The Fame of a Dead Man's Deeds: An Up-Close Portrait of White Nationalist William Pierce

Like many people, I was vaguely aware of William L. Pierce (the subject of Griffin’s biography) by passing references to him in the mainstream media; I therefore dismissed him as not being worth my time. However, recently I came across Griffin’s excellent essay on Hollywood’s mischaracterizations in the movie “Moneyball” of the circumstances around the hugely successful 2002 season of the Oakland Athletics, which was engineered by General Manager Billy Beane. Looking around at other writings by Griffin, I ran into his book about Pierce, and was surprised by what it had to say.The surprise was Pierce’s observations, not so much his ultimate conclusions. We knew those; namely, Pierce saw racial mixing and the degrading influence of mass media as lethal threats to our society, and in particular to the White population and culture in America. And of course Pierce did not hold back his opinion as to who was mainly responsible for this threat. Regardless of how you may feel about the man’s conclusions, his observations and questions reflect real and pressing problems faced by our society, which are becoming harder and harder to ignore. Thus, to paraphrase Voltaire, perhaps one should judge Pierce by his questions, and then make up one’s own mind about his answers. Before looking at one of Pierce’s observations, a quick note on the style of the book. In its usual snide way, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) describes the book as a “fawning” biography of Pierce, without any further explanation of how they came to that conclusion. Nothing could be further from the truth. If anything, the style is much more documentary-like, in that Griffin lets Pierce speak for himself through direct or indirect quotes and supplies background material or explains terminology to make the quotes understandable. For example, in a chapter in which Pierce describes his involvement with George Lincoln Rockwell, Griffin provided a short biography of George Lincoln Rockwell and a description of his activities. Or as another example, in the chapter describing Pierce’s religious movement, “Cosmotheism,” Griffin describes its relationship to other religious views, particularly, pantheism. Nowhere did I detect any obsequiousness or uncritical adulation or flattery on the part of Griffin. In fact, occasionally Griffin inserts material parenthetically to put Pierce’s statements in context (such as, where Griffin clarified a Biblical quote by Pierce by citing the King James version of the same lines “quoted” by Pierce which happen to be slightly different, perhaps in a meaningful way. Would you say that is “fawning”?). The book examines a range of Pierce’s views about the deleterious effects that feminism, racial mixing, education, and so on, have had on society and particularly White society. The central culprit causing the problems according to Pierce—and this is hard to disagree with--is the mass media. Example quote of Pierce regarding the influence of mass media:"Most people have a very limited range of real life experiences. Television and films and glossy magazines provide an enormous expansion of experience for the average person by substituting artificial experiences for real experiences. On the television screen viewers experience artificial social relationships, artificial romances, artificial conflicts, artificial life. In advertisements they are given artificial ideals of beauty and fashion, artificial life-styles … And in their newspapers and newsmagazines they are given a … view of what is happening in the world."And what are some of the ways mass media takes advantage of its unique position with respect to the average mass media consumer? Pierce: "For example, a racially-mixed couple will be respected, liked, and socially sought after by other characters, as will a 'take charge' Black scholar or businessman, or a sensitive and talented homosexual, or a poor but honest and hardworking illegal alien from Mexico. On the other hand, a White racist—that is, any racially conscious White person who looks askance at miscegenation or at the rapidly darkening racial composition of America—is portrayed, at best, as a despicable bigot who is reviled by the other characters, or at worst, as a dangerous psychopath who is fascinated by firearms and is a menace to all law-abiding citizens. The racist 'gun nut,' in fact, has become a familiar stereotype … '" Even the most obtuse person can observe that such images are pervasive in the mass media and that it has gotten worse since Griffin’s book was published. Some say that it has taken an even more direct and open anti-White aspect recently, e.g. see tweets of Harvard-educated White-hating Sara Jeong hired by the NYT. Is it the result of a concerted effort by Jews in the media as Pierce believes—perhaps not a conspiracy, but just doing what they can when opportunities arise? And is it intentionally directed at Whites and White culture as Pierce believes—since Whites as a group are almost exclusively the ones targeted and negatively impacted? Or is the degradation of White society just collateral damage of the freedom of expression being exercised in the mass media? In a different area, we know about the effectiveness of Jews in lobbying for Israeli, even to the detriment of America’s best interests, such as in the case of the Iraq War, because the process has been brilliantly and exhaustively studied in Mearsheimer and Walt’s book on the subject. Are there similar factions working with similar diligence and skill using mass media to debilitate White culture and White identity, as Pierce believed? Of course, there may be other forces at work that also have had a negative impact the White population, such as those described by Charles Murray in “Coming Apart.” But even so, it is hard not to appreciate Pierce’s observations that were voiced for decades before those of us with more limited perception became aware of them. His observations become even more troubling, as Whites head toward minority status in the U.S. within the next few decades under current demographic trends. Is it time for Whites to wake up and start thinking about what is best for Whites as a group? Or are we destined to be the patsy of all of the other racial factions until we are driven to extinction and what’s left of Western Culture dies?

Mandatory reading for anyone interested in the WN movement.

Usually when a biography is written on a man like Pierce it is little more than a confused individual pointing the finger and proclaiming, "BAD MAN". This was actually well put together. Pierce was human so he isn't going to be perfect.

-This book is the biography of a philosopher, a thinker, an astute observer/critic, an activist for his people, his history, and his culture: William Pierce, who is too little known in the world today. A graduate of Rice University, Pierce spent a year at Cal-Tech, before earning both a master's degree and a doctorate, in physics, from the University of Colorado. Pierce then taught physics at Oregon State University, where he attained tenure in less than three years.The title of the book is from a pre-Christian Norse poem, and the cover of the book bears the pre-Christian Norse character known as the "Life Rune," which is the symbol of the National Alliance, a group founded and headed by William Pierce.The author, Robert S. Griffin, (also a university professor) studied Pierce, his writings, and his deeds, before, during, and after a lengthy visit to the National Alliance headquarters in rural West Virginia. This book is the result. The book jacket blurb says that readers will "come away with a clear understanding of white nationalism -- another label, white racialism -- and its critique of American life."Griffin points out that Pierce's thinking, and Pierce's exercise of free speech have earned Pierce the enmity of anti-white, anti-European, Christophobic hate-groups. Pierce and the National Alliance have become targets of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).William Pierce is the author of two works of fiction: "The Turner Diaries" and "Hunter". Both books reflect his philosophy and warn white Europeans and European/Americans to take heed, and to take steps to protect their culture, history, and heritage, which are now so vociferously under attack from political, academic, religious, and quasi-cultural Marxist special interests.Pierce, according to his biographer, exhorts his people to defeat the propaganda of the far-left hate groups. In his philosophy, Pierce raises high the banners of Western culture and European-based civilization to lead people of European heritage in reasserting their natural courage, innate talents, and time-tested leadership abilities.There is a relationship between the thrust of Pierce's philosophy, as explained in Griffin's work, and the dire warnings set down by Patrick Buchanan in his current best seller, "Death of the West." Pierce's philosophy is decidedly more pointed and his writings more explicit than Buchanan's, as regards the instigators and actors in the assault on Western culture.The author paints a picture of Pierce, which makes it possible to understand how a free-thinking professor of physics might be driven away from teaching, by the shrill hysteria of hate-filled, far-left refugees from the 1960s, and clueless Affirmative Action beneficiaries who infest and devalue American universities. Campus weapons used against European/American students, and therefore against Pierce's heritage include speech codes, Affirmative Action, political correctness and Christophobia.The author has done such a fine job of presenting the material that this book can make steam come out of your ears and your socks roll up and down, no matter what side of arguments you may be on.

I'd read the Turner Diary years ago and was expecting William Pierce to be some kinda Charles Manson-like maniac. I was wrong.