An issue I have with LaVey

3. Solipsism—Can be very dangerous for Satanists. Projecting your reactions, responses and sensibilities onto someone who is probably far less attuned than you are. It is the mistake of expecting people to give you the same consideration, courtesy and respect that you naturally give them. They won’t. Instead, Satanists must strive to apply the dictum of “Do unto others as they do unto you.” It’s work for most of us and requires constant vigilance lest you slip into a comfortable illusion of everyone being like you. As has been said, certain utopias would be ideal in a nation of philosophers, but unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately, from a Machiavellian standpoint) we are far from that point.

The issue I have with this is, that is not what solipsism is. Solipsism is the belief that all of reality is just a delusion, "I'm the only one who exists and I made everything." What LaVey is describing here is called "Projection."

I think this entry should replace "Solipsism" with "Projection," and a 10th entry added for the real definition of solipsism. In fact, I'll do it soon.

There, I fixed it.

The Nine Ten Satanic Sins

by Anton Szandor LaVey ©1987
With edits by Alexander Antonin ©2012

1. Stupidity—The top of the list for Satanic Sins. The Cardinal Sin of Satanism. It’s too bad that stupidity isn’t painful. Ignorance is one thing, but our society thrives increasingly on stupidity. It depends on people going along with whatever they are told. The media promotes a cultivated stupidity as a posture that is not only acceptable but laudable. Satanists must learn to see through the tricks and cannot afford to be stupid.

2. Pretentiousness—Empty posturing can be most irritating and isn’t applying the cardinal rules of Lesser Magic. On equal footing with stupidity for what keeps the money in circulation these days. Everyone’s made to feel like a big shot, whether they can come up with the goods or not.

3. Projection—Can be very dangerous for Satanists. Projecting your reactions, responses and sensibilities onto someone who is probably far less attuned than you are. It is the mistake of expecting people to give you the same consideration, courtesy and respect that you naturally give them. They won’t. Instead, Satanists must strive to apply the dictum of “Do unto others as they do unto you.” It’s work for most of us and requires constant vigilance lest you slip into a comfortable illusion of everyone being like you. As has been said, certain utopias would be ideal in a nation of philosophers, but unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately, from a Machiavellian standpoint) we are far from that point.

4. Self-deceit—It’s in the “Nine Satanic Statements” but deserves to be repeated here. Another cardinal sin. We must not pay homage to any of the sacred cows presented to us, including the roles we are expected to play ourselves. The only time self-deceit should be entered into is when it’s fun, and with awareness. But then, it’s not self-deceit!

5. Herd Conformity—That’s obvious from a Satanic stance. It’s all right to conform to a person’s wishes, if it ultimately benefits you. But only fools follow along with the herd, letting an impersonal entity dictate to you. The key is to choose a master wisely instead of being enslaved by the whims of the many.

6. Lack of Perspective—Again, this one can lead to a lot of pain for a Satanist. You must never lose sight of who and what you are, and what a threat you can be, by your very existence. We are making history right now, every day. Always keep the wider historical and social picture in mind. That is an important key to both Lesser and Greater Magic. See the patterns and fit things together as you want the pieces to fall into place. Do not be swayed by herd constraints—know that you are working on another level entirely from the rest of the world.

7. Forgetfulness of Past Orthodoxies—Be aware that this is one of the keys to brainwashing people into accepting something new and different, when in reality it’s something that was once widely accepted but is now presented in a new package. We are expected to rave about the genius of the creator and forget the original. This makes for a disposable society.

8. Counterproductive Pride—That first word is important. Pride is great up to the point you begin to throw out the baby with the bathwater. The rule of Satanism is: if it works for you, great. When it stops working for you, when you’ve painted yourself into a corner and the only way out is to say, I’m sorry, I made a mistake, I wish we could compromise somehow, then do it.

9. Lack of Aesthetics—This is the physical application of the Balance Factor. Aesthetics is important in Lesser Magic and should be cultivated. It is obvious that no one can collect any money off classical standards of beauty and form most of the time so they are discouraged in a consumer society, but an eye for beauty, for balance, is an essential Satanic tool and must be applied for greatest magical effectiveness. It’s not what’s supposed to be pleasing—it’s what is. Aesthetics is a personal thing, reflective of one’s own nature, but there are universally pleasing and harmonious configurations that should not be denied.

10. Solipsism—The real world DOES exist. Granted, a large portion of the perceived world is invented by your brain, but that's based on data from the real world. Anyone who thinks they're the only person in the world, and that they create 100% of reality, is a delusional fool.

Trying to be less of an asshole.

Due to ideas I have frequently experienced in my reading lately, and because of a desire to move away from a mental space of anger and behavior of an "asshole" nature, I would like to re-frame some of my previous anti-vegan sentiments in more precise - and less judgmental - language. As such, I am attempting to write this post in "English Prime," AKA "E-Prime," AKA "English without Is or Be." Where I feel I cannot avoid those obnoxious words, I will put them in "suspicious quotes."

I have observed, over the years, a tendency in individuals identifying as vegans of behaving in a manner not unlike those of certain religious zealots. This behavior is annoying and insulting and often full of hatred, and when I felt I could no longer tolerate such behavior, I lashed out at vegans in general with the same sort of behavior. In my loathing towards proselytization and "forgetfulness of past orthodoxies," it would seem I became guilty of the same behaviors I was frustrated with.

I still oppose dogmatism of any and all kinds, and I still detest the treatment of veganism as some kind of new religion where all must convert or perish. However, in light of what I percieve as a small percentage of vegans who do NOT display such religious zeal for their cause, I will attempt in future to better mind my own behavior.

The sort of people I tend to oppose seem to me to only care about being right. It seems to me that their belief "is" that they are right and everyone else is wrong; that not only do they think us wrong, they think us immoral, unethical, even evil. I no longer wish to give them any more support for the beliefs of theirs which I feel are in error. ("The beliefs of theirs I feel are in error" referring to their apparent perception of meat-eaters, not to their choice to eat no meat.)

I do not actually care about "being right," no matter how my words said in anger and frustration may sometimes indicate to the contrary. I simply tend to get very frustrated, and then angry, when so many people in the world seem to feel that "being right" "is" the most important thing in the universe to them. It frustrates me because this obsession with "being right" tends to cause hostility and anger, hatred and war. I would very much love to edit this obsession for "being right" out of all human brains; I think world peace would move much closer to the realm of possibility if that notion were excised from humankind. Because it seems to me that this notion has been so thoroughly pounded into our brains that I - someone who hates the obsession with "being right" - keep finding myself lapsing into the same mentality when provoked.

There. I make no claim that I succeeded completely in my quest for non-judgmental words, but I think I did fairly well.

Fix the language you use, help fix your mind.

(Starts out a little annoyed, but gets better.)

Again, I shall try to write this in E-Prime, AKA "English without any form of the word 'be.'" I will put "is," "are," and other forms of "be" into "suspicious quotes" if I feel I cannot avoid using them.

I keep seeing blogs where their owners keep talking about their depression in a way that seems almost like glorifying their depression, and talking about wanting to die, giving me the impression that they think their depression makes them special somehow. These vary from "oh my gawd my pain is so unique; nobody could ever possibly understand how much pain I'm in" to things like "I an such a creative genius because I'm soooo depressed."

I do not know whether they really have clinical depression or not. I do not intend to dismiss clinical depression, either. I have clinical depression, and so I know firsthand that depression will make you feel bad no matter how hard you try to cheer up. But it's one thing to complain on your blog about the effects of depression, and another thing entirely to act like having depression makes you some kind of creative genius or better than those who don't have depression. First, it makes no sense at all. Secondly, in my own experience, my depression tends to suck away the energy and will I need to make use of my creativity. I won't claim that this is true of everyone... and I won't say all these "depression makes me so special" people are lying about being depressed... but I don't see how being truly, clinically depressed could possibly help in any way.

Then there are the people who seem to be genuinely depressed, and they keep talking about it in a way that focuses so hard on the depression, I don't see how it could possibly do anything but make the depression worse.

You see, language has power. Anyone who doesn't agree hasn't thought about it enough, or hasn't had the right experiences. Words can and do hurt; just look into how many people got depression or other mental issues from the damaging power of words. People can use words to heal or to hurt. People can use words soothingly or violently. I know, because my own issues resulted from people in my childhood lobbing the verbal equivalents of hand grenades at me constantly. My childhood was like a warzone, the only place I felt safe was at home. I still live with the damage, and I still have issues of lobbing verbal grenades at anyone I interpret - whether correctly or not - as a threat. At least, online I do. Offline, I am quieter and more polite; though that is as much a defense mechanism as the verbal grenades are.

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