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We’re collaborating with some folk at Ave Satanas Podcast (ASP) and Free Society Satanists to bring you a miniseries looking at Might Is Right — ur-text of Satanism and an infamous work of proto-fascism first published in 1896 by Arthur Desmond a.k.a. “Ragnar Redbeard”.

To be clear: Might Is Right sucks, both as a book and ideology. It’s full of doggerel, bigotry, and contradictions. But we’re gonna talk about it, chapter-by-chapter, from the perspective of modern, anarchist Satanists who feel that racism, misogyny, antisemitism, and tyranny are “bad, actually”.

Livestreams (mostly) take place alternating weeks 9 p.m Eastern / 6 p.m. Pacific, including Friday, Sep. 5 (0100 UTC Sep. 6), with podcasts released the following Saturday (Sep. 13), and new recordings taking place every two weeks:

RSS feed: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/2383108.rss

(copy and paste the URL into the podcast app of your choice)

Folk who have thoughts on MIR and want to weigh in are welcome to join us on Twitch.

Assuming we can make the technical stuff work, the idea is for us to talk this week about the background of Arthur Desmond and Might Is Right, and why a piece of shit book like that is even worth investigating almost 130 years later.

(Spoiler: Anton LaVey plagiarized it for The Satanic Bible.)

Since we’re springing this on you suddenly, the chapter-by-chapter stuff won’t start until Friday Aug. 22, giving people time to do their reading and weigh-in. The first one will prolly be messy, but also to do some open table-setting about why we are bothering with this project now.

We’re using the mechanically impressive “Authoritative Edition” that Trevor Blake put together and published in 2019, harmonizing and annotating various versions, but nobody else ought to feel obligated to use that one rather than any of the free versions you can find floating around on the Web.

Frankly, if you follow along reading the 1910 edition published by “14 Words Press”, you are in some ways getting the more genuine and relevant version of this rancid fucking text, what it is all about, and it’s cultural significance than Blake’s version which falls all over itself in apologism.

This is not really a fun book to read, and if you haven’t read it before, maybe it’s not worth your while.

However, the fact that is bad actually helps to explain a lot of the stuff you see around you today, and the continuity of shit like incels and “anti-theist” antisemitism is also useful.

* * *

Book editions

• 1896: [Link]
• 1910 (by 14 words Press): [Link]
• 1927: [Link] 
• This chapter: [Highlighted]

Ep. 5: Chapter 5 “The Chief End of Manhood—Material Success” (pages 179-242)

The chief end of manhood—material success. Self

preservation, the First Law of Nature. Hell takes

the Defeated Ones—the Failures.

Section 1

“You must tread on the necks of your enemies if you would win renown. It is success that makes the great man” was Napoleon’s dicta. 

…

The whole duty of man in this world is to succeed—to help himself, defeat his foes; outstrip his rivals. He who conquers not, is conquered. He who is unable to trample rough-shod over others, will assuredly be trampled over by them. In the strength of his arm man eats his bread. In the sweat of his brow (and brain), the slave earns bread—for a master.

All emotional rhetoric about “love one another,” “learn to labor and to wait,” etc., has a tendency to paralyze effort—to make victims rather than victors of assentients. Every man’s hand is against every other man; except where living individuals have formed temporary co-partnerships. When one partner breaks the mutual agreement, then the Combine is necessarily dissolved, and all become enemies—as before. Fraternity between carnivores is as transient as the smoke of the morning. It is a pro-tem expedient.

…

Two hungry lions may engage to hunt together, but should one attempt to seize more than his fair proportion of the prey, then it is—woe to the vanquished.

…

Glory and honor be unto him that wins, but anathema maranatha be upon the head of him that fails.

…

Power and proprietorship cover a multitude of sins—of alleged sins: but men and women, (especially women) have an overflowing fund of sympathy and forgiveness—for the “Bold Bad Man” if he is victorious. How women admire men of leonine resolution and Eagle Principles? How they detest cowardice, “goodness,” feebleness, effeminacy, failure? There is no character in history so universally applauded, as the bold “bad” rebel and the mighty conqueror.

…

Let Napoleon’s ideal, be thine. Napoleon was Darwin on horseback. When addressing the ragged and famishing army of Italy, these were his words:- “Soldiers! abundance courts you in the fertile plains below—(the plains of Italy) . . . are you deficient in constancy and courage?” Events proved that they were not deficient in constancy and courage.
…
Therefore, be thou a Napoleon—don’t be a Christ.

…

Scorn all insolent dictation as to right and wrong. Decide right and wrong for yourself. Get property, honestly if you can; but remember “business is business.” (“Mr. Cecil Rhodes under heavy fire for fifteen minutes, captured one herd of cattle himself.” *)

…

Life is life and defeat is hell.

Section 2

Readers must distinctly understand that sexual morality is nowise condemned in these pages. In all sexual relations (as in everything else), “morality” is what Strength decrees. Women are frail beings at the best of times, and in their secret hearts are probably lovers of the unlimited. For the welfare of the breed, and the security of descent, they must be held in thorough subjection. Man has captured them, and besides providing for, and protecting them it is necessary to keep them “on the chain” as it were. Woe unto him, woe unto them, and woe unto our Race, if ever these lovable creatures should break loose from mastership, and become the rulers or equals of Man. (But that is impossible.) From the earliest ages, Man has captured his wife by force or stratagem, and to this day he does the same. Marriage ceremonies symbolize his proprietorship—his capture. The marriage ring is one link of a chain, emblematic of the fact that the pre-historic bridegroom chained his “beloved one” in a cave; till she became tame, tractable, reciprocative.

The sexual degeneracy that is now so prevalent among us, is the result of Christian Civilization; that is to say, the Demonetization of Man and the equalization of woman. As long as the husband is absolute Imperator within his own four walls, the poisoning of the marriage bed (now so common, and so loathsome), can¬ not take place. If his wife, or an intruder, dares to dishonor him, they die: and their death is an effective deterrent. His daughters, controlled with equal vigor, are not permitted to mate with every strumous Dick, Tom, and Harry, that comes smirking along; but are “given away” to young men—who are born of Good Stock; or who have proved their inherent manhood and capacity—in carnivorous combat.

In his sexual relations, the insolent interference of Church and State, is gradually reducing Man to a mere cipher, and establishing a system of organized concubinage; or rather promiscuity. The records of our divorce courts show that sexual infidelity is spreading like wildfire. A prominent New Yorker has publicly asserted that two-thirds of the “married” women in that city are systematically unfaithful: and a fat sordid priestling (named Moody) even openly advises his female lambs, to enter into the joys of ‘godly freedom’ via of that harlot factory, the Divorce Court.

A woman is two-thirds womb. The other third is a network of nerves and sentimentality. To “emancipate” her, is to hand her over to the tender mercies of clerics, who have learned to “play” upon her emotionalism.

Then Credos’ become illegitimately powerful, and dare even to dictate “the whole duty of Man.” After a time diabolical pastor-theories inspire politics and rule nations. Then the State becomes the individual’s Dictator. Men are demonetized while degeneracy and socialistic hybridism sets in, like a slimy flood.

Prostitution (for hire) is also the direct outcome of unnatural conditions, brought about and established, by the harmonious infernalism of statesmen and pre-lates. In many countries this vile thing is ‘regulated’ by law, and in all great cities it is a sure source of revenue, not only to the police forces, but to every man who invests in real-estate or banking scrip. A great city is a great ulcer, and a great ulcer is a sure symptom of congenital blood poisoning. Undoubtedly the destruction of Sodom and Gommora was a good thing.

If our modern Sodoms were all razed to the ground, how Nature in all her perennial purity would rejoice exultantly? How she would wrap their tombs and crumbling tumuli with a blaze of shining glory:

If development persists along present lines, the time is not remote when it shall be truthfully recorded: ‘There is no marriage in America.’? A terrible menace to manhood lurks in the dictation of Slave Majorities in this as in all other affairs. Under the plausible form of Divorce Proceedings, a devilish enginery has been established: by means of which the once pure and Saxon Invaders of North America, are rapidly transforming themselves into hordes of semi socialistic free-lovers.

The sanctity of the Home is disappearing. No longer can it be asserted that a ‘‘man’s house is his castle.’ Marriages are becoming proportionatelyless and less: and baby-farming by the Government, is in full blast. Home life is withering away under the blight of State Interference and Pastoral Benediction.

…

Look over at France where (with the growth of government supervision) the absolutism of the husband is attenuated to a mere fiction—and what do you see? A nation steeped in communistic eroticism, as in a stygian sewer. French women are notoriously unfaithful, and the most horrible sexual lusts are practiced, and pleasantly laughed at. There, promiscuity results is barrenness; and this, when supplemented by correlated self-sterilization, is rapidly transmuting the once all-powerful Frankish Confederacy, into a feeble and decaying tribe of wasted marasma-struck manlings, sheltering themselves beneath the all-protecting

wing of an Asiatic Despot.

…

During the first three centuries “Christians” was another name for “free lovers”—meeting in catacombs and secret places, to enjoy premiscuous sexualism, before the “end of the world” came—an event they expected every day, for three hundred years.

The leperous repulsiveness of medeival sodalities and modern monasticism, is all too well known, and requires no more than a passing allusion. “The cells where corralled onanism dwells” are as notorious as they are ultra-natural. Not only the lairs of male and female celibates, but the vestries of churches and temples, have ever been hot-beds of lascivioness, seduction, and all uncleanliness.

…

“The harlot is Christ’s sister, and the tramp is Christ’s brother;” proclaims “our dear comrade, W. T. Stead,” and he ought to know. Has he not theatrically tried his hand at “being a Christ” (vide “Liza Armstrong and Modern Babylon’ ’)—in order to turn an honest penny?

…

An enterprising Chicago pastor has even started a free-love seraglio (with himself as the divine Thunder Thrower) which he calls ‘Heaven;’ and one of its ugliest angels has boldly sworn in open Court, that she was impregnated by the Holy Ghost; to whom she bore a son—in the orthodox style.

…

O for the Barbarian swarms of the Danube and the Khine!—for the Blonde Pirates from the Northern Seas! O for men of a spirit, with lion hearts and lion brains!—for one cohort of True Knights, who would consolidate their Hopes and Convictions into Naked Swords! Alas! Alas! Vanity of vanities, all is vanity! The age of Chivalry is dead and gone. “So sleeps the proud of former days—so glory’s thrill is o’er.”

Section 3

In all practical operations, non-principled persons possess a distinctive advantage over “principled” ones. Honesty never succeeds, for when it succeeds, it is not honesty. 

…

What chance has a conscientious man, when pitted in statesmanship, literature, or commerce, against the Organized Knavery of sanctimonious and powerful cut-throats? To them he is a pigeon to be plucked— a buck to be hunted—a criminal to be chained—a madman to be made sport of—a lamb to be skinned—a heretic to be—burnt alive.

Certainly it is not good strategy for a man to openly proclaim his loss of faith in conventional moralisms: if he desires to get-on in the world. A wiseling keeps his real sentiments on this point to himself—guards them as his own life. The best mask for moral heresy is one of pretended sanctity. It is very effective. Nearly all the Higher Thieves are ostentatiously pious. Thus when you hear pulpiteers and journalists vociferously proclaiming their profound acquiescence in “moral principles,” it is safe to conclude that they are engineering some subterrenean swindle.

Section 4

In war, your chief end is to smash and paralyze your enemies combinations. To do this effectually you must meet wile with wile, steel with steel, and blow with blow. You must be equally prepared to fight in the open or fight under cover; to fight on sea, to fight on land, or to fight in the air. You shall wage your own war—you shall think your own thought. It is pusilanimity that evolves the Slave, and breeds the ldolator. ‘Quit yourselves like men,’ ye Philistines!

…

‘The man who made Justice was a Liar.’

Whatever weapon your Enemy possesses, must be duplicated, or improved upon by you. If it suits him to challenge battle in open front, be sure and ambush him in the flank; or straightway make a hidden detour and charge him in the rear. It is your chief business to delude him, deceive him, decoy him, out-general him, if you can. If moral scruples and fear of “what the world will say,” prevents you from doing this, then you were born to subordination; and you had better surrender; for you can never hope to vanquish. You must be born again.

Section 5

The man-animal can never be rendered absolutely “moral ” because by nature he is as full as wiles as a fox or a Jew. Should he insanely endeavor to abandon his predatory propensities, then he immediately begins to degenerate, and ultimately becomes a feeble, diseased, ghost-ridden monstrosity, a horror to look at.

…

If all men were scrupulously honest, then honesty might be all right (although even that is questionable) but if one per cent are deliberately dishonest, then it is assuredly all wrong. Under such resultant circumstances the ‘ninety and nine’ actually become victims of ‘the one.’ Honest merchants are ruined by dishonest merchants, honest commanders out-manoeuvered by dishonest commanders, honest workmen displaced by dishonest workmen, honest judges undermined by dishonest judges, and honest nations reduced to beggary and vassalage by dishonest nations.

…

Indeed the majority of men never win success until they are middle aged; until they have had time to slough off the false Idealisms, they began the world with.

…

Christian principles and Natural principles mutually antagonize one another. Nature is Anti-Christ.

…

Who then is right—the Anglo-Saxon or the Israelite?

Section 6

We can no more establish an infallible system of ethics, than we can establish infallible systems of religion, philosophy or politics. All the Universe is in a state of flux, and men are but a swarm of querulous, heat-evolved insectivores, living aimlessly on the top of a floating cork, that whirls and darts and rolls over and over and over; amid the scum and froth and slime of a boiling, bubbling Alembic. Within his own sphere individual man is, and ought to be the supreme determinant. Outside of that sphere he knows absolutely nothing—and philosophy less than nothing.

…

As for the prophets of Futurity, from the days of Gautama, Bel, and Ishtar, down to Christ, Mahomet, Peter, Luther, Calvin, and Brigham Young; they have been strident “decivers all” working on the emotional credulity of women—and doltish rabbles. A false teacher may be earnestly and honorably sincere in all his theoria, but that does not necessarily demonstrate intrinsic divinity. Many false prophets have been murdered (because of their opinions) besides Jesus of Nazareth, Judea; and Smith of Nauvoo, Illinois. The execution of the founder of Mormonism (inspired by political clamor ) is an exact parallel to the execution of the founder of Christianity (inspired by priestly clamor). The point is—neither shooting nor cruifixion are satisfactory proofs of divinity or probity.

Right and Wrong, like Up and Down, East land West, are relative terms, without any fixed or finite meaning. What is good for the goose is not always good for the gander. Newfoundland lies East from Chicago, but West from Berlin. All depends upon the point of view. Consequently what may be Tight’ in one age may, in another age, be wholly ‘wrong’

…

Even what is right to one man, under one set of circumstances, may be utterly wrong to the same man under a different set of circumstances. Cromwell as colonel of the Ironsides, thought regal absolutism the essence of all diabolism: but as President of the Republic, he defended it (in himself) as-‘a crowning mercy.’

…

When the Anglo-Saxon invader is cooped-up and slaughtered in India, that is mutiny and red-handed murder; but when he mows down the sepoys in battalions, or fastens them to the muzzles of cannon and blows them into ribbons, that is upholding the majesty of Law and of Order.

…

Right has always been emblazoned on the standards of Victory, and wrong on the draggled rags of Lost Causes.

…

Citizens who break the written law are haled before judges, inquisitorially cross-examined, and chained for long years in State dungeons: but the statesmen and legislators may sell their country for gold, and break every statute law and constitution in the land; without the least fear of legal intimidation. Indeed the approbation of the State, is all-sufficient nowadays to sanctify any crime—even the most abominable. In this particular (of granting absolution) the State is gradually supplanting and absorbing the Church.

…

All ‘good Christian men’ regard the judicial murder of Jesus, as a crime of the blackest dye, but they chant church-pasens of joy over Jael’s murder of Sisera, and the assassination of Eglon King of Moab; etc, 

…

Slay one man (in order to rob him) and you are a murderer. Slay a million tin or-dor to rob them! and you are a renowned general. Annex from one person and you are a felonious ruffian, but annex from the whole population, or from rival nations, and you are made Chancellor of the Exchequer; Chairman of Ways and Means; or decorated with the grand cross of the Legion of Honor. 

…

Take from the peasantry even an infinitesimal proportion of their petty property, and they will lynch you as a lazy thievish tramp; but take two-thirds of their harvests by law and rule (rent, interest, or tax assessments) and they will turn out in the middle of the night, to cheer you in your steam-horsed palace car, as it whirls through their ‘God forsaken’ villages.

To “steal the goose from off the common” is awful rascality, but “to steal the common from the goose” is splendid statesmanship. Men who write down Holy Fables in books are called Apostles of God, or canonized as saints; but men who tell regulation lies in the ordinary course of business; are populary supposed to be wicked and ungodly scamps. The delightful storyteller who prints a pleasing yarn, coined out of his alcholic imagination, is known as a gifted author: but the plain blunt writer who interprets Facts and proclaims them openly, is an incarnation of iniquity, madness, blasphemy—a veritable Apollyon, Satan ~ – – “What is one man’s meat is another man’s poison.”

…

It is questionable if there is one codified crime that would be considered a crime in every land on earth. Just as there are a thousand different icons and ideals of god, so there are a thousand mutually repellant views of Right and Wrong. 

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He who “keeps the commandments” of another, is necessarily the servant of that other. He who curbs his own thought, to please a majority; has already lost his mental liberty. He who implicitily relies upon* ‘public opinion’ ’ becomes a mere marionette—a bloodless dummy. Professing independence, he is practically a prisoner in his own domain.

Section 7

Better far, for a free animal to be killed outright, than to be mastered, subordinated, and enchained.

…

Each individual should think as he pleases—as ‘ ‘the spirit moves him”—without the least respect for what others think or do—the only limit to his actions being (of course) the materialized opposition he actually meets with: for the Strong are the natural limit of the Strong. 

…

If he is coerced by superior Strength (or strategy) into temporary retreat; lie then owes no allegiance whatever to his triumphant adversaries: and he should be ever ready (when time and tide seem propitiatory) to overwhelm and destroy their dictation. 

…

If a man wound you on one cheek, lay him low—smite him hip and thigh. Self preservation is the first law of thy being. Hate for hate, and ruth for ruth—scorn for scorn and tooth for tooth. Get there, I say!—Get there! Get there at any cost!

…

Let him no longer boast of his bravery who merely weeps with his Dear-Ones, when his Dear-Ones weep for bread. The gallant and the brave, have never yet been known to want for anything. Women shed tears; men shed—them not. Cowards serve masters. Bold men make themselves Masters.

…

The fear of death is the beginning of Slavery. 

…

Hence a small body of diciplined fighters (if protected by the death penalty) are capable of dominating a nation of ten thousand times their number.

Hence also, in accordance with the “fight-fire-with-fire” principle, all secret associatons aiming at the destruction of established tyrannies; in Church or State; have ever been organized (from the most ancient times) upon a 4 ‘death penalty’ ’ basis. When successful, these societies become “Government” in their turn; merely re-forming as defence forces, instead of aggressive forces. On this account the inner workings of ‘government’ are unknown to the outer world.

Every ministerial Cabinet is oath-bound, and all the higher officials are pledged and obligated under a death penalty, to the most strict secrecy. Indeed under the cover of Popular Government, the Financial Empire of the World is an established Fact.

…

Power and Justice are synonyms; for Might is mighty and does prevail. They who possess the itndisputable Might (be they one, ten, or ten million) may and do proclaim the Right. Government is founded on property, property is founded on conquest, and conquest is founded on Power—and Power is founded on brain and brawn—on Organic Animality.

Section 8

A sensible man should never conform to any rule or custom, simply because it has been highly commended by others, alive or dead. If they are alive he should suspect their motives. If dead they are out of Court.

…

He should be a law unto himself in all things: otherwise he permits himself to be demonetized to the level of a domesticated animal.

…

A mans first duty in this world is to himself, and the word ‘himself includes those near and dear ones, who have twined their tendrils around his heart. A mans kindred are part of himself. He should not forget that when fighting for his own hand, he is fighting for them. His strength is their rampart. Their strength is his glory. The family and the individual are a unit.

…

Henry Watterson, an insolent editor of the New Dispensation, in a studied oration before the Wall St. Board of Trade, thus brazenly re-voices the divine-right of Communalism over the fates of men:- “We are to teach the lesson that the citizen exists for the government, not the government for the citizen.” Ignatius Loyolo’s; Calvin’s; Dukes of Alva; Torquemadas; and Pius’s by the score; have been equally eloquent in expounding parallel diabolical sophisms. For ages those Destroyers of Liberty, proclaimed that the individual existed for the Holy Church; not the Holy Church for the individual. However the despotism of socialistic-sacredotalism has been thoroughly tamed—blown to fragments as it were; and the right of private judgement fully maintained. Its cunning recrudescence under the guise of State Infallibility, by the Jesuits of journalistic Diablrie must be met as resolutely, and smashed as savagely relentlessly, as its infernal theocratic prototype . The majesty of the Individual first, foremost, and above all things. “Hells blazes” are realized among us, when “the individual withers and the State grows more and more.’ ’

Should the Wattersonian ideal triumph, every man who then dares open his mouth (except to extol Authority) will run the risk of having streams of lead pumped into it, as a gentle hint to be constitutional.

…

As long as Power requires these hordes of slave-hirelings, they will be provided with enough necessaries to keep themselves in proper trim; but when their Labor Force is no longer a profitable investment, they will assuredly be eliminated.*

* ‘The muzzles of the repeating rifles pointing at their heads, had a quieting effect on the miners;’ daily paper.

…

Let the cowardly and the vile die off—let them annihilate themselves:—that is the logic of the spheres. The atmosphere of this terrestrial ball will be purer, when these “heavy laden souls” are gone; and there will be elbow-room upon its surface, for the regeneration of Purity and Cleanliness of mind and body.

…

Hebrew decadents harped upon this fool-thought of Universal Peace, Equality, Justice, and Fair Play for ages: but have they not been a pestilent tribe of unwarlike slaves, from their leperous beginning?… How delightful? Moses, Jesus, Isaiah, Peter.—Mark, Matthew, Lake, and John, were all squalid Jews, and rhapsodical Communards. Those Hebrew breeders of desolation—Lasalle, Dr. Adler , Jacobi, Karl Marx, are modernized transplanted Essenes—Ebionites.

Section 9

It seems to develop only in animals of unusual vitality—men with plenty of “devil” in them.

…

In the regions of stellar Space similar phenomena may be noted. That sun-star with the strongest attractive powei’, whirls other and lesser stars around it; until finally it comes in contact with a rival rolling mass of greater magnitude and attractiveness, whereupon it is absorbed and loses its individuality. What the law of gravitation is to matter and motion, the law of Might is in the province of sociology. In this analogy there is illimitable significance embedded.

Star life is known to be an emanation of primeval plutonic energy. Our planetary system is like unto one whirling mote (among countless myriads) in a vitalized sunbeam. Our earth is a by-product of secondary cyclonic rage. The sun itself (the power-house of our world) is materialized heat-force in active operation; manifesting itself as warmth, light, motion, electricity, and animal life.

…

Even “the music of the spheres” is the vibrant roar of warring elementals, chanting the Gloria of Power.

…

Authority is not an evil in itself. It is as natural for men of Power to rule Feeble multitudes, as it is for the lion to eat the lamb. When any nation, or class of men possess no real might, it is just and proper that they should be subordinated: and again, if they develop the requisite strength, it is equally justifiable for them to reconquer their former position; and subordinate their subordinators. Evolution works through Authority but there is to it, no limitation.

The penaty of defeat is tremendous. Wage-earning is (in modem times) the main clause in the treaty under which the defeated are permitted to exist.

…

The oppression of one class by another is always induced by the physical cowardice of the victimized; and Nature has no love for dastards—whether rich or poor. Oppression is one of the necessary phases of evolution.

…

‘All the world’ is now in Debt and no human effort can ever suffice to repay the interest (let alone the principal) in cash. Business lives under a cloud of mortgage indebtedness, that must some day be liquidated with shot and shell, for bonds infer—bondage.

…

All realized wealth is transfigured Force… Capital is concentrated Force, applied to the extraction and storage of additional Force. It may be operated by its proprietor in any way that he pleases. He is under no obligation to others, as to its application or proprietorship. 

…

Equality can only exist amongst equals. Civilization implies division of labor and division of labor implies subordination, and subordination implies injustice and inequality.

Section 10

In Evolution there is no finality. It is operating always in some form; endeavoring to blot out inferior organisms, and perpetuate more perfect types. Like the gods of Antiquity, it is both a Destructive and a Creative. The Powerful of the past were overthrown by the more Powerful of the present; and in strict sequence, the Powerful of to-day may be, (must be), overthrown by—the more Powerful of to-morrow.

…

Society is altogether a matter of convenience—an implement—an expediency. It is the creation of man and what man manufactures, he may modify or destroy.

…

Societies have risen and Societies have fallen; but man, the Unit—the germ-plasm—persists; with the rising of the sun, and the fall of the tides. Man is not only the ‘clay,’ but also the ‘potter’—the paramount determinant. His fate is in his own hands absolutely, within the length of his tether.

…

Society (in some shape) must exist, as long as there are two human beings left alive: for companionship is as natural to the homo, as swarming is to the bee. When however the word “Society” develops into a synonym for socialistic restraint, then it becomes a menace to the Evolution of the Type, and ought to be broken up accordingly—without over much ceremony. Friendship is necessary and ennobling, but impersonal despotism is destructive of all dignity and manly virtue.

…

Government and Society are two distinct entites, and care must be taken not to confound them, society is the growth of mutual tolerance, friendship, and obligation; but ‘government’ arises from physical force, applied by the Strong to the control and exploitation of their vanquished foes. The sanction of government, is the same that holds good throughout the whole zoological and heliocentric scale-the sanction of material might. That ‘sanction’ should always be under test; because the most abject weakling may brandish a sword; but we do not know he is a weakling until another sword in the grip of a Man is pointed at his throat.

MANHOOD IS DEMONETIZED

This little pamphlet has been issued, not for private profit, but to assist in uprooting the alien and pernicious Ideals that have been for long centuries corrupting the blood, and corroding the brain of Europe and America. Conventional moral dogmas and political standards-of-value are, like wooden idols, the work of mens hands. They have no real basis in Nature, nor have they any supernatural sanction. 

…

A crucified Jew slave (terrorized under Authority) is set up as a god, as a standard of measurement for all mankind. That is why personal valour and nobility of thought are at such a tremendous discount.

Christendom is in bondage! Manhood is demonetized! Our race is betrayed!

David

• One intentionally good thing from this chapter (can include half-sentence): 
  • Section 4: “The man who made Justice was a Liar.”
    • David: Without any other context, this is just a really cool line, and the next graf is also not bad.
• Weirdest thing from this chapter (good or bad):
  • Section 6: Right has always been emblazoned on the standards of Victory, and wrong on the draggled rags of Lost Causes.
    • David: And yet, everywhere else there are such positive comments on American chattel slavery and the ridiculousness of fighting a war to end it. 
• OK, the really bad one
  • Section 2: A woman is two-thirds womb. The other third is a network of nerves and sentimentality. To “emancipate” her, is to hand her over to the tender mercies of clerics, who have learned to “play” upon her emotionalism.
    • David: I thought this was in the last chapter, but no, there’s just a lot of misogyny at the end of this book.

Jack

• One intentionally good thing from this chapter (can include half-sentence)
  • Section 1. Scorn all insolent dictation as to right and wrong. Decide right and wrong for yourself. (Satanism)
    • Jack: It wild how many “good things I found in this chapter…what’s wrong with me??
  • Section 6: When the weighing scales (or measures are falsified, all subsequent exchanges become marauding. The foreclosing bankers become cattle lifters….Government is the great Blackmailer.
    • Jack: Politics translated from latin is “many blood sucking creatures. To take from the working class when theres nothing left to take is vile. Desmond probably didn’t mean this passage like that, but that’s how I read it.
  • Section 7: Mentally, morally physically, a full grown man should swear no allegiance————–independent of all other men whatsoever.
    • Jack: Isn’t he just talking about Anarchism and Satanism here?! Satanists develop our own morality, and don’t need a work of fiction to tell us how to live our lives.
  • Section 8: A man’s first duty in this world is to himself and the word himself includes those near and dear ones who have twined their tendrils around his heart. 
    • Jack: I can agree with that. Protect those close to you and look out for them. I can fuck with that.
• Weirdest thing from this chapter (good or bad)
  • N/A
• OK, the really bad one
  • Section 2: Women are frail beings at the best of times, and their secret hearts are probably lovers of the unlimited. For the welfare of the breed (Jack: gross) and the security of descent, they must be held in thorough subjection.
    
    Marriage ceremonies symbolize his proprietorship, his capture.
    
    As long as the husband is absolute imperator within his own four walls, the poisoning of the marriage bed (now so loathsome and common) cannot take place. If his wife or an intruder dares to dishonor him, they die.
    • Jack: I know he is more than likely referring to infidelity, but the phrase “dishonor him” scares me. At what point does he consider dishonor? Talking back, not cooking good enough, not being presentable in public?

Felo de Se

• One intentionally good thing from this chapter (can include half-sentence)
  • Section 1: If foiled and baffled one way, try another. Where there’s a will, there’ thousand ways. If the worn and beaten tracks are intentionally blockaded against you, do not hesitate to cut-out a new highway through the jungle—for yourself. Never mind the pulpiteers and editors. They are hired to blind and blockade you. Above all things do not follow the multitude, for it tramples downward, ever downward along Via Del Mortes to abyss’s of poverty, chains, and shame. Retreat not, turn not aside to the right hand nor to the left, but zig-zag on. Ask no quarter, no sympathy. ‘‘Die the death’ rather than surrender and perishing—strike at your conqueror. “Withold not good from him to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it.’ But withal be honorable and upright;
    • Felo: There is a hilariously defensive footnote to this in my edition which reads: If we strictly follow the author’s previous admonitions, then one need only be “honorable and upright” to one’s own kith and kin, or to those with whom he has formed an alliance–as long as it suits his purpose to honor that alliance. Indeed, this was the code of ancient Vikings, Goths, Vandals and other mighty Aryan tribes.
    • In other words, “let us clarify that while it may have sounded like he said something halfway noble, we assure you it is still bad and racist”
• Weirdest thing from this chapter (good or bad)
  • Section 6: When a band of rich men plunder the poor, that  is business shrewdness, practical statesmanship, or financial integrity; but if bands of poor men plunder the rich, that is larceny, burglary, highway robbery, and rebellion. When the Anglo-Saxon invader is cooped-up and slaughtered in India, that is mutiny and red-handed murder; but when HE mows down the sepoys in battalions, or fastens them to the muzzles of cannon and blows them into ribbons, that is upholding the majesty of Law and of Order. 
    …
    Citizens who break the written law are haled before judges, inquisitorially cross-examined, and chained for long years in State dungeons: but the statesmen and legislators may sell their country for gold, and break every statute law and constitution in the land; without the least fear of legal intimidation. Indeed the approbation of the State, is all-sufficient nowadays to sanctify any crime—even the most abominable. In this particular (of granting absolution) the State is gradually supplanting and absorbing the Church.
    • Felo: Infuriatingly close to a genuine insight on dynamics of power, he’s actually just saying that nuance and context make everything meaningless 
• OK, the really bad one
  • Section 2: Women are frail beings at the best of times and in their secret hearts are probably lovers of the unlimited. For the welfare of the breed, and the security of descent, they must be held in thorough subjection. Man has captured them and besides providing for, and protecting them it is necessary to keep them ‘“‘on the chain’ as it were. Woe unto him, woe unto them, and woe unto our Race, if ever these lovable creatures should break loose from mastership, and become the rulers or equals of Man. (But that is impossible.)
    • Gross for obvious, overt reasons, but also this is a more bluntly stated version of a sentiment that is further reaching than the mask-off fans of this sort of ideology. 
    • It wouldn’t surprise me if the same annotator who suggested that RR couldn’t be racist (because he said there were some intelligent New Zealand aboriginals) also said that he couldn’t be a misogynist (because he called women lovable creatures).

Sai (on sabbatical)

Stuff plagiarized for The Satanic Bible

None