Art and Culture as Practical Action

A Golden Age Approaches

It seems rather obvious that we need to ‘Clear Them Out’ as the popular refrain goes. The question that has bogged many down is what comes next. A certain group of people however are already engaged in both attempts to ‘Clear Them Out’ but also in creating what comes next. It is a broad group in which some members keep their politics relatively close to their chest, whilst others are more forthright. It is certainly a broader tent with less infighting and constant sniping that is present in other political circles. It doesn’t really formally exist but if you know where you look you’ll find it. Broadly speaking we would call these people Dissident Artists.

Dissident Artists care somewhat less about politics than their politically minded cousins. Of course some Artists are also intensely invested in some ideas and may write and talk about them alongside their art but the intertwining is not extensive. Some musicians who feel most motivated by COVID don’t really let that interest influence their music. Broadly speaking the general thrust is a rejection of anti-white and demoralizing ugly art in all forms. This negative orientation and then mutual respect seems to have largely created a rather harmonious eco-system. Already you are seeing certain movements spin off and loose organizations are floating around for people.

One of the ground-breaking moments so far in this growing space has been the hugely successful Passage Prize put together by an anon by the moniker of L0m3z. He corralled a couple of other dissident figures including Moldbug (Curtis Yarvin), ZeroHP Lovecraft, and Gio together, used his reach and ran a contest for poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and visual art. By all accounts it was wildly popular with a slew of submissions (I myself making a short list for non-fiction) and L0M3z is now finalizing what looks set to be a very slick book of winners and others. Whilst it had teething pains that I experienced first hand this felt like a big moment and the aforementioned anon has announced his intention to start up a publishing house in the aftermath of this.

We have of course a number of publishing houses out there now, some are more focused on art than others but almost all are putting out some kind of creative work. Antelope Hill ran their second contest just this year and are putting out childrens books as well. Dave Martel has reimagined Pulp-fiction and spun up the Bizarchives bringing this classic form of story telling back to the masses and is working on a video-game now. Imperium Press have published their own versions of some of the center pieces of epic poetry and a fantastic collection of Indo-European folk-tales. Terror House Mag publishes at a terrific rate poetry and short story collections. Rogue Scholar Press has brought back the long lost and under appreciated poetry of Robinson Jeffers to the fore. The Asylum Magazine has art and poetry interspersing their pages of interesting essays and Raw Egg Nationlist’s Man’s World adverts alone are art in and of themselves. Countere Magazine is even starting to release video documentaries I just noticed alongside their fun zany guides and style, a better version of Vice! There is so much going on in the art and culture side of things it is easy to lose track of.

It is my hope of course that Atop The Cliffs functions as a central hub for poetry in this space, but in truth I am happy to see any poetry project that crops up and do my best to promote and support. This is the future though and it is happening right now in front of you. Hordes of people have decided that the current culture does not offer much to them and are busy creating their own. Raw Egg Nationalist doesn’t need to talk about clearing out the current crop of dreadful ‘men’s magazines’ he is busy building his own with its own unique culture and writing style (watch for my second article coming out in Issue 7) and propelling us forward. His work has seen him picked up by Tucker Carlson. Other ConInc types are being forced to sit up and take notice of this burgeoning movement.

Naturally not everything will be golden, but the standard so far of everything I’ve encountered as been very high. We are rapidly reaching a stage when from a creative perspective a dissident could ONLY read and purchase from publishing houses that don’t hate him and his kind. That is a remarkable step in a very short space of time. A lot of people pine for some kind of activism still to spread our ideas, thinking banner drops or marches are the way. I think those people are misguided, for many reasons, but most importantly because I think culture is the main battleground and it isn’t enough to just critique to death bad liberal art. We have to offer something, and we do! We offer lots, this is just the beginning.