Posted on November 25, 2021

Heresies to Think About

Brent Nelson, The Occidental Quarterly, Summer 2004

There has been no lack of serial publications challenging the leftist dogma that the primary races of humanity are fundamentally equal in achievements, temperament, and mental ability. But they have invariably been set aside from the literature that has real impact on public policy. The cataloguers at the Library of Congress decades ago concocted a special subject heading, “Literature of prejudice,” to segregate such publications. As if that were not enough to relegate them to irrelevance, the publishers of such magazines, newsletters, and newspapers have invariably worsened their own chances for obtaining a serious readership by what they have done to their own publications.In many instances, delivering the publication into the hands of its enemies could have done it little more harm than was wrought upon it by its owner.

Such publications have perennially linked their examination of the race question with one or more of the following topics: states rights, white supremacy, Nordicism, conspiracy theories, the rehabilitation of defeated regimes, laissez-faire capitalism, Bible prophecy, a leader’s cult-like following, etc. Most improbable of all was The Truth Seeker, a publication that proclaimed itself to be both “Racist and Atheist.” It was but one glaring example of a recurrent sectarianism guaranteed to deny a publication any significant readership or influence.

One by one, these diverting obsessions, vehicles for flights into fantasy, have crashed and burned: States rights today means the defense of “medical marijuana” in California and of “gay marriage” in Massachusetts. White supremacy was only a stopgap measure at best and did not even prevent (indeed, often facilitated) the kind of swinish behavior for which the late Strom Thurmond has become posthumously notorious. Nordicists have on their side the facts of history, but the future would seem to belong to China with its eugenics program. Most of the standard conspiracy theories have been ably expounded for more than a half-century, but their exponents must admit that not even the exposure of one such conspiracy has so much as delayed its evil progress. And so forth…

American Renaissance, a monthly magazine founded thirteen years ago by Jared Taylor, the author of the book Paved with Good Intentions: The Failure of Race Relations in Contemporary America, has been a great exception in this dreary history. Clear and cogent in its presentation, it has consistently shunned the weirdness and eccentricities that have been rampant elsewhere. A Race Against Time, a collection of the best of American Renaissance, brings together thirty-eight essays, arranged under the subject headings of “Current Events,” “The Past,”“Science,” “Philosophy,” and “The Future.”

In the foreword, written in his characteristically polished and flowing style, Mr. Taylor explains the book’s title: “Whites are, indeed, in a race against time. If they do nothing, if they let themselves become minorities, their destiny will betaken out of their hands” (p. xii). The foreword also presents the heresies of the subtitle:

Races are not identical or interchangeable in terms of average ability and capacity for high civilization. Any society that expects — or as ours often does, demands — equal outcomes by race is asking the impossible. Ultimately, given the reality of racial loyalty and racial differences in ability and behavior, separation comes more naturally than integration (p. xi).

What will delight the reader of this anthology, the wide-ranging nature of its contents, makes it rather daunting for the reviewer. At the risk of neglecting worthy contributions, the following survey will consider only a few of the essays.

In the section entitled “Current Events,” there are two essays, “Hell on Wheels,” the experiences of Daniel Attila, a former employee of the New York Transit Authority, and “White Man in a Texas Prison,” by D. Zatukel, which will stir the interest of many readers. Probably the essay that should be most closely studied is the more impersonal, but frighteningly relevant, “Race, Crime, and Violence,” by Jared Taylor. Almost as relevant is “Pushing Out Whitey” by Joseph Fallon, a survey of the burgeoning political power of Latinos in the United States. Fallon gives most attention to Chicano organizations (LULAC, MALDEF, La Raza, MEChA).

Unsurprisingly, “The Past,” at almost a hundred pages, is the lengthiest section in the book. Here what should be read before all else is James P. Lubinskas’s “The Decline of National Review.” It is a powerful corrective for anyone who still cherishes the delusion that the Establishment’s conservatism can offer any real hope in our race against time. Forty years ago, Revilo P. Oliver reviewed books for National Review. Now it has as a senior editor one Ramesh Ponnuru.

Closely following Lubinskas’s essay in its salience is “Multiculturalism and Marxism” by Frank Ellis, professor of Russian at the University of Leeds in England. Ellis finds the origin of “political correctness” in Lenin’s Russia. He observes that “Valuing diversity is a hobby for people who do not have to endure its benefits.”

Among the several essays on the civil rights revolution, no one should miss reading “Sowing Seeds of Destruction,” Jared Taylor’s examination of Gunnar Myrdal’s An American Dilemma. Taylor concludes that “The Myrdal vision triumphed because there was no thoughtful, moral argument to oppose it.”

It is regrettable that the section “Science” is so short, not half the length of “The Past.” All of it should be read carefully, beginning with Richard Lynn’s “Race and Psychopathic Personality.” Lynn is professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland. He examines an aspect of racial differences that is as significant as (and perhaps even more significant than) the more frequently discussed question of racial differences in intelligence.

“Science” also includes lengthy essay-reviews of three groundbreaking books: J. Philippe Rushton’s Race, Evolution, and Behavior, Arthur Jensen’s The g Factor, and Michael Levin’s Why Race Matters. The review of Rushton includes a synopsis of its content, particularly useful because his work surveys all three human subspecies (yellow, white, black) and presents data that challenge the ready assumptions of both egalitarians and white supremacists. Table 1 on page 194 is especially worthy of attention.

Alas, the section “Philosophy,” scarcely longer than “Science,” is also much too brief. All of it should be read carefully, studied, pondered, assimilated. Since the reader must begin somewhere, let him begin with the two brilliant essays by Michael Levin, “The Evolution of Racial Differences in Morality” and “Is There a Superior Race?” His essays are particularly useful for those who have become aware of the consequences arising from an earlier generation’s moral capitulation to the argument of Myrdal. Levin is professor of philosophy at the City College of New York. He is probably not a Cartesian, but his ideas are most clear and distinct. All of “The Future” deserves to be read, but the best beginning is the admonitory “If We Do Nothing,” by Jared Taylor, followed by Sam G. Dickson’s stirring “A Certain Trumpet.” The last paragraph of Dickson’s talk is worthy of being quoted in full because it epitomizes the spirit of American Renaissance:

To plagiarize William Lloyd Garrison in The Liberator, many will object to the severity of our language, but is there not cause for severity? We will be as harsh as truth and as uncompromising as justice. We are in earnest. We will not equivocate. We will not excuse. We will not retreat a single inch. And we will be heard.

For at least thirty years, the federal government has been implicitly telling the U.S. citizen that his race is his nation. A white nationalist is a white American who has become aware of that fact and who wants his nation to survive. A dedicated white nationalist makes his life meaningful by becoming a factor in the historical process, not just another unit of economic production and consumption. He will set aside one evening each week for racial-political study. (Time can be found by eliminating hobbies, which are juvenile anyway, and by curtailing television-watching.) This collection of the best of American Renaissance is essential reading because of the trenchant facts and rigorous reasoning that it contains. A Race Against Time should be purchased and carefully studied.

Editor’s Note: A Race Against Time can be purchased through the American Renaissance online store.