I know many metalheads who consider themselves extreme, yet whenever
I approach them I gag from the stench of nine-to-five easy meat. They are easy in more ways than one. It's easy to
wear metal shirts and piercings and tattoos, it's easy to play guitar and
emulate your favorite band, it's easy to go to metal shows, chug a few beers
and wallow in a cheap sense of community. But when you take away the
appearances, gimmicks, and conditioned behaviour you're left with the wriggling
wormy body of the Satanist's arch-enemy: THE SLAVE!!
Besides a mixture of amusement and sadness, my encounter with
this new embodiment of the archetypal peasant made me reflect of criteria we
can use to tell apart the real Satanist from the multicolored scum. By
definition, the Satanist is a rebel, an outsider, a master of his own destiny.
He's full of his own will and, depending on his mood, either anti-social or
asocial. A lone wolf, he regards others as either inconveniences or useful
tools, and befriends only a chosen few. By contrast, the Slave is eager to
follow and obey the will of others, he can't bear solitude or any sort of
personal responsibility, he's most at home in crowds, and dreams of shaking off
his humanity and one day turning into a sex doll.
So, if we are to identify the real Satanists in a society at
a given time we first have to ask: What are the most oppressive forces
operating in this society? We live in an age of unfettered capitalism and wage
slavery. The oppression characteristic of such a system is very dangerous and
insidious as it doesn't come from a well-defined center of power, as in more
classical totalitarian systems, but it's spread out in a network of tunnels and
economic traps hidden by the attractive facade of free market ideology. In this
context, language heavy with political import and other means of thought
control are also tremendous and sophisticated instruments of coercion. In
addition, things like one's family or friends or "tribe" have always been known to try to
manipulate the individual by imposing requirements like carrying on the family name, participating in meaningless family events or defending various social traditions or customs the individual has no genuine interest in.
In a capitalist society, the Satanist should be either
grudgingly employed or unemployed and living on welfare. Anyone who willfully
sells themselves for a full-time job is NOT A SATANIST, but A LIFE-DENYING SLAVE!
The Adversary might work full-time when running out of options but he never
does it happily or willfully and he knows he'll have to take his revenge
for every second of such humiliation. The Satanist sells his labor while
plotting his revenge. He controls his alienation with savage thoughts of bloody
payback. Part-time and casual employment or living on welfare are always more
seductive for a rebellious spirit. Rather than looking for him in an office
building, there's a better chance of finding the authentic Opposer at the
public library reading The Communist
Manifesto, or down the river valley having sex, writing poetry or
exchanging survival tips with the tented homeless.
The real Satanist doesn't care about family or tribe or nation or any sort of community he contingently finds himself in. He only cares about himself, his will, his life. If you see a happy family man, behold, that is A WRETCHED SLAVE!! For a Satanist having kids is the equivalent of suicide, or even worse, a long-drawn sordid self-torture. The Satanist has a few like-minded friends but is always vigilant about the terms of those friendships. If a friend succumbs to the siren call of slavery he's immediately rejected before he starts spewing his nonsense and poisoning the elite group. The Aristocrat only socializes on his own terms and never wastes his time on worthless, boring people, unless he indulges his cruel desire to mock them and introduce them to their own weakness.
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| Ash from Nargaroth and a kindred spirit. |
The genuine Master is usually quiet and doesn't enjoy running his mouth and engaging in endless small-talk. Language is a trap, a form of thought control, a great force that constantly saps the powers of the individual. That's why the Satanist strives to be creative in his language use, and tries to resist and dismantle the disciplinary power implicit in the value-laden vocabulary uncritically used by his troglodyte contemporaries. False idols like God, Money, Nation, Love, are but amusing targets for the Rebel's steaming jet of urine. Like a true artist, The Satanist delights in the game of creation and destruction, destruction and creation. Art is the highest expression of freedom, and a good artist is always an original. Originality is a satanic ideal by definition because it involves the highest degree of self-knowledge. The artist is a creator of worlds rather than part of a world created by someone else.
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| Philosopher Martin Heidegger |
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| The desk at which Martin Heidegger wrote is masterpiece Being and Time, a work that revolutionized western thought and invented a new language to describe the human experience. Martin Heidegger is a poetic hero by definition. |
As you can see, being a Satanist isn't easy. It's not for
everyone. It's a life of almost unbearable lucidity, constant struggle with
others as well as the shadows of others in one's self, a life of endless, neurotic vigilance. Yet it is also a
life of euphoric delight in one's creative powers, in one's strength to
overcome one's self, learn and develop, and in one's capacity to find kindred
spirits and imagine new ways of being free. So, if you're ready to go to a
metal show, take a good look in the mirror at the symbols you're wearing and
decide for yourself if you're worthy of them. What anti-social deed have you
done lately? In what interesting ways are you different from the mindless scum
that makes up society? Did you create anything of value in your life? Are you a
hero or just a follower? If that introspection isn't going well, there's always
the option of transcending yourself with a bullet or a knife.