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William Pierce died on July 23, 2002. To commemorate the tenth anniversary of his death, Counter-Currents/North American New Right will publish a memorial symposium on aspects of Pierce’s legacy.
Contributions can range from personal recollections to analyses of different aspects of Pierce’s legacy as a thinker, novelist, publisher, broadcaster, and political activist. The most substantive contributions will be included in a future printed volume of North American New Right.
Although Piece died nearly ten years ago, he still provokes intense polarization. The premise of this symposium is that William Pierce was a figure who deserves respect. But that does not preclude the possibility of respectful disagreement and objective criticism.
If you wish to participate in this symposium, or merely suggest ideas, please contact me at [email protected].
Greg Johnson
Editor-in-Chief
Counter-Currents Publishing
& North American New Right
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32 comments
The only criticism one could address to Pierce is that he didn’t succeed in making the National Alliance a political force in the U.S.
Other than that, the man was a genius who grasped very complex issues, such as the nature of power or the Christian problem. He would have made an excellent chief of State were he born in another epoch.
I am pretty sure he was very feared back in time by the U.S. government. If one were to access FBI archives, he would discover a staggering amount of reports on him.
I really miss him.
I’m happy to read about this project, very worthwhile in my opinion. It’s easy to think of people without even trying, who are well qualified to contribute. Pierce deserves this kind of recognition.
“The only criticism one could address to Pierce is that he didn’t succeed in making the National Alliance a political force in the U.S.
Other than that, the man was a genius who grasped very complex issues, such as the nature of power or the Christian problem. He would have made an excellent chief of State were he born in another epoch.
I am pretty sure he was very feared back in time by the U.S. government. If one were to access FBI archives, he would discover a staggering amount of reports on him.”
Well said.
The various Leaders and organizations which have come along these past 20-30 years require, at the outset, a combination of Support and symetry in Ideology; this would include nomenclature, philosophical ideation, and financial support – across the board.
. . .
Pierce does not ‘polarize’, only people who were jealous of his vision, and his relationship with GLR, and RJM, made ‘mainstreamers’ nervous.
. . .
Wish you luck on the Paper trail, but a simple, erudite, examination of his merrits, would be sufficient, GJ.
GJ, you might find this interesting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaIEjDD0zRo
The only person who would carry this man, early on, was an individual who was hated or feared by the conservatives themselves. Only revolutionary thinkers, think out of the box.
I have listened to all broadcasts of the American Dissident Voices by Dr. W. L. Pierce and found them excellent. Pierce had a penetrating understanding of complicated issues , especially in their historical context. In my estimation he was for 100 % right on the Jewish Question and for 95% on other issues. He also understood that the main source of power of the Jews lies in their control of the news and entertainment media and that White Nationalists should create media of their own.
The only negative thing of his were his violent fantasies about a “Day of the Rope” as expressed in his two novels “The Turner Diaries” and “Hunter”. Alas this trait was a constant of his. There is hardly any program of his in which he doesn’t mention someone who should he “hanged from a lamppost”. But for the rest…
I do agree that the Turner Diaries and Hunter are not the best things Pierce produced.
I think he wrote them partly to amuse himself and other people, and partly to express his (natural) boiling rage at the Status Quo.
He was probably smart enough to understand it was all a pipe dream. Violent revolutions rarely work out as wished (human nature and firepower issues), and never do when it’s about toppling a democratically-elected government (legitimacy issues on top of that). Hitler tried to organize Coups in Weimar Germany every six months or so for 10 years (the stories he gives in Table Talk are fascinating and funny) before understanding that there was no way out of elections.
As to the thoughts of Dr. Pierce on the real seat of power in an industrial and democratic society, an extract from one of his best articles:
This is really good. I had my awakening during the media coverage of the Iraq inasion, since them I made my own research and discovered who control the media, who benefits from all this.
The Northwest Novels of Harold Covington are marred by the same fantasy of “The Day of the Rope” where race mixers are executed. His desire to create a Confessional State is a profound error in my book. Such a thing has no place in the near future but only perhaps decades later After the creation of a White State.
By his own admission, Covington has made most of the errors of other White Leaders. Unlike many though, he has learned and moved on. I sincerely hope he repents of this as well.
“There is hardly any program of his in which he doesn’t mention someone who should be ‘hanged from a lamppost.'” Well, there are a lot of such people, and something should be done about them. I like what Henri Rochefort said of the name of his journal, La Lanterne: “The Lantern can serve simultaneously to illuminate honest men and to hang malefactors.” Suum cuique.
Excellent idea. As a matter of fact, an anthology of his most brilliant ideas and statements, perhaps entitled RACIAL GENIUS, THE LEGACY OF WILLIAM PIERCE, would be a most fitting tribute. He was a visionary extraordinaire.
An anthology of William L. Pierce’s writings has actually been published, but it’s in French: Fierté blanche: La libre parole d’un racialiste américain (White Pride: The Free Speech of a Racialist American). There is also a French appreciation of Pierce’s work by Gaëtan Audenarde, “La propagande par l’exemple : sur l’oeuvre militante de William Luther Pierce” (“Propaganda by Example: On the Militant Work of William Luther Piece”), published in Tabou, no. 17. I haven’t read it, but it’s possible that it might be worth translating.
Thanks W.R., that’s very interesting to know. The French works should be done in English, for sure. I’m surprised that Robt. Griffin’s excellent book on Wm. Pierce, THE FAME OF A DEAD MAN’S DEEDS, isn’t discussed more often.
I have enjoyed Pierce’s lectures myself – outstanding indeed.
It is possible to overrate him – he was a bit scientistic and rigid, a bit right-wing, perhaps a bit weird. More, I wish he’d a been a bit more familiar and allied with southern Europeans. But whatever – the legitimacy of prejudices are the name of my/our game.
The struggle need not look back in unwavering reverence, feeling the need to duplicate his every word. The criticisms are vastly fewer and that is why I mention them – not to detract from what he did well, which was in the majority of his effort an outlook, but to call attention to the fact that the struggle can look forward and advance upon his ideas. Even so, while his outlook need not be replicated with absolute reverence, there were ways in which he was out in front, indeed.
Particularly impressive was the way that such an iconoclastic thinker did not shy away from addressing the J.q. in interface with popular culture – and his criticisms were excellent. It is both important and very difficult to criticize popular, liberal culture and not come across as weak or uncool (because popular culture is all about being impervious and cool) – but he managed to do so handily, probably with more aplomb than anyone I’ve ever heard in that regard.
I have never read anything by Dr. Pierce that I did not agree with. I do disagree that “The Turner Diaries,” and “Hunter” were not his greatest achievements or cast a negative light on Dr. Pierce. In 50 years nobody will remember the National Alliance, but they will still be reading “The Turner Diaries,” and “Hunter.” Dr. Pierce’s greatest achievement was firmly establishing the genre of White Nationalist fiction what we need are dozens of pulp fiction novels of that sort marketed every year. We do not need high-brow literature in which only a very few can grasp the themes elaborated on. We need to stir the masses’ suppressed inclinations of fighting and fornicating. Adolf Hitler succeeded because he was a street fighter, intellectuals always fail! Our enemies are not afraid to preach and practice the vilest actions towards our collective destruction.
Who started the WN genre was Jean Raspail with Camp of the Saints.
Didn’t Eric Thomson write “The Chosen One,” before Pierce or Raspail? I have all these books I’ll have to check the dates sometimes. Anyhooooooooooooooo you are more likely to run across someone that has heard of “The Turner Diaries,” before you are going to run across someone that has heard of “The Camp of the Saints.” Pierce is the man who firmly established the genre!
THEIR GOAL IS GENOCIDE. OURS. WHAT’S YOURS?
I will address some of the concerns expressed in this thread later; it goes without saying that I have a position on William Luther Pierce that is not fully shared by many. I am first to acknowledge the good he did. I am also the first to objectively define his errors and omissions at the structural political level, setting aside for the moment all considerations of “practical politics; non-voting politics.” (HT: Horus the Avenger)
Peter Quient in blockquote:
I agree that “in 50 years, nobody will remember the National Alliance.” The reasons for that are a worthy topic for any discussion of Dr. Pierce.
I disagree that anybody will be reading “The Turner Diaries” or “Hunter.” Any WN ‘novels” that have as their themes (1) capping parking mudsharks and their paramours, or (2) having the US Army come to the aid of the Race (in
Southern CaliforniaAlta California, with nothing less than atomic weapons, is simply supporting the ineffectiveness that is the hallmark of the politically ineffective.How much better if Robert Jay Mathews had read Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, and went from there…
Actually, you have stumbled – quite accidentally, it would seem – a small part of a Useful Idea. Although, from what I can tell, “the masses suppressed inclinations of fighting and fornicating” seem to be unsuppressed, as part of policies discussed in Libido Dominandi. WATCHING USC on pay-per-view, or watching The Masturbation Channel, are useful as tools for sublimating the development of the Warrior Ethos, and, indirectly, and much more importantly, the Warrior Caste.
Hitler led the German people to the moments of their greatest Conquest, and their greatest Defeat. Paying more attention to some “intellectuals” (Guderian, von Mannstein, von Paulus, Speer) would have served him well, indeed.
The useful point that you make is saved for the end – that our Enemies are without limit in how they “preach and practice our collective destruction.”
And what did Pierce DO about that?
Let’s not mince words. He moaned and complained, did great analysis – much of which was formulated and written by Kevin Alfred Strom – and stopped well short of any effective political responses to The Situation before him, much less actively develop a politically useful counterweight to the status quo.
And those who might have listened to Pierce on the use of force?
Is there any doubt the world would be a much better place today, for all of us, with Senator Robert Jay Mathews (Independent, Oregon), and David Eden Lane, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Focus Fourteen Initiative?
Useful ideas for historical counterfactuals as part of this project present themselves; not merely “The Legacy of William Pierce” as historical recordation, but what this legacy COULD have been…
And, perhaps, should have been.
What’s In YOUR Future? Focus Northwest!
Let’s save this all for the symposium.
The symposium should study the social activism techniques of the lefty rads and invert them for our benefit.
“The Incredible Whiteness of Being Maureen” was a good first step, but then nobody organized the boycott of advertisers or picketed her neighborhood for being too White.
We need to organize a campaign to shame Jews for sending their kids to Jews Only day schools that don’t embrace Diversity and Inclusion. They are sitting ducks.
THEIR GOAL IS GENOCIDE. OURS. WHAT’S YOURS?
One idea would be to contact those who knew Pierce and worked with him – Linder, Jerry Abbott, Kevin Alfred Strom, etc., and ask them to share their understanding, and, particularly, perhaps, what went wrong with the “National” Alliance, and what they would do today if Pierce was still here.
In other words, make the “legacy” of Pierce a living legacy.
What’s In YOUR Future? Focus Northwest!
I am not one of those who shares the opinion that Pierce is worth remembering. While I have less of a problem with his beliefs than the average American (God knows!) I think that the North American New Right needs to strategically distance themselves from men like Pierce who are incapable of rehabilitation in the eyes of the public. We are either a bunch of goofy eccentrics arguing amongst ourselves, forever at the margins of society, or we are politically and culturally relevant with an understanding that style and presentation matter. I mean no offense to anyone, but rural Southern whites with homemade religions are not going to help us one bit. In fact, the more times people like Pierce are referenced on this website–which I consider to be a bastion of cultured, civil, modern, intellectual white nationalism–the deeper we dig our own graves. Pierce has too much baggage and too many connections to whackjob fringe elements to do us any good in 2012. Let the people at Stromfront argue about Pierce. We ought to have better things to do.
I disagree.
First, your dig against “rural southern whites” has no place on this site.
Second, in the case of Pierce, it is not even applicable, since Pierce was hardly from “redneck” or “white trash” stock.
Third, even if he were from such a background, it is rank prejudice — unworthy of any reader of CC — to focus on his origins rather than his achievements, for example, his Ph.D. in physics and the best of his writings, many of which I have reprinted at CC: https://counter-currents.com/author/wpierce/
Fourth, Pierce’s religion, “Cosmotheism,” deserves better than to be characterized as “homemade,” since it has deep roots in the western intellectual tradition.
Finally, it is simply naive to regard public opinion, in the eyes of which you think that Pierce can never be rehabilitated, as anything but an artifact, a product of Jewish cultural occupation and brainswashing.
I meant no offense. I am talking pure strategy. There are too many connections between Pierce and McVeigh, cross burnings, and all that nonsense. True or not, those are images that taint our movement. A whole panel of Greg Johnsons and Michael O’Mearas would be invalidated by one William Pierce in the eyes of the people who we need to get on our side. I am not trying to appease Jews or any other group. I am talking about convincing Mr. Average White College Student to take us seriously. University campuses are filled with people who will reject outright anything with a whiff of KKK and I am afraid that Pierce is, rightly or wrongly, tainted by that. And it is precisely those young whites who have to be accessed. Pierce is not a figure who can provide an entree into white nationalism for the vast majority of people who remain unconvinced or unaware.
I am sorry, but that kind of strategy has been tried and proven a failure for decades. Our movement will be “tainted” as long as our enemies control the mass media and educational system. Thus there is no point in chasing respectability as defined by our enemies. So I propose that we live by our own standards of respectability and hope that genuinely free spirits are attracted to us.
Pierce deserves respect in our book because he spoke the truth as he saw it, and he was largely right. My criticism of Pierce is that, although he was a philosophical and rhetorical elitist, in practice he was not elitist enough, hence his novels, hence is angry white man broadcast persona, hence Resistance Records. I think that these strategies attracted the wrong kinds of people to the National Alliance and distracted Pierce from his real strengths.
The coming race war will validate Dr. Pierce. Your argument smacks too much of the influencing and taking control of the so called conservative right-wing republican element in this country. A strategy that has always failed and always will fail only a racial revolution will save our people. At present all American institutions have fully internalized egalitarian ideology and their bottom line is, “how can we increase our profit margin.” All American institutions will have to be destroyed and rebuilt from the ground-up, their guiding philosophy must be, “what is good for the white race.” If we keep christianity (and I puke at the thought of that) it must be somehow converted into a white racial religion with strict government monitoring in place. Because, if christians are left to their own devices, the first stray sunbeam or whiff of exhaled body odor will convince them that “all men are brothers” and they will be exporting enormous amounts of national treasure and lives to save the “noble savage,” not too mention furiously copulating with and marrying them.
I simply don’t think Pierce is capable of convincing anyone not already convinced that white nationalism is worth fighting for. Marginal groups (of which we are one) often become self-referential, intellectually incestuous and consign themselves to dusty corners of society. One of the reasons I love this site so much is that you do Bruckner, Tarrantino, Noel Coward alongside Evola, O’Meara (both of them), Devi, et al. As someone who fits dead-on into the “West Coast White Nationalist” persona, the Pierce thing–the Resistance Records thing–just strikes me as a step backward. But you have the Phd and I don’t (although I’m working on it…phew) and so I will defer to your better judgment and broader experience. Keep up the good work and thank you for this website and all your noble efforts. I look forward to seeing what you compile on Pierce.
Pierce convinced me of a lot of things, in spite of the negatives, and ended up winning my respect. Thus he belongs in the CC mix. Just keep watching. You’ll see how it fits together.
Speaking for myself, I probably wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for William Pierce. The publications he either produced or distributed through National Vanguard Books did a lot to make me a White nationalist.
Greg Johnson: “his angry white man broadcast persona”
In fact, Pierce was very funny in his broadcasts. I liked the exaggeration in his style. His lectures were lively and entertaining. He was a good teacher. Listening to his recorded broadcasts is a relief from reading written pieces that try to sound moderate. I’ve learned many facts from him. But also, when I listen to his lectures, I tend to be taken in by his point of view because of his impassioned style, and I see more clearly what’s wrong. It’s more effective than an internet discussion where you get too much contradiction.
It’s not true that a moderate sounding article is more persuasive than an passionate lecture that tells the truth as it is. Minimizing the Jewish problem and the race-replacement problem so as to sound more believable doesn’t always work. Pierce explained in his broadcasts that he had to simplify to put his point across. I think it’s better to overdo it than underdo it. Once people more or less understand what we are talking about, they can use their own judgment to make a more politically correct analysis of the situation if they like.
Jacques Vendée: “Let the people at Stromfront argue about Pierce.”
That’s a typical Jews argument. KMac is no longer respectable because he talks with David Duke who once associated with the KKK, which isn’t politically correct. That probably means that Greg Johnson is no longer respectable since he talks with KMac. And stormfronters are no longer respectable since they talk to one another. And so on. It’s a circular argument.
The Jews won’t say exactly what’s wrong with A’s opinions. The problem is that he’s on speaking terms with the infamous B. We don’t know exactly what’s wrong with B’s opinions either, except that he should be ashamed to be on speaking terms with the infamous A. The lesson is that we should condemn every single WN leader, especially brilliant men like Pierce, and we should stop talking to each other on the internet.
It isn’t completely different from the way Jews promote each other: we know that J is a brilliant man because K says so. And we know we can trust K’s judgment, since J himself says so. And that is how Kagan became a member of the US supreme court.
Pierce quoted by Deviance: “There is no greater power in the world today than that wielded by the manipulators of public opinion in America”
I think the power of the Jewish media, thanks to their monopoly, lies in censorship more than in brainwashing. They never succeeded in persuading most White people that race-replacement was good for us. Even so, as long as they are able to shut us up, they can maintain their direct control on the politicians by bribery, wheeling and dealing.
THEIR GOAL IS GENOCIDE. OURS. WHAT’S YOURS?
Armor in blockquote, cites in italics:
Jacques Vendée: “Let the people at Stromfront argue about Pierce.”
That the Stormfronter’s ARGUE about Pierce is a stronger comment than many might realize. It really does reduced the discussion to junior high school cafeteria levels, doesn’t it? It’s about half a step above “I knew him PERSONALLY, and I am better than you for it.” (My dad can beat up your dad!)
It’s because most discussions about Pierce are of the good he did, and are pretty much question of degree, and not of the good he might have done, and how things might have been done differently, to different, more effective ends.
That’s the missing gap in most discussion of Pierce in WN circles: either he is seen as a distant God who walked the Earth and spoke words of wisdom, or he is, well, not spoken of at all.
The problem is, setting Pierce as a Minor God removes the Adult discussion of which way White Nationalism should have gone, and, even now, should go.
I am the first to give credit where credit is due. Pierce defined White Nationalism so people who could read, and write, and did not wear green satin sheets and pillowcases as formal attire, could see Something worth listening to.
What else he could have done, and should have done, are issues to be dealt with at another time.
What’s In YOUR Future? Focus Northwest!
THERE GOAL IS GENOCIDE. OURS. WHAT’S YOURS?
Got it!
Something about Armor’s post bothered me.
Armor in blockquote:
There is MUCH greater power in the world today, and every day, and it is exercised by us, individually, and collectively.
It is our power to Choose, and choose wisely. It is our power to withdraw the active consent of the governed, falsely derived that it is, and to replace it with becoming the living foundations of a new nation. It is the power to turn off television, take the time and energy we would have spent passively watching it, and transforming it to develop ourselves into better men, and women, in the fulfillment of a metapolitical purpose beyond our comprehension.
What is the power of their mediacorps and advertising if we do not watch it, and do not participate in what develops into indentured servitude?
Their FIRST Purpose is to demoralize us into feeling helpless in the face of the power they derive from us. Like batteries in The Matrix, without US, there is no THEM.
Their First Tool is replacing our Created Dreams with their Creations; artificial, soulless energy-drainers that leave us in a state of permanent Childhood. It’s fairly easy to manipulate Children, after all.
Harold Covington addresses these issues routinely.
Pierce, not at all.
What’s In YOUR Future? Focus Northwest!
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