Sam Francis, the Prophet

Gregory Hood, American Renaissance, September 27, 2019

A Russian friend once told me that just before the Soviet Union’s collapse, news articles would mostly maintain the party line but slip real information into the middle. To get the truth, you just ignored the conclusion.

This method works well with Matthew Rose’s recent piece on Sam Francis, “The Outsider.” Mr. Rose does not like Francis, who died in 2005. Yet he also describes Francis’s thought without major distortions. He admits Francis’s prescience. But he concludes by dramatically excommunicating Francis from Western Civilization. Mr. Rose’s reasons for doing so are so weak they prove Francis’s worldview.

Mr. Rose’s piece is occasionally self-refuting. “Francis’s writing earned him many critics, few sympathizers, and no influence,” he says. He was “purged and marginalized in life.” Yet Mr. Rose credits Francis with inspiring Pat Buchanan’s powerful and prophetic 1992 Culture War speech, and he quotes Jared Taylor’s salute to the “premier philosopher of white racial consciousness.” Once again, a critic can’t decide whether white advocates are losers or powerful...........To Read More....