By Hunter Wallace | 6 Comments | 
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Myth, Facts, Self-Interest
Michael O’Meara has responded to GuessedWorker. I was going to post my two cents over there, but the brief comment grew into a blog entry.
The most persuasive case for the efficacy of myths is the debate over “scientific racism” itself: the manner in which “progressives” will twist themselves into a pretzel to avoid even the most obvious facts (racial differences exist, at least in morphology). These people will undoubtedly respond to Salterism in the same Foucaultian manner in which they dismiss all of racial science (it’s a power grab by the white man, a discourse that justifies his domination over us!).
The myth of the colorblind society overpowers the facts cited by the race realists time and again. I’ve lost count of how many times I have seen it happen. The most notorious case that comes to mind is Robert Lindsay, a progressive blogger, who is honest enough to admit that the race realists are usually right on their facts. He has studied the IQ data and racial crime statistics at length (going into international comparisons), knows the score, but isn’t moved by raw data.
He says openly that he wants to believe the progressive line on race. It is too comforting of an illusion. In Lindsay’s case, which is about the best we can hope for out of a progressive, the myth of the colorblind society is powerful enough to override facts, self-interest, and critical thinking. It is always this way with these people. Their vision of “social justice” (or whatever they call it) drives their behavior. It is primary; data points are secondary, and are molded and interpreted to fit the preconceived conclusion.
Here’s another angle to the race realist/human biodiversity community: the nerd factor. The Sailersphere tends to disproportionately attract a certain type of individual, the sort of people who really are driven by data points, or “nerds” as we colloquially call them. Sometimes when you see them parsing GSS data, you can almost hear Skolnick, Poindexter, and Wormser chortling behind their computers in the background. You can imagine a pin up calender of “Asian babes” hanging on the wall. I have long suspected that their defense of the Jews, attacks on White Nationalists and “Nazis,” their obsession and crowing about IQ might have more to do with nerd solidarity (social class) than anything else. I’m skeptical that HBD/RR [Human Bio-Diversity/Race Realism--ed.] will ever rise above being a nerd subculture.
Americans are not analytical/empirical/objective. I have mentioned elsewhere that Tim LaHaye’s Left Behind series has sold 65 million copies. Even within academia, the progressive mythos dominates entire disciplines, especially in the culture sensitive humanities. I just can’t see an appeal to science winning out (without substantial culture wind behind it); look what happened to James Watson (with all his prestige) when he stepped across the line of political correctness. Geneticists bend over backwards to avoid using the word “race” in lieu of Watson’s fall from grace. Most try to avoid it altogether (smart career move there). They bend to popular opinion and the progressive party line. Remember all that talk about how the Human Genome Project had discredited racialism? That and God talk has done wonders for Francis Collins’ career.
What can be said for self-interest? In our current political environment, it reinforces the LDC [Liberal-Democratic Capitalist--Ed.] system. The career-minded, family-minded selfish individual prefers to go along with the flow. He is content to live in his whitebread suburb, shop at the Big Box stores for plasma televisions, pull the (R) lever at the ballot box in November. The first rule of conservative politics: Number One always comes first, second, and last. If such an individual is feeling really brave, he might go teabagging or do something really radical like visit a paleo website.
Just think about it: the tide of self-interest against us is so strong that White Nationalists have to cheer for a national catastrophe like a Second Great Depression, Hurricane Katrina or Kunstler’s Long Emergency to disrupt the status quo. Self-interest will come into play whenever our success appears plausible (think of the NSDAP) or catastrophic circumstances intervene. That’s when the opportunists and conservatives will flock into our ranks.
Looking at our situation objectively, even with the eye of an analytical empiricist (a bent of mind I share with GuessedWorker), what is needed right now (in the embryonic stage) is fanaticism. There are few incentives to join our movement. Racially conscious Whites are the most despised minority in America. I’m willing to wager we are hated even more than the atheists.
We need myths that are powerful enough to move a vanguard beyond their own rational self-interest. An alluring vision is needed comparable to the colorblind utopia that animates the left. It has to be expressed in art, literature, music and film; vehicles more accessible to the masses than academic texts. I have in mind the role played by the hippies and beatniks (and rock music) in the socialization of the counterculture’s cosmopolitan/expressivist mythos in the 1950s and 1960s. This is a task for artists, not intellectuals.
As for EGI [Ethnic Genetic Interests--Ed.], that ship will sail in the scientific community (only) when the headwinds of a popular movement are behind it. Myth, facts, self-interest — in that order, a mass movement progresses from infancy to maturity.
From Occidental Dissent, August 20, 2009
What the race realists and especially the human biodiversity advocates want is white preservation without getting their hands dirty. They want to keep reviewing movies for the NYT, or, failing that, keep being invited to paleocon events. To advocate a white nation puts you outside the realm of acceptable discourse pretty much for life. After you “come out” as a white nationalist the only path back to respectability is as a weeping guest on Oprah repenting of your sins, hugging black gangsters, and kissing Jesse Jackson’s behind.
But that only explains the motivations of the professional writers among them. What about their followers in the nerdosphere? The anonymous ones don’t have to worry about their careers being damaged. So why endorse such a watered down ideology?
I think it goes to the psychology of their social class, the unspoken assumptions of the nerdosphere. If we can achieve white preservation by arguing about HBD we can talk our way out of this. Nerds like to talk. If white nationalists are right and this is a struggle for survival against an enemy — Jewry — that fully intends to wipe us out to the last man, then there is no way to talk our way out of it. At some point, if we are to survive at all, we will have enough awakened whites to act, and that action will not involve voting.
There is little place for number-crunching nerds in that scenario, and if they ever acknowledged this they would feel like shirkers, cowards when it mattered most. Much easier to stick to their spreadsheets.
“These People”
I applaud your intellect, I don’t doubt your sincerity but I cannot understand so many whites insist on marginalizing and discrediting those with a different starting points but a common goal. Don’t we have enough enemies?
“for out of a progressive, the myth of the colorblind society is powerful enough to override facts, self-interest, and critical thinking. It is always this way with these people. Their vision of “social justice” (or whatever they call it) drives their behavior.”
If those described as Race Realists and Progressives are guilty of violating self interest and therefore the white cause, then I guess you could call anti-white anti-capitalist, anti-Christian leftists and the followers of Islam “useful idiots.” Don’t they help hasten the fall? For all other pro-whites of any political bent (other than Race Realist or Progressives) shouldn’t you vote Democratic and hasten the emergency that will ultimately create the catastrophic circumstances that will bring about our great white deliverance?
“Self-interest will come into play whenever our success appears plausible (think of the NSDAP) or catastrophic circumstances intervene. That’s when the opportunists and conservatives will flock into our ranks.”
How will the flocking conservatives and the opportunists know where to report for duty after you’ve purged the Glen Becks, Rush Limbaugh, the Pat Buchanans as being part of the problem, so that the only voice left in America is the anti-white racist left? Just what should we doing as the current oppression whittles us down destroys our families make us economically helpless until we get to the fanaticism stage?
Beck, Limbaugh and Buchanan are part of the problem. Every aggrieved white man who thinks voting for Palin is the answer or that Israel defends the West against the Muslim bogeyman, is lost to WN.
“Every aggrieved white man who thinks voting for Palin is the answer”
Who says that voting for Palin or anyone is the answer? I doubt anyone reading this site believes that we can save ourselves in the voting both only. What those “part of the problem” personalities do is get some truth out to the masses past the propaganda and influence people to be skeptical. In case you haven’t noticed the great majority of whites don’t go to white national web sites. When someone finally revels the game plan I for one would like as many of those masses working with me. Your statement is like saying elementary school is useless because the real problems require someone with a graduate degree to address the solutions. People are being reached and eventually seek out more sophisticated information. I still don’t get it. Are the networks “Jewry” going to replace Pat Buchanan with David Duke and Don Black for Glenn Beck all of a sudden if the conservatives were taken off the air?
“What the race realists and especially the human biodiversity advocates want is white preservation without getting their hands dirty.”
Somebody answer the question what do we do now except complain about conservative media personalities and wait for the big bang? I’ve been going over pro-white sites for months with my sleeves rolled up. What is it race realists aren’t willing to do? No one has suggestions. Just blame the other guy and blah blah blah. You guys fight over what you call yourself more than you fight for solutions or unity.
It’s an important discussion. Race realists point out that race exists and the races differ in talent and ability. This immediately leads to justifying our existence because of IQ scores. Jared Taylor falls for this all the time. In the reverse it’s sort of like saying Blacks should just happily jump in the ocean because they score the lowest.
Once we give a value to something we immediately enter the realm of religion. To say something is good does not depend on a scientific evaluation. Something is good because we believe it to be good.
Giving up our territory and political system to foreigners, is that good?
“We need myths that are powerful enough to move a vanguard beyond their own rational self-interest. An alluring vision is needed comparable to the colorblind utopia that animates the left. It has to be expressed in art, literature, music and film; vehicles more accessible to the masses than academic texts.”
Camp of the Saints by Jean Raspail ought to serve as a good dose of reality for the masses in denial.