018): About ‘Sea Changes,’ A Magnificent Immigration Novel (And The Mercer ‘MeToo’ Moment)

Britain, Culture, English, Ethics, Europe, Ilana Mercer, IMMIGRATION, Intellectualism, Literature

My friend, British author Derek Turner, will have to forgive me. This discursive post, my second about his superb novel, Sea Changes (here’s the first), begins with … me. I guess women are having a reckoning of sorts. Mine is quite a bit different. But I, too, have had a “Me Too” moment, albeit intellectual, not sexual (true traditionalists consider the latter a private matter).

Part of an ancient “Me Too” aphorism by the great Rabbi Hillel says this:

If I am not for myself, who will be for me?

So, here I go.

Over the 20 years in which I’ve out-written most weekly columnists of my philosophical stripe, only a handful of individuals on the Old Right have publicly expressed respect for- and intellectual honesty about my work. Mr. Turner, the gentleman under review, for one. Another is a younger newcomer, the wonderful Jack Kerwick, a man with a moral compass. Still another is Ron Unz, the first publisher (other than the ever fearless WND) on the hard right to feature my weekly column, without any censure or reservation. (Some of the old chaps won’t even follow me on Twitter, or pretend I don’t exist. Shame. Poor things. Reality bites.) The last, for now, is Tom DiLorenzo, a friend forever. Bill Scott, crusader against police brutality, is a gem of a friend, too. In this company is my friend, philosopher and author Chris Matthew Sciabarra, who is a different animal. As an Objectivist, he has a debt of gratitude to a woman.

Check the comments on the Unz Review. The same readers who prostrate themselves to the male writers (fluffy, wordy waffling from the old boys, notwithstanding) hate on Mercer, who happens to be the only featured female columnist on the Unz Review. As I surmised, this is Small Man syndrome.

Bring it.

Yes, the Mercer column is outré, but its quality, philosophical consistency and powers of prediction ought to have secured it a regular slot, given its fiercely anti-war stance, on prominent libertarian and paleoconservative sites.

On the bright side, the attitude to my work over 20 years from these quarters has been the best proof of its quality. In this context, I am reminded of another gifted Brit (Derek Turner is English), comedian Alexei Sayle. When asked what he does when he watches a really talented, young satirist performing, Sayle replied with brutal self-deprecation: “I go back stage and tell him he’ll never make it.”

On the other hand, the German Right doesn’t seem to have an intellectual-honesty issue when it comes to my work. They have generally sought me out (the Mercer column was a regular on Junge Freiheit). And in a justly glowing review of Derek’s book, Sea Changes, an Alt-Right reviewer says this:

“Ilana Mercer, author of a book on Trump and renowned conservative intellectual, praised Sea Changes for its analysis of the prospects for the West and the necessity of defence.”

The German writer quotes a section of my fabulous advance praise. I excerpt the rest, because amidst billowing verbiage from others, I believe I succinctly captured the novel’s essence best (alas, the Mercer blurb, predictably, didn’t make it onto Amazon):

“Well written, meticulously researched and thought out, Sea Changes, Derek Turner’s first novel, succeeds mightily in bringing to life the prototypical players in the Western tragedy that is mass migration. The reader becomes intimately au fait with the many, oft-unwitting actors in this doomed stand-off: small-town conservative folks vs. progressive city slickers; salt-of-the-earth countrymen against smug, self-satisfied left-liberals. Ever present are the ruthless traffickers in human misery: both media and smugglers. Like it or not, the dice are loaded. In this epic battle, the scrappy scofflaws and their stakeholders triumph; the locals lose.”

Back to the German reviewer:

“What Jean Raspail started with Camp of the Saints and Michel Houellebecq continued with Submission has now been carried forward. The latest novel to hit the German market borrows from both of these books and carries them forward. Sea Changes by Derek Turner is now available for purchase. The novel provides an overview of events and inside them the story of the long, slow suicide of a European nation. Whether England, France or Germany, the situation is the same. The problem is ‘refugees’ and their quite understandable search for a better life. The theme of the book is how a truly arrogant elite ignore reality because it is obsessed by ‘diversity’ and ‘tolerance’. The novel shows the reality of the unchallenged multiculturalist establishment. ….”

[SNIP]

Another aspect about Derek’s book that I liked a lot (it went unnoticed by other “male” reviewers): Sea Changes is manly in that Derek packed it with details about masonry, weaponry and history. The book is technically dense. I like that. Other nerds will enjoy that aspect, too.

Sea Changes by Derek Turner is available on Amazon.

UPDATE I (3/12/018): Lookie here. I found Mercer male hounding from 2006: “How Sexist Are Libertarian Men?”

UPDATE II (10/9/018):

From my response to a set of interview questions from, presumably, a millennial, you can figure out the attitude toward me. Just plain ignorance? Who knows? However, I venture he would not have addressed a male he wished to interview in the same manner:

Your questions are better addressed to a YouTube fresh face or some young (and fleeting) social-media sensation. There are v. few paleolibertarians around today in the US. Most all began their work, for the most, over a decade after me. Few can claim my philosophical consistency (have wavered on immigration, Israel, etc.). Glad to look at your revised questions when you get your bearings.

Liberals Complain Trump Has Failed To Fill Many Jobs. But Every Oink-Sector Job That Remains Unfilled Is A Blessing.

Donald Trump, Economy, Government, Labor, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, libertarianism, The State

Leftists—in that label I always include most conservatives—continue to gripe that “hundreds of senior administration posts—including seven of nine top jobs at the State Department—remain unfilled. And positions that get filled often don’t stay that way.” (“Land of the flee: Staffing the White House,” The Economist.)

However, every libertarian-minded individual should grasp that government positions not filled is cause for celebration, not lamentation.

These jobs are invariably political appointments, unproductive and parasitical in nature, and a drain on taxpayers. For the most, workers in the Oink Sector are utterly dispensable.

Hiring The Best People, POTUS? Start By Firing The Family And The Fashion Models

Donald Trump, Family, Foreign Policy

Sadly, it’s true. The one vow Trump made that “went the way of many campaign promises” was candidate “Donald Trump’s promised to hire only ‘the best people.'” (“Land of the flee: Staffing the White House,” The Economist.)

For example, there are now two former models—with no particular gifts or qualifications other than their guile and good looks—in senior positions in the White House: Ivanka Trump and Hope Hicks.

The First Daughter is conducting diplomacy with South Korea, no less. Ivanka is as qualified as her silly husband is to meddle in the Middle East. But at least Jared Kusher is a mute. He doesn’t speak.

“Ivanka Trump Briefed South Korea President on North Korea Sanctions Despite Reportedly Lacking Permanent Security Clearance,” blared a 2/23/18 Newsweek headline. Never mind security clearance. Steve Bannon attested that Ivanka Trump was as “dumb as a brick.”

And you can take that to the bank.

Property-Rights Obliterator Cyril Ramaphosa Is A New Party Boss In The Dominant-Party State Of South Africa. No Reason To Party.

Africa, Communism, History, Private Property, South-Africa

“A disastrous president is shown the door. Now for the clean-up,” writes one of the otherwise intelligent generic writers at The Economist. (These excellent, humble journalists omit the names on their always-edifying reports.) This Pollyanna-like pablum is in the February 17 issue.

Enough of the ahistoric deception! “In Africa, You Oust A Tyrant, But Not Tyranny:”

Nobody with a modicum of cerebral agility should see in the new South-African Strong Man, union boss-cum-tycoon Cyril Ramaphosa, a significant change of the guard. There’s a reason Ramaphosa riles crowds at a South African Communist Party rally just as easily as he excites the head of Goldman Sachs’s South Africa office. (For a clue, ask yourselves how a union boss becomes a tycoon.)
Yet in the tradition of dimming debate, the chattering class has reduced systemic corruption in South Africa and near collapse in Zimbabwe, respectively, to the shenanigans of two men: Jacob Zuma and Robert Mugabe. …

By the way, Cyril Ramaphosa’s promise of “land redistribution through expropriation without compensation” is also the ANC’s vow in 1994. Now he is delivering, as fools continue to celebrate the crowning of a billionaire and an ex-union thug (Ramaphosa).

Boldly libertarian, but doable, the solutions are in “Into The Cannibal’s Pot: Lessons for America From Post-Apartheid South Africa.”

… READ: “A New Party Boss In South Africa Is No Reason To Party” is now on Townhall.com.

Or the version for nerds: “In Africa, You Oust A Tyrant, But Not Tyranny.”