by Ryan Andrews
The intention of this series is to provide the reader with thumbnail introductions to a variety of Dissident Right personalities and their ideas. The three main questions—which are straightforward and aimed at revealing the core—will be the same for each interview. (The lightning-round questions will vary somewhat.)
The subject of this interview is Guillaume Durocher, whose writing appears in many Identitarian publications, most prominently in The Occidental Observer and Counter-Currents.
Briefly describe your journey to the Dissident Right.
My path is perhaps atypical. I was essentially an anti-war liberal who hated Bush and neocons. I supported the European Union as a means of empowering France and Europe, and as a counterweight to the United States. I began changing essentially with the euro crisis, which has been rumbling on since 2011, and showed that the world’s most “advanced” multinational construct simply did not work. The crisis was something of a crash course in the concept of nationhood. I could see the same problems cropping up everywhere for “multistatal” and/or multiethnic polities, whether Belgium, Canada, America, Singapore, or wherever.
I am always surprised, though I shouldn't be, at the number of otherwise thoughtful people who are able to rationalize away or ignore such problems. And multiculturalism obviously leads to very visible problems and tensions everywhere, from the ethnic civil wars of Africa, the Middle East, and the Balkans, to even the most developed (and inevitably ethnically stratified and residentially segregated) "global cities," where many of our best people live.
For my part, I looked for answers and discovered several French thinkers, especially Alain Soral. He powerfully showed in his hilarious video interviews the hypocrisy of the French “democratic” system in excluding the Front National from politics and nationalists in general from the media. He made a strong case for civic nationalism, like that of the FN, as necessary to any notion of citizenship and equity. This was already a big step for me given that we are “educated” in France to consider the FN to be a semi-satanic entity.
Finally, Soral showed in his inimitable way, wielding hatefacts and painfully true insults, the power of the Jewish-Zionist lobby in France. This was starkly visible in the obscene prevalence of Jewish-Zionist figures in French media and in the support of the French establishment, including the “center-left,” for Jewish ethnonationalism in Israel and its persecution of the Palestinians, with the simultaneous virtual ban even on the FN’s civic nationalism in France, let alone outright French ethno-nationalism.
In retrospect, every step was quite difficult psychologically. Human biodiversity and white advocacy were very much the last elements I could accept, because these went so far against what I had been taught. And I had not met enough thoughtful people who could articulate these points of view. In this sense, it was very helpful for me to have semi-moderate voices along the way, to gradually peel away every layer of political correctness. And I tell people: dare to see! The world is so much more interesting once you’ve freed yourself from prejudices!
From there, things have only gotten more interesting, discovering the numerous great thinkers in our movement on both sides of the Atlantic, the comradeship in our communities of proud Europeans across the world, and the renewed study of our great Western tradition since the Ancients.
The Dissident Right is an umbrella term covering several different ideologies and sub-ideologies. Whether it be big or small, an ideological or a factual belief, what is your personal pet issue?
I suppose it would be the idea of reconciling nationhood and Greater-Europe (including diaspora nations like America, Canada, etc). In France and elsewhere in Europe, many nationalists neglect their European identity. I also conversely encounter people who frankly seem to underestimate and be contemptuous of the national fact. Yet, we must respect and even take advantage of national identities within our civilization, for I am convinced ethnocentrism is an evolved psychological trait ingrained in human nature.
I believe Nature and race are useful guides here. Every one of us must recognize our fatherland’s fundamental kinship with the other members of the great European family of nations. From an evolutionary perspective, there is a case for uniting ourselves against the threat from other civilizations (Africa, Islam, China), but there is also a case for preserving the internal genetic and cultural “biodiversity” of the European breed of humanity. Reliance on monocultures is dangerous, as the potato-dependent Irish learned in the nineteenth century.
I am personally advocating for a kind of “Greater-European League” which would unite all nations of European descent in a defensive military alliance, economic and cultural cooperation, and a joint commitment to promote our national and collective genetic interests.
Related to this, I have a project of rehabilitating some of the deep-seated, evolved, and divinely-inspired emotions which are an inherent part of our human psychology: tribalism and spirituality. I believe both are more central to living a full human life and to good politics than many moderns are willing to admit (let alone nihilist postmoderns). All life, and perhaps especially human life, is held together by blood and spirit.
What strand of Dissident Right thought do you most dislike/disagree with, and why?
I actually appreciate just about everyone and think every niche has its uses. Different gateways for different folks! I see literally no need for prominent figures in the movement to attack each other (as opposed to constructively criticize). If you don’t like what someone is doing, well then, offer something better!
Lightning Round:
Greeks or Romans?
Greeks. On their smaller scale, the Greeks were really trying to get it right. Plato and Sparta came closer to perfection than anyone else. And if you’re not really trying to get it right, well then why bother?
European Imperium or the ethnostate?
The United Ethnostates of Europe.
Plato or Aristotle?
Plato. I am amazed how far this very spiritual man saw, how much he was willing to recognize the harsh realities of life and to argue the principle of things. He dared to imagine what the perfect good might be and put it to paper, even when much of what he was saying was still completely impractical. To me, Plato is also our first science fiction writer, in the best sense.
Bach or Mozart?
Mozart. What lightness! Probably Bach can only really be enjoyed in a large European temple.
Julie who?
No, really, Brigitte has been standing up for the Gaulish for years. She has also discretely and quite effectively taken up the Savitrian cause of animal welfare in France.
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| Bardot and Delpy |
Yeah, but who’s hotter?
Brigitte.
Also, a few years ago, Bardot was asked by a close friend of mine to back a professional women’s group. Something about having more women in senior management, that sort of thing. She responded with letter which had a doodle of a flower and said something to the effect of: this doesn’t matter, gals! What class!
Best literature: Britain, France, or Russia?
Oy vey!
I think I recall you mentioning an interest in history, do you have a favorite historian?
Brigitte Hamann (Hitler’s Vienna) is close to being a perfect Historikerin. But if one considers journalism to be the first draft of history, then Lothrop Stoddard may well be unsurpassed (Into the Darkness). I don’t think anyone gave a more balanced account in a more difficult time, all the more admirable in that this time remains hysterically difficult up to the present day.
