Might is Right
Might is Right
Might is Right
Might is Right
Ragnar Redbeard
Publishedby Libertine Press, Australia, 2008.
©Libertine Press. All rights reserved.
http://www.libertinepress.net
dazzle@libertinepress.net
Thisebook is based on the 1927 edition, originally
publishedby Dil Pickle Press, Chicago. Some minor
editorialchanges have been made to correct obvious
misprintsbut many of the inconsistencies in spelling,
grammarand punctuation have been left unchanged.
CONTENTS
Book 1.
CHAPTERI:INTRODUCTORY..................................................................................-4 -
Theliving forces of Evil are to be found in the Moral Ideals of to-day.
CHAPTERII: ICONOCLASTIC.................................................................................-14 -
ChristianEthics impeached. Jesus, the true Prince of Evil — the Mephistopheles ofthe
world— the King of the Slaves.
CHAPTERIII: THESPINNING-OF-THE-WEB!.......................................................- 30-
Thespinning of the web. The Ship of State, a pirate ship. ÔAll men are createdequal,Õ is
thestrident doctrine of the maniac.
CHAPTERIV: MAN — THECARNIVORE!............................................................- 57 -
Manthe Carnivore. The Ideal Animal, a destructive warrior — not a crucifiedcarpenter.
ÒMoralPrinciplesÓ are slave-regulations.
CHAPTERV: THE CHIEF END OFMANHOOD.....................................................- 81 -
Thechief end of manhood — material success. Self preservation, the First Lawof
Nature.Hell takes the Defeated Ones — the Failures.
CHAPTERVI: LOVE, AND WOMEN, AND WAR................................................-110 -
Loveand Women and War. Female animals love the best fighting males. Sexualselection
andthe necessity of unmerciful conflict.
CHAPTERVI: THE LOGIC OFTO-DAY................................................................- 135 -
OPPORTUNITIES
AmanÕs opportunities are never exhausted so long as other men (who are not hisfriends)
possessmillions of acres and thousands of tons of gold.
Theguarded treasure halls and iron-clad temples of modern kings and presidents,high
priestsand millionaires, are positively the richest the world has ever known.
Bulgingare they with the vast hoards of silver and diamonds and gold.
Here,then, is opportunity on a colossal scale. Here is the goal of the C¾sars,
Nebuchadnezzarsand Napoleons in the days that are coming.
Allis ready and prepared for them, even as in olden times.
C¾sarcarried off the treasures of Egypt, Greece, Gaul and Rome. Napoleon looted the
moneyvaults of Venice, Vienna, Madrid, Berlin and Moscow. London only escaped him.
Nebuchadnezzarplundered the Temple of Zion, where the Jews kept all their deposits
anddrank his beer and wine out of JehovahÕs pots of gold.
Napoleon,C¾sar, Nebuchadnezzar! They were three great men, were they not? And in
thistheir greatness consisted — they seized their opportunities.
ALLELSE IS ERROR
Thenatural world is a world of war; the natural man is a warrior; the natural lawis tooth
andclaw. All else is error. A condition of combat everywhere exists. We are borninto a
perpetualconflict. It is our inheritance even as it was the heritage of previousgenerations.
ThisÒcondition of combatÓ may be disguised with the holy phrases of St. Francis, orthe
softdeceitful doctrines of a Kropotkin or Tolstoi, but it cannot be eventuallyevaded by
anyhuman being or any tribe of human beings. It is there
man(whether he will or not) has to reckon with it. It rules all things; it governsall things;
itreigns over all things and it decides all who imagine policemanized populations,
internationallyregulated tranquility, and State organized industrialism so joyful, blessed
anddivine.
THEVICTOR GETS THE GOLD
Virtueis rewarded in this world,remember. Natural law makes no false judgments. Its
decisionsare true and just, even when dreadful. The victor gets the gold and the land
everytime. He also gets the fairest maidens, the glory tributes. And — whyshould it be
otherwise?Why should the delights of life go to failures and cowards? Why should the
spoilsof battle belong to the unwarlike? That would be insanity, utterly unnaturaland
immoral.
Beholdthe crucifix, what does it symbolize?
Pallidincompetence hanging on a tree.
Lo,I hear the fighters coming
Overhill and dale and plain.
Withthe battle cry of ages
Ina Rebel world again.
WhoÕdforge their swords to plow-shares,
Shallsweat in bitter yokes,
Thefree-born race and fearless
Mustdeal out battle strokes.
Inthe wars of the Great C¾sar, and Grim Hannibal, in the times of Belzchazzar,the
Pharaohsand all; the days of Rienzi and Roland the Bold; all banners are waving for
WOMENand GOLD
Itis might against might, remember, by land and sea, man against man,
moneyagainst money, brains against brains, and — everything to the
winner.
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTORY
Inthis arid wilderness of steel and stone I raise up my voice that you mayhear.
Tothe East and to the West I beckon. To the North and to the South I show a sign—
ProclaimingÒDeath to the weakling, wealth to the strong.Ó
Openyour eyes that you may hear, O! men of mildewed minds and listen to me, ye
laboriousmillions!
ForI stand forth to challenge the wisdom of the world; to interrogate the ÒlawsÓof man
andof ÒGod.Ó
Irequest reasons for your Golden Rule and ask the why and wherefore of your Ten
Commands.
Beforenone of your printed idols do I bend in acquiescence and he who saith ÒthoushaltÓ
tome is my mortal foe.
Idemand proof over all things, and accept (with reservations) even that which istrue.
Idip my forefinger in the watery blood of your impotent mad-redeemer (yourDivine
Democrat— your Hebrew Madman) and write over his thorn-torn brow, ÒThe true prince
ofEvil — the king of the Slaves!Ó
Nohoary falsehood shall be a truth to me — no cult or dogma shall encrampmy pen.
Ibreak away from all conventions. Alone, untrammeled. I raise up in sterninvasion the
standardof Strong.
Igaze into the glassy eye of your fearsome Jehovah, and pluck him by the beard— I
uplifta broad-axe and split open his worm-eaten skull.
Iblast out the ghastly contents of philosophic whited sepulchres and laugh withsardonic
wrath.
Thenreaching up the festering and varnished facades of your haughtiest moraldogmas, I
writethereon in letters of blazing scorn: — ÒLo and behold, all this isfraud!Ó
Ideny all things! I question all things!
Andyet! And yet! —
—Gather around me O! ye death-defiant, and the earth itself shall be thine, tohave and
tohold.
Whatis your Òcivilization and progressÓ if its only outcome is hysteria anddowngoing?
Whatis Ògovernment and lawÓ if their ripened harvests are men without sap?
Whatare Òreligions and literaturesÓ if their grandest productions are hordes offaithful
slaves?
Whatis Òevolution and cultureÓ if their noxious blossoms are sterilized women?
Whatis Òeducation and enlightenmentÓ if their dead-sea-fruit is a caitiff race,with
rottennessin its bones?
2
Howis it that Òmen of light and leadingÓ hardly ever call in question themanufactured
Òmoralcodes,Ó under which our once vigorous Northern race is slowly and surely eating
outits heart in peaceful inaction and laborious dry-rot?
StandardÒmoral principlesÓ are arbitrarily assumed by their orthodox apologist to be a
fixedand unalterable quantity, and that to doubt the divine-rightness of theseÒprinciplesÓ
istreason and sacrilege. When the greatest thinkers of a race are incapable, orafraid to
performtheir manifest and logical function, it is scarcely to be wondered that average
citizensare also somewhat unwilling to Òrisk life, fortune and sacred honorÓ for the
overthrowof popularized Òright and wrongÓ concepts, that they know from bitter
personalexperience, are unworkable falsities. Although the average man feels in hisheart
thatnearly all political and religious conventionalisms are dynamic deceits, yethow
cautiouslyhe avoids any open display of antagonism thereto? He has not the courage of
hisopinions. He is afraid to say openly what he thinks secretly. In other words heis
livingin a state of subjectiveness; of vassalage. He allows his brain to be dominatedand
heldin bondage by the brain of another. From his infancy he has been deliberately
subjectedto a continuous external pressure, especially designed to coerce his
understandinginto strict accord with pre-arranged views of moral, political or religious
Òduty.ÓHe has not been permitted one moment of real mental liberty. He imbibed
fraudulentconventionalisms with his motherÕs milk. He listens to the most hideous lies
beingglorified in his presence as sublime truths. He hears falsehoods sung inswelling
chorus.He hears them sounded on bugles of silver and brass. He hears them intoned by
congregationsof the faithful amid peals of sacred music, and the solemn roll of chanted
prayer.Thus his mind is sterilized by authority before it has had a chance to mature.Thus
youthis mentally castrated, that its natural vitality may be afterwards used up inthe yoke
ofcustom — which is the yoke of slavery. In the nursery, at school, and atcollege,
plasticbrain-pulp is deliberately forced into the pre-arranged mould. Everything thata
corruptcivilization can do, is done to compress the growing intellect into unnatural
channels.Thus the great mass of men who inhabit the world of to-day have no initiative,
nooriginality or independence of thought, but are mere subjectiveindividualities, who
havenever had the slightest voice in fashioning the ideals that they formallyrevere.
Althoughthe average man has taken no part in manufacturing moral codes and statute
laws,yet how he obeys them with dog-like submissiveness? He is trained to obedience,
likeoxen are broken to the yoke of their masters. He is a born thrall habituated from
childhoodto be governed by others.
Chinesecivilization deliberately distorts its childrenÕs feet, by swathing them inbandages
ofsilk and hoop-iron. Christian civilization crushes and cramps the minds of itsyouth by
meansof false philosophies, artificial moral codes and ironclad political creeds.
Deleterioussub-theories of good and evil are systematically injected into our natural
literatures,and gradually (without serious obstruction) they crystallize themselves into
cast-ironformulas, infallible constitutions, will-o-the-wisp evangels, and other deadly
epidemics.
ModernÒleaders of thoughtÓ are almost wholly wanting in originality and courage.Their
wisdomis foolishness, their remedies poison. They idiotically claim that they guidethe
destiniesof nations, whereas, in reality, they are but the flotsam and scum-froth that
glidessmoothly down the dark stream of decadence.
ÒThusall the people of the earth are helpless,
Seeingthose that lead are blind.Ó
Mankindis aweary, aweary of its sham prophets, its demagogues and its statesmen. It
criethout for kings and heroes. It demands a nobility — a nobility that cannotbe hired
withmoney, like slaves or beasts of burden. The world awaits the coming of mightymen
ofvalor, great destroyers; destroyers of all that is vile, angels of death. Weare sick unto
nauseaof the Ògood Lord Jesus,Ó terror-stricken under the executive of priest, moband
proconsul.We are tired to death of ÒEquality.Ó Gods are at a discount, devils are in
demand.He who would rule the coming age must be hard, cruel, and deliberately
intrepid,for softness assails not successfully the idols of the multitude. Those idolsmust
besmashed into fragments, burnt into ashes, and that cannot be done by the gospelof
love.
Theliving forces of evil are to be found in the living ideals of to-day.
TheCommandments and laws and moral codes that we are called upon to reverence and
obeyare themselves the insidious enginery of decadence. It is moral principles that
manufacturebeggars. It is golden rules that glorify meekness. It is statute laws that make
spanielsof men.
Aman may keep every one of the Ten Commandments and yet remain a fool all thedays
ofhis life. He may obey every written law of the land, and yet be a caitiff and aslave. He
mayÒlove Jesus,Ó delight in the golden rule and yet continue to the hour of his death,a
failureand dependent. Truly the way to hell is by fulfilling the commandments of God.If
theall-conquering race to which we belong, is not to irretrievably dwindle into
multitudinousnothingness, (like the inferior herds it has outdistanced or enslaved) then it
isessential that the Semitic spider webs (so astutely woven for ages into thebrains of our
chiefs)be remorselessly torn out by the very roots, even though the tearing outprocess be
bothpainful and bloody.
Ifwe would retain and defend our inherited manhood, we must not permit ourselvesto be
foreverrocked to repose, with the sweet lullabies of eastern idealisms. Too long wehave
beenhypnotized by the occult charm of Hebrew Utopianism. If we continue to obey the
insidiousspell that has been laid upon us, we will wake up some dread morning with the
gatesof hell — Òof hell upon earthÓ yawning wide open, to close again upon usforever.
Theidea of hell is in some respects a truthful conception, suggestive of actualfact. If we
terrestrializethe location, there is nothing inharmonious about it. Many a race, many a
tribe,and many a mighty empire has gone down into a grimly realistic sheol. Is it not
rightand just, that the vile, the base and the degenerate (that is to say the slavenations of
theearth) should be punished pitilessly for their creeping cowardice? Is it notright that
theyshould be, as it were, fried and toasted — should swim in pools ofboiling blood, or
dancesweltering satanic glees, with blistered feet and straining eye-balls onred-hot
Saharasof gravel and sand?
Inactual operation Nature is cruel and merciless to men, as to all other beings.Let a tribe
ofhuman animals live a rational life, Nature will smile upon them and their posterity;but
letthem attempt to organize an unnatural mode of existence an equality elysium,and they
willbe punished even to the point of extermination.
3
Allethics, politics and philosophies are pure assumptions, built upon assumptions.They
reston no sure basis. They are but shadowy castles-in-the-air erected byday-dreamers, or
byrogues, upon nursery fables. It is time they were firmly planted upon anenduring
foundation.This can never be accomplished until the racial mind has first been
thoroughlycleansed and drastically disinfected of its depraved, alien, and demoralizing
conceptsof right and wrong. In no human brain can sufficient space be found, for the
relentlesslogic of hard fact, until all pre-existent delusions have been finallyannihilated.
Halfmeasures are of no avail, we must go down to the very roots and tear them out,even
tothe last fiber. We must be, like nature, hard, cruel, relentless.
Toolong the dead hand has been permitted to sterilize living thought — toolong, right
andwrong, good and evil, have been inverted by false prophets. In the days thatare at
hand,neither creed nor code must be accepted upon authority, human, superhuman or
Ôdivine.Õ(Morality and conventionalism are for subordinates.) Religions andconstitutions
andall arbitrary principles, every mortal theorem, must be deliberately put to the
question.No moral dogma must be taken for granted — no standard of measurement
deified.There is nothing inherently sacred about moral codes. Like the wooden idols of
longago, they are all the work of human hands, and what man has made, man can
destroy.
Hethat is slow to believe anything and everything is of great understanding, forbelief in
onefalse principle, is the beginning of all unwisdom. The chief duty of every newage is
toup-raise new men to determine its liberties, to lead it towards materialsuccess — to
rend(as it were) the rusty padlocks and chains of dead custom that always prevent
healthyexpansion. Theories and ideals and constitutions, that may have meant life and
hope,and freedom, for our ancestors, may now mean destruction, slavery and dishonorto
us.As environments change no human ideal standeth sure.
Wherever,therefore, a lie has built unto itself a throne, let it be assailed withoutpity and
withoutregret, for under the domination of a falsehood, no nation can permanently
prosper.Let established sophisms be dethroned, rooted out, burnt and destroyed, forthey
area standing menace to all true nobility of thought and action. Whatever allegedÒtruthÓ
isproven by results, to be but an empty fiction, let it be unceremoniously flunginto the
outerdarkness, among the dead gods, dead empires, dead philosophies, and otheruseless
lumberand wreckage.
Themost dangerous of all enthroned lies is the holy, the sanctified, theprivileged lie —
thelie that ÒeverybodyÓ believes to be a model truth. It is the fruitful mother ofall other
popularerrors and delusions. It is hydra-headed. It has a thousand roots. It is asocial
cancer.The lie that is known to be a lie is half eradicated, but the lie that evenintelligent
personsregard as a sacred fact — the lie that has been inculcated around amotherÕs knee
—is more dangerous to contend against than a creeping pestilence. Popular lieshave
everbeen the most potent enemies of personal liberty. There is only one way to dealwith
them.Cut them out, to the very core, just as cancers are. Exterminate them root and
branch,or they will surely eat us all up. We must annihilate them, or they will us.Half
andhalf remedies are of no avail.
However,when a lie has gone too far — when it has taken up its abode in the very
tissues,bones and brains of a people, then all remedies are useless. Even the lancet isof
noavail. Repentance of past misdeeds cannot ÒsaveÓ decadents from extermination.The
fatalbolt is shot; and into the fiery furnace of wholesale slavery, and oblivion,they must
go,to be there righteously consumed. From their ashes something new, somethingnobler,
maypossibly evolve, but even that is the merest optimistic supposition.
Innature the wages of sin is always death. Nature does not love the wrong-doer,but
endeavorsin every possible way to destroy him. Her curse is on the brow of the Òmeek
andlowly.Ó Her blessing is on the very heartsÕ blood of the strong and the brave.Only
Jewsand Christs and other degenerates, think that rejuvenation can ever comethrough
lawand prayer. ÒAll the tears of all the martyrsÓ might just as well have neverbeen shed.
4
Whatsoevera people believeth shall make it free, enslave it, or corrode its very marrow
instrict accordance with natural order. Consequently if a people place implicitfaith in
whatphilosophers teach them, they are liable to be duped. If many nations are soduped,
theirdeception is a menace to the liberty of the world.
Freemenshould never regulate their conduct by the suggestions or dicta of others, for
whenthey do so, they are no longer free. No man ought to obey any contract, writtenor
implied,except he himself has given his personal and formal adherence thereto, when in
astate of mental maturity and unrestrained liberty. It is only slaves that areborn into
contracts,signed and sealed by their progenitors. The freeman is born free, lives free,and
diesfree. He is (even though living in an artificial civilization) above all laws,all
constitutions,all theories of right and wrong. He supports and defends them of course, as
longas they suit his own end, but if they donÕt, then he annihilates them by theeasiest
andmost direct method.
Thereis no obligation upon any man to passive obedience, when his life, his libertyand
hisproperty are threatened by footpad, assassin or statesman.
Oneof ColumbusÕs lieutenants in the West Indies captured a Carib chief by means ofa
subtlestratagem. The chief was invited to a feast and when there, persuaded with
honeyedwords to don (on horseback) a set of brightly polished steel manacles; it being
cunninglyrepresented to him, that the irons were the regalia of sovereignty. Hefoolishly
believedhis astute flatterer, and when the chains were firmly clasped around his limbs,he
wasled away, to die of vermin, turning a mill in a Spanish dungeon. What those
glitteringmanacles were to the Indian chieftain, constitutions, laws, moral codes, and
Hebrewdominated civilizations, are to the nations of the earth. Indeed, under thename of
Progressand Social Evolution, mankind has been lured into fo¾ted dungeons, where it
laborsunceasingly and for naught, in darkness, despair and shame. Like that Spanish
lieutenantthe masters of the earth first flatter their dupes, in order to more easilyenchain
them.Who talks nowadays of the Òsovereign people,Ó without a laugh of derision? And
yetit was once thought to be a term full of significance. Their ÔsovereigntyÕ isnow
acknowledgedsham, and their freedom a dream. The sovereign people be — damned.
Itis clear, therefore, that the man or nation that would retain liberty, or bereally safe,
mustaccept no formula as final — must trust in nothing written or unwritten,living or
dead— must believe neither in special Jehovahs, nor weeping Saviors —neither in
ragingdevils, nor in devilish philosophies — neither in ghosts, nor in idols,nor in laws
—nor in woman, nor in man.
ÒOthreats of hell, and hopes of paradise,
Onething at least is certain — this life flies;
Onething is certain and all the rest is — lies,
Theflower that once has bloomed forever dies.Ó
5
Hewho saith unto himself, ÒI must believe, I must not questionÓ is not a man buta mere
pusillanimousmental gelding. He who believes Òbecause it has been handed downÓ is a
menialin his heart; and he who believes Òbecause it has been writtenÓ is a fool inhis
folly.Sagacious spirits doubt all things, and hold fast only to that which isdemonstrably
true.
Therules of life are not to be found in Korans, Bibles, Decalogues andConstitutions, but
ratherthe rules of decadence and death. The Òlaw of lawsÓ is not written in Hebrew
consonantsor upon tables of brass and stone, but in every manÕs own heart. He who
obeysany standard of right and wrong, but the one set up by his own conscience,betrays
himselfinto the hands of his enemies, who are ever laying in wait to bind him to their
millstones.And generally a manÕs most dangerous enemies are his neighbors.
Masterfulmen laugh with contempt at spiritual thunders, and have no occasion to dread
thedecisions of any human tribunal. They are above and beyond all that. Laws and
regulationsare only for conquered vassals. The free man does not require them. He may
manufactureand post up Decalogue regulations, to bind and control dependents with, but
hedoes not himself bow down before those inventions of his own hands, —except as a
lure.
Statutebooks and golden rules, were made to fetter slaves and fools. Very useful are
they,for controlling the herds of sentenced convicts, who fill the factories andcultivate
thefields. All moral principles therefore are the servitors, not the masters ofthe strong.
Powermade moral codes, and Power abrogates them.
Aman is under no obligation to obey anything or anybody. It is only serving-menthat
mustobey, because they are caitiffs by birth, breeding, and condition. Morals areonly
requiredin an immoral community, that is to say a community held in a state ofconquest.
FearGod, bridle the spirit, and obey the law, is advice most excellent, as from a
philosopherto a yokel, but when directed in all earnestness at a man of inherent might, he
smilesto himself in silent scorn. Full well he knows that in actual life the path tovictory
andrenown, does not lie through Gethsemanies, but over fallen enemies, the ruinsof
rivalcombines, through Aceldamas. ÒMeekness of spiritÓ is regarded by him as a
convenientsuperstition, very useful for regulating the lives of his servants, his women
andhis children, but otherwise inoperative.
ÒIrest my hopes on nothing,Ó proclaimed Goethe, and masterful minds in all ageshave
neverdone otherwise. This unspoken thought gives to all truly great men theirmanifest
superiorityover the brainless, vociferating herd. The Òcommon peopleÓ have always had
tobe befooled with some written or wooden or golden Idol — someconstitution,
declarationor gospel. Consequently the majority of them have ever been mental thralls,
livingand dying in an atmosphere of strong illusion. They are befooled and hypnotized
evento this hour, and a large proportion of them must remain so, until time is nomore.
Indeedthe masses of mankind are but the sediment from which all the more valuable
elementshave been long ago distilled. They are totally incapable of real freedom, andif it
wasgranted to them, they would straightway vote themselves a master, or a thousand
masterswithin twenty-four hours. Mastership is right — Mastership is natural—
Mastershipis eternal. But only for those who cannot overthrow it, and trample it beneath
theirhoofs. Is it not a fact that in actual life, the ballot-box votes of tenmillion subjective
personalitiesare as thistle down in the balance, when weighed against the far seeing
thought,and material prowess of, say, ten strong silent men?
6
Itis notorious, universally so, that the blackest falsehoods are ever decked outin the most
brilliantand gorgeous regalia. Clearly, therefore, it is the brave manÕs duty to regardall
sacredthings, all legal things, all constitutional things, all holy things, with morethan
usualsuspicion. ÒI deny, and I affirm,Ó is the countersign of material freedom. ÒIbelieve,
andI obeyÓ is the shibboleth of serfage. Belief is a flunkey, a feminine —Doubt is a
creator,a master. He who denies fundamentals is in triple armor clad. Indeed he is
invulnerable.On the other hand, it has been said that every belief, every philosophy, has
sometruth in it, but so we might add has every insanity.
Strongmen are not deterred from pursuing their aim by anything. They go straight tothe
goal,and that goal is Beauty, Wealth, and Material Power. The mission of Power is to
controland exploit the powerless, for to be powerless is to be criminal. The worldwould
indeedbe a house of horrors, if all men were ÒgoodÓ and all women —padlocked.
Asfar as human search lights have yet penetrated, into the darkness thatenshrouds the
originof nations, we see the subduers and the subdued, the plebeians and thepatricians,
thechiefs who governed, and the vassals who obeyed. And there is nothing in themost
modernsocial developments (of these deedless days) to warrant any belief that this
ancientand natural division of human animals, into castes of superiors and inferiors,
sovereignsand serfs, can ever be dispensed with. The slave-ownerÕs whip cracked from
thebeginning and it will crack till the day of doom. In every kingdom, republicand
empireon earth, we have (in one disguise or another) the master and the slave —the
rulerand the ruled. In the course of centuries, names alone have changed, essentialshave
remainedthe same. Forms of royalty may alter but kings can never die. There was
mastershipat the beginning, and there will be mastership to the end. We build, but as our
fathersbuilt. Change is not progress, nor numbers advance.
Everyone who would be free must show his power. Unalterable remains the basis of all
earthlygreatness. He who exalteth himself shall be exalted, and he who humblethhimself
shallbe righteously trodden beneath the hoofs of the herd. ÒThe humbleÓ are only fitfor
dogsÕmeat. Bravery includes every virtue, humility, every crime. He who is afraid torisk
hislife must never be permitted to win anything.
Humanrights and wrongs are not determined by Justice, but by Might. Disguise it asyou
may,the naked sword is still king-maker and king-breaker, as of yore. All othertheories
arelies and — lures.
Therefore!If you would conquer wealth and honor, power and fame, you must be
practical,grim, cool and merciless. You must ride to success (by preference) over the
necksof your foemen. Their defeat is your strength. Their downfall is youruplifting.
Onlythe powerful can be free, and Power is non-moral. Life is real, life isearnest, and
neitherheaven nor hell its final goal. And love, and joy, and birth, and death, andfate,
andstrife, shall be forever.
Thisearth is a vast whirl of warring atoms — a veritable revolving cock-pit.Each
molecule,each animal, fights for its life. You must fight for yours, or surrender. Look
wellto it, therefore, that your beaks and spurs, your fangs and claws are as sharpas steel,
andas effective as science can make them.
Though,the survival of the strongest is the logic of events, yet personal cowardice isthe
greatvice of our demoralized age. Cowardice is corroding the brain and blood of our
race,but men have learnt to disguise this terrible infirmity, behind the cantingwhine of
ÒhumanityÓand Ògoodness.Ó Words flow instead of blood, and terrible insults are
exchanged,instead of terrible blows.
Howrich this degenerate world is in small, petty-souled, good-for-nothings, whoare
foreverexcusing their infantile ineptitude behind some plausible phrase — some
conventionalmake-believe?
Courage,I say! Courage, not goodness, is the great desideratum — courage thatrequires
neithertin horns, nor calcium lights, nor brass bands, nor shouting multitudes to callit
intoeffective action.
Butcourage that goes its way ALONE
deathÕamid the menacing stride of armed and bannered legions.
Courage,that delights in danger — Courage, that knows not despair! Courage that
proudly,defiantly smiles on death!
Courage,that regards with equal loathing the multitudeÕs mad howls of hate, its stupid
hee-hawsand its stridulating Ôtremendous applause.Õ
Courage,that asks no quarter, even with the knife at its throat — courage that isstiff-
necked,unyielding, sullen, pitiless!
Courage,that never falters — never retreats!
Courage,that looks down with supreme disdain upon all slave regulations, upon allrights
andwrongs, upon all good and evil!
Courage,that has made up its mind to conquer or — perish!
Thatis the kind of courage this world lacks. That is the kind of courage that aidsby
activeco-operation the survival of the Fittest — the survival of the Best.
Thatis the kind of courage that has never turned a masterÕs mill.
Thatis the kind of courage that never will turn it.
Thatis the kind of courage that will die, rather than turn it.
** *
ÒWhenSvipdag came to the enclosure, the gate of the burg was shut (for it was
customaryto ask leave to come in and see, or take part in the war games.) Svipdag did
nottake that trouble, but broke open the gate and rode into the yard.Ó
QueenYisa said:— ÒThis man willbe welcome here.Ó 1
1
AncientNorse Saga.
CHAPTER II: ICONOCLASTIC
Asfar as Sociology is concerned, we must either abandon our reason, or abandonChrist.
Heis pre-eminently, the prophet of unreason — the preacher ofrabble-rabies. All that is
enervatingand destructive of manhood, he glorifies, — all that is self-reliant andheroic,
hedenounces. Lazarus, the filthy and diseased vagrant, is his hero of heroes; andDives,
thesane, energetic citizen, is his ÔawfulÕ example of baseness and criminality. Hepraises
ÒthehumbleÓ and he curses the proud. He blesses the failures, and damns thesuccessful.
Allthat is noble, he perverts — all that is atrocious he upholds. He invertsall the natural
instinctsof mankind, and urges us to live artificial lives. He commands the
demonetizationof virtues that aggrandize a people, and advises his admirers to submit in
quietnessto every insult, contumely, indignity; to be slaves, de-facto. Indeed, there is
scarceone thought in the whole of his Dicta that is practically true.
O,Christ! O, Christ! Thou artful fiend! Thou Great Subverter! What an amazingEblis-
glamour,thou hast cast over the world? Thou mean insignificant-minded Jew!
Whyis it that our modern philosophers are so mortally afraid to boldly challengethe
ÔinspiredÕutopianism of this poor self-deluded Galilean mountaineer, — thispreacher of
alleunuch-virtues — of self-abasement, of passive suffering?
Thesickly humanitarian ethics, so eloquently rayed forth by Jesus Christ and his
superstitioussuccessors, in ancient Judea, and throughout the moribund Roman empire,
aregenerally accepted in Anglo-Saxondom as the very elixir of immortal wisdom, the
purest,wisest, grandest, most incontrovertible of all Ôdivine revelations,Õ or occult
thaumaturgies.And yet when closely examined, they are found to be neither divine,
occult,reasonable, nor even honest; but composed, almost exclusively of the stuff that
nightmaresare made of; together with a strong dash of oriental legerdemain.
Througha thousand different channels, current politico-economic belief is dominated by
thebase communistic cabala of the Ôman of many sorrows;Õ yet as a practicaltheorem, it
ishardly ever critically examined. Why is it that the suggested social solutions
promulgatedby Jesus, Peter, Paul, James, and other Asiatic cataleptics, are accepted so
meeklyby us, upon trust? If these men were anything, they were crude socialistreformers
withmis-shapen souls, preachers of Ôa new heaven, and a new earth,Õ that is to say,
demagogues— politicians-of-the-slums; and out of the slums, nothing that is noblecan
everbe born.
Asagitators, Jesus and his modern continuators shall be exclusively considered inthese
pages.However, it must be distinctly understood that the spiritual and temporal inall
cosmogonies,are so intricately interwoven, that it is almost impossible to completely
divorcethem. Like the Siamese twins, Gods and Governments are inextricably bound
together;so much so indeed, that if you kill one, the other cannot live. Hence the openor
secretalliance, that has always existed between the politician and the priest.
Whatevertheir primitive purity (or impurity), all operative creedal philosophies are
essentiallycivil and military codes, police regulations. ÔReligion is a power, a political
engine,and if there was no God, I would have to invent one,Õ said the great Napoleon.In
letterand in spirit, Christianity is above all things a political theory, and atheory that
oftentakes the form of raging hysterics.
Religionsare the matrix in which public institutions are generally molded. This has ever
beenwell understood by the dominant leaders of mankind, from Numa to Brigham
Young,from Solon to Loyola, from Constantine to the lowest Levite hireling, who gets
paidin dimes and cents for his unctuous mock — dithyrambs.
2
ÔAllye are brethren.Õ
Areall men really brethren? — Negro and Indian, Blackfellow, Kalmuck, andCoolie —
thewell-born, and the base-bred,2 — beer-soakedloafer, and hero-hearted patriot —
beltedchieftain and ignoble mechanic-slave, — pot of iron and pot of clay?
Whatproof is there that the brotherhood-of-man hypothesis is in accordance withnature?
Onwhat trustworthy biologic, historic or other evidence does it rest? If it isnatural, then
rivalry,competition, and strife are unnatural. (And it is proposed to prove in thisbook,
thatstrife, competition, rivalry, and the wholesale destruction of feeble types ofmen, is
notonly natural, but highly necessary.) Has ÔbrotherhoodÕ ever been tried uponearth?
Where,when and with what final result? Is not self-assertion nobler, grander and more
trulyheroic than self-denial? Is not self-abasement but another term for voluntary
vassalage;voluntary burden-bearing?
Christmight well and truthfully have said unto his followers ÔCome unto me all yethat
areweary and heavy laden and I will bind you in unbreakable bonds, and load youdown
likean ass between two burdens.Õ
TheÔpoor and ignorantÕ were his first followers — the vagrants, thedisinherited shiftless
classes:and to this very day, the poorer and more ignorant men and women are, the more
eagerare they to follow his religious ideals, or the political millennialisms thatare
distilledout of his delusions.
ÔIfwe only lived as Christ lived, what a beautiful world this would be,Õ saith all
thoughtlessones. If we lived as Christ lived, there would be none of us left to live. He
begatno children; he labored not for his bread; he possessed neither house nor home;he
2
Theseterms are used in the strict Darwinian sense.
merelytalked. Consequently he must have existed on charity, or have stolen bread. ÔIfwe
alllived like Christ,Õ would there have been anyone left to labor, to be beggedfrom, to be
stolenfrom? ÔIf we all lived like ChristÕ is thus a self-evident absurdity.
Nowonder that it is recorded: ÔNot many wise after the flesh, not many mighty,not many
nobleare called; but God chose the foolish things of the world, and God chose theweak
thingsof the world, and the things that are despised.Õ Nothing else would haveanything
todo with him. Christ was indeed, the prophet of the credulous rabble duringthree years
ofactive agitation, and it abandoned him in his hour of need (what always happensunder
similarcircumstances) for the rabble is ever cowardly, ungenerous, suspicious,
unfathomablybase. It has never yet had a leader of commanding ability (either in peace
orin war) that it did not ultimately desert or betray, i.e. if he did not takethe precaution
tomake himself its master.
Afterpermitting Christ to be butchered, the mob thereupon set him up as theirDivinity,
anderected altars to his renown. Slaves, women, madmen, lepers, magdalenes, werethe
earliestChristians, and to this hour, women, children, slaves and lunatics are the raw
materialof the Christian Church.
PrimitiveChristianity cunningly appealed to the imagination of a world of superstitious
slaves(eager for some mode of escape that meant not the giving and receiving ofbattle-
strokes.)It organized them for the overthrow of Heroic Principles; and substituted, fora
genuinenobility based on battle-selection, a crafty theocracy founded uponpriest-craft,
hell-craft,alms-giving, politicalisms, and all that is impure and subterranean. It is a
doctrineat once disgraceful in its antecedents, its teachers, and in itself. Truly hasit been
calledÔthe fatal dower of Constantine,Õ for it has suffocated, or is suffocating theseeds of
Heroism.
Bothancient and modern Christianism and all that has its root therein, is thenegation of
everythinggrand, noble, generous, heroic, and the glorification of everything feeble,
atrocious,dishonorable, dastardly. The cross is now, and ever has been, an escutcheon of
shame.It represents a gallows, and a Semite slave swinging thereon. For two thousand
yearsit has absolutely overturned human reason, overthrown common sense, infectedthe
worldwith madness, submissiveness, degeneracy.
Truly,there is a way which seemeth right unto a people, but the ends thereof are theways
ofdeath.
Soundthe loud timbrel,
OÕerlands and oÕer waves;
TheIsraelite triumphs!
Thenations are — graves!
3
Isthe Golden Rule a rational rule? — Is it not rather a menial rule —a coward rule — a
best-policyrule? Why is it ÔrightÕ for one man to do unto others as he would have others
doto him and, what is right? If ÔothersÕ are unable to injure him or Ôdo goodÕ tohim, why
shouldhe consider them at all? Why should he take any more notice of them than of so
manyworms? If they are endeavoring to injure him, and able to do it, why should he
refrainfrom returning the compliment? Should he not combat them, does not that give
themcarte-blanche to injure and destroy him? May it not be Ôdoing goodÕ to others,to
waragainst them, to annihilate them? May it not also be ÔgoodÕ for them to waragainst
others?(Again, what is ÔgoodÕ?)
Isit reasonable to ask preying animals, to do unto others as they would be doneby? — If
theyacted accordingly would they, could they survive? If some only accepted theGolden
Ruleas their guiding moral maxim, would they not become a prey to those who refused
toabide thereby?
Uponwhat reasonable and abiding sanction does this ÔRuleÕ rest? — Has it everbeen in
actualoperation among men? — Can it ever be successfully practiced on earth— or
anywhereelse? — Did Jesus Christ practice it himself upon all occasions? —Did His
apostles,his Ôsons of thunderÕ practice it? — Did Peter the boaster do so, when he
ÔdeniedHimÕ for fear of arrest at the camp-fire? — Did Judas the financier, whenhe sold
himfor net cash? Also, how many of his modern lip-servants actually practice it intheir
dailybusiness intercourse with each other? How Many?
Thesequestions require no formal answering. They answer themselves in the asking.And
hereit must be remembered that the best test of a witness, is cross-examination.ÔDo unto
othersas you would have others do to you.Õ No baser precept ever fell from the lipsof a
feebleJew.
Itis from alleged moralisms of this sort, and fabulous ÔprinciplesÕ that our moborators,
ourcommunards, revivalists, anarchists, red-republicans, democrats, and other mob-
worshippersin general derive the infernal inspiration that they are perpetually hissing
forth.Even the subversive pyrotechnic watchwords of their mephisto-millennium, are to
befound in the Ôholy gospels.Õ Is it not written, Ôand God sendeth angels todestroy the
people?Õ— Behold! these men are the ÔangelsÕ that He sends: — politiciansand
reformers!
4
ÔLoveone anotherÕ you say is the supreme law, but what power made it so? —Upon
whatrational authority does the Gospel of Love rest? — Is it even possible topractice,
andwhat would result from its universal application to active affairs? Why shouldI not
hatemine enemies, and hunt them down like the wild beasts that they are? Again Iask,
why?If I ÔloveÕ them does that not place me at their mercy? Is it natural forenemies to
ÔdogoodÕ unto each other and, what is ÔgoodÕ? Can the torn and bloody victimÔloveÕ the
blood-splashedjaws that rend it limb from limb? Are we not all predatory animals by
instinct?If humans ceased wholly from preying upon each other, could they continue to
exist?
ÔLoveyour enemies and do good to them that hate you and despitefully use you,Õ isthe
despicablephilosophy of the spaniel that rolls upon its back, when kicked. Obey it, O!
reader,and you and all your posterity to the tenth generation shall be irretrievablyand
literallydamned. They shall be hewers of wood, and carriers of water, degenerates,
Gibeonites.But hate your enemies with a whole heart, and if a man smite you on one
cheek,smash him down; smite him hip and thigh, for self-preservation is the highestlaw.
Hewho turns the Ôother cheekÕ is a cowardly dog — a Christian dog.
Giveblow for blow, scorn for scorn, doom for doom, with compound interest liberally
addedthereunto. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, aye four-fold, a hundredfold. Makeyourself
aTerror to your adversary and when he goeth his way, he will possess muchadditional
wisdomto ruminate over. Thus shall you make yourself respected in all the walks oflife,
andyour spirit — your IMMORTAL
thebrains and thews of your aggressive and unconquerable sons. After all, the trueproof
ofmanhood is a splendid progeny; and it is a scientific axiom that the timidanimal
transmitstimidity to its descendents.
Ifmen lived Ôlike brothersÕ and had no powerful enemies (neighbors) to contendwith and
surpass,they would rapidly lose all their best qualities; like certain oceanic birdsthat lose
theuse of their wings, because they do not have to fly from pursuing beasts ofprey. If all
menhad treated each other with brotherly love since the beginning, what would have
beenthe result now? If there had been no wars, no rivalry, no competition, nokingship,
noslavery, no survival of the Toughest, no racial extermination, truly what afestering
Ôhellfenced inÕ this old globe would be?
5
ReverendFerdinand M. Sprague, of Chicago (who may be taken as a common specimen
ofthe priest-politician), in a little pamphlet lately published, entitled ÔTheLaws of Social
Evolution,Õwrites thus: — ÒThe sheet anchor of Socialism according to its ablest
exponents,is the Holy Christian religion. Its motto founded on the precept Ôlove thy
neighboras thyselfÕ is — Ôeach for all, and all for each.Õ Its working principlefor the
presentis altruism.Ó3
Nearlyall the canonized ÔFathersÕ of the early Roman propaganda (most of whom, by the
way,were slaves, freedmen, or eunuchs) advocated similar Ideals. Even now, the
anointedand sanctified head of the Catholic Church resurrects the same hoary old
3
ÔTheethics of Socialism are identical with the teachings of Christianity.ÕEncyclopedia Brittanica.
utopianism,in a Jesuitic encyclical addressed to his flock. (How suggestive of being
shornand skinned, is that word Ôflock.Õ)
Again,the Epistle of James, who is known to have been ChristÕs full brother killed bya
specialpolicemanÕs club, in a street riot has been reprinted and widely circulated by
Socialists,in order to sow and broadcast their illogical theories of a universal
brotherhood,founded upon enforced labor, regimentation of the herd, and majorityvotes.
Manymodern cities are also infested with plausible epileptoid priestlings ofunreason,
likeDr. McGlynn, Professor Bemis, Hugh Price Hughes, W. T. Stead, Myron Reed, and
ProfessorHerron of California. All these men are unrivalled masters in the art of
persuasivedeclamation. They accept the New Testament as their text book and preach
therefromto morbid multitudes the atrocious and shallow gospel of equal rights, equal
liberty,equal brotherhood, as the veritable omnific word, the newly discovered
emancipatingprotocol of the Crucified (yet all-mighty) Don Quixote — the Saviour-god
ofAsia Minor — he who was born in a cattle-shed and died on a gallows.
6
Agod begging his bread from door to door! — A god without a place to layhis head! —
Agod spiked to two pieces of crossed scantling! — A god stabbed to deathby an hired
officer!— A god executed by order of a stipendiary magistrate! — What aninsane Idea
—Is it an Idea, or rather a wasting cranial disease? Talk about Ôthe heathen inhis
blindnessÕand superstitious madness in past ages! Why it is as childplay to the hysteric
Idolatryof to-day — the deification of a Jew. The ÔDivine DemocratÕ was executedupon
agovernment gibbet, because the Rulers of Imperial Rome were more powerful menthan
hewas. His strength, and that of his followers, was not equal to theirs.
Hedied an abysmal failure — a Redeemer who did not redeem — a Saviourwho did not
save— a Messiah whipped like a calf — a slave-agitator deservedlydestroyed for
preachinga Falsehood — the monstrous gospel of Love, Brotherhood, Equality.
Evenfrom the spiritual point of view, there is nothing whatever in his life or itsafter
effectsto show that ÔThe pale man upon the cross,Õ when he moaned and wept sobitterly,
Ôbeheldany further down the Void, than those who gathered round to see him die.Õ
Ofwhat use was that Ôpale dreamerÕ to the iron-conditions that existed in theconquered
andgarrisoned Fortress of Jerusalem? For once the city mob were on the righttrail, when
theypetitioned for the release of Bar Abbas, rather than the supple singer of aÔSweet bye
andbye.Õ Bar Abbas is described in Ôthe ScripturesÕ as a petty thief. He wasreally an
armedinsurgent leader — the slayer of Roman tax-gatherers — a guerillachief (like Rob
Roy,Robin Hood, William Wallace, William Tell) who levied toll upon opulent Hebrews
forpatriotic purposes.
HadI been there that day, I also would have joined in the demand: — ÔReleaseBar
Abbasunto us.Õ — Better one Bar Abbas than a thousand Christs.
Alas!Alas! O Galilean! Thou art neither the Way, the Truth, nor the Light!
7
Reverting,however, to ChicagoÕs reverend Utopia-constructor, thus waileth he with
cajolingcrudity: ÒThe laws of social evolution, far from being the blind, barbarous,and
brutalstruggle for organic existence, consists in the physical, intellectual andmoral well
beingof ALL
Liberty,Equality, and Fraternity shall have the largest possible realization throughoutthe
socialorganism. The main features of the condition of progress are christianchurches,
christianschools, christian governments, christian ethics and economics.Ó
Anotherseductive but most malignant State Socialist (Henry George) roundly proclaims
thatÔThe salvation of society, the hope of the free, and full development ofHumanity, is
inthe gospel of brotherhood, the gospel of Christ,Õ and thereupon he proposes tomake
politiciansthe national rent-tax collectors, Administrators of everything in general, and
all-roundDistributors of State Pensions to Ôthe poor and needy.Õ Has not mankind had
sufficientexperience of what politicians are? — Those black-hearted creepingthieves
andfrauds. Their sting is deadlier than the bite of a cobra, and in the breath oftheir
mouththere is — DEATH
advocateincreasing your prerogatives!
Presidentialcandidates, from Jefferson, to Lincoln, (also their apish imitators) have
generallyindulged in equally shallow rhodomontade, because it means votes, and for
votes,office-seekers would dress up in glowing language, and ray forth any devilish
deception.
Fortwo thousand years these effeminate superlatives have been trumpeted to theremotest
cornerof every Christian land, and yet (while enervating the morale of people) theyhave
dismallyfailed to inaugurate the much foretold Earthly Paradise. They were preached by
bare-footmonks at the inauguration of the Dark Ages, in order that those saintly loversof
thecommon people might creep into the administration of co-operative wealth and
power.Now, the same general ideas are revived and dressed up (this time in politico-
economicgarb) by the eloquent agitator, in order that he may rule and plunder in the
future,through the agency of the State; just as the priest once ruled and plundered
throughthe equally rapacious agency of the Church.
Whenthe Church triumphed, the Dark Ages began, and when it is finally rooted out
(togetherwith all its social anten¾) the Heroic Age dawns once more. True heroes shall
beborn again as of old, for our women may yet be something more than rickety
perambulatingdolls and drug-stores in spectacles.
TheÔChurchÕ is the idol of the priestly parasite — The ÔStateÕ is the idolof the political
parasite.Beware, O, America! that in escaping from the holy trickery of the monk, you
fallnot an easy prey to Ôthe loving kindnessÕ of the politician. Even if theÔreformerÕ
succeedsin re-establishing upon majority-votes, the dark tyranny o£ the Ôgreatest
number;Õwe have this consolation to fall back upon, such organization must ultimately
tumbledown of its own weight, and then re-divide up into warring fragments. Nothing
thatis unnatural can last for long.
TheUniversal Church is no more; all we see of it now is jealous remnants. And the
UniversalState, the Social Democracy, the Economic Republic, the Brotherhood of Man,
shouldthey take practical form, are pre-ordained to similar failure. All they coulddo,
wouldbe to POSTPONE
temporarysedatives.
Nomatter how eagerly madmen may try to do it, there is no known process wherebythey
canjump out of their own skins. Christian or socialist churches, paternalisms,schools,
governments,administrations, ethics, and moralisms (even if genuinely Christian and
Fraternal)would be wholly impotent to change the natural course of things and therefore
powerlessto command the survival of mental and physical cripples; even although those
crippleswere as canonized saints for Ôgoodness,Õ and as the sands of the sea shore for
number.Shrieking sentimentalism is indeed a feeble lever wherewith to overturn the
immutableorder of the Universe. It cannot do it. No! not if it were whooped till thecrack
ofdoom! Not even if it had a Lamb of God in every city, ready to be butcheredeach
Fridayafternoon, in order to make a Christian Holiday.
8
ÔLiberty,Equality, Fraternity,Õ those three great lights of Modern Democracies are three
colossalFalsehoods, ignoble slave-shibboleths; impossible of actualization even if
proclaimedby some superhuman Satan, followed by armed hosts of un-killable demons,
allarmed to the teeth with flaming swords, Greek-fire, and dynamite cannon.
Youmay trace Equality in letters of silver on tablets of burnished gold, butwithout
engineeringa perpetual miracle, you cannot make it — true.
Youmay write Fraternity in blazing diamonds on walls of enduring granite, butwithout
reversingthe mechanism of the Universe, you cannot make it a fact.
And,though you enscroll Freedom on countless sheepskins and rivet statues ofLiberty
onevery harbor-rock, yet with Ôall the kings horses and all the kings menÕ onebeing born
tobe a hireling and a subordinate — NOpower can free.
Canyou build up a marble palace with mud and slime O! ye drivelling bedlamites?Can
youraise up a conqueror from the dunghill, or make the stupid great? Can you
manufactureheroes out of hogs O! ye snuffling ÔEducatedÕ swine?
ÔWecan! We can! We can!Õ shrieketh the raging rhetoricians of the market place andthe
editorialmill. ÔWe can! We can!Õ bellows the herd as it stupidly pours through the slip-
railsto the pithing pen. ÔYes, O! Yes! with the love of Jesus and our collectionplate,
whinesthe soft-skinned preacher as he turns over the sibylline leaves of hisBlack-Art.
ÔOfa certainty, we can,Õ hisseth the plastic politician, the rattlesnake! —the hungry
basilisk!— whose law making is more blighting than the breath of a simoom.
Thereupon,toward you, O! America! they, one and all, point the finger of pride! Towards
you!
America!Where the politicians rage and the people imagine vain things! — and thedogs
inthe alleys are — baying at the moon!
Then,turn I away! Sadly! Sadly! Sadly! And I brush against a slave in copper-riveted
overalls,hurrying to his mill; and against another in gold chain and silken hat, hastingto
hismoney-changing — and a lean woman in sordid rags, with a pile of lumberbalanced
uponher crown; and a splendid harlot in diamonds and brilliant plumage ridethslowly
by.
Andthe cattle in the slaughter-yard are lowing for their hay; and a draught mare,with a
galledshoulder, lieth swollen and dead on the frozen paving blocks. How nauseous itall
is?
Loathsome!Loathsome! O, how loathsome?
9
Manis part and parcel of the animal kingdom and (not withstanding Jefferson,Franklin,
andLincoln — Karl Marx, La Salle, and Liebknecht — Christ,Robespierre, and
Rousseau— Hyndman, Tennyson, and Mazzini — Dr. Adler, Bebel, George andIsaiah
—Bellamy, Gronlund, and W. T. Stead) he CANNOTescape from the draconic ordinances
thatdespotically govern that kingdom and environ his being like an atmosphere onevery
side.
Altruism,meek and lowly self-abnegation, upon any extended scale is among predatory
organisms(and all organisms are predatory) impossible of practice on pain of wholesale
felo-de-se.
Everyman is under an obligation to fight and bear his own burden. If he cannot doso,
otherscannot do his fighting or his burden-bearing and their own at the same timewith
reasonablesafety to themselves. He therefore who finds it impossible to carry his own
burden,had better sink down and die in his tracks than impose an additional load upon
theshoulders of his kind-hearted fellow strugglers. For then,
andconsequently unable to fight successfully; so ALLmight perish together.
Practicalfraternal sympathy (upon any universal scale) has always had in the end a most
destructiveeffect upon the internal structure of communities. Men will always love and
cherishthose that are near and dear to them; but when it is proposed to extend thecircle
oftheir Ônear and dear onesÕ to all mankind, that is going rather too far. Indeedall must
perishignominiously if that foolish idea prevails. ÔA
themselves,undermining their strength, by futile overexertion in that very direction. They
arestraining themselves to death, by endeavoring to carry an impossible load. The
majorityof men are born far too weak constitutionally for their conditions; and the few
whodo possess the necessary stamina and grit, will have quite enough to do inproving
bydeeds their fitness to survive, propagate, and possess. Many are projected— few are
selected.
Yetaltruism, wholesale self-renunciation — wholesale burden-bearing, for thesake of
ÔOutragedand Suffering Humanity,Õ is the maddening basis upon which Ôour good Lord
Jesus,Õand his demented imitators have erected their sporadic sociology — their
MagnificentSatanism.
Doesnot simple business acumen whisper to us that every manÕs chief occupation upon
earthis to sustain himself. ÔI mean subsist at any cost; you shall want ere I shall—
businessis business.Õ If men had sufficient personal initiative to think along thesestern
lines,there would be little use on earth for the theologian and Ôthe reformer;Õ thosetwin
Mephistoswho find their renown and grandeur, in the abasement of mankind. The battle
oflife would then be so grim, terrible, and realistic; (so Trojan in fact) thatthose holy
dissimulatorsand crafty deceivers, would rapidly die off, or be eaten off; for in the clash
ofnaked interests, the Best and Bravest ONLYcould possibly survive; and no one would
everdream of including them among the Best or Bravest.
10
CountLeo Tolstoi, undoubtedly the ablest modern expounder of primitive Christliness,in
amuch translated volume, entitled: — ÒWork While Ye Have Light,Ó writesthus: —
ÔOurFaith tells us that bliss is to be found, not in resistance, but in submission;not in
riches,but in giving everything away; we have not quite succeeded in casting off every
habitof violence and property.Ó
Tothe most inept understanding, could any proposition be placed in a clearerlight? Is it
notas simple as Ôrolling off a log,Õ that the individual who even attempts tobecome a true
andhonest Christian must become like unto a tame sheep? What a sublime Ideal? How
heroic?
Thebliss of a sheep! How superlatively delightful? How divinely glorious? And aJew as
theGood Shepherd, who leadeth his lambs Òto green pastures, and quiet restingplaces,
thepleasant waters by.Ó For two thousand years, or so, His fleecy flocks have been
fatteningthemselves up with commendable diligence — for the shearing-shed and the
butchers-block.
Letany nation throw away all Ôhabits of violence,Õ and before long it must ceaseto exist
asa nation. It will be laid under tribute — it will become a province, asatrapy. It will be
taxedand looted in a thousand different ways.
Letany man abandon all property, also all overt resistance to aggression andbehold, the
firstsun will scarcely have sunk down in the west, before he is a bondservant, atributary,
abeggar, or — a corpse.
Propertyis necessary to the complete and free development of personality, and therefore
humananimals should somehow obtain a full and fair proportion thereof at any cost— or
perishin the attempt; for he who cannot possess himself of property is much betterburied
outof sight. Our cities are literally honeycombed Ôwith treasure caverns, heapedup with
gold,title-deeds, silver, and instruments of credit: our valleys and our mountainsare
bubblingwith wealth untold; and yet, poor miserable Ôservants of ChristÕ pass idly by.
Men,they call themselves! I call them — castrates.
IfTolstoiÕs obsequious principles are derived from the Sermon on the Mount, thenwho
candeny but that the Sermon on the Mount is a sermon unto decay and slavery? Ifthey
arederived from the Golden Rule and if the Golden Rule is the word of God, thencan it
bedoubted that the word of God is the word of Fraud. There is far too much ofthis
ghastlyÔgoodnessÕ in the nation, far and away too much. It is time men who
beganto emancipate themselves, and consider the fact that: — Morals, laws and
decalogueswere made by liars, thieves and rogues.
Allgood citizens however are hereby warned and solemnly advised, not to smash-upthe
TenCommandments — not to burn up the Golden Rule — not to break-up theMoral
Law— for that would be terribly wicked! terribly! On the other hand theymust obey all
Lawimplicitly (no matter how it originated) and be sure (above everything) toorder
themselveslowly and reverently before executive officers of the Law; even if in doing so,
theyare deprived of their Property, and their Liberty for ever. Obedience, you see,is of
GodÔwho so loveth the worldÕ but Disobedience is horrible and of the Devil, andthe
Devilis a frightful rascal, who has not the slightest respect for anybody oranything: not
eventhe American Constitution. Let us curse the Devil then and obey — theLaw.
Libertyis honestly definable, as a state of complete bodily and mental self-mastership
(whichincludeth the possession of property; also defensive weapons) andthorough-going
Independencefrom all official coercion or restraint. Liberty in the conventional sense is a
miserableLie.
Tobe independent is synonymous with proprietorship. To be property-less, andunarmed,
isthe condition of actual dependence and servitude. Unarmed citizens are always
enslavedcitizens, always. Liberty without Property is a myth, a nursery tale,believable
onlyby babbling babies and Ôfools-in-thÕ-forestÕ — fools in thÕ city also.ÒLiberty
REGULATEDby LawÓ is, in practice, tyranny of the darkest and foulest description;
becauseso impersonal. There are numerous worthy, reasonable, and practical methods
wherebyindividual tyrants may be removed; but a tyranny Ôregulated by LawÕ is only
removableby one method — the sword in the hands of men who are not afraid to useit,
orto have it used against them: that is to say — the Sword in the hands ofthe Strongest.
Duringthe whole course of human history, there is not upon record, one authentic
instancewherein a subjugated people has ever regained property-holding Liberty, without
firstbutchering its tyrants (or its tyrantsÕ armed slaves in battle) thereafterconfiscating to
itsown use, the lands and realized property that previously had been in thepossession of
itsdefeated foes and masters. This statement is made with cool deliberation and
aforethought.Let it be disproved by any ONE creditableexample to the contrary, and the
Authoris prepared to forfeit 50,000 ounces of pure gold and enough Ôdimes anddollarsÕ
toerect in Chicago, a bronze statue of ÔOur Blest RedeemerÕ (crown of thorns andall)
100cubits higher than the Masonic Temple. This offer is strictly bona-fide andshall
remainopen till 1906, so that philosophers, editors, statesmen, divines (and other
accomplishedliars) may have enough time to blind themselves, wading through National
Archives,and the putrid rubbish heaps that men call Public Libraries. Should some or all
ofsaid Mutual Admiration Society maniac-geniuses go blind, also deaf, dumb, andsilly:
thiswicked old world may probably whoop with delight — should it happen tohear of
thefact.
11
Duringthe three years of Christ JesusÕs peripatetic trampings, he never
hadnot been better said a thousand times before, by Dervishes, Spellbinders and
Mahatmas.Neither did he DO
jugglersand wonder-workers of Egypt, India and Assyria. Not a few of his ÔmiraclesÕ are
tothis day, part of the ordinary stock-in-trade of fortune-telling gypsies,third-class
strollingplayers, and charlatans in general.
Thevery phrase that He uses to sum-up and memorize His patent Cure-all, was
undoubtedlystolen (directly or indirectly) from Plato, the Rig Veda, or Confucius. The
GoldenRule is not only a snare and a tangle, but it also is — a literarypiracy.
ÔHeraised the dead,Õ you indignantly protest: and even
thepositive advantage? What is gained by restoring vitality to the decomposing corpseof
ananimal that may be so easily duplicated — an animal that is a positivenuisance,
numerically.What is the ÒgoodÓ of breathing the Ôbreath of lifeÕ into an odorous winding-
sheet-fullof maggots and mouldy bones? Are there not plenty of animalcula on earth,
withoutdragging them out of tombs? (Especially are there not plenty of leprous
Asiatics?)Death and destruction are necessary to the health of this world and thereforeas
natural,and lovable, as birth and life. Only priests and born cowards moan and weepover
dying.Brave men face it with approving nonchalance.
ÒComelovely and soothing Death, undulate around the world. Serenely Arriving!
Arriving!In the day, in the night; to all, to each. Sooner or later, delicate Death.Ó
Hefed the hungry — but to what end, I say? Why should a famishing multitudebe fed by
agod? And that too, in a land said to be flowing with milk and honey! Would notsuch a
mobbe far better dead? Would not Napoleon with his cosmic Ôwhiff of grape-shotÕ be
justthe right man for such an occasion? From the harmonious nature of things, it isclear
thatmen were intended to feed themselves by their own personal exertions or perishlike
dogs.He therefore who Ôfeeds the hungryÕ is really encouraging poltroonery (which
includethall other crimes) for men Ôwho quietly starve within reach of abounding plenty
are— all poltroons.
ÔHeclothed the naked,Õ you shriek; and why it may be asked should Ôthe nakedÕ be
clothed— they being able bodied? What right have they to broadcloth and finelinen? If
menpossess not enough sense to clothe themselves (in a literal Weaving Mill of
inexhaustiblelooms) why should a ÔGodÕ — the son of a ghost, come down from
Cloudland(via a Jewess maidenÕs womb) to robe such groveling, miserable hounds in
swaddlingcloths, made of cotton or wool? ÔClothing the nakedÕ is purely — abusiness
affair.
Here,it may be suggested en-passant — is the wearing of garments, in itself, anatural
andnecessary condition of adult existence? It certainly does not render the Ôhumanform
divineÕmore healthy or more beautiful to gaze upon (although it may prevent
Tenderlingsfrom perishing of cold). Was it really intended that the man-animal
shouldwrap itself up, from birth to death in layer over layer of disease-breedingrags?
Wasthere not a secret vital strength in the wind and rain and storms that Ôwhirledaround
ourforefathersÕ giant limbs and shaggy brows? All ethnic legends tell us that ourfirst
parentswere most elegantly attired in glorious sunshine and gaudy fresh air. Who ever
sawa Cherubim painted in pointed shoes, pantaloons, cuffs, collars and overcoat;or a
smirkingangel in bloomers, steel-ribbed corsets and a delicate little ÔO! dear me! how
awfullyawful!Õ style? Clothing serves most effectively to hide the abominable physical
deformityof modern men and women, just as superficial educationalisms serve to hide
theirdwarfed minds. If they were to perambulate around in the nude, even the streetcurs
wouldbark at them out of sheer terror. Indeed, they would be more hideous to the eye
thanthe stuffed scarecrow that adorns a relativeÕs harrowed field: and at which ourold
dogÒDangerÓ generally barks himself into hysterics over, whenever he gets off thechain.
4
WaltWhitmanÕs ÒOde to Death.Ó
Whata horrible sight a crowd of free and independent electors would be, all sittingin
solemnconclave, sucking their thumbs, absorbing political opiates and divineeuthanasia?
Justthink of it! (Even Carlyle the dyspeptic would faint at the sight.) The veryconception
ofsuch a saddening horror makes one ill. It would be as if they all had justemerged from
atomb — a tomb of wool and cotton and leather.
Physicaldistortion and mental malformation, are the direct result of two thousand years
ofbad-breeding: that is to say, of Mongrelism, of Democracy, of Equality, ofMoody-
and-Sankeyism.Christian-ism, originating in the despairful and fallacious philosophy of
aCrucified Wanderer (suffering from acute MORBUS SACER) is now developed into an
organizedand world-wide conspiracy of Clericals, Politicals and Decadents directed en-
masse;with Jesuitic cunning against all the primitive and Heroic Virtues.
Ourclean-skinned ÔheathenishÕ ancestors with all their vital forces unimpaired,were
reallythe nobler type of animal. We on the other hand, with our corrupt, irresolute,
civilizedhearts, our trembling nerves, our fragile an¾mic constitutions, are actuallythe
lower,the viler type — notwithstanding the baseless optimism that courtlyrhymers drivel
intotheir ÒHeirs of all the ages,Ó etc., etc.
NoPeople can long retain hardihood and independence, whose minds becomesubmissive
toa False Ideal.
12
Blessedare the Strong for they shall possess the earth — Cursed are the weak forthey
shallinherit the yoke. Blessed are the Powerful for they shall be reverenced amongmen
—Cursed are the Feeble for they shall be blotted out.
Blessedare the Bold for they shall be masters of the world — Cursed are theHumble for
theyshall be trodden under hoofs. Blessed are the Victorious for victory is thebasis of
Right— Cursed are the vanquished for they shall be vassals for ever.
Blessedare the battle-blooded, Beauty shall smile upon them — Cursed are thePoor-in-
Spirit,they shall be spat upon. Blessed are the Audacious for they have imbibed true
wisdom— Cursed are the Obedient for they shall breed Creeplings.
Blessedare the iron-handed, the unfit shall flee before them — Cursed are thehaters of
battle,subjugation is their portion. Blessed are the Death-defiant, their days shallbe long
inthe land — Cursed are the Feeble-brained, for they shall perish amidstplenty.
Blessedare the destroyers of False-hope, they are true Messiahs — Cursed are theGod-
adorers,they shall be as shorn sheep. Blessed are the Valiant for they shall obtaingreat
treasure— Cursed are the believers in Good and Evil for they are frightened byshadows.
Blessedare they who believe in Nothing — never shall it terrorize their minds— Cursed
arethe Ôlambs of God,Õ they shall be bled Ôwhiter than snowÕ. Blessed is the manwho
hathpowerful enemies, they shall make him a hero — Cursed is he who ÒdoethgoodÓ
untoothers, he shall be despised.
Blessedis the man whose foot is swift to serve a friend, he is a friend indeed —Cursed
arethe organizers of Charities, they are propagators of plagues. Blessed are theWise and
Bravefor in the Struggle they shall win — Cursed are the Unfit for they shallbe
righteouslyexterminated.
Blessedare the sires of Noble maidens, they are the salt of the earth — Cursedthe
mothersof strumous Tenderlings for they shall be shamed. Blessed are the mighty-
mindedfor they shall ride the whirl-winds — Cursed are they who teach Lies forTruth,
andTruth for Lies, for they are — abomination.
Blessedare the unmerciful, THEIR
forthey shall receive no pity. Blessed are the destroyers of Idols, for they shallbe feared
bytyrants — Cursed are the famous Wiselings, their seed shall perish offthe earth.
Thricecursed are the Vile for they shall serve and suffer.
ContrastTHIS
thousandsof sacred sanctuaries by consecrated black-robed clericals, who have been
speciallytrained from boyhood to weepfully, unctuously rehearse the same Òwith
upturnedeyes and skillful snuffle or in classic diction, sounding, sonorous, nay! Sublime
—as suits the occasion.
D