Eugene Girin reviews “Into the Cannibal’s Pot: Lessons for America From Post-Apartheid South Africa” at VDARE.COM: “…what rule of law can exist in a country ruled by a party of racially-motivated terrorists whose unofficial anthem is the song ‘Kill the Boer’ and whose current president’s favorite song is ‘Give me my machine gun,” he asks.
MAÑANA. I’d like to be able to offer you the softcover copy of The Cannibal. It has been collated and features bonus material. I know I’ve promised courtesy copies to Dr. Victor Niederhoffer and other deserving parties.
The new, softcover issue should be available sometime soon—although do take into account that the Pacific Northwest is not Manhattan. After almost a decade in this region, I can safely say that, with a few treasured exceptions, people outside the Microsoft workforce (who, with Boeing, is the main employer here) have a hard time acting professionally and honorably.
So, all I can say is that the softcover of The Cannibal is coming “Mañana,” Pacific Time.
As my tiny, treasured parrot (T. Cup) used to say, “It’s coming.”
UPDATE: The review says the word “whites” a lot. The book doesn’t. As I mentioned in “National Review Eunuchs”:
I cop to Western man’s individualist disdain—could it be his weakness?—for race as an organizing principle. For me, the road to freedom lies in beating back the state, so that individuals may regain freedom of association, dominion over property, the absolute right of self-defense; the right to hire, fire, and, generally, associate at will.
The Cannibal jibes with that sentiment.
UPDATE: This evening, Peter Brimelow emailed to tell me that, following the review on VDARE.COM, The Cannibal shot up to “Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #15,531 in Books .” Just looked. Many thanks.
I’ve been debating futilely with someone about the value of purchasing Facebook stock, pursuant to the IPO (Initial Public Offering).
In my opinion—and I am not a stockbroker or an expert; just a rational thinker who uses (as opposed to hangs-out on) Facebook—at $38 to $42 a share, Facebook stock is not that expensive.
You have to be bereft of an imagination, and/or someone who has never used Facebook to productive ends—not to realize that Facebook is no hot air, Dot.com financial balloon.
Facebook is a planet unto itself, a global, social and political tool; a revolution.
UPDATE: I would compare the invention of Facebook to the discovery of a planet. The products of many a dot.com come and go; Facebook is here to stay. I said that to my better half a short while after joining FB last year (2011). Bono might be “a chap who fronts a three-chord band of unimpressive droners,” but he knows a good business deal when he sees one.
Mr. John Derbyshire, the man whose blurb appears on your book, has been unceremoniously sacked by the eunuchs at NRO.
What an apt appellation for that castrate, Rich Lowry.
Adds Peter Brimelow of VDARE.COM:
“[T]o appease a Left-wing lynch mob, John Derbyshire has just been fired from the new, Politically Correct National Review—despite (or perhaps because of) his unmatched brilliance there, to say nothing of his cancer and his years of loyal service.”
National Review has been PC—and worse, boring—for as long as I can remember.
John, who, as Aditya mentioned, had endorsed my book without flinching, was fired by the intellectual pygmies of NRO, for a tract titled “The Talk: Nonblack Version,“ published at Taki’s Magazine.
UPDATE I: NRO did at least employ John for a long time. They have never considered my work and have never replied to submissions.
UPDATE II: When you read Amy Davidson’s inane histrionic piffle, published in an elite magazine, you realize that ousting John for his views is more about enforcing mediocrity than enforcing conformity.
Americans cannot abide enormous talent, unless it is in a mindless or uncontroversial field such as sport or hard science. You have to be mediocre in writing and thinking and echo one of two party lines. I lived in Canada (I’m a Canadian) where my stuff appeared in the national press, no less. That could never happen in the US.
UPDATE III: Richard Spencer: “… it’s hard to mistake the trajectory of official ‘Conservatism’ as anything other than a gradual degeneration and dumbing-down. NR has gone from James Burnham and Russell Kirk to Kathryn Jean Lopez and various man-children spouting human-rights doctrines. … the mainstream Right [is] much stupider…more defined by the Goldbergs, Ponnurus, Lowrys, and Lopezes of the world…and more obviously a racket and dead-end. …”
UPDATE IV (April 10): In reply to the Facebook thread. Aditya, AMM, and others: To me, the Derb issue is never about whether you agree or disagree with his article, as Richard Spencer does (on FB, I quoted a slice of Spencer’s piece with which I agree). This perennial Soviet-style purging is never about “agreement,” to me. I do not know why people think that if you want to see a lot of well-written, wickedly witty, controversial writing in print (pixels or paper), as I do—you necessarily endorse all of it.
NONSENSE.
During the Iraq war, when the likes of Paul Craig Roberts, myself and other non-Beltway libertarians and paleos were writing up a storm against Bush’s barbarity–and being ousted and banished for it—Roberts noted that readers wanted to see a mirror of their opinions in his writing. This is so true. Readers judge me not in terms of style, thinking; quality of writing, a challenge to consensus, etc., but in accordance with how much I reflect their opinions; do they agree with me.
Cognitive consonance is what writing in the Age of the idiot is all about.
The narrowing of the American mind is not the fault of corporations; its The People’s fault, for heaven’s sake. Corporations would not survive if they ceased to cater to The People, who are tyrants in their own right. This leftist argument misconstrues the direction of the dumbing of America.
I am on record as saying that I am not comfortable with the racialist right’s tack. (To quote: “I think I reflect Western man’s disdain for race as an organizing principle, and for broad generalizations. Good luck with organizing modern westerners around race. I prefer to beat back the state so that individuals regain freedom of association, dominion over property, the absolute right of self-defense; the right to hire, fire, and, generally, associate at will. That’s the route to freedom.”)
But I simply love—and think it is necessary to a free society—to see all well-expressed, eloquent opinion and argument in print, at the pleasure of that print’s owners.
Of course, self-interest plays a role in wanting to see Derb and his work prevail. Derb is one of many canaries in this minefield of our own making.
UPDATE V: Maureen O’Connor of Gawker.com has actually done the job of a journalist in interviewing Derb. I hope he gets a book deal or makes a ton of money out of this shameful episode in the annals of NR.
UPDATE VI: “The first pessimists were the Old Testament prophets.” I love the Prophets, Jeremiah being my favorite. John Derbyshire on The B.S. of A. with Brian Sack (Full)
Most Americans own shares in major American companies, often through pension funds. “According to the Investment Company Institute,” reports the WSJ, “about 51% of adults own stock directly or through mutual funds, which is more than 100 million shareholders.” However, come 2013, the malevolent freak who inhabits the White House intends to “triple the tax rate on corporate dividends,” hurting these Americans (most of us). The “new dividend tax rate in 2013 would be 44.8%—nearly three times today’s 15% rate.”
…retirees and near-retirees who depend on dividend income would be hit especially hard. Almost three of four dividend payments go to those over the age of 55, and more than half go to those older than 65, according to IRS data. But all American shareholders would lose. Higher dividend and capital gains taxes make stocks less valuable.
