Movement Moneyball

Nord-sniffing.

The movie Moneyball, which I have seen, is not only very interesting in its own right, but, on a deeper philosophical and practical level, important with respect to such things as politics, broadly defined, including Far Right political activism. How to best leverage scarce resources?  How should talent be appropriately evaluated?  What are the errors to avoid with respect to what we value in human capital?

See this.

The film begins in 2002. The A’s are facing a crisis. They have far less money than the teams against which they have to compete. (Maybe that has something to do with being located in Oakland.) The richer teams, moreover, are poaching their star players. Beane is told that he simply cannot spend more money rebuilding the team. So Beane needs to think innovatively.

This is very similar to the situation faced by pro-White activists, who, with extremely limited resources, attempt to battle a System that has virtually unlimited resources behind it.  We need to “think innovatively” if we are going to survive, much less win, in our battle with the System leviathan.

But when he meets with his cabinet of scouts and trainers — a bunch of sentimental old ex-jocks — he finds them fixated on building a team of individual “star” athletes, each of whom is evaluated in terms of astonishingly superficial criteria: their looks, whether they have a “baseball body,” the aesthetics of their play (the crack of the ball off their bat), the hotness of their girlfriends, and the like. I found the “cabinet” scene astonishing. The spectacle of ostensibly straight old men making serious staffing decisions based on the looks and physiques of young men (I call it “jock-sniffing”) is something I have seen again and again in the real world, but never on the movie screen.

“…is something I have seen again and again in the real world…” – oh, indeed, I’m sure he has.

How is all of this different from the tendency of “movement” “activists” to evaluate others, including “leadership,” based on, not only their specific ethnic ancestries, but on their physical appearance? And I’m not only talking about “Nordic” or “Nordish” phenotypes (Nord-sniffing?), but also such things as height. Der Movement has a bizarre obsession with “manlets” – a common criticism of people such as Anglin or Fuentes is their height, which is, frankly, childish and absurd. I’m not a fan of either activist, but that’s because of differences with them on ideology, strategy and tactics, accomplishments, etc. – I certainly don’t care at what inch measurement their head would reach in a mug shot.

Of course such criteria are relevant in modeling. They might be understandable in sports and acting, were these not billion dollar industries with objective standards of performance — and countless good-looking failures testifying to the enduring temptation of this particular folly.

“Countless good-looking failures” – Spencer? (se below). And not only countless good-looking failures. Also:Countless ethnically Herrenvolk failures. Also:Countless tall, towering, non-manlet failures. Do you see where this is going?  Everything Johnson says here about the failure of appropriately evaluating talent – a core principle of the Moneyball movie – applies just as much, if not more, to the “movement.”

But jock-sniffing is astonishingly common in serious endeavors, such as politics and the military, where the dire consequences of failure would seem to dictate making decisions strictly on the basis of character and objective qualifications, not looks.

Yes, indeed.  What about Der Movement?  How about "making decisions strictly on the basis of character and objective qualifications" instead of on "Nordish" phenotypes, Northwest European ancestry, Anglocentrism, tall height vs. manlets, etc.? Nord-sniffing is "astonishingly common in serious endeavors" such as pro-White activism.

I would be very interested to read a good psychological, even evolutionary psychological, investigation of jock-sniffing and “golden boys.” Many elements need to be disentangled: the nostalgia of old men for their youth, romanticized self-images, vicarious gratification, latent homosexuality, etc.

And in some cases, not-so-latent homosexuality.  

What about the Nord-sniffing of Der Movement? Can we have an analysis of that? What about the Quota Queen golden boys?

For example, people may see Spencer as a tall, good-looking (*) WASP.  Very well. But, let’s face it, he’s failed as a “movement” leader. He’s the equivalent of one of those incompetent baseball players the jock-sniffing scouts rave about. 

*No, I’m not a ‘homo” but I’m realistic that Spencer, like Mitt Romney, as a certain “look” that people associate with leadership positions.

Culture also surely plays a role. A German comrade once spoke disdainfully of the prevalence of conscious and unconscious of “Anglo pederasty” throughout American culture, which astonished me, because I did not see it at the time. It is, however, a phenomenon that Jews see clearly and do not hesitate to exploit. Jewish philosopher Jonathan Lear once wrote about how Anglo pederasty served him well in his academic career in England and America.

Anglo pederasty?  Oh Indeed!  Indeed…indeed.  Also see this.

Nobody involved in serious enterprises can afford to be unaware of the power of these sorts of motives, which can be profoundly destructive if allowed to work unconsciously.

Like in the cabal?

Beane decides that he needs to junk the “star” system and instead focus on building a team of players who are not stars on their own but who are capable of working together as a team to outperform teams of expensive prima donnas. 

Hey!  Can the Type II pan-Europeanists outcompete the Type I prima donna Quota Queen Nordicists and ethnonationalists?

But it is also true that numerical models can have such predictive power that we can frequently act as if the quantifiable is the only factor that matters. For instance, we know that there is more to human intelligence than IQ, and more to the human soul than intelligence. But in terms of its predictive power for a whole array of real-world effects, it is as if IQ alone matters.

Actually, that’s not true, other metrics of behavior and creativity are just as important. But, I suppose that a HBD site like Counter-Currents would be obsessed with IQ.

No, the real objection to Beane is that he is using quantitative methods to subject the game of baseball — which is inextricably caught up with romanticism, sentimentality, and the cult of well-rounded and excellent athletic heroes — to the business of baseball, which rates the Oakland A’s better than the New York Yankees, simply because the A’s spend less money per win. To this mentality, a man who airbrushes Jesus on black velvet is superior to Michelangelo if the former produces more pictures for less money.

OK, but if we consider politics, broadly defined, including the “movement,” it needs to be considered more like a business than as an art.

The movie Moneyball is really integral to where we find ourselves with the “movement.”

First, we are in a position of consummate weakness compared to the System, and thus need to think innovatively so as to leverage whatever small advantages we have, including making use of undervalued assets.  That’s what Beane did – he found players who were effective but who were ignored by other teams because they “didn’t look the part,” didn’t seem “athletic,” or had some other perceived or real flaw. Similarly, just because someone isn’t a 6’2” tall Nord of Old Stock Anglo heritage doesn’t mean that the person cannot be an effective activist.  That leads to the other main lesson of the movie, you should judge assets by their effectiveness in helping you achieve your goals, instead of over-valuing unworthy assets because of superficial traits (Hey!  He’s not a “manlet” so he must be good…right?...no, WRONG).

And this applies to groups as well as individuals.  White ethnics are an under-valued asset for the American “movement” and Southern and Eastern Europeans are under-valued assets in the worldwide “movement.”  Thinking innovatively would include making use of those assets instead of constantly rejecting and alienating them.