American Dissident Voices Broadcast of February 6, 1999

Thoughts on Accepting Responsibility
by Dr. William Pierce

I receive many letters from listeners, and usually they are gratifying
to me. Some people tell me that I have opened their eyes or that I have
helped them make sense out of what's been happening to their world, that
my explanations have really helped them understand what's going on, have
helped them see the big picture. And some people tell me that they
already had figured out by themselves what's happening, and that they
are very happy to have discovered my broadcasts, because now they know
that they aren't the only ones to have figured it out: that they aren't
alone in the world, that there are others who have come to the same
conclusions they have.

I especially sympathize with these people who tell me how glad they are
to discover that they're not the only ones who understand what's
happening, because there was a time when I also wondered whether I was
the only sane person in the universe. I was running around telling
anyone who would listen, "My god, don't you understand where this policy
of racial integration of the schools will lead? It will lead to the
drugs and crime that are endemic among Blacks spreading to White boys
and girls. It will lead to a lowering of scholastic standards to
accommodate the Blacks. It will lead to a greatly increased rate of
racial intermarriage."

And people would look at me as if I were crazy, and they'd tell me I was
an alarmist. They'd say to me, "Just having a few Blacks in school won't
hurt anything. Surely everything will go on pretty much as it always
has."

Then, after I'd looked into the ownership and management of the news and
entertainment media which were pushing every destructive racial and
social and political policy and I discovered that most of them were
Jews, I figured I had the key to what was happening to America, and I
tried to tell people about that. I'd say, "Listen, did you know that
every major studio in Hollywood is run by Jews? Did you know that all
three television networks are run by Jews?" In those days there were
just three television networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC. And I'd start naming
the Jews who were running the big film companies in Hollywood, the Jews
who ran the networks, the Jews who owned the New York Times and the
Washington Post and the three weekly news magazines. I'd say, "Hey,
listen, the Jews make up less than three per cent of the population in
the United States, and yet they control nearly every medium of mass
communication. That's no coincidence." And people would tell me, "Well,
so what? They're just good businessmen, that's all. They're clever at
that sort of thing. That's how they got control. Don't worry about it."

And I'd say, "But don't you see, with their monopoly control of the
media they're able to have an enormous influence on public opinion. Look
at what they're doing with these television serials of theirs, All in
the Family, and M*A*S*H, and the rest. They're all slanted the same way
-- all of them. That's no coincidence. And by controlling the ideas and
opinions of such a large segment of the public, they can control votes,
they can control political candidates. That's why our government is
pushing the same policies the media are pushing. It's no coincidence.
Don't you understand?"

And people would say to me, "Don't talk like that. That sounds like
anti-Semitism. You can't say anything that's anti-Semitic, because if
you do the media will destroy you, they'll smear you, they'll cause you
to lose your job. Go away; don't talk to me."

And I'd reply to them, "Look, I don't care what you call it --
anti-Semitism or patriotism or alarmism or what -- the point is that
it's the truth; it's what's happening to us. And it's our responsibility
to stop it." But my listeners already would be running away as fast as
they could go. And I would really feel lonely. And so I can sympathize
with the listeners who write me today and tell me how glad they are to
have found out that they're not alone in their concern for what's being
done to our country, to our civilization, to our people.

But let me tell you, it's a lot easier today to find people who agree
with us than it was 25 years ago. There are a lot more concerned people
out there today than there were then. There are a lot more people who
understand what's happening. And if my efforts have had anything to do
with that, if I have been able to increase the number of those who
understand, then I am very happy for that. That is my reward for
everything I do: knowing that I am building the number of people who
understand what's happening in the world today.

But you know, there's more to our task than just helping people to
understand what's happening. The bigger job is to get people to accept
responsibility -- personal responsibility -- for straightening things
out. Even back in those days when I felt very lonely, I realized that
getting people to accept responsibility was a more difficult job than
getting them to understand. When people told me, "You can't talk about
the Jews; they'll destroy you,"  -- when they said that and then ran
away from me, it was clear that they already had at least some
understanding of the Jewish problem. They understood that the Jews are
extremely powerful and are organized and don't want anybody explaining
to the public what they're up to. These people already understood that
much without my telling them about it. They just didn't want to do
anything about it. They were afraid. They didn't want to accept personal
responsibility.

It took a while for that fact to sink in. I couldn't understand this
unwillingness to accept responsibility. I mean, when our ancestors came
over here from England and Scotland and Scandinavia and Germany and took
this land away from the Indians and built a country, they weren't a
bunch of softies or cowards or people who ran away from a challenge.
They were strong people. They were fighters. How did their
great-great-great-great-great grandsons become such a bunch of wimps,
such a bunch of couch potatoes and lemmings? I couldn't understand that.

Well, since then I have gradually come to understand how that happened,
how America lost its spine. America isn't the only country that's
happened to. And of course, not every American has lost his spine. There
still are many Americans who are not afraid of the truth. There still
are Americans who are willing to accept personal responsibility:
Americans who when they understand what's going on, either because I
explained it to them or they figured it out for themselves, don't run
away. Instead they say, "What can I do? How can I help?" There still are
Americans like that. The problem is that there aren't enough of them. So
I want to share with you my thoughts on this concept of personal
responsibility, in the hope that it will help you be willing to accept
your responsibility also.

You know, we live in an age of shirkers, of deadbeats, of people who
actually think they're being smart by never being responsible for
anything. It seems like the first rule a lot of our soldiers in Vietnam
learned 25 years ago was "never volunteer for anything." That's what I
hear from a lot of Vietnam vets. But this attitude also has permeated
our whole society and has affected many Americans who are too young to
have been in Vietnam. People who spend a lot of time on the Internet
discussing political and social issues with other people tell me that
the word there too is "never join anything; if you do the government may
cause you trouble or you may be asked to do something; so the smart
thing to do -- the safe thing to do -- is never join anything."

Well, of course, the thing about the Internet is that it is anonymous.
People can express their opinions about anything they want without
anybody knowing who they are. They all use pseudonyms or nicknames. It's
the perfect environment for cowards, for shirkers. They can shoot their
mouths off and act like real men without being called to account. And
like shirkers everywhere, they would like for everyone else to be a
shirker too, so they are not shown up for what they are. They would like
for their cowardice and irresponsibility to be regarded as prudence.
They want to thought of as smart guys instead of as shirkers.

But really, how smart is it never to accept any personal responsibility?
What that amounts to is opting to be a spectator in life instead of a
participant. Life is interesting. Life can be fun. There are many
fascinating things to observe, to talk about. And I guess these smart
guys figure that they will watch it all first. They will talk about it
all with their friends first. Then when they know everything they can go
back and make smart choices about what to become involved in. They won't
make any mistakes.

But you know, it doesn't work that way. You don't get to go back and
start over after you've watched it all and got it all figured out. You
only get one shot at life, and you've got to make the most of it. You've
got to figure it out as you go, even if that means accepting some risk
and making some mistakes. There's no going back. If you just watch it
all the way to the end, telling everyone how smart you are because
you're not making any commitments or taking any chances, you've missed
your chance to live. And that chance never will come again. The people
who live are the people who participate in life, not the spectators who
just watch it go by.

I guess that in this television age, when kids grow up spending much
more time watching things happen on the TV screen than actually doing
things, people who are naturally weak and passive will slip into the
spectator mode and stay there all their lives. And at this point there's
not much we can do for them. They've just missed it. But I know that
there are many men and women out there who still are capable of reaching
out and taking hold of life and living. Those are the ones I'm talking
to. And I apologize if what I'm saying sounds painfully obvious,
painfully self-evident -- but it is so extremely important that I must
say it.

This wonderful gift of life that we have, what does it mean? What is its
real value? Is it simply a collection of sensations, of feelings, that
we get as spectators? I'm sure that for many people that's what life is.
The more pleasurable their collection of sensations, the more pleasant
their feelings, the more enjoyable the things they see as spectators,
the better their life is. And that's understandable. That's what life
always has been for animals -- and we are animals. We are creatures of
instinct, and our instincts tell us to survive, to find food, to seek
shelter, to reproduce, to avoid danger. In a prosperous, civilized
society the drive to satisfy these basic needs expresses itself as a
quest for wealth, for enjoyment, for comfort.

A thousand years ago our ancestors also sought wealth, enjoyment, and
comfort. But they didn't believe that these things were quite as
important as most people today think they are. In that age before
television people were perhaps a little closer to the earth, and they
were a little more aware of just how temporary an individual's life is,
and they reached out for things with a little more permanence, things
beyond wealth and comfort and pleasure, things which to them seemed to
have more real meaning. I remember a few lines of poetry which expressed
this feeling among our ancestors in Scandinavia -- and more generally in
the Germanic parts of Europe -- back during the Viking age. Those lines
are:

Cattle die, and kinsmen die, and so must one die oneself. But there is
one thing I know which never dies, and that is the fame of a dead man's
deeds.

For our ancestors a thousand years ago, of course, cattle were wealth,
and kinsmen were power, and though they sought these things just as we
do today, they understood that they were transitory; the value of these
things was not permanent. The only thing that is permanent is the mark
that one makes on the world with one's deeds. Everyone wants to live
well, of course, but it is better to live effectively: to live so that
one is remembered for what one has accomplished.

And to put a little finer edge on the concept, it is not just fame in
itself which is important. What counts also is the type of fame, the
type of renown. The goal was to be remembered not just for being able to
throw a spear farther than others or to swing a battle-ax harder or to
use a sword more skillfully; it was to be remembered for having lived a
meaningful life, a significant life. For some that meant a life of
accomplishment, of changing the world; for others it meant a life lived
as closely as possible in accord with the ideals of personal honor and
of service to one's people, so that one's life could be held up as a
model and remembered as such.

In any case the life that had lasting value was a life of participation;
never a life of sitting on one's hands and playing it safe. Perhaps too
much television and too much comfort have caused us to lose sight of
this very important thing which our ancestors understood. I think that
they saw their individual lives more clearly in the larger context of
the ongoing life of the race than we do. They were on more familiar
terms with birth and with death than we are and were not as likely as we
are to slip into the folly of believing that they would live forever.
And so being constantly aware of the reality and inevitability of death
they were more concerned than we are to use their lives effectively and
to give lasting meaning to them.

For those of us today who do want to participate in life, who want to
live significant lives, there is no more significant activity in which
to participate than working to assure a healthy future for our people,
for our European race. And there is almost no limit to the ways in which
you can participate in this activity. Whether you're a housewife or a
computer scientist or a machinist or a secretary or a bulldozer operator
or a law-enforcement officer or a teacher or a writer or an artist, you
can participate. The only reason that a rabble of feminists and queers
and Jews and Blacks and mestizos and liberals and Clinton supporters are
running America into the ground today is that decent people are sitting
on their hands. If the decent people in America would get off their
hands and accept personal responsibility for what is being done to their
world, and if they would make a commitment and begin working together,
we could sweep the whole Clinton coalition into the dustbin of history.
It doesn't matter that the Clinton rabble outnumber us. We will whip
them in a minute. We will have the media bosses jumping into the ocean
all along the East Coast and swimming toward Israel as fast as they can
go. But first we must be willing to accept personal responsibility.

And so my message today to every decent person who is listening is this:
Don't be a shirker. Don't try to be a smart guy by continuing to cheer
from the sidelines but refusing to join the team and get out on the
field. Stand up and become a participant in life. Make of your life a
model that people will remember and talk about long after you're gone.
And sure, the bureaucrats in the Clinton government may try to put your
name on some sort of "enemies" list of Politically Incorrect people, but
you should regard that as a badge of honor.

And let me tell you something else -- and this is directed not only
toward the decent men and women in my audience, but also toward those
who now think of themselves as "smart guys" -- let me tell you: don't
worry if the Clinton government hates you for standing up and accepting
your personal responsibility. Don't worry if Hillary Clinton denounces
you as part of some "right wing conspiracy." Don't worry if Janet Reno
tells her jackbooted thugs that you should be watched. Don't worry about
any of these people. Don't be afraid of them, because they aren't going
to last. Their ship is taking on water fast, and they are going down
sooner than they expect, believe me.

Listen, I'm not one of these old-fashioned moralists who'll tell you
that because every major city in America has become the sort of place
that would make the folks in Sodom and Gomorrah blush, we're going to be
punished with fire and brimstone. I don't believe that wickedness is
automatically punished. I do believe that evil can thrive and prosper
for quite a while. My god, look, at how successful the Jews have been.

But I also believe that when a society loses its manliness, when its
leaders lose all sense of direction and no longer are guided by any
principle or any ideal and are concerned only with looking out for
themselves, when a country loses its backbone and its citizens withdraw
from the public arena and refuse to be anything but spectators -- then
that society, that country, will not remain afloat for long. It's going
under.

I mean, how can anyone be afraid of a government headed by Bill Clinton?
How can anyone take seriously a Congress whose members are so frightened
by the opinion polls that they won't throw the bum out? Janet Reno may
still have a lot of jackbooted thugs at her disposal, but by being a
part of the Clinton government she has forfeited the respect, the
serious consideration, of decent citizens. Really, the time has come for
us to understand that this government of clowns and criminals in
Washington may still be dangerous, but it won't be around forever. And
I'm not talking about just the Clinton administration; I'm talking about
the whole structure, the whole system. In planning our strategies, in
deciding how we should live, what the government thinks about us just
shouldn't be as fundamental a consideration as it would be if we lived
in a healthy society with a government of principled men. Even the smart
guys should be thinking ahead to the time when this rotten system and
all its supporters, all its collaborators, are with the maggots, and
people who don't know how to accept personal responsibility because they
have never done it, people who don't know how to participate in events
because they always have been only spectators, may find the going a lot
rougher. The non-participants may find it much harder to survive.

Anyway, it's always better to be a participant than a spectator, and
never more than now. It is time, my fellow White men and women, for us
to stop worrying about anything except doing what is right. It is time
for us to accept our responsibilities.

Thanks for being with me again today. And by the way, if you missed my
radio broadcast last week, you still can listen to it through the
Internet. The current program and a few recent programs -- both text and
audio -- always are accessible on the Internet.
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