Classic EssaysWilliam Pierce

The Uniqueness of the National Alliance

William-Pierce-20And the perils of hobbyism

by Dr. William L. Pierce (pictured)

SEVERAL articles in the controlled media recently, particularly in areas where members have been especially active in distributing National Vanguard, have referred to the Alliance as “a right-wing organization,” and some members have also fallen into the trap of applying this designation to the Alliance.

The Alliance does not accept the designation “right-wing” for itself and, in fact, has very little in common with most right-wing organizations — except, perhaps, such superficialities as an opposition to Marxism.

Every member should understand that the Alliance is unique and that it accepts sole responsibility for the future. The Alliance is not simply one organization among many, all working in various ways for the same goals — or even for approximately the same goals. No other organization is doing what the Alliance is doing; no other organization has the Alliance’s goals; and no other organization can take the Alliance’s place.

This understanding is absolutely required of every cadre — and, in fact, no one should be in the Alliance who does not share it. Any yet, because of the difficulty in thoroughly screening every new applicant for membership, a few have crept in from time to time who not only do not share this understanding but seem positively incapable of it.

These few are the hobbyists. Hobbyists are people who have the attitude that if it’s fun or stimulating to keep up with what’s going on in the Alliance, even participating occasionally, why then it must be even more fun to keep up with what’s going on in a dozen different organizations, participating a little in each one, according to the mood of the day or where the most excitement seems to be at the moment.

Hobbyism is a disease, like selfishness, and the people who are afflicted by it can’t help themselves. Whatever may be said here will not cause them to cease being hobbyists; it will merely cause them to think of better excuses to justify their hobbyism. But what is said here will, hopefully, be a warning to others, so that they can recognize hobbyism when they see it and shun it like the plague that it is.

Before proceeding with this topic, we should note that the mere recognition of the existence of other racially oriented organizations in this country or elsewhere is not being condemned. The Alliance not only recognizes the existence of other groups, but it even praises their efforts publicly, when praise is due.

Hobbyism goes beyond that sort of thing, however. It becomes a morbid sort of preoccupation, in which gossip plays a major role, and the object is self-gratification. A hobbyist is simply a special type of the person who always puts his own interests first, and in this case those interests are collecting publications, trading bits of gossip, giving oneself a shot of vicarious stimulation which comes from feeling that one is simultaneously sharing in what a number of different groups are doing.

The great danger the hobbyist poses, aside from the fact that he himself is of relatively little use to anyone for very long, is the attitude with which he infects others. The Alliance asks for the single-minded attention and the full participation of its members. Then the hobbyist comes along, and he says to everyone within earshot, “Look what all these other groups are doing.” If he is successful, he ends up by diverting the attention of Alliance members from the task at hand and dividing their efforts. He encourages them to become, like himself, more of a spectator than a participant.

For the hobbyist is a person who is inherently incapable of any but the most superficial participation. He is incapable of giving of himself. He is incapable of making a full and wholehearted commitment to any cause. He must always hold back, always retain his independence of action. He is always concerned that if he makes a commitment to one organization today, he may find out about another one tomorrow which will be even more exciting to belong to.

Besides selfishness, there is another phenomenon at work in hobbyism. It is exactly the same psychological phenomenon as that which causes a person traveling a busy highway to zoom on by when he sees a person in distress by the roadside, whereas he would immediately stop and offer help if he saw someone in trouble along an untraveled dirt road. On a busy highway, he feels himself only one of hundreds of passing motorists, and the responsibility to stop and help the person in distress belongs just as much to all those other motorists. It’s not his responsibility, so he doesn’t stop. Someone else will.

The fact is that divided responsibility is no responsibility at all. And the fact is that a person infected with the attitude that the Alliance is only one of many organizations will not feel the responsibility to put himself out, to do whatever is necessary, to make sure the Alliance succeeds. He feels that if the Alliance doesn’t make it, some other organization will. And that is a lethal attitude. Wherever we find it, we must root it out.

For it is always easier to pull an organization apart than to build one up. The hobbyist, thinking only of his own gratification and felling no responsibility for the consequences, is as ready to do the former as the latter: whichever yields more gratification. In any organization there are always people whose natural inclinations are somewhat different form those of the leaders. The art of leadership consists in getting everyone to pull in the same direction. But a hobbyist can always come along and attract the attention of those members whose natural inclinations are in some different direction which he proposes.

He thereby pulls a few members away from the main thrust of the organization, damaging the overall effort — without, however, attracting enough strength to his own proposal to accomplish anything of value. But this does not concern the hobbyist, whose main interest is simply in attracting attention to himself and causing a little of the excitement which he finds gratifying.

The only safeguard against hobbyism is for all members to be on guard; to keep always in mind that the Alliance is unique and has sole responsibility for the future; and to act accordingly.

* * *

Source: National Alliance BULLETIN, July 1979

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