Lawrence Auster
Encyclopedia
Lawrence Auster is an American
traditionalist conservative
blogger and essayist.
for two years, later finishing a B.A. in English at the University of Colorado at Boulder
. He moved to Manhattan
in 1978, and still resides there. He is not, as has been claimed, a lawyer.
Born Jewish, Auster converted to Christianity
as an adult and became a member of the Episcopal Church
, a church he prefers "in the historical rather than the present tense", because the Church's ordination of openly practicing homosexual
s means "it has ceased being a Christian church".
Auster is unmarried. He is a cousin of the novelist Paul Auster
.
and multiculturalism
, most notably The Path to National Suicide, originally published by the American Immigration Control Foundation
(AICF) in 1990. The Path to National Suicide is regarded, along with Peter Brimelow
's, Alien Nation: Common Sense About America's Immigration Disaster
, as a foundational text in the modern immigration restriction movement.
In The Path to National Suicide, Auster argues that the dramatic changes in America's ethnic and racial composition brought about by the 1965 Immigration Act have led to the weakening and delegitimization of America's historic culture and national identity, and that this loss of identity, combined with fears of seeming "racist," have kept the white American
majority from resisting their country's ongoing transformation.
According to Auster:
Auster’s subsequent booklets on immigration have been Huddled Clichés: Exposing the Fraudulent Arguments that Have Opened America’s Borders to the World, and Erasing America: The Politics of the Borderless Nation, both published by the AICF.
Auster's articles have appeared in such publications as FrontPage Magazine, NewsMax, New York Newsday, the Council of Conservative Citizens
' Citizens Informer, American Renaissance
, The Social Contract Press
, National Review
, Human Events
, Arizona Republic, The Occidental Quarterly, WorldNetDaily
, The Miami Herald
, and Insight on the News.
Auster hosts a daily blog, View from the Right (VFR), which includes commentary on current events, politics, society, and culture from a traditionalist U.S. conservative, anti-Islamic, anti-liberal, and immigration-restrictionist viewpoint.
Auster has been critical of both neoconservatives
and paleoconservatives
. His main targets on the right are the neocons who, he claims, are able to identify the problem of radical Islam but refuse to do anything substantial about it such as reducing or eliminating Islamic immigration. Instead, according to Auster, neoconservatives advocate nation building abroad, and fail to recognize the religion of Islam
itself as the cause of Islamic radicalism. He also criticizes paleoconservatives such as Patrick Buchanan for their criticism of Israel and what Auster sees as barely disguised anti-Semitism.
Auster has written, "I have always called myself a racialist
, which to me means two things. First, as a general proposition, I think that race matters in all kinds of ways. Second, I care about the white race. It is the source of and is inseparable from everything we are, everything we have, and everything our civilization has achieved." However, he denies being a white nationalist
and, as a tactical matter, accepts the conventional definition of racism
as morally bad and links it with oppression and hatred. He also is concerned about what he says is the racism of the black power
movement as well as the far left
.
The Southern Poverty Law Center
(SPLC) implied that Auster was a racist because he spoke at an American Renaissance
conference. He was one of 10 speakers to speak at the first conference in 1994, but has not spoken there since. He criticized Jared Taylor
for his tolerating the former Klansman David Duke
and Stormfront
moderator Jamie Kelso
who attended the conference and asked questions. Auster still is supportive of Taylor's personal views as well as those of the late Samuel T. Francis, another frequent speaker for the conferences. Robert Locke
, a New York City
friend of Auster and fellow columnist at FrontPageMag defended Auster against the charges of the SPLC.
Despite his controversial status, Auster is often cited by "mainstream" advocates of immigration restriction and cultural conservatism (including people he has criticized such as Patrick Buchanan), to support their arguments. Buchanan has cited Auster's monograph, The Path to National Suicide, as one of the sources for his own book, State of Emergency, The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America.
On May 4, 2007 Auster was expelled from FrontPage Magazine, because of the controversy over an article he wrote in which he complained that "[e]ach story of black on white rape is reported in isolation, not presented as part of a larger pattern" and that "white women in this country are being targeted by black rapists."
In recent times, Auster has been both lauded and criticized for his writings on John Derbyshire
's ideas. In a 2007 VFR post titled "Derbism Unveiled", he accused the conservative writer of having "descen(ded) into liberal nihilism". Other recent targets of Auster's criticism have included Robert Spencer
, Taki Theodoracopulos
, founder of Taki's Magazine, and Richard Spencer and Paul Gottfried
of Alternative Right
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
traditionalist conservative
Traditionalist Conservatism
Traditionalist conservatism, also known as "traditional conservatism," "traditionalism," "Burkean conservatism", "classical conservatism" and , "Toryism", describes a political philosophy emphasizing the need for the principles of natural law and transcendent moral order, tradition, hierarchy and...
blogger and essayist.
Personal life
Auster grew up in New Jersey. He attended Columbia UniversityColumbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
for two years, later finishing a B.A. in English at the University of Colorado at Boulder
University of Colorado at Boulder
The University of Colorado Boulder is a public research university located in Boulder, Colorado...
. He moved to Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
in 1978, and still resides there. He is not, as has been claimed, a lawyer.
Born Jewish, Auster converted to Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
as an adult and became a member of the Episcopal Church
Episcopal Church (United States)
The Episcopal Church is a mainline Anglican Christian church found mainly in the United States , but also in Honduras, Taiwan, Colombia, Ecuador, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, the British Virgin Islands and parts of Europe...
, a church he prefers "in the historical rather than the present tense", because the Church's ordination of openly practicing homosexual
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
s means "it has ceased being a Christian church".
Auster is unmarried. He is a cousin of the novelist Paul Auster
Paul Auster
Paul Benjamin Auster is an American author known for works blending absurdism, existentialism, crime fiction and the search for identity and personal meaning in works such as The New York Trilogy , Moon Palace , The Music of Chance , The Book of Illusions and The Brooklyn Follies...
.
Writings
Auster is the author of several works on immigrationImmigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
and multiculturalism
Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism is the appreciation, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures, applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g...
, most notably The Path to National Suicide, originally published by the American Immigration Control Foundation
American Immigration Control Foundation
American Immigration Control Foundation is an American political group devoted to reducing "uncontrolled immigration." It is a large publisher and distributor of publications dealing with America’s immigration crisis...
(AICF) in 1990. The Path to National Suicide is regarded, along with Peter Brimelow
Peter Brimelow
Peter Brimelow is a British American financial journalist, author, and founder of VDARE. Brimelow has been the editor of many publications, including Forbes, the Financial Post, and National Review...
's, Alien Nation: Common Sense About America's Immigration Disaster
Alien Nation: Common Sense About America's Immigration Disaster
Alien Nation: Common Sense About America's Immigration Disaster is a 1995 national bestseller book by Peter Brimelow. It criticizes US immigration policy after 1965 from a conservative perspective...
, as a foundational text in the modern immigration restriction movement.
In The Path to National Suicide, Auster argues that the dramatic changes in America's ethnic and racial composition brought about by the 1965 Immigration Act have led to the weakening and delegitimization of America's historic culture and national identity, and that this loss of identity, combined with fears of seeming "racist," have kept the white American
White American
White Americans are people of the United States who are considered or consider themselves White. The United States Census Bureau defines White people as those "having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa...
majority from resisting their country's ongoing transformation.
According to Auster:
The very manner in which the [immigration] issue is framed—as a matter of equal rights and the blessings of diversity on one side, versus “racism” on the other—tends to cut off all rational discourse on the subject. One can only wonder what would happen if the proponents of open immigration allowed the issue to be discussed, not as a moralistic dichotomy, but in terms of its real consequences. Instead of saying: “We believe in the equal and unlimited right of all people to immigrate to the U.S. and enrich our land with their diversity,” what if they said: “We believe in an immigration policy which must result in a staggering increase in our population, a revolution in our culture and way of life, and the gradual submergence of our current population by Hispanic and Caribbean and Asian peoples.” Such frankness would open up an honest debate between those who favor a radical change in America’s ethnic and cultural identity and those who think this nation should preserve its way of life and its predominant, European-American character. That is the actual choice—as distinct from the theoretical choice between “equality” and “racism”—that our nation faces.
Auster’s subsequent booklets on immigration have been Huddled Clichés: Exposing the Fraudulent Arguments that Have Opened America’s Borders to the World, and Erasing America: The Politics of the Borderless Nation, both published by the AICF.
Auster's articles have appeared in such publications as FrontPage Magazine, NewsMax, New York Newsday, the Council of Conservative Citizens
Council of Conservative Citizens
The Council of Conservative Citizens is an American political organization that supports a large variety of conservative and paleoconservative causes in addition to white nationalism, and white separatism...
' Citizens Informer, American Renaissance
American Renaissance (magazine)
-Cancellation of 2010, 2011 conferences:In February 2010, following protests to hotel management of several hotels, which Jared Taylor claimed included some death threats, American Renaissance's biennial conference was canceled...
, The Social Contract Press
The Social Contract Press
The Social Contract Press is an American publisher. It is a proponent of immigration reduction and population control, with an emphasis on issues such as culture and the environment...
, National Review
National Review
National Review is a biweekly magazine founded by the late author William F. Buckley, Jr., in 1955 and based in New York City. It describes itself as "America's most widely read and influential magazine and web site for conservative news, commentary, and opinion."Although the print version of the...
, Human Events
Human Events
Human Events is a weekly American conservative magazine. It takes its name from the first sentence of the United States Declaration of Independence...
, Arizona Republic, The Occidental Quarterly, WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily is an American web site that publishes news and associated content from a U.S. conservative perspective. It was founded in May 1997 by Joseph Farah with the stated intent of "exposing wrongdoing, corruption and abuse of power" and is headquartered in Washington, D.C.-History:In...
, The Miami Herald
The Miami Herald
The Miami Herald is a daily newspaper owned by The McClatchy Company headquartered on Biscayne Bay in the Omni district of Downtown Miami, Florida, United States...
, and Insight on the News.
View from the Right
Auster hosts a daily blog, View from the Right (VFR), which includes commentary on current events, politics, society, and culture from a traditionalist U.S. conservative, anti-Islamic, anti-liberal, and immigration-restrictionist viewpoint.
Political views
Auster has been critical of both neoconservatives
Neoconservatism
Neoconservatism in the United States is a branch of American conservatism. Since 2001, neoconservatism has been associated with democracy promotion, that is with assisting movements for democracy, in some cases by economic sanctions or military action....
and paleoconservatives
Paleoconservatism
Paleoconservatism is a term for a conservative political philosophy found primarily in the United States stressing tradition, limited government, civil society, anti-colonialism, anti-corporatism and anti-federalism, along with religious, regional, national and Western identity. Chilton...
. His main targets on the right are the neocons who, he claims, are able to identify the problem of radical Islam but refuse to do anything substantial about it such as reducing or eliminating Islamic immigration. Instead, according to Auster, neoconservatives advocate nation building abroad, and fail to recognize the religion of Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
itself as the cause of Islamic radicalism. He also criticizes paleoconservatives such as Patrick Buchanan for their criticism of Israel and what Auster sees as barely disguised anti-Semitism.
Auster has written, "I have always called myself a racialist
Racialism
Racialism is an emphasis on race or racial considerations. Currently, racialism entails a belief in the existence and significance of racial categories, but not necessarily that any absolute hierarchy between the races has been demonstrated by a rigorous and comprehensive scientific process...
, which to me means two things. First, as a general proposition, I think that race matters in all kinds of ways. Second, I care about the white race. It is the source of and is inseparable from everything we are, everything we have, and everything our civilization has achieved." However, he denies being a white nationalist
White nationalism
White nationalism is a political ideology which advocates a racial definition of national identity for white people. White separatism and white supremacism are subgroups within white nationalism. The former seek a separate white nation state, while the latter add ideas from social Darwinism and...
and, as a tactical matter, accepts the conventional definition of racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
as morally bad and links it with oppression and hatred. He also is concerned about what he says is the racism of the black power
Black Power
Black Power is a political slogan and a name for various associated ideologies. It is used in the movement among people of Black African descent throughout the world, though primarily by African Americans in the United States...
movement as well as the far left
Far left
Far left, also known as the revolutionary left, radical left and extreme left are terms which refer to the highest degree of leftist positions among left-wing politics...
.
The Southern Poverty Law Center
Southern Poverty Law Center
The Southern Poverty Law Center is an American nonprofit civil rights organization noted for its legal victories against white supremacist groups; legal representation for victims of hate groups; monitoring of alleged hate groups, militias and extremist organizations; and educational programs that...
(SPLC) implied that Auster was a racist because he spoke at an American Renaissance
American Renaissance (magazine)
-Cancellation of 2010, 2011 conferences:In February 2010, following protests to hotel management of several hotels, which Jared Taylor claimed included some death threats, American Renaissance's biennial conference was canceled...
conference. He was one of 10 speakers to speak at the first conference in 1994, but has not spoken there since. He criticized Jared Taylor
Jared Taylor
Samuel Jared Taylor of Oakton, Virginia, is an American journalist and an advocate of what he describes as "racial realism", a philosophy that views race as a biological reality and advocates the separateness of racial groups as the key of a well functioning society...
for his tolerating the former Klansman David Duke
David Duke
David Ernest Duke is a former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan an American activist and writer, and former Republican Louisiana State Representative. He was also a former candidate in the Republican presidential primaries in 1992, and in the Democratic presidential primaries in...
and Stormfront
Stormfront (website)
Stormfront is a white nationalist and supremacist neo-Nazi Internet forum that has been described as the Internet's first major hate site.Stormfront began as an online bulletin board system in the early 1990s before being established as a website in 1995 by former Ku Klux Klan leader and white...
moderator Jamie Kelso
Jamie Kelso
Jamie Kelso is Administrator and owner of the American White Nationalist websites WhiteNewsNow.com and TheWhiteRace.com . He hosts daily webradio programs, including The Jamie Kelso Show on the Voice of Reason Broadcast Network ReasonRadioNetwork.com.-Early life and background:Kelso was born in...
who attended the conference and asked questions. Auster still is supportive of Taylor's personal views as well as those of the late Samuel T. Francis, another frequent speaker for the conferences. Robert Locke
Robert Locke
Robert Locke is a former editor for FrontPage Magazine. A conservative American nationalist, he is critical of liberals, libertarians, and some "compassionate conservatives", including George W. Bush. He is an admirer of conservative scholar Leo Strauss , architect Robert A.M...
, a New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
friend of Auster and fellow columnist at FrontPageMag defended Auster against the charges of the SPLC.
Despite his controversial status, Auster is often cited by "mainstream" advocates of immigration restriction and cultural conservatism (including people he has criticized such as Patrick Buchanan), to support their arguments. Buchanan has cited Auster's monograph, The Path to National Suicide, as one of the sources for his own book, State of Emergency, The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America.
On May 4, 2007 Auster was expelled from FrontPage Magazine, because of the controversy over an article he wrote in which he complained that "[e]ach story of black on white rape is reported in isolation, not presented as part of a larger pattern" and that "white women in this country are being targeted by black rapists."
In recent times, Auster has been both lauded and criticized for his writings on John Derbyshire
John Derbyshire
John Derbyshire is a British-American writer. His columns in National Review and cover a broad range of political-cultural topics, including immigration, China, history, mathematics, and race. Derbyshire's 1996 novel, Seeing Calvin Coolidge in a Dream, was a New York Times "Notable Book of the...
's ideas. In a 2007 VFR post titled "Derbism Unveiled", he accused the conservative writer of having "descen(ded) into liberal nihilism". Other recent targets of Auster's criticism have included Robert Spencer
Robert Spencer
Robert Bruce Spencer is an American author and blogger best known for critiques of Islam and research into Islamic terrorism and jihad. He has published ten books, including two New York Times bestsellers, and is a regular contributor to David Horowitz's FrontPage Magazine and Human Events...
, Taki Theodoracopulos
Taki Theodoracopulos
Taki Theodoracopulos , originally named Panagiotis Theodoracopulos is a Greek/American journalist, socialite, and political commentator.Better known as Taki, diminutive for Panagiotis, he is a Greek-born journalist and writer living in New York City, London and Switzerland...
, founder of Taki's Magazine, and Richard Spencer and Paul Gottfried
Paul Gottfried
Paul Edward Gottfried is Horace Raffensperger Professor of Humanities at Elizabethtown College in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, and a Guggenheim recipient...
of Alternative Right
Alternative Right
Alternative Right, or AlternativeRight.com, is a paleoconservative website which presents itself as "an online magazine of radical traditionalism," and "an attempt to forge a new, independent intellectual Right." The website is often referred to as "AltRight." Alternative Right was founded by...
.