William Pierce (1933-2002; pictured) saw more deeply into the nature of life — and farther into the future — than any other thinker of modern times. Here we present extracts of American Dissident Voices broadcasts honoring his life and work.
by Kevin Alfred Strom
WILLIAM PIERCE changed my life. And I predict that his ideas will change the lives of millions of men and women of our race in the years to come.
Today, I want to give you two things: An impression of the spirit of the man, and his own deepest thoughts as teacher and mentor and maker of the future.
A friend of mine said of Dr. Pierce:
Simply put, William Pierce was a prophet. He saw the world as it really is and saw our people’s plight in realistic terms; why our folk have become a fallen people — and who is responsible. But Dr. Pierce’s understanding of what is in danger of being lost was only part of the vision he had. Above the bleak realities of our ever-darkening world, William Pierce had a much higher vision of what our race could be. He realized that — if led by the best among us — there is no obstacle we can not overcome, no battle we cannot win, no mystery we can not solve, and no feat we cannot accomplish. With his razor sharp insight, Dr. Pierce clearly saw what a magnificent and beautiful future could be ours if we were once again free to determine our own destiny.
William Pierce was a tall, rangy, powerful man, more physically fit at nearly seventy than he had been at fifty. It was in his fifties that he took on the tasks of an almost pioneer-style existence in his mountain aerie — which we simply called The Land — the beauty of which was one of his greatest inspirations and where now, once again, an intentional White community is rising again, just as he intended.
His strength, both intellectual and physical, was impressive. But he was also a man with a sensitive appreciation for the beautiful, an artist’s appreciation. He saw beauty in the cosmos that gave us all birth, and he saw beauty in his fellow creatures — even the lowest of them. He hated those who wantonly or unthinkingly caused suffering to or destruction of those creatures. He told me that one of the best ways to judge the character of a man was by the way he treated the helpless beings which by chance or by plan came into his power.
To those with a shallow understanding of life or a stereotyped misunderstanding of what he stood for, it may seem strange to say this — but Dr. William Pierce was a truly kind man. It takes strength to be truly kind, and he had the requisite strength. To always say the soothing thing, even when it leads on to ruin, is not kindness. To never offend and always conform to what the other man — or the crowd — wants to hear is not kindness. It is the foolish indulgence of those who cannot see beyond the next moment, or it is malice and cruelty wielded by an enemy in disguise. Such are the words of “tolerance” spoken to the homosexual seducer, his misled victim, or the racemixer. Such are the pastel promises of harmonious multiracialism and “one world.” They lead to the AIDS ward and the end of the line. They lead to the pools of blood and filth and cinders that our major cities have become. They lead to the grave of extinction.
True kindness consists in using one’s brain to gain understanding, and generously spending one’s life teaching those who can be taught about the long-term consequences of our actions — or our failure to act. True kindness often requires reminders of harsh realities, and inducing painful realizations of error. True kindness sometimes requires eliciting admissions that one’s most cherished beliefs were illusions. and insisting on painful transitions to a whole new way of life. True kindness requires absolutely rational delineation of the real choices that must be made, no matter how daunting the prospect. Dr. Pierce had that sort of kindness
In his book, Who We Are, Dr. Pierce showed us clearly the perilous position of our race today:
‘To recapitulate the present situation of the White race:
• ‘White geographical expansion, which was the rule for the last four centuries, has not only been halted in the 20th century, with the end of European colonialism, but it has been reversed in the period since the Second World War, with the beginning of a massive migration of non-Whites from their overcrowded and poverty-ridden lands into the still-prosperous White areas of the northern hemisphere.
• ‘White numerical growth, which until this century was yielding a steady increase in the White to non-White ratio in the world as a whole, has been overtaken by a population explosion in non-White lands. There are now more than four non-Whites for every White living on the planet, and the ratio is shifting toward an even greater non-White preponderance at an accelerating rate.
• ‘Social mixing of Whites and non-Whites in the period since the Second World War has resulted in a catastrophic increase in miscegenation and in the consequent blending of mixed-bloods into the “White” population, both in the United States and in Europe.
• ‘The dysgenic effects of the 20th century’s wars have been augmented greatly by social-welfare programs which are hastening the general lowering of White racial quality….
‘The prognosis is grave. If the present demographic trends continue unabated for another half-century, and if no sustained effort to ensure an alternative outcome is made during that time by a determined and farsighted minority of people of European ancestry, then the race …will have reached the end of its long journey.
‘It may linger another century or more in isolated enclaves, such as Iceland, and its characteristic features or coloring will recur with diminishing frequency in individuals for the next millennium, but before the middle of the 21st century it will have reached its point of no return.
‘Then, gradually or quickly, the race which built the glory that was Greece and the grandeur that was Rome, which conquered the earth and established its dominion over every other race, which unlocked the secret of the atom and harnessed the power which lights the sun, and which freed itself from the grasp of gravity and reached out to new worlds will vanish into the eternal darkness.
‘Some of its works — its languages, its science, its social structures, its machines and weapons — will fall into the hands of a different, darker race, which will use them for a while. Eventually no trace will remain, not even a memory in the minds of a degraded humanity which will have long since abandoned the upward Quest which was the unique mission of the vanished race.
‘And the present demographic trends will continue so long as the political, religious, and social concepts and values which presently circumscribe the thinking of the Western peoples and their leaders continue to have a determining role. For at root it is a moral defect which threatens the race’s survival.
‘If the will to survive existed among the White masses — if the people as a whole in any large, predominantly White country possessed a strong sense of racial identity and a sense of responsibility to the future, and if they were willing to take the necessary measures (which would require that they act contrary to the dictates of the religion to which the majority of them pay lip service) — then the physical threat could be overcome, certainly and quickly.
‘Non-White immigration could be halted immediately, with relatively little effort. Undoing the effects of earlier non-White immigration and of miscegenation would be a much larger task… These things could be accomplished, even at this late date. And once accomplished in one major country, they could be extended worldwide, though perhaps not without another major war and its attendant risks. But, of course, they will not be accomplished, because the will to survive does not exist, and has not existed in the White population of any major power since the end of the Second World War
‘So, much will inevitably be lost during the next few decades. The population balance everywhere will shift even more rapidly toward the non-Whites, the mongrels, and the unfit. The world will become a poorer, uglier, noisier, more crowded, and dirtier place. Superstition, degeneracy, and corruption will be pervasive, even among those Whites of sound racial stock, and much of the best stock will disappear forever through racial mixing.
‘And repression will certainly increase everywhere: those who stand for quality over quantity and for racial progress will be denied the right of dissent and the right of self-defense, in the name of “freedom” and “justice.”
‘Ultimately, however, none of these losses need be decisive or even significant, frightening though they may be to contemplate now, and terrible though they may be to experience in the dark years immediately ahead. All that is really important is that a portion of the race survive, keep itself pure physically and spiritually, continue propagating itself, and eventually prevail over those who threaten its existence, even if this take a thousand years; and to ensure this outcome is the urgent task of the racially conscious minority of our people in these perilous times.
‘The duration of the task will be decades, at the least, and perhaps centuries. History has a very great inertia; a historical process of long duration may culminate suddenly in a single, cataclysmic event, but every major development in the history of the race has had deep roots and has grown in soil thoroughly prepared for it by preceding developments. The course of history now, so far as our race is concerned, is steeply downward, and to change its direction will be no overnight matter, nor will this be accomplished by any gimcrack scheme which promises success without first building a foundation for that success, block by carefully laid block.
‘The workers at the task will be only a tiny minority of the race. Any program which envisages an “awakening of the masses” or which relies on the native wisdom of the great bulk of our people — which is to say, any populist program — is based on a false vision and a false understanding of the nature of the masses. No great, upward step in all of our long history has ever been accomplished by the bulk of any population, but always by an exceptional individual or a few exceptional individuals. The masses always take the path of least resistance: which is to say, they always follow the strongest faction. It is important to work with the masses, to inform them, to influence them, to recruit from among them; but they must not be counted on for determinative, spontaneous support until after a small minority has already, by its own efforts, built a stronger force than that of any opposing faction.
‘The task is inherently fundamental, and it will be accomplished only through a fundamental approach. That is to say, those who devote themselves to it must be pure in spirit and mind; they must understand that their goal is a society based on quite different values from those underlying the present society, and they must be committed wholeheartedly and without reservation to that goal; they must be prepared to outgrow all the baggage of superstition and convention inherent in the present society. Thus, the task is not one for conservatives or right wingers, for, “moderates” or liberals, or for any of those whose thinking is mired in the errors and in the corruption which have led us to the downward course, but it is a task for those capable of an altogether new consciousness of the world.
‘The task is a biological, cultural, and spiritual one as well as an educational and political one. Its goal has meaning only with reference to a particular type of person, and if this type cannot be preserved while the educational and political aspects of the task are being performed, then the goal cannot be achieved. If the task cannot be completed in a single generation, then there must exist, somewhere, a social milieu which reflects and embodies the cultural and spiritual values associated with the goal, and serves to pass these values from one generation to the next. …This requirement may be difficult of fulfillment, but it is essential. What should be envisaged, then, is a task with both an internal, or community-oriented aspect, and an external, or political-educational-recruiting aspect.
‘…The task set out here is a very large one, and accomplishing it will require greater will, intelligence, and selflessness than demanded from the race in any previous crisis. The danger we face now, from the enemy within our gates as well as the one still outside, is greater than the one we faced from the deracinated Romans in the first century, the Huns in the fifth century, the Moors in the eighth century, or the Mongols in the 13th century. If we do not overcome it, we will have no second chance.
‘But the task of survival has always been a demanding one, just as it is an unrelenting one. We have always met its demands in the past, or we would not be here today. There is no fundamental reason why we cannot overcome the present threat to our survival, horrendous though it be, and live to face new threats in the future.
‘What we must do, however, is understand that all our resources in the coming struggle must come from within ourselves; there will be no outside help, no miracles.’
Powerful words; words that must be heard and understood by our people. I believe the name of William L. Pierce will be listed prominently among the pantheon of heroes and philosophers in future centuries — centuries of our people’s civilization that he will have helped to make possible.
It has been 15 years since I said goodbye to William Pierce for the last time. In that interval, his stature as a teacher has, if anything, increased. And, despite persecution and betrayal, a loyal and growing community of men and women has formed to continue his work and bring his teaching to a new generation.
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It is worthy of note that in June, 2002, Dr. Pierce had not abandoned the spiritual basis of the Alliance.
A “TAX DODGE.” A “bogus religion.” Something he “abandoned” in later years in hopes of attracting Christians. So have William Pierce’s opponents, both within and without White nationalist circles, characterized Cosmotheism, the religion founded by Dr. Pierce.
But these characterizations are false. The Cosmotheist world view — the view that our race is the vanguard of the Universe’s evolving self-consciousness — was central to everything that Dr. Pierce wrote, uttered, and built during the last quarter century of his life.
By 1977, it could be fairly said that Cosmotheist ideas were foremost in Dr. Pierce’s mind. In that year he recorded two important speeches with an explicitly Cosmotheist basis, originally delivered at National Alliance meetings at the Alliance’s National Office in Arlington, Virginia: Human Dignity: A Racial Ethic and Cosmotheism: Wave of the Future. In the early 1980s I restored and edited those recordings for publication in the National Vanguard Books catalogue. What wasn’t included on the copies that were sold, though, were the openings of the meetings, which included the Cosmotheist affirmation, read out loud by all in attendance. Here is that affirmation:
“There is but one reality. That reality is the Whole. It is the Creator, the self-created. I am of the Whole. I am of the Creator, of the self-created. My purpose is the Creator’s purpose. My path is the path of the Creator’s self-realization. My path is the path of divine consciousness. My destiny is godhood.”
Also in 1977, Dr. Pierce published “Conservatism or Radicalism,” which I included in the book The Best of Attack! and National Vanguard (1984), in which he speaks of the spiritual foundations of the National Alliance:
Our dream is a progressive dream, a dream of unlimited progress over the centuries and the millennia and the eons which lie ahead of us. It is no conservative dream of peace, no sheeplike dream of ease and consumption and safety, but a dream of the achievement of our Destiny, which is Godhood. It is the only dream fitting for men and women of our race; it is the spirit of the Creator, it is the Universal Urge within us, expressing itself through our race-soul….
We don’t hope to make revolutionary idealists out of the egoistic and materialistic masses, but we do hope to awaken and inspire and recruit that minority of our people in which the Divine Spark already burns brightly enough to illuminate their souls and their minds so that they can grasp our Truth. And the way to do that is to present our Truth to them as purely and as plainly and as clearly as we possibly can—not to dress it in a conservative disguise, which leads only to confusion.
We want everyone to know that we understand that what’s really important is not whether we can elect a government which won’t try to impose racial quotas on us or whether we can achieve domestic tranquility but whether the Truth that is in the race-soul of our people shall overcome the alien falsehoods which rule us now, so that that Truth can guide us once again to the upward Path, to the Path of the Creator’s Self-Realization, and so that we can once again become agents of the Universal Will—except this time fully conscious agents—and resume our never-ending ascent toward our ordained Destiny.
That, according to William Pierce, is the fundamental basis of the National Alliance.
In 1978, Dr. Pierce published “What Is to be Done?”, also available in The Best of Attack! and National Vanguard, in which he delineates the organizational structure necessary for our dream to become real:
[W]hat is to be done to save our race, in spite of itself?
…The answer, in brief, is that an organization must be built which satisfies the following requirements:
It must be, first of all, not an ad hoc organization, but an organization based on fundamental principles, an organization with a world view, essentially religious in nature, shared by every member of the organization.
It must be, in structure, a hierarchical organization, like an army — or a religious order — with the degree of understanding, of commitment, and of discipline increasing with the level of responsibility in the organization.
It must be, in scope, an all-encompassing organization, an organization which not only generates propaganda and which recruits and trains new members, but which becomes eventually a community unto itself, self-sufficient spiritually and materially, providing all the functions and capabilities needed for carrying out its task — ultimately a separate state within the state.
A state within a state, a new society, led by an elite imbued with an essentially religious mission — a Cosmotheist mission — which defines not only the purpose of its members’ lives, but the purpose of Life itself in the Universe: This is Dr. Pierce’s vision of a White future.
In the same year, William Pierce penned “The Faustian Spirit,” in which he warns that our race must not “become a race solely of lawyers, clerks, laborers and merchants, but remain a race also of philosophers, poets, and inventors: of seekers of ultimate knowledge, of strivers toward the perfection which is Godhood. When we take the longest viewpoint, we can see that the Faustian spirit, tenuous though it may be, is European man’s entire justification for existence.”
In “Criteria for a White Future,” he explains that the members of the organization that will save our race will necessarily have undergone an all-encompassing “spiritual renewal” which will revolutionize their values at the most fundamental level.
In 1980’s “Why the West Will Go Under,” Dr. Pierce discusses the human qualities worthy of survival, the same qualities we should seek in building National Alliance cadres: “The[se people] must be free of the superstitions and prejudices of this age; those who are mentally bound to this age will go down with it…. They must be motivated by a single purpose, the overwhelming importance of which is always foremost in their minds; it has been the purposelessness of this age on which the West has foundered, but the new age will be illuminated and shaped by a common purpose transcending all other considerations: namely, the purpose of bringing forth a higher type of man and attaining thereby a higher level of consciousness in the universe.”
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William Pierce knew that we are made of the same stuff as the Earth and the stars, that we are the expanding consciousness of an evolving Universe, and that your soul is, in a very profound sense, the soul of the Universe itself. If you had to encapsulate William Pierce’s life in a single sentence, it would be: He saw that the purpose of life is the increase of consciousness; he saw that our race was the leading edge and the living agent of that increase in consciousness; and he dedicated his life to the preservation and advancement of our kind. This view of ourselves as agents of evolving Life — and Life itself as an agent of an as-yet dimly seen force immanent in the Earth and in the Cosmos itself — has been expressed by other advanced thinkers, though never so forcefully or fully as it was expressed by Dr. Pierce. One such man was the poet John Hall Wheelock, who said in his poem Earth:
For the earth that breeds the trees
Breeds cities too, and symphonies.
Equally her beauty flows
Into a saviour, or a rose…
Through Leonardo’s hand she seeks
Herself, and through Beethoven speaks….
Even as the growing grass
Up from the soil religions pass…
And all man is, or yet may be,
Is but herself in agony
Toiling up the steep ascent
Toward the complete accomplishment
When all dust shall be, the whole
Universe, one conscious soul.
Yea, the quiet and cool sod
Bears in her breast the dream of God….
Earlier I called William Pierce a truly kind man. I am sure that some of you were startled when I said that. I hope that, after hearing his words, you can see that I spoke the truth. I hope you can see that Dr. Pierce’s kindness was not the type that you find expressed on a drug store greeting card. Dr. Pierce’s kindness was true kindness.
His love for his people was true, and if his words were hard it was because they needed to be hard. Your family won’t make it through the jungle by sitting down and playing cards and repeating “everything’s going to be all right.” The words you need to hear are more along the lines of “don’t take the path through the quicksand”; “fashion this weapon to defeat the predators who are massing to kill us”; and “I have scouted ahead, and here is the best way to reach the high ground we can see on the horizon.” Those are words that lead to right action; those are words that give you and yours a chance of making it when things get tough.
His words and thoughts were Dr. Pierce’s gifts of loving kindness to us. Let us hear them, act on them, and do right. They can lead us on to an unimaginably bright and beautiful world, where the highest thoughts and most intense love and most moving beauty are yet to be seen.
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Source: American Dissident Voices broadcasts by Kevin Alfred Strom