Ragnar Redbeard - Might Is Right

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 must be overthrown by — the more powerful of to-morrow.

All ‘moral’ dogmatisms and religiosities, are positive hindrances to the evolution of the Higher Manhood; inasmuch as men who honestly grasp at Morals, do not as energetically grasp at Power — power being essentially non-moral. Consequently the struggle between the propertied and the propertyless classes, is not as keen as Nature evidently intends it to be. The moral man is a feeble antagonist to non-moral generalship. He foolishly permits talkative personalities (with sharper perceptive qualities), to wield unlimited Authority over him; under numerous plausible pretexts, and deliberately plunder him of his Property.

There is far and away too much weepful mea culpa about the average mannikin. Hence the woes of the world! — Hence the origin of the morbid craving by Dwindlings for what they call “a peaceful solution of the social problem.” Weak natures are terrorized at the idea of what “might happen” in a death grapple with entrenched adversaries equally as strong, if not stronger than themselves. That is the true reason why rich men are so anxious at all times to avoid discussion, and ‘maintain the Peace’ and why poor men — “hunger with fatness around them, and thirst while the waters flow near: for “the Law and the Gospel hath damned them, and dulled all their senses with fear.”

The fact is that both sides are afraid of each other — afraid of the only rational solution.

My curse be upon the white-livered and the meek: the shameful dwindlings — who call themselves the “virtuous” the “law abiding” the “righteous” the “godly;” the “obedient ones!” May civilization pump its vile narcotism through the flaccid ventricles of their pigeon-hearts! May they inhale brain-leprosy through the open windows of their Temples-of-Soot; and may the open windows of their noisome swineries and splendid Ergastlui, be unto them living tombs! May they ‘earn’ their bread (also that of their conquerors) by the slimy sweat of dishonored brows; and may they perish at last like abandoned curs! May they vegetate in poverty and die in contempt. May the evil works of their ‘genius’ be ploughed under with Babylon and Ninevah; Anahuac and Rome! May the annals of their dismal domination become, as the folk-tale of a fearsome nightmare that once rolled over the brain of Mankind; — finally dissipating itself ‘midst thunders and lightnings and the breaking up of the great deep! Verily! Verily! let them have their Reward!

It is customary for atrophied minds (like Bluntschili) to urge that the promulgation of such grim thoughts ‘endanger the foundations of Society.’ Even supposing that to be so, what is Society anyhow, that its “foundations” should not be threatened? Is “Society” something immaculate, something divine, something anointedly ultra-human — something that must be safeguarded, right or wrong? Is it another sacred Mount Moriah Temple — a Urim and Thummim — an Ark of the Covenant — a Sanctum Sanctorum, or merely “an asses head hidden behind a veil?” Why should the phrase “Society in danger” be equivalent to the proclamation of a rigid taboo or a fanatical crusade? Why?

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.

Society may be defined as an agglomeration of carnivorous and herbivorous animals, seeking their natural prey and browsing along on whatever nutriment they pick-up. It is nothing more than a ‘herd’ of two legged cattle and there’s nothing supernaturally divine about a herd. Indeed the word herd always suggests Gadara. Human swarms have been integrated and disintegrated ten thousand times ten thousand by the centrifugal and centripetal energy of individuals.

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.

“To the Strong all laws are cobwebs” (Solon) and when Society becomes irksome to the Strong they may dissolve it; nay it is their positive duty to dissolve it; otherwise it becomes their master and consequently their enemy and oppressor. “Society in danger” therefore is merely the hysteria of the megalomaniac.

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.

The real danger is, that innocent and natural combinations for mutual pleasure, comradeship, profit, and defence, may transform themselves gradually into organized majority-box tyrannies — enslaving institutionalisms of the most dictatorial and obnoxious character. When Society is thus transfigured into a vast blackmailing corporation the lives and property of its component units are absolutely at its mercy, and it therefore ought to be disintegrated, consciously, deliberately, pitilessly, and at whatever cost. Freedom cannot be bought too dear, for life without liberty is pandemonium.

Government and Society are two distinct entities, and care must be taken not to confound them. Society is the growth of mutual tolerance, friendship, and physical obligation; but ‘government’ arises from physical force applied by the Strong to the control and exploitation of 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.

Beowolf, a Saxon song-master, apostrophising “the Sword,” voices this primeval Organon as it was instinctively understood by our ancestors.

“The war-thing! the comrade! father of honor, and giver of kingship! the fame-smith! — the songmaster! Clear singing! clean slicing! sweet spoken! soft finishing! making death beautiful — life but a coin — to be staked in the pastime; whose playing is more than transfer of being. Arch-anarch! chief builder! prince and evangelist! I am the will of God! I am the sword!”

It is only in ages saturated in atmospheres of brain-wrecking artificialism — in consumptive communities steeped to the very lips in elemental error — that senile, degrading, anthropomorphic myths and manias are substituted for hard, bitter Common-Sense. (All great truths are “hard” and “bitter,” but Lies, to the morbidly inclined, are sweeter than wild honey.)

One by one we abandon Realisms — to follow fata morganas . We are mortgaging our destiny to the Pawnbrokers of Decadence. Behold! — the legerdemain of the Orient demonetizes the Manhood of the West!