiavellianism & More

      Greg Johnson

    • The Machiavellian Method

      Greg Johnson

      11

    • IQ Is a Phenotype

      Spencer J. Quinn

      41

    • Trevor Lynch’s Classics of Right-Wing Cinema

      Anthony Bavaria

      18

    • Curriculum Vitae of Muriel Gantry, Part 5

      Muriel Gantry

      1

    • Race and Ethics in John Ford’s Stagecoach

      Jim Goad

      84

    • Curriculum Vitae of Muriel Gantry, Part 4

      Muriel Gantry

    • My Breakout from the Modern World: The Hungarian Day of Honour Tour 2023, Part 2

      Tizenegy

      4

    • Enoch Powell, poslední tory

      Gregory Hood

    • Dr. Roger Pearson: Doyen of Anglo-American Racial Science

      Peter Rushton

      3

    • Collateral Damage: The United Kingdom’s Lockdown Files

      Mark Gullick

      5

    • Obituary for Prof. Roger Pearson, M.Sc. (Econ.), Ph.D., (London): 1927–2023

      Mark Cotterill

      4

    • The Estonian Election & Nationalist Strategy

      Nicholas R. Jeelvy

      10

    • Hunter S. Thompson as Psyop

      James J. O'Meara

      8

    • Institutional Racism Explained

      Richard Knight

      8

    • A “Novel” Approach to the Understanding of Evil

      Stephen Paul Foster

      18

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 526 Cyan Quinn Reports from CPAC & More

      Counter-Currents Radio

      3

    • The Worst Week Yet: March 5-11, 2023

      Jim Goad

      23

    • John Wayne’s The Alamo & the Politics of the 1960s

      Morris van de Camp

      1

    • Thielemann Conducts Bruckner’s Eighth in Berkeley

      Donald Thoresen

      2

    • John Fante’s Ask the Dust

      Anthony Bavaria

      6

    • Remembering Gabriele D’Annunzio
      (March 12, 1863–March 1, 1938)

      Greg Johnson

      4

    • This Weekend’s Livestream
      Cyan Quinn on CPAC, Project Veritas, Jan. 6, & East Palestine

      Greg Johnson

      4

    • Do You Have What It Takes to be a Dissident?

      Spencer J. Quinn

      43

    • Personal Finance Tips for Dissidents

      David Lewis

      21

    • Survival of the Fittest: Interview with Alexander Deptolla of Kampf der Nibelungen

      Ondrej Mann

    • Curriculum Vitae of Muriel Gantry, Part 3

      Muriel Gantry

    • Dr. Roger Pearson on His Life & Work

      Dr. Roger Pearson

      6

  • Classics Corner

    • The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

      Trevor Lynch

      24

    • The Searchers

      Trevor Lynch

      29

    • Gabriele D’Annunzio

      Jonathan Bowden

      2

    • 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

  • Paroled from the Paywall

    • 23 Years a Slave: Giles Milton’s White Gold

      Spencer J. Quinn

      4

    • Michael Gibson’s Paper Belt on Fire

      Bill Pritchard

      1

    • The Little Friend: A Southern Epic, Tartt & Spicy

      Steven Clark

      7

    • Red Flags in Ukraine

      Morris van de Camp

      15

    • How to Prepare for an Emergency

      Beau Albrecht

    • Henry Mayhew’s London Labour & the London Poor

      Mark Gullick

      1

    • The American Regime

      Thomas Steuben

      3

    • The Populist Moment, Chapter 12: Liberty — Equality — Fraternity: On the Meaning of a Republican Slogan

      Alain de Benoist

    • The Eggs Benedict Option

      Howe Abbott-Hiss

    • Religion & Eugenics

      Paul Popenoe

      2

    • Ian Kershaw’s Personality & Power

      Margot Metroland

      3

    • Correspondence between Gaston-Armand Amaudruz & Julius Evola

      Gaston-Armand Amaudruz & Julius Evola

      1

    • David Duke & Louisiana’s 1991 Gubernatorial Election

      Morris van de Camp

      4

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

      James Dunphy

      1

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

      Counter-Currents Radio

      1

    • Traditional French Songs from Le Poème Harmonique

      Alex Graham

      2

    • The Whale

      Steven Clark

      4

    • The Wave: Fascism Reenacted in a High School

      Beau Albrecht

      6

    • What Went Wrong with America’s Universities?

      Stephen Paul Foster

      3

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

      Counter-Currents Radio

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

      Alain de Benoist

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

      Alain de Benoist

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

      Alain de Benoist

    • The Populist Moment, Chapter 11, Part 1: “Multitudes” Against the People

      Alain de Benoist

      1

    • The Secret of My Success

      Steven Clark

      2

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 519 An Update on South America on The Writers’ Bloc

      Counter-Currents Radio

      1

    • The Populist Moment, Chapter 10, Part 2: The Ambiguity of “Communitarianism”

      Alain de Benoist

    • The Populist Moment, Chapter 10, Part 1: The Ambiguity of “Communitarianism”

      Alain de Benoist

    • The Eternal Fedora

      Nicholas R. Jeelvy

      16

    • The Kennedy Assassination & Misreading Data

      Morris van de Camp

      18

  • Recent comments

    • Richard Chance

      D. C. Stephenson and the Fall of the Second Klan

      I was thinking earlier "Funny how this type of thing never happens with left-wing organizations." ...

    • James Kirkpatrick

      D. C. Stephenson and the Fall of the Second Klan

      Yeah, that kind of crap really gilds the lily; be creative with content, never spelling.

    • James Kirkpatrick

      D. C. Stephenson and the Fall of the Second Klan

      So the entire Klan disbands because of this one (admittedly terrible) incident, but a similar one (...

    • Finn MacTully

      IQ Doesn’t Matter

      Serious question, but to what extent do leftists now even literally preach that all human beings are...

    • Richard Chance

      D. C. Stephenson and the Fall of the Second Klan

      When I hear them on the radio go on about ‘he supported slavery, and SEGREGATION,’ I think...

    • Margot Metroland

      D. C. Stephenson and the Fall of the Second Klan

      It was the BIGGEST presence...which adds to the irony!

    • Francis XB

      We Need Your Help

      Here's an project for some activist minded dissidents:   There are libraries and...

    • J Webb

      IQ Doesn’t Matter

      Thanks for this comment. I see a lot of writing among the right seeing IQ as some sort of ultimate '...

    • Flel

      IQ Doesn’t Matter

      The left will debate nothing based on facts. Global warming, masks for protection, racial affinity,...

    • AAAA

      D. C. Stephenson and the Fall of the Second Klan

      Yeah I would like some documentation here as well?

    • Enoch Powell

      The Future’s So Dumb, I Gotta Wear Shades

      "listen to the majority of callers to radio talk show". Too true. Have you ever listened to...

    • Fred C. Dobbs

      Confessions of a White Democrat

      No. It’s race

    • Ian Connolly

      Confessions of a White Democrat

      It’s been tough to be a white Democrat since the early 1960s, and I’d say it’s been literally...

    • S. Clark

      D. C. Stephenson and the Fall of the Second Klan

      I'm especially interested. My grandfather attended a Klan rally in my home state of Missouri. He was...

    • Democracy Dies in Diversity

      The Future’s So Dumb, I Gotta Wear Shades

      Secession IS white flight. Please stop trying to be a contrarian.

    • Beau Albrecht

      D. C. Stephenson and the Fall of the Second Klan

      That was a tremendous loss - millions of members in an organization that was pretty effective for a...

    • Petronius

      D. C. Stephenson and the Fall of the Second Klan

      Nick's "catholic" shtick was fake from the beginning, I never fell for it for a second.

    • Vauquelin

      D. C. Stephenson and the Fall of the Second Klan

      Compelling story aside, the Klans klommitment to its klearly klunky and ridiklulous klolloquialisms...

    • Traddles

      Scott Howard’s The Plot Against Humanity

      That book cover is so poignant.  Perfectly suggesting the isolation and barrenness and ...

    • WWWM

      Confessions of a White Democrat

      So this isn’t real, I take it? I think the real Democrats are even more aware than this guy. Much...

  • 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.
    • Greg Johnson, Ph.D.
    • Spencer J. 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
    • Nicholas Jeelvy
    • 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 Asatru Folk Assembly IHR Breakey Imperium Press American Renaissance The Patrick Ryan Show Jim Goad The Occidental Observer
Print August 27, 2020 6 comments

In Defense of Populism

Greg Johnson

Norman Rockwell, Study for “Freedom of Speech”

4,098 words

French version here, Czech version here

The Specter of Populism*

The populist uprisings of 2016—Brexit and the election of Donald Trump—aren’t epochal events like the revolutions of 1789 and 1848. Not yet anyway. But you wouldn’t know that judging from the panic that swept through Western political elites.

Bernard-Henri Lévy denounced Brexit as the “victory of the most rancid form of sovereignty and the most idiotic form of nationalism”; Jacques Attali decried the “dictatorship of populism”; Alain Minc lamented the victory “of ill-educated people over the well-educated”; and Daniel Cohn-Bendit simply exclaimed, “I’m sick of the people!”[1]

European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker warned against “galloping populism”; the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change declared that populists “pose a real threat to democracy itself”; and Pope Francis, who knows something about good and evil, admonished the world that, “Populism is evil and ends badly.”[2]

It is quite commonplace for journalists and politicians to denigrate populist voters as a “rabble” or a “mob” motivated by “ignorance,” “fear,” and “hatred,” including “racism” and “xenophobia.” They also characterize populist politicians as “demagogues” who “pander” to the worst instincts of the mob—unlike the edifying statesmen of the center-Left and center-Right.

Populism seeks to rescue popular government from corrupt elites. It is no surprise that the elites strike back. What is surprising, though, are their frank expressions of fear and hatred of the people, which can only strengthen populist convictions. Such self-defeating behavior is ultimately encouraging. Elites this arrogant and impulsive have little future.

I wish to defend populism from two elite criticisms.

First, populism is commonly accused of being “anti-democratic.” Yascha Mounk frames populism as “the people vs. democracy.”[3] I argue that populism is not anti-democratic, but it is anti-liberal.

Second, many critics of populism accuse it of being a form of white identity politics, and many critics of white identity politics accuse it of being populist. I argue that populism and white identity politics are distinct but sometimes overlapping phenomena. Populism and white identity politics do, however, complement one another, so that the strongest form of white identity politics is populist, and the strongest form of populism is identitarian.

First, though, we need to clarify what populism really is.

Political Ideology or Political Style?

One of the more superficial claims about populism is that it is not a political ideology but simply a “political style.” An ideology is a set of principles. A political style is a way of embodying and communicating political principles. The idea that populism is merely a political style is based on the observation that there are populisms of the Left and the Right, so how could it be a unified ideology? Of course, there are also liberalisms of the Left and Right, but this does not imply that liberalism is merely a style of politics rather than a political ideology.

Principles of Populism

What is the ideology of populism? What are its basic principles? Just as Right and Left liberalism appeal to common political principles, Right and Left populists also have the same basic political ideas:

  • All populists appeal to the principle of popular sovereignty. Sovereignty means that a people is independent of other peoples. A sovereign nation is master of its own internal affairs. It can pursue its own ends, as opposed to being subordinated to the ends of others, such as a foreign people or a monarch. The sovereignty of the people is the idea that legitimate government is “of the people, by the people, for the people,” meaning that (1) the people must somehow participate in government, i.e., that they govern themselves, and (2) the state acts in the interest of the people as a whole, i.e., for the common good.
  • All populists politically mobilize on the premise that popular government has been betrayed by a tiny minority of political insiders, who have arrogated the people’s right to self-government and who govern for their own factional interests, or foreign interests, but not in the interest of the people as a whole. Populists declare that the political system is in crisis.
  • All populists hold that the sovereignty of the people must be restored (1) by ensuring greater popular participation in politics and (2) by replacing traitorous elites with loyal servants of the people. Populists thus frame themselves as redeeming popular sovereignty from a crisis.

Two Senses of “the People”

When populists say the people are sovereign, they mean the people as a whole. When populists oppose “the people” to “the elites,” they are contrasting the vast majority, who are political outsiders, to the elites, who are political insiders. The goal of populism, however, is to restore the unity of the sovereign people by eliminating the conflicts of interest between the elites and the people.

Ethnic & Civic Peoplehood

There are two basic ways of defining a people: ethnic and civic. An ethnic group is unified by blood, culture, and history. An ethnic group is an extended family with a common language and history. Ethnic groups always emerge in a particular place but do not necessarily remain there.

A civic conception of peoplehood is a construct that seeks to impose unity on a society composed of different ethnic groups, lacking a common descent, culture, and history. For instance, civic nationalists claim that a person can become British, American, or Danish simply by government fiat, i.e., by being given legal citizenship.

Ethnic nationalism draws strength from unity and homogeneity. Ethnically defined groups grow primarily through reproduction, although they have always recognized that some foreigners can be “naturalized”—i.e., “assimilated” into the body politic—although rarely and with much effort.

Civic nationalism lacks the strength of unity but aims to mitigate that weakness by constructing and imposing a civic ideology. Civic nationalists also hope to offset diversity with strength in numbers, since in principle the whole world can have identity papers issued by a central state.

A civic people is a pure social construct imposed on a set of particular human beings that need not have anything more in common than walking on two legs and having citizenship papers. Civic conceptions of peoplehood thus go hand in hand with the radical nominalist position that only individuals, not collectives, exist in the real world. Groups are mere “social constructs.”

An ethnic people is much more than a social construct. First of all, kinship groups are real biological collectives. Beyond that, although ethnic groups are distinguished from other biologically similar groups by differences of language, culture, and history, there is a distinction between evolved social practices like language and culture and mere legislative fiats and other social constructs.

Ethnic peoples exist even without their own states. There are many stateless peoples in the world. But civic peoples do not exist without a state. Civic polities are constructs of the elites that control states.

Populism & Elitism

Populism is contrasted with elitism. But populists are not against elites as such. Populists oppose elites for two main reasons: when they are not part of the people and when they exploit the people. Populists approve of elites that are organically part of the people and function as servants of the people as a whole.

Populists recognize that people differ in terms of intelligence, virtue, and skills. Populists want to have the best qualified people in important offices. But they want to ensure that elites work for the common good of the polity, not for their own factional interests (or foreign interests). To ensure this, populists wish to empower the people to check the power of elites, as well as to create new elites that are organically connected to the people and who put the common good above their private interests.

Populism & Classical Republicanism

When political scientists and commentators discuss the history of populism, most begin with nineteenth-century agrarian movements like the Narodniki in Russia and the People’s Party in the United States. But nineteenth-century populism looked back to the republics of the ancient world, specifically the “mixed regime” of Rome.

Aristotle’s Politics is the most influential theory of the mixed regime.[4] Aristotle observed that a society can be ruled by one man, a few men, or many men. But a society can never be ruled by all men, since every society inevitably includes people who are incapable of participating in government due to lack of ability, for instance the very young, the crazy, and the senile.

Aristotle also observed that the one, few, or many could govern for their factional interests or for the common good. When one man governs for the common good, we have monarchy. When he governs for his private interests, we have tyranny. When the few govern for the common good, we have aristocracy. When the few govern for their private interests, we have oligarchy. When the many govern for the common good, we have polity. When the many govern for their factional interests, we have democracy.

It is interesting that for Aristotle, democracy is bad by definition and that he had to invent a new word, “polity,” for the good kind of popular rule that was, presumably, so rare that nobody had yet coined a term for it.

Aristotle recognized that government by one man or few men is always government by the rich, regardless of whether wealth is used to purchase political power or whether political power is used to secure wealth. Thus popular government always empowers those who lack wealth. The extremely poor, however, tend to be alienated, servile, and greedy. But self-employed, middle-class citizens have a stake in the future, long time-horizons, and sufficient leisure to participate in politics. Thus popular government tends to be stable when it empowers the middle class and chaotic when it empowers the poorest elements.

Finally, Aristotle recognized that a regime that mixes together rule by the one, the few, and the many is more likely to achieve the common good, not simply because each group is public-spirited, but also because they are all jealous to protect their private interests from being despoiled by the rest. Aristotle was thus the first theorist of the “mixed regime.” But he was simply observing the functioning of actually existing mixed regimes like Sparta.

One can generate modern populism quite easily from Aristotle’s premises. Aristotle’s idea of the common good is the basis of the idea of popular sovereignty, which means, first and foremost, that legitimate government must look out for the common good of the people.

Beyond that, Aristotle argued that the best way to ensure legitimate government is to empower the many—specifically the middle class—to participate in government. The default position of every society is to be governed by the one or the few. When the elites govern selfishly and oppress the people, the people naturally wish to rectify this by demanding participation in government. They can, of course, use their power simply to satisfy their factional interests, which is why democracy has always been feared. But if popular rule is unjust, it is also unstable. Thus to be stable and salutary, popular rule must aim at the common good of society.

The great theorist of popular sovereignty is Jean-Jacques Rousseau. In his On the Social Contract, Rousseau claims that the General Will is the fount of sovereignty and legitimacy. What is the General Will? The General Will wills the common good. The common good is not a convention or construct of the General Will but rather an objective fact that must be discovered and then realized through political action.

Rousseau distinguishes the General Will from the Will of All. The General Will is what we ought to will. The Will of All is what we happen to will. The Will of All can be wrong, however. Thus we cannot determine the General Will simply by polling the people.

Rousseau even holds out the possibility that an elite, or a dictator, can know the General Will better than the populace at large.[5] But no matter how the General Will is determined—and no matter who controls the levers of power—political legitimacy arises from the common good of the people.

Populism & Representation

Populism is often associated with “direct” as opposed to “representative” democracy. Populists tend to favor referendums and plebiscites, in which the electorate as a whole decides on important issues, as opposed to allowing them to be decided by representatives in parliament. In truth, though, there is no such thing as direct democracy in which the whole of the people acts. Even in plebiscites, some people always represent the interests of others. Thus democracy always requires some degree of representation.

One can only vote in the present. But a people is not just its present members. It also consists of its past members and its future members. Our ancestors matter to us. They created a society and passed it on to us. They established standards by which we measure ourselves. And just as our ancestors lived not just for themselves, but for their posterity, people today make decisions that affect future generations. Thus in every democratic decision, the living must represent the interests of the dead and the not yet born.

Moreover, within the present generation, some are too young to participate in politics. Others are unable due to disability. The basic principle for excluding living people from the electorate is that they would lower the quality of political decision-making. However, they are still part of the people and have legitimate interests. Thus the electorate must represent their interests as well.

Beyond that, there are distinctions among competent adults that may lead to further constriction of the electorate, again to raise the quality of political decision-making. For instance, people have argued that the franchise should be restricted to men (because they are the natural guardians of society or because they are more rational than women), or to people with property (because they have more to lose), or to people with children (because they have a greater stake in the future), or to military veterans (because they have proven themselves willing to die, if necessary, for the common good). But again, all of those who are excluded from the franchise are still part of the people, with interests that must be respected. So they must be represented by the electorate.

Thus even in a plebiscite, the people as a whole is represented by only a part, the electorate. Beyond that, unless voting is mandatory, not every member of the electorate will choose to vote. So those who do not vote are represented by those who do.

Thus far, this thought experiment has not even gotten to the question of representative democracy, which takes the process one step further. An elected representative may stand for hundreds of thousands or millions of voters. And those voters in turn stand for eligible non-voters, as well as those who are not eligible to vote, and beyond that, those who are not present to vote because they are dead or not yet born. The not-yet-born is an indefinite number that we hope is infinite, meaning that our people never dies. It seems miraculous that such a multitude could ever be represented by a relative handful of representatives (in the US, 535 Representatives and Senators for more than 300 million living people and untold billions of the dead and yet-to-be born). Bear in mind, also, that practically every modern politician will eagerly claim to be really thinking about the good of the entire human race.

But we have not yet scaled the highest peak, for people quite spontaneously think of the president, prime minister, or monarch—a single individual—as representing the interests of the entire body politic. Even if that is not their constitutional role, there are circumstances—such as emergencies—in which such leaders are expected to intuit the common good and act accordingly.

Thus it is not surprising that cynics wish to claim that the very ideas of a sovereign people, a common good, and the ability to represent them in politics are simply myths and mumbo-jumbo. Wouldn’t it be better to replace such myths with concrete realities, like selfish individuals and value-neutral institutions that let them peacefully pursue their own private goods?

But the sovereign individual and the “invisible hand” are actually more problematic than the sovereign people and its avatars. From direct democracy in small towns to the popular uprisings that brought down communism, we have actual examples of sovereign peoples manifesting themselves and exercising power. We have actual examples of leaders representing a sovereign people, divining the common good, and acting to secure it.

There is no question that sovereign peoples actually exercise power for their common goods. But how it happens seems like magic. This explains why popular sovereignty is always breaking down. Which in turn explains why populist movements keep arising to return power to the people.

Populism & Democracy

Now we can understand why populism is not anti-democratic. Populism is simply another word for democracy, understood as popular sovereignty plus political empowerment of the many. Current elites claim that populism threatens “democracy” because they are advocates of specifically liberal democracy.

Liberal democrats claim to protect the rights of the individual and of minorities from unrestrained majoritarianism. Liberal democrats also defend “pluralism.” Finally, liberal democrats insist that the majority is simply not competent to participate directly in government, thus they must be content to elect representatives from an established political class and political parties. These representatives, moreover, give great latitude to unelected technocrats in the permanent bureaucracy.

Liberal democracy is, in short, anti-majoritarian and elitist. Populists recognize that such regimes can work for the public good, as long as the ruling elites are part of the people and see themselves as its servants. But without the oversight and empowerment of the people, there is nothing to prevent liberal democracy from mutating into the rule of corrupt elites for their private interests and for foreign interests. This is why populism is on the rise: to root out corruption and restore popular sovereignty and the common good.

Populists need not reject liberal protections for individuals and minorities, ethnic or political. They need not reject “pluralism” when it is understood as freedom of opinion and multiparty democracy. Populists don’t even reject elites, political representation, and technocratic competence. Populists can value all of these things. But they value the common good of the people even more, and they recognize that liberal values don’t necessarily serve the common good. When they don’t, they need to be brought into line. Liberals, however, tend to put their ideology above the common good, leading to the corruption of popular government. Ideological liberalism is a disease of democracy. Populism is the cure. 

Populism & White Identity Politics

What is the connection between populism and white identity politics? I am both a populist and an advocate of white identity politics. But there are advocates of white identity politics who are anti-populist (for instance, those who are influenced by Traditionalism and monarchism), and there are non-white populists around the world (for instance, Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines and Thaksin Shinawatra in Thailand).

However, even if there is no necessary connection between populism and white identity politics, I wish to argue that the two movements should work together in every white country. White identitarians will be strengthened by populism, and populism will be strengthened by appeals to white identity.

Why should white identitarians align ourselves with populism? Roger Eatwell and Matthew Goodwin argue in National Populism: The Revolt Against Liberal Democracy that the rise of national populism is motivated by what they call “the Four Ds.” The first is Distrust, namely the breakdown of public trust in government. The second is Destruction, specifically the destruction of identity, the destruction of the ethnic composition of their homelands due to immigration and multiculturalism. The third trend is Deprivation, referring to the collapse of First-World living standards, especially middle-class and working-class living standards, due to globalization. The final trend is Dealignment, meaning the abandonment of the center-Left, center-Right duopolies common in post-Second World War democracies.

The Destruction of identity due to immigration and multiculturalism is a central issue for white identitarians. The Deprivation caused by globalization is also one of our central issues. The only way to fix these problems is to adopt white identitarian policies, namely to put the interests and identity of indigenous whites first. If that principle is enshrined, everything we want follows of course. It is just a matter of time and will.

As for Distrust and Dealignment, these can go for or against us, but we can certainly relate to them, and we can contribute to and shape them as well.

Eatwell and Goodwin argue that the “Four Ds” have deep roots and will be affecting politics for decades to come. National populism is the wave of the future, and we should ride it to political power.

Why do populists need to appeal to white identity? It all comes down to what counts as the people. Is the people at its core an ethnic group, or is it defined in purely civic terms? Populists of the Right appeal explicitly or implicitly to identitarian issues. Populists of the Left prefer to define the people in civic or class terms and focus on economic issues. Since, as Eatwell and Goodwin argue, both identitarian and economic issues are driving the rise of populism, populists of the Right will have a broader appeal because they appeal to both identity and economic issues.

The great task of white identitarians today is to destroy the legitimacy of civic nationalism and push the populism of the Right toward explicit white identitarianism. 

Justifying Popular Sovereignty

If populism is based on popular sovereignty, doesn’t a defense of populism require a defense of popular sovereignty? Philosophically speaking, the answer is yes. But in the context of modern political debates, the answer is no, because in democratic debates, nobody gets anywhere by arguing against democracy. So in the political realm, the question is not “Why popular sovereignty?” but rather “Why not popular sovereignty?”

What would you say to a people whose sovereignty you wish to deny? You would have to tell them that they do not have the right to control their own affairs and pursue their own goals. Instead, they must do as you tell them because they must serve your ends, which are more important. Perhaps you wish to rule over them because their territory contains valuable resources that you wish to control. Perhaps you regard the people themselves as resources you wish to control. In short, you are telling them that you wish to make them slaves.

There is a real question if an argument is the appropriate response to such an unvarnished declaration of hostility. When someone declares you to be merely a tool for his own ends, he should not be surprised if you reach for your revolver.

But none of the critics of populism are this brazen, not even Bernard-Henri Lévy. Liberalism triumphed not by rejecting popular sovereignty but by subverting it. This is one reason the elites are so hysterical about the rise of populism. It puts them on the spot. If they affirm popular sovereignty, then populism is the only logical outcome. If they deny popular sovereignty, good luck getting people to vote for that. Thus they’d rather avoid the argument entirely. But we can’t let them. We need to press this advantage by demanding that they live up to the principle of popular sovereignty, which empowers the people they loathe. In a fair contest, illiberal democracy will beat undemocratic liberalism every time.

 Notes

* This lecture was written for the Scandza Forum in Copenhagen, Denmark on October 12, 2019, but it was not delivered because Antifa besieged the venue and prevented me from entering.

[1] Quoted in Alain de Benoist, “What Is Populism?” in Democracy and Populism: The Telos Essays, ed. Russell A. Berman and Timothy W. Luke (Candor, N.Y.: Telos Press, 2018), p. 335.

[2] Quoted in Benjamin Moffitt, Populism (London: Polity, 2020), p. 2.

[3] Yascha Mounk, The People vs. Democracy: Why Our Freedom is in Danger and How to Save It (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2018).

[4] See Greg Johnson, “Introduction to Aristotle’s Politics,” From Plato to Postmodernism (San Francisco: Counter-Currents, 2019).

[5] See Greg Johnson, “Forced to Be Free: The Case for Paternalism,” Confessions of a Reluctant Hater, 2nd ed. (San Francisco: Counter-Currents, 2016).

* * *

Like all journals of dissident ideas, Counter-Currents depends on the support of readers like you. Help us compete with the censors of the Left and the violent accelerationists of the Right with a donation today. (The easiest way to help is with an e-check donation. All you need is your checkbook.)

GreenPay™ by Green Payment

Donation Amount

For other ways to donate, click here.

Related

  • Kooptace levice a její fatální nepochopení Marxe

  • Žluté vesty zviditelnily tu nejfrancouzštější část Francie

  • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 527 Machiavellianism & More

  • The Machiavellian Method

  • A “Novel” Approach to the Understanding of Evil

  • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 526 Cyan Quinn Reports from CPAC & More

  • Plato’s Apology

  • Remembering Richard M. Weaver
    (March 3, 1910–April 1, 1963)

Tags

AristotledemocracyelitismGreg Johnsonidentity politicsJean-Jacques Rousseauliberalismpolitical philosophypopulism

Previous

« The One Perversion That Can’t Be Normalized

Next

» In Defense of Kyle Rittenhouse

6 comments

  1. delugional says:
    August 27, 2020 at 11:54 pm

    This. And also why I will hold my nose and vote for Blarmpf even though on his best day he’s a poor man’s tacky version of Hindenburg, not the painter we truly need.

  2. E. E. says:
    August 28, 2020 at 5:24 pm

    “The great task of white identitarians today is to destroy the legitimacy of civic nationalism and push the populism of the Right toward explicit white identitarianism.” –Greg Johnson, I like how you used the term “white identitarianism” instead of “white nationalism”! 🙂 It is a more scholarly and more generic term. I suggest that “European-identitarianism” would be an even better term than “white identitarianism”.

    1. Hamburger Today says:
      August 30, 2020 at 7:52 am

      ‘White Nationalism’ is a political project directed toward a specific outcome. It is also seems like mostly an American phenomenon. ‘European-identitarianism’ doesn’t strike me as more all-encompassing. ‘White’ is more all-encompassing as it includes Whites in Europe and Whites in the Diaspora. However, it seems to me that, in general, ‘White’ is not what Europeans are looking to be, but to protect their national character, such as being ‘French’ or ‘German’ while implying ‘White’ by these designations. Greg is promising to publish his book on ‘White Identity Politics’ any day now, and I’m curious to see what is contained therein with regard to the distinction between ‘White Identitarianism’ and ‘White Nationalism’. To me, these phenomena of racial consciousness are different only in degree not kind. A ‘White Identity’ movement that never arrives at a specific political objectives strikes me as doomed to be overwhelmed by anti-White political forces.

  3. Stephen Phillips says:
    August 28, 2020 at 5:28 pm

    Great essay. This was a very powerful paragraph for me. …

    “They created a society and passed it on to us. They established standards by which we measure ourselves. And just as our ancestors lived not just for themselves, but for their posterity, people today make decisions that affect future generations. Thus in every democratic decision, the living must represent the interests of the dead and the not yet born.”

  4. DissesMyIsland says:
    August 29, 2020 at 5:04 am

    Thank you, Dr Johnson, for this.

    You have made your erudition concise and intelligible for those otherwise too time constrained or intelligence constrained to bother with it or even comprehend it.

    Maybe more importantly, you’ve done so with perhaps the most important subject possible to our time…the basic nature of politics.

    And you’ve done it in an article that I can (almost) send to normies.

    Remove a few words/paragraphs towards the end and this can be a true “redpill” type article (for the intellectually minded)

    I’m not saying we should censor or water down our ideas. But it would be nice to have more educational content that’s (more) easily disseminable in our current malaise.

    In other words….I’d like to be able to link this article to normies and even on fB without having worries about it being knee jerk rejected

  5. Hamburger Today says:
    August 30, 2020 at 8:03 am

    Excellent essay.

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

    • Three Upcoming Livestreams
      Karl Thorburn on Bank Crashes plus Greg Johnson on White Rabbit Radio & Patriotic Alternative’s Book Club

      Greg Johnson

      1

    • D. C. Stephenson and the Fall of the Second Klan

      Alex Graham

      18

    • Confessions of a White Democrat

      Spencer J. Quinn

      8

    • Scott Howard’s The Plot Against Humanity

      Gunnar Alfredsson

      5

    • Kooptace levice a její fatální nepochopení Marxe

      Christopher Pankhurst

    • IQ Doesn’t Matter

      Hewitt E. Moore

      39

    • The Future’s So Dumb, I Gotta Wear Shades

      Jim Goad

      19

    • The Fabulous Pleven Boys

      P. J. Collins

      2

    • Žluté vesty zviditelnily tu nejfrancouzštější část Francie

      Alain de Benoist

    • We Need Your Help

      Greg Johnson

      8

    • My Memories of South Africa’s Twilight Years

      Caoimhín Anthony

      2

    • The Reality of the Black-White IQ Gap Is Undeniable

      Lipton Matthews

      9

    • Nuclear Families: Threads

      Mark Gullick

      4

    • Východ a Západ – gordický uzel: kniha Ernsta Jüngera Der gordische Knoten

      Julius Evola

    • Of Donkeys and Men: A Review of The Banshees of Inisherin

      Pox Populi

      12

    • Why The Prisoner Still Matters

      Collin Cleary

      3

    • Joseph Sobran on Envy and Anti-White Hatred

      Joseph Sobran

      13

    • Reviewing the Unreviewable

      Margot Metroland

      3

    • The Worst Week Yet: March 12-18, 2023

      Jim Goad

      37

    • Harry Potter & the Prisoner of the Trans Phenomenon

      Morris van de Camp

      18

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 527 Machiavellianism & More

      Counter-Currents Radio

      2

    • Buddha a Führer: Mladý Emil Cioran o Německu

      Guillaume Durocher

    • This Weekend’s Livestream
      Greg Johnson, Pox Populi, & American Krogan on Machiavellianism & More

      Greg Johnson

    • The Machiavellian Method

      Greg Johnson

      11

    • IQ Is a Phenotype

      Spencer J. Quinn

      41

    • Trevor Lynch’s Classics of Right-Wing Cinema

      Anthony Bavaria

      18

    • Curriculum Vitae of Muriel Gantry, Part 5

      Muriel Gantry

      1

    • Race and Ethics in John Ford’s Stagecoach

      Jim Goad

      84

    • Curriculum Vitae of Muriel Gantry, Part 4

      Muriel Gantry

    • My Breakout from the Modern World: The Hungarian Day of Honour Tour 2023, Part 2

      Tizenegy

      4

    • Enoch Powell, poslední tory

      Gregory Hood

    • Dr. Roger Pearson: Doyen of Anglo-American Racial Science

      Peter Rushton

      3

    • Collateral Damage: The United Kingdom’s Lockdown Files

      Mark Gullick

      5

    • Obituary for Prof. Roger Pearson, M.Sc. (Econ.), Ph.D., (London): 1927–2023

      Mark Cotterill

      4

    • The Estonian Election & Nationalist Strategy

      Nicholas R. Jeelvy

      10

    • Hunter S. Thompson as Psyop

      James J. O'Meara

      8

    • Institutional Racism Explained

      Richard Knight

      8

    • A “Novel” Approach to the Understanding of Evil

      Stephen Paul Foster

      18

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 526 Cyan Quinn Reports from CPAC & More

      Counter-Currents Radio

      3

    • The Worst Week Yet: March 5-11, 2023

      Jim Goad

      23

    • John Wayne’s The Alamo & the Politics of the 1960s

      Morris van de Camp

      1

    • Thielemann Conducts Bruckner’s Eighth in Berkeley

      Donald Thoresen

      2

    • John Fante’s Ask the Dust

      Anthony Bavaria

      6

    • Remembering Gabriele D’Annunzio
      (March 12, 1863–March 1, 1938)

      Greg Johnson

      4

    • This Weekend’s Livestream
      Cyan Quinn on CPAC, Project Veritas, Jan. 6, & East Palestine

      Greg Johnson

      4

    • Do You Have What It Takes to be a Dissident?

      Spencer J. Quinn

      43

    • Personal Finance Tips for Dissidents

      David Lewis

      21

    • Survival of the Fittest: Interview with Alexander Deptolla of Kampf der Nibelungen

      Ondrej Mann

    • Curriculum Vitae of Muriel Gantry, Part 3

      Muriel Gantry

    • Dr. Roger Pearson on His Life & Work

      Dr. Roger Pearson

      6

  • Classics Corner

    • The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

      Trevor Lynch

      24

    • The Searchers

      Trevor Lynch

      29

    • Gabriele D’Annunzio

      Jonathan Bowden

      2

    • 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

  • Paroled from the Paywall

    • 23 Years a Slave: Giles Milton’s White Gold

      Spencer J. Quinn

      4

    • Michael Gibson’s Paper Belt on Fire

      Bill Pritchard

      1

    • The Little Friend: A Southern Epic, Tartt & Spicy

      Steven Clark

      7

    • Red Flags in Ukraine

      Morris van de Camp

      15

    • How to Prepare for an Emergency

      Beau Albrecht

    • Henry Mayhew’s London Labour & the London Poor

      Mark Gullick

      1

    • The American Regime

      Thomas Steuben

      3

    • The Populist Moment, Chapter 12: Liberty — Equality — Fraternity: On the Meaning of a Republican Slogan

      Alain de Benoist

    • The Eggs Benedict Option

      Howe Abbott-Hiss

    • Religion & Eugenics

      Paul Popenoe

      2

    • Ian Kershaw’s Personality & Power

      Margot Metroland

      3

    • Correspondence between Gaston-Armand Amaudruz & Julius Evola

      Gaston-Armand Amaudruz & Julius Evola

      1

    • David Duke & Louisiana’s 1991 Gubernatorial Election

      Morris van de Camp

      4

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

      James Dunphy

      1

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

      Counter-Currents Radio

      1

    • Traditional French Songs from Le Poème Harmonique

      Alex Graham

      2

    • The Whale

      Steven Clark

      4

    • The Wave: Fascism Reenacted in a High School

      Beau Albrecht

      6

    • What Went Wrong with America’s Universities?

      Stephen Paul Foster

      3

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

      Counter-Currents Radio

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

      Alain de Benoist

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

      Alain de Benoist

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

      Alain de Benoist

    • The Populist Moment, Chapter 11, Part 1: “Multitudes” Against the People

      Alain de Benoist

      1

    • The Secret of My Success

      Steven Clark

      2

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 519 An Update on South America on The Writers’ Bloc

      Counter-Currents Radio

      1

    • The Populist Moment, Chapter 10, Part 2: The Ambiguity of “Communitarianism”

      Alain de Benoist

    • The Populist Moment, Chapter 10, Part 1: The Ambiguity of “Communitarianism”

      Alain de Benoist

    • The Eternal Fedora

      Nicholas R. Jeelvy

      16

    • The Kennedy Assassination & Misreading Data

      Morris van de Camp

      18

  • Recent comments

    • Richard Chance

      D. C. Stephenson and the Fall of the Second Klan

      I was thinking earlier "Funny how this type of thing never happens with left-wing organizations." ...

    • James Kirkpatrick

      D. C. Stephenson and the Fall of the Second Klan

      Yeah, that kind of crap really gilds the lily; be creative with content, never spelling.

    • James Kirkpatrick

      D. C. Stephenson and the Fall of the Second Klan

      So the entire Klan disbands because of this one (admittedly terrible) incident, but a similar one (...

    • Finn MacTully

      IQ Doesn’t Matter

      Serious question, but to what extent do leftists now even literally preach that all human beings are...

    • Richard Chance

      D. C. Stephenson and the Fall of the Second Klan

      When I hear them on the radio go on about ‘he supported slavery, and SEGREGATION,’ I think...

    • Margot Metroland

      D. C. Stephenson and the Fall of the Second Klan

      It was the BIGGEST presence...which adds to the irony!

    • Francis XB

      We Need Your Help

      Here's an project for some activist minded dissidents:   There are libraries and...

    • J Webb

      IQ Doesn’t Matter

      Thanks for this comment. I see a lot of writing among the right seeing IQ as some sort of ultimate '...

    • Flel

      IQ Doesn’t Matter

      The left will debate nothing based on facts. Global warming, masks for protection, racial affinity,...

    • AAAA

      D. C. Stephenson and the Fall of the Second Klan

      Yeah I would like some documentation here as well?

    • Enoch Powell

      The Future’s So Dumb, I Gotta Wear Shades

      "listen to the majority of callers to radio talk show". Too true. Have you ever listened to...

    • Fred C. Dobbs

      Confessions of a White Democrat

      No. It’s race

    • Ian Connolly

      Confessions of a White Democrat

      It’s been tough to be a white Democrat since the early 1960s, and I’d say it’s been literally...

    • S. Clark

      D. C. Stephenson and the Fall of the Second Klan

      I'm especially interested. My grandfather attended a Klan rally in my home state of Missouri. He was...

    • Democracy Dies in Diversity

      The Future’s So Dumb, I Gotta Wear Shades

      Secession IS white flight. Please stop trying to be a contrarian.

    • Beau Albrecht

      D. C. Stephenson and the Fall of the Second Klan

      That was a tremendous loss - millions of members in an organization that was pretty effective for a...

    • Petronius

      D. C. Stephenson and the Fall of the Second Klan

      Nick's "catholic" shtick was fake from the beginning, I never fell for it for a second.

    • Vauquelin

      D. C. Stephenson and the Fall of the Second Klan

      Compelling story aside, the Klans klommitment to its klearly klunky and ridiklulous klolloquialisms...

    • Traddles

      Scott Howard’s The Plot Against Humanity

      That book cover is so poignant.  Perfectly suggesting the isolation and barrenness and ...

    • WWWM

      Confessions of a White Democrat

      So this isn’t real, I take it? I think the real Democrats are even more aware than this guy. Much...

  • 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.
    • Greg Johnson, Ph.D.
    • Spencer J. 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
    • Nicholas Jeelvy
    • 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 Asatru Folk Assembly IHR 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