IM—1776 at One Year: A few words by the founding editor
When I first considered starting a publication in mid-2020 cities were on fire in the stated cause of ‘Antifascism’ and the early stages of the global Lockdown Regime were materializing. What was clear already was that the solution to our problems was going to require thinking much more radically about political and social questions than the mainstream media and their intellectuals and relays were prepared to entertain. Three months and a handful of published articles later, on September 16, 2020, I launched IM—1776.
I’m proud and grateful for what happened next. Over the past year, we published a total of 86 articles: ranging from essays exploring the thought of philosophers who are currently ignored or censored by the mainstream, historical and contemporary analysis, thought-provoking assessments of current events, as well as various other works diagnosing the ills of our time.
We’ve also had the honor to feature interviews with thinkers including Angelo Codevilla, CJ Hopkins, Thierry Baudet and Curtis Yarvin, among others. We’ve published reviews of books that the mainstream ignores; some of these works had to be self-published by their authors because they were written with the kind of imagination and honesty our mainstream institutions and publishing houses don’t tolerate and reward anymore.
We’ve experimented with multi-part essay series, dialogues between our writers, and even taken a shot (two really) at laying out a forward vision for the West — and why not? Mainstream movements have stopped believing in Greatness. But writers and thinkers with fire will always dare to dream. The mission of every authentic outlet out there should be to find these people and give them a platform to let their talent and creativity flourish, rather than demanding they conform.
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While I couldn’t be happier about the progress of the publication over this past year, the general situation in our countries has continued to deteriorate. The grip of the global Regime and its faithful functionaries is now tighter than ever after the most disastrous year in recent memory. Rioting has barely stopped, lockdowns and masks have become normalized, and governments around the world have bent the knee to our mysterious new masters.
It is tempting to look at our current situation and feel cynical about the future. Few words indeed can describe the suffering and betrayal people across the world have come to know over the past eighteen months. But hard times also present us with a challenge to be faced.
If we focus too much on the enemy we miss the opportunity to recognize the sense of necessity behind projects and bonds which would otherwise be unnecessary and inessential. Both online and in the real world, the task for everyone in the West today who still affirms ideas of brotherhood is to define our own communities and values, and to come together to defend them.
The enemy doesn’t want you to know that you can embrace freedom and discover meaning regardless of its power over you. As our countries and leaders accelerate into madness and destruction, I nonetheless feel grateful for the daring and the courage of the people I’ve had the opportunity to meet and work with in reply. Looking ahead, this platform intends to continue to play a role in this fight for many years to come.
Mark Granza is the founding editor and publisher of IM—1776.
