The Dharma Manifesto

by Sri Dharma Pravartaka Acharya

  Due to systematic attempts to block registration efforts of such parties as the Green Party, Reform Party, Libertarian Party, Constitution Party, American Third Position Party and others, our nation has been reduced to nothing less than a two-party dictatorship. And a two-party dictatorship is only twice as good as a single-party dictatorship. As Carl Schmitt explained the inherently undemocratic nature of the democratic process in praxis, “Every actual democracy rests on the principle that not only are equals equal but unequals will not be treated equally. Democracy requires, therefore, first homogeneity and second — if the need arises elimination or eradication of heterogeneity.”[3] We need the unlimited freedom to vote confidently and freely for parties that most closely match our own individual opinions. We must vote with our conscience, not with our habits.

  The prevailing system has presented us with the artificially designed dilemma of voting for one of only two “acceptable” parties. Let us not be foolish enough to fall for this false dilemma and thus mistakenly vote for one of these two fraudulent parties that have been cynically presented to us by our enemies. Let us not throw our precious vote away. However, by voting for a candidate who perfectly reflects our true values and aspirations, we will be sending a powerful message to the powers-that-be, as well as sending out the call to all of our unawakened brothers and sisters that there is hope after all. By voting with our conscience, instead of our fear, we will be signaling the beginning of the process of reclaiming our nation in the face of the dark forces that are now allied against our people. We will be signaling the beginning of the march toward our liberation. Voting with your conscience is voting with your head.

  The Dharma Nation movement is not an electoral party, or merely a political movement in the normative sense of these terms. Our primary goal is not necessarily to directly win electoral contests by capturing a majority of votes from the masses. The drawback of having an actual political party is that it would be at a disadvantage in America’s current winner-take-all electoral system. The advantage of such a metapolitical formation as the Dharma Nation movement is that it can be very successful on the local level, and can still serve as a powerful and effective outsider pressure-group upon mainstream political institutions.

  Many metapolitical movements in American history did not win office electorally at the federal level, but still managed to significantly change federal policy, the greater culture, or even the entire course of the nation. Besides which, even if a metapolitical movement does not influence many federal elections at first, such a movement still has the ability to make the most obvious opponents of Natural Law lose federal elections.

  A metapolitical movement would not necessarily run a full slate of its own candidates, but would try instead to influence existing independent parties and the system as a whole. For such a movement, the main goal would not be to waste monetary resources and energy on losing campaigns, but to instead serve as a massive outreach, educational and pressure group.

  The Dharma Nation movement takes the following position for those who choose to take part in specifically electoral politics. Overall, we reject both the Republican and Democratic parties. If we must vote, then whenever at all feasible we should vote for a third party that gravitates as closely to our philosophical approach as can be found.

  This is the essential equation for all Dharma Nationalists in all elections:

  1. Vote for the Republican = We are supporting corruption.

  2. Vote for the Democrat = We are supporting corruption.

  3. Vote for a non-compromised third party candidate = one of the above two parties might still win, but at the very least, we have put the fear of God in the corrupt leaders of both of these system-controlled parties.

  In addition, we will have used the election as a massive public relations and recruitment tool to awaken our people. The third option seems to be the only logical choice for the long-term advancement of our movement, and for the long-term betterment of our people.

  This is the perennial question on the issue of whether or not voting makes any sort of difference in our attempt to change society: if we reject voting for honest and credible candidates, then what is the alternative that will jump-start the salvation of our people? There are those who feel that “voting is just a scam.” However, these very same individuals have failed to notice just how seriously every single one of Dharma’s enemies takes the voting process. While many are hiding in their figurative bunkers waiting for some salvific scenario that will never come, the enemies of the people are voting...and winning...and implementing their agenda one legislative mandate at a time. The enemies of Dharma certainly know that voting is not a scam for those who know how to most effectively conduct themselves within the voting system. We need to stop repining that voting is merely a scam, and start voting as one — but only one — effective mechanism of change.

  Organization: The Dharma Nation Movement

  “As one who loves my ancestors and who is not willing to throw away what they have won, I have no honorable choice but to fight for my people and my culture against all odds. No healthy organism willingly submits to its own disempowerment and death.”[4]

  Stephen McNallen

  The Dharma Nation movement is comprised of a dual membership system. The two membership levels are the General Membership and the Activist Cadre.

  General Membership: This level of membership is for those people who want to be financially and morally supportive of our work, but who do not necessarily want to become vocal activists in our movement.

  Activist Cadre: The Activist Cadre consists of the trained activists of the Dharma Nation movement. This level of membership requires much more commitment on the part of the individual.

  Any noble person who fits the criteria of membership and supports the goal of reestablishing Dharma as the foremost governing principle in our world today is welcome to be a General Member. The two primary criteria for becoming a General Member are a good, basic grasp of Dharma Nationalist ideology, and that one cannot also be a member of, or subscribe to, any Abrahamic ideologies or organizations.

  Activist Cadre

  “There are still men who do not belong to this modern world, and whom nothing in this world could lead astray, exalt or humiliate — men who despite all are ready to fight this world with all their strength, as soon the hour to do so strikes.”

  Julius Evola (1898–1974)[5]

  The Activist Cadre, on the other hand, is a wholly exclusive and elite group of highly committed political warriors. This group of activists constitutes a sacred order of people who, under the direct guidance of our leader, have dedicated themselves to both the spiritual path of Sanatana Dharma, and to the committed activities necessary to establish a Natural Law-based government. The members of this group are a small, elite cadre of well-informed, very highly motivated, and systematically trained activists organized into small and manageable political cells of anywhere from 3–12 people. The primary task of each cell unit, as is the case for the general movement as a whole, is first and foremost outreach, propaganda and education directed toward the awakening of our people. The secondary task of the Activist Cadre is the building of community infrastructures on the local level in preparation for the coming Golden Age.

  Women Activists

  “Where women are honored, there the gods are pleased.”

  Manava-Dharma-Shastra, III.55–59

  The Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Pauline Christianity and Islam have fostered the acceptance of the enslavement of women for thousands of years. For these religions, women are little more than cattle — objects to be exploited and abused. Such savagely degenerate ideas, however, are absolutely foreign to the traditional Indo-European, Dharmic view on the nature of women. The pronounced and natural qualitative differences that men and women possess as distinctly separate genders need to always be acknowledged, celebrated and brou
ght to their perfect potential by those of both genders. Men and women are by no means interchangeable or the same. At the same time, however, Dharma has always recognized that without the strength, support and inspiration of our women, we will never be successful as a people. While men and women are biologically distinct, both men and women have an equal share at stake in the future of our culture.

  Women have often been undervalued and taken for granted as activists. They have every right, however, to have their voices heard and honored, and we would like to see many women take on serious leadership roles. The Dharma Nation movement welcomes the participation of any and all qualified women in the role of leaders of our movement.

  The atheistic ideology of modern feminism, as popularly understood, is not the way to achieve a greater voice for women in society or in Dharma Nationalism. Feminism, as it currently exists, is a Marxist-inspired ideology specifically designed to destroy the traditional family structure, and to foster an artificial state of perpetual conflict between the genders that only serves the forces of materialism. Moreover, feminism encourages an unrealistic sense of radical egalitarianism, and the de-masculinization of traditional male culture and behavior. We support the encouragement of women to become strong, powerful leaders of the Dharma Nation movement. The ideology of feminism, however, is not the way to accomplish this aim.

  Cadre Conduct

  “According as one acts, so does he become. One becomes virtuous by virtuous action, bad by bad action.”

  Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (4.4.5)

  All Dharma Nation activists are expected to uphold the highest degree of noble conduct at all times and in all circumstances, without exception. There is no acceptable excuse for any activist not strictly upholding the most ethical, moral, responsible and noble conduct in his life. The principles of conduct that we expect from of all our activists include the following:

  • Being completely drug-free.

  • Avoiding all excessive consumption of alcohol.

  • Being employed and/or a student.

  • Being of sound mental and emotional well-being.

  • Avoidance of foul language and rowdy behavior.

  • Being in optimal health and physical shape.

  • Being at all times honest, loyal, sincere, humble, courageous, noble, honorable, intelligent, moral, and devoted.

  Our cadres must strive for excellence in everything they do; must be tirelessness in their appointed tasks; and must express the highest degree of good virtue in their personal character. A Dharma activist never profits from his work on behalf of our people; never exploits, abuses or steals from our people; and is devoted to always working toward the highest benefit of our people. Ethical choices are themselves the manifest by-product of the given person’s inherent qualitative state, whether that choice concerns that individual person’s essential spiritual nature, their psycho-physical nature, or both. In either case, all cadres will be judged in accordance with their ethical choices.

  Nayaka-Tattva — Leadership Principle

  “The state as the highest order of organic community must be an aristocracy; in the last and highest sense: the rule of the best.”

  Edgar Julius Jung (1894–1934)[6]

  The question of leadership is not merely an issue of organizational, structural, or even political expediency, but is ultimately an epistemological issue. It is the perennial question of the proper derivation of authority. From whence does true authority originate? Dharma teaches us that all legitimate authority is necessarily derived from above, from a transcendent source — from God. Secondarily, authority is derived from those natural-born leaders who are empowered by, and thus closer to, that transcendent source, and who thus have the ability to transmit that empowered truth to those below them. We do not subscribe to the false adage that Vox populi, vox Dei — “The voice of the people is the voice of God.” The voice of the people is not the voice of God, but is rather a confused cacophony of conflicting opinions, subjective emotions, and egoistically-fueled self-promotion. The voice of those who know God is the voice of God. The voice of such an organically self-effulgent person of authority is the inexorable leader and guide of the people.

  In addition to the authority of his voice, the true leader is especially revealed by his actions. “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more,” proclaimed John Quincy Adams, “you are a leader.” The very definition of a real leader is someone who leads by personal example, and who thinks of the long-term consequences of each and every one of his actions in terms of its ultimate implications for his cause, and the ultimate benefit of his people. A leader is known not merely by his words, but by his actions.

  There is only one recognized leader of the Dharma Nation movement, designated as the Sri Nayaka, or the Auspicious Leader. Sri Nayaka guides the overall ideological and strategic development of the movement. He makes all final decisions regarding the daily operations of the movement. He personifies in his abiding being the long-term goals and the very vision of the movement.

  Participatory Centralism

  “The diverse natures of men, combined with the necessity to satisfy in some manner the sentiment which desires them to be equal, has had the result that in the democracies they have endeavored to provide the appearance of power in the people and the reality of power in an elite.”[7]

  Vilfredo Pareto (1848–1923)

  In order to be successfully engaged in the serious-minded power politics necessary to achieve victory in the coming few years, the Dharma Nation movement needs to allow its leaders to be as adaptable as possible in how they choose to present the movement’s message. At the same time, it is incumbent upon the leaders to always be fair, open-minded, and responsive to the needs of the cadres. The best mechanism for such an integrative functioning of the leader-cadre interface is what I have termed Participatory Centralism. This principle of organizational structuring is in direct contradistinction to the dubious “Democratic Centralism” scheme of the Communist movement.

  In the system of Participatory Centralism, each cadre member is allowed to voice their perspectives and questions on any given topic to the leaders. Having then heard from the cadres with patience and an open mind, however, the leaders’ subsequent orders are to then be held as sacrosanct, and to be followed by all cadres with absolute loyalty and trust. Such a methodically logical system leads to both the encouragement of contributions of advantageous ideas from the rank-and-file, coupled with the dynamic efficiency of unanimity. The orders of the leaders are written in titanium. To not follow the direct orders of a leader is to forfeit one’s right to be called a member of the Activist Cadre.

  The leaders of the Dharma Nation Movement will never give anyone any false promises. They will never claim that we will achieve X goal by a certain deadline without doing their utmost to meet that actual deadline. They will never coerce anyone to do anything for this movement by the use of guilt, fear, outrageous demands, or manipulation of any kind. They will always be forever thankful for whatever help any activist extends — big or small — toward the service of our vision of re-instituting Dharma in this world. The members of the Activist Cadre are all heroes who deserve nothing less than the full respect and thanks that all heroes deserve.

  Activist Strategies

  Without a battery of professionally-formulated strategic methods for affecting change, a movement will never achieve its stated goal. A few of the important means by which we are going to bring about the birth of the new Dharma Imperium are the time-honored techniques of incrementalism, entryism, innovative modes of mass education, as well as the aforementioned systematic training of an elite cadre of dedicated Dharma activists, as well as the nayaka-tattva (Leadership Principle) and Participatory Centralism theories outlined previously.

  The primary task that we have before us today is to awaken our people from their lo
ng-imposed slumber. Thus, the mass distribution of Vedic-based philosophical knowledge, as well as the Vedic message made more immediately relevant and palatable via direct agit-prop, is the most important activity that we can engage in today. Those who already sympathize with our general political philosophy should be asked to read Sanatana Dharma: The Eternal Natural Way in order to help facilitate their spiritual awakening. Conversely, The Dharma Manifesto should be read by as many followers of Sanatana Dharma as possible in order to help facilitate their political awakening. We are in an information war. We need to get the message of Dharma Nationalism out to the millions of people who will be most receptive to our worldview, and we need to do so immediately.

  Our approach is one of incrementally influencing people in accordance with their individual levels of understanding. To paraphrase Prabhupada, people need to be intelligently cultivated in their understanding of the truth of the present dire situation, and in the solution to that dire situation. There is, of course, a necessary art of introducing to people only as much information as they are capable of understanding given their individual circumstances and capacities, without giving them so much to the point of having them misunderstand our message due to information overload.