Individualism and the Western Liberal Tradition

by Kevin MacDonald

The importance of group-based competition cannot be overstated. I believe it is highly unlikely that Western societies based on individualism and democracy can long survive the legitimization of competition between impermeable groups in which group membership is determined by ethnicity. The discussion in Separation and Its Discontents strongly suggests that ultimately group strategies are met by group strategies, and that societies become organized around cohesive, mutually exclusionary groups.[1157] Indeed, the recent multicultural movement may be viewed as tending toward a profoundly non-Western form of social organization that has historically been much more typical of Middle Eastern segmentary societies centered around discrete homogeneous groups. …

  There is thus a significant possibility that individualistic societies are unlikely to survive the intra-societal group-based competition that has become increasingly common and intellectually respectable in the United States. I believe that in the United States we are presently heading down a volatile path—a path that leads to ethnic warfare and to the development of collectivist, authoritarian, and racialist enclaves. Although ethnocentric beliefs and behavior are viewed as morally and intellectually legitimate only among ethnic minorities in the United States, the theory and data presented in Separation and Its Discontents indicate that the development of greater ethnocentrism among European-derived peoples is a likely result of present trends. …

  One may expect that as ethnic conflict continues to escalate in the United States, increasingly desperate attempts will be made to prop up the ideology of multiculturalism with sophisticated theories of the psychopathology of majority group ethnocentrism, as well as with the erection of police state controls on nonconforming thought and behavior.

  As discussed in Chapter 8, much of this is already happening. The ideology that White ethnocentrism has no intellectual basis and that it is an indication of psychopathology is more vigorously promoted than ever by the media and throughout the educational system, while ethnic identifications and interests among non-Whites are encouraged. Anti-White hatred among non-Whites, especially hatred of White males, is clearly on the rise—a situation that inevitably makes Whites more conscious of themselves as a group. And we are also seeing increasingly stringent social controls attempting to buttress the multicultural state—both informal controls relying on elite consensus (removal from jobs, ostracism) and also, in many parts of the West, legal penalties for individuals who express pro-White views or dissent on race, migration, or the importance of Jewish influence.

  Many commenters on the current scene in America have noted that the increased polarization and inability to communicate across the political—increasingly an ethnic—divide. Opposing groups have irreconcilable world views and see the other as evil incarnate—highly reminiscent of the millenarian thinking discussed in Chapter 6 as a strong trend in American history. As M.E. Bradford wrote, “we are well on our way to a full-fledged Puritan rhetoric of perpetual war against the ‘powers of darkness’: ‘to universal armed camps, engaged in a death struggle against each other.’”[1158]

  As this continues to fester, the conflict is seen by all sides as irreconcilable. This results in an existential clash where fundamental values are at stake. Hillary Clinton, commenting on the poisonous atmosphere of American politics in 2018, noted that civility in American politics could only be restored if her side, the Democrats, won: “You cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for, what you care about.”[1159]

  This suggests the possibility of a civil war. Indeed, a 2018 Rasmussen poll indicated 31 percent of Americans think a civil war is likely soon.[1160]

  One possibility for a civil war scenario was presented by Michael Vlahos, who notes that civil wars begin when the population fractionates into opposing camps.[1161]

  Just since the 2016 election, we have witnessed a rolling thunder of Blue and Red elite rhetoric—packing the Supreme Court, abolishing the electoral college, repealing the Second Amendment, wholesale state nullification of federal law, shackling of voter rights, and Deep State invocation of the 25th Amendment. These are all potential extremities of action that would not only dismantle our constitutional order, but also skew it to one side’s juridical construct of virtue, thus dissolving any semblance of adherence to law by the other. Over time each party becomes emotionally invested in the lust to dismantle the old and make something new.

  Hence, constitutional norms exist only conditionally, until such time as they finally be dismantled, and only as long as a precariously balanced electoral divide holds firm. A big historical tilt in favor of one party over the other would very quickly push the nation into crisis because the party with the new mandate would rush to enact its program. The very threat of such constitutional dismantling would be a sure casus belli. Such tilts in the 1770s against Britain, and later in the 1850s against the slaveholding party, were the real tipping points. Not only was Dred Scott v. Sandford just such a tipping point in 1857, but subconsciously its legacy weighs heavily on Americans today, as they contemplate—often with hysterical passion—the dread consequences of a [Brett] Kavanaugh appointment [to the Supreme Court]. …

  What is clear is that two warring parties will accept nothing less from the other than submission, even though the loser will never submit. Moreover, each factional ethos is incapable of empathizing with the other.

  Vlahos suggests that “what might eventuate would be a national sorting out, a de facto kinship separation in which Blue and Red regions would go—and govern—their own ways, while still maintaining the surface fiction of a titular “United States.”

  (1) The factions are not really regional as much as they are urban/rural and White/non-White, although of course these issues are conflated to some extent. In all Blue states, there is a divide between rural areas and the large urban centers that dominate politically, making a regional partition ineffective. Moreover, a regional breaking apart on clearly defined ideological lines, as occurred in the Civil War, would be much easier than partitioning in an artificial manner because partitioning would create enormous logistical problems.

  (2) Several analysts have suggested various schemes for partitioning the United States to enable a White ethnostate. This would involve population transfers along the lines of the expulsion of ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe after World War II and the India-Pakistan partition of 1948.[1162] In both cases, millions of people transferred, increasing the ethnic and religious homogeneity of both areas. Such a scheme in the contemporary United States would involve enormous logistical difficulties but would certainly be possible if there was enough political will.

  (3) A major difficulty with a racial partition is that the left is poised to become a permanent majority within the present system because of their imported electorate. The left has shown increasingly authoritarian tendencies which would be directed at preventing a White ethnostate. The left has shown no tolerance for dissenting voices. Indeed, dissenters are seen as the personification of evil—exactly the same as in the period prior to the Civil War. If indeed the left obtains power, the expectation would be an increase in political repression, the end of First Amendment protections for free speech, radical changes to the Constitution, more or less official anti-White rhetoric, further removal of historical monuments, and increased levels of indoctrination throughout the educational system.

  If this is correct, then we must expect violence as part of the equation. What would such a war look like? At the present time, the White/rural side would have several advantages in terms of gun ownership and representation in the police and military, especially in the higher echelons,[1163] but that is no guarantee of victory.

  I agree with Enoch Powell: “as I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding; like the Roman, I seem to see ‘the River Tiber foaming with much blood.’”[1164] All the utopias dreamed up by the Left inevitably lead to bloodshed—because they conflict with human nature. The classical Marxist Utopian vision of a classless society in the Soviet Union self-destruct
ed, but only after murdering millions of its own people. Now the multicultural utopian version that has become dominant throughout the West is showing signs of producing intense opposition and irreconcilable polarization.

  When we look back on this era, we do not want to have to say we did too little too late, as happened with the 1924 immigration law aimed at creating an ethnic status quo. All of the measures of White representation in the forces of social control will continue to decline in the coming years given the continued deterioration of the demographic situation. At this point, even stopping immigration completely and deporting illegals would not be enough to preserve a White America long term.

  The left and its big business allies have created a monster. Whites have to realize that if they do nothing, they will be increasingly victimized and vilified in the coming decades as the monster continues to gain power.

  * * *

  [1] Kevin MacDonald, “Mechanisms of Sexual Egalitarianism in Western Europe,” Ethology and Sociobiology 11 (1990):195–238.

  [2] Peter Frost, “The Hajnal Line and Gene-Culture Coevolution in Northwest Europe,” Advances in Anthropology 7 (2017): 154–174.

  [3] Mary Jane West-Eberhard, Developmental Plasticity and Evolution (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003); see also: Peter LaFreniere and Kevin MacDonald, “A Post-genomic View of Behavioral Development and Adaptation to the Environment,” Developmental Review 33, no. 2 (2013): 89–102.

  [4] West-Eberhard, Developmental Plasticity and Evolution.

  [5] Gregory Cochran and Henry Harpending, The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution (New York: Basic Books, 2010).

  [6] Iosif Lazaridis, et al., “Ancient Human Genomes Suggest Three Ancestral Populations for Present-day Europeans,” Nature 513, 409–413 (2014).

  [7] Eppie Jones et al., “Upper Palaeolithic Genomes Reveal Deep Roots of Modern Eurasians,” Nature Communications 6 (November 17, 2015): 1–8, 4.

  [8] Cochran and Harpending, The 10,000 Year Explosion, 36-63.

  [9] Eppie R. Jones, et al., “Upper Palaeolithic Genomes Reveal Deep Roots of Modern Eurasians.”

  Dating the end of the Mesolithic differs in various parts of Europe because the end of the Mesolithic is defined by the arrival of agriculture with the EF’s—hence earlier in the south, later in the north.

  [10] Iain Mathieson et al., “Genome-Wide Patterns of Selection in 230 Ancient Europeans,” Nature 528 (2015): 499–503.

  [11] Ibid.; see also Morton E. Allentoft et al., “Population Genomics of Bronze Age Eurasia,” Nature 522 (June 11, 2015): 167–172.

  [12] Lazaridis et al., “Ancient Human Genomes Suggest Three Ancestral Populations for Present-day Europeans”; Wolfgang Haak et al., “Massive Migration from the Steppe was a Source for Indo-European Languages in Europe,” Nature 522 (June 11, 2015), 207–211.

  [13] Haak et al., “Massive Migration from the Steppe was a Source for Indo-European Languages in Europe.”

  [14] Jones et al., “Upper Palaeolithic Genomes Reveal Deep Roots of Modern Eurasians”; see also Pontus Skoglund et al., “Origins and Genetic Legacy of Neolithic Farmers and Hunter-Gatherers in Europe,” Science 336 (April 27, 2012), 466–469.

  [15] Haak et al., “Massive Migration from the Steppe was a Source for Indo-European Languages in Europe.”

  [16] Ibid., 4.

  [17] Allentoft et al., “Population Genomics of Bronze Age Eurasia.”

  [18] Ibid., 169.

  [19] Wolfgang Haak et al., “Massive Migration from the Steppe was a Source for Indo-European Languages in Europe,” 207.

  [20] Lazaridis et al., “Ancient Human Genomes Suggest Three Ancestral Populations for Present-day Europeans.”

  [21] Helena Malmström et al., “Ancient Mitochondrial DNA from the Northern Fringe of the Neolithic Farming Expansion in Europe Sheds Light on the Dispersion Process,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. B 370 (January 19, 2015): 11–10).

  [22] Alissa Mittnik et al., “The Genetic History of the Baltic Sea Region,” Nature Communications 9, no. 442 (January 30, 2018): 1–11, 8.

  [23] Pontus Skoglund et al., “Origins and Genetic Legacy of Neolithic Farmers and H-gs in Europe,” Science 366 (2012): 466–469.

  [24] See also Davidski, “On the Modern Genetic Affinities of Ice-Age Europeans,” Eurogenes Blogspot (May 5, 2016).

  [25] Pontus Skoglund et al., “Genomic Diversity and Admixture Differs for Stone-Age Scandinavian Foragers and Farmers,” Science 344, no. 6185 (May 16, 2014): 747–750.

  [26] Oscar Lao et al, “Correlation between Genetic and Geographic Structure in Europe Current Biology 18 (August 26 2008): 1241–1248.

  [27] Natalia Kashuba et al., “Ancient DNA from Mastics Connects Material Culture and Genetics of Mesolithic Hunter-Gatherers in Scandinavia,” Communications Biology 2, no. 1 (2019).

  https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-019-0399-1

  [28] Michael Woodley of Menie et al., “Holocene Selection for Variants Associated with General Cognitive Ability: Comparing Ancient and Modern Genomes,” Twin Research and Human Genetics, 20, no. 4 (August, 2017): 271–280.

  [29] Mathieson et al., “Genome-Wide Patterns of Selection in 230 Ancient Europeans”; Lazaridis et al., “Ancient Human Genomes Suggest Three Ancestral Populations for Present-day Europeans.”

  [30] Lazaridis et al., “Ancient Human Genomes Suggest Three Ancestral Populations for Present-day Europeans.”

  [31] Mittnik et al., “The Genetic History of the Baltic Sea Region.”

  [32] Sandra Wilde, et al., “Direct Evidence for Positive Selection of Skin, Hair, and Eye Pigmentation in Europeans during the Last 5,000 Y,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 111, no. 13 (April 1, 2014): 4832–4837, 4835.

  [33] Allentoft et al., “Population Genomics of Bronze Age Eurasia.”

  Cassidy et al. (2015) found that a Bronze age sample of three individuals from Ireland had an infusion of Yamnaya-linked genes (~32 percent), whereas this genetic influence was not found in a Neolithic farmer from Ireland. These individuals were at least heterozygous for blue eyes, although one had brown eyes. Presumably the gene for blue eyes was derived from the h-g influence which remained substantial (~26 percent). The EF individual had dark hair and brown eyes.

  Lara Cassidy et al., “Neolithic and Bronze Age Migration to Ireland and Establishment of the Insular Atlantic Genome,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 113, no. 2 (January 16, 2916): 368–373.

  [34] Allentoft et al., “Population Genomics of Bronze Age Eurasia.”

  [35] Mathieson et al., “Genome-Wide Patterns of Selection in 230 Ancient Europeans.”

  [36] John Novembre et al., “Genes Mirror Geography within Europe,” Nature Letters 456 (November 6, 2008): 98–101.

  Novembre et al found an FST, a measure of genetic distance, of 0.004, indicating a very low degree of genetic separation.

  [37] Lao et al, “Correlation between Genetic and Geographic Structure in Europe.”

  Lao et al. also found low genetic variation in general within Europe, reporting a north-south cline in genetic diversity. Northern Europeans were found to be more closely related to each other than southern Europeans.

  [38] See also Michael F. Seldin et al., “European Population Substructure: Clustering of Northern and Southern Populations,” PLOS Genetics (2006), unpaginated. Seldin et al. find “clear evidence of large differences in population structure between southern and northern European populations.” Italian and Spanish samples clustered separately from samples of other European ancestry, including those of western, central, eastern, and Scandinavian European ancestry. These contrasts were also apparent within samples from Spain and Italy, with the northern areas resembling Northern European peoples more than the southern areas.

  http://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.0020143

  [39] Mari Nelis, et al., “Genetic Structure of Europeans: A View from the North-East,” Plos One 4, no. 5 (May, 2009), u
npaginated.

  https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0005472

  [40] Lao et al, “Correlation between Genetic and Geographic Structure in Europe.”

  [41] Nelis, et al., “Genetic Structure of Europeans.”

  [42] Amy Goldberg et al., “Ancient X chromosomes Reveal Contrasting Sex Bias in Neolithic and Bronze Age Eurasian migrations,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 114, no. 10 (March 7, 2017): 2657–62.

  [43] Ibid.

  [44] Iosif Lazaridis and David Reich, “Failure to Replicate a Genetic Signal for Sex Bias in the Steppe Migration into Central Europe,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 114, no. 20 (May 16, 2017): E3873–E3874.

  Amy Goldberg, Torsten Günther, Noah A. Rosenberg, and Mattias Jakobsson, “Reply to Lazaridis and Reich: Robust Model-based Inference of Male-biased Admixture during Bronze Age Migration from the Pontic-Caspian Steppe,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 114, no. 20 (May 16, 2017): E3875–E3877.

  [45] Jeanne Arnold et al., “Entrenched Disbelief: Complex Hunter-Gatherers and the Case for Inclusive Cultural Evolutionary Thinking,” Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 23 (2016): 448–499, 449.

  [46] Adam R. Boyko, et al., “Assessing the Evolutionary Impact of Amino Acid Mutations in the Human Genome,” PLOSGenetics (May 30, 2008), unpaginated.