Might Is Right

by Ragnar Redbeard

  It is only Incoherents of subjective will-power or of servile extraction (bottle-fed beings as it were) that even dream of an “ordered state of society” wherein Right and Wrong (or personal merit) can be decisively decided upon other than biological principles.

  Hebrew decadents harped upon this fool-thought of Universal Peace, Equality, Justice, and Fair Play for ages: but have then not been a pestilent tribe of unwarlike slaves from their leprous beginning? The greatest poem of their repulsive literature, inculcates the “virtue” of patience and submission under intolerable Injustice. All their gyrating prophets scream, and sob, and yell over the wholesale failure of epileptoid ethical standards; and insanely proclaim a ‘good’ time coming; when every Israelite “shall recline under his own vine and fig tree, with no one to make him afraid.” How delightful? Moses, Jesus, Isaiah, Peter. — Mark, Mathew, Luke, and John, were all squalid Jews, and rhapsodical Communards. Those Hebrew breeders of desolation — Lasalle, Dr. Adler, Jacobi, Karl Marx, and modernized transplanted Essenes — Ebionites.

  All moral injunctions, all millenialisms; are arbitrary infernalisms — the results of crafty hypnotic suggestion. Their secret object is the overthrow of human reason and individual independence; in order to establish a vast bedlamite penitentiary to be called ‘God’s kingdom on earth’ alias ‘pandemonium in full blast.’

  The fact is, Humanity is going stark staring mad in consequence of having eaten the fruit that grows on that devilish tree “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” Luscious it is to look upon — pleasant it is to the palate, but a deadly atropine — a cunning poison lurks in its core. Cursed are they that eat thereof.

  Aye, thrice cursed are the believers in Right and Wrong — for they are — the erring ones.

  9

  Attraction and gravitation holds the stars in their courses and (upon exactly the same general operative method) all human swarms and animal herds, are integrated and disintegrated by effective manifestations of derivative solar heat and power.

  Strong-Men are magnetized incarnations of primordial energy — dynamos of concentrated electricity. There is a mysterious, almost magical charm about the personality of True Greatness. Lesser men are attracted to their Natural Chiefs as steel shavings are drawn to the loadstone. This peculiar attractive force is hardly ever seen (except spasmodically) in physical weaklings. It seems to develop only in animals of unusual vitality — men with plenty of “devil” in them.

  Physical power is the basis of mental power. The nutriment of the brain cells is derived from the blood-corpuscles perpetually being pumped into it by the heart’s action. If the pump valves are weak or out of gear — if the food stream is impure — if the stomach if disordered — if the liver is congested or the lungs decaying and corrupt; then the brain is starved, drugged, poisoned, while all the thoughts that germinate therein are feeble, unnatural, impure. Hence the rolling stream of literary filth that the Zolas and the bible-boomers, the poetlings, and the ‘eminent savants,’ keep pouring out upon generations of men, soaked for ages in similar intellectual sewerage.

  Hence also the remarkable fact, that neither Great Men nor Great Heroisms are ever town bred. Cities are impure in thought, word, and deed; and nothing that is noble can ever evolve therein. They are the refuse heaps — the kjokken-moddings of the world. They are matrixes of all that is shameful and base, in religion, politics, sociology, and law. Lupanars of organized abomination are they! — where the infamous prostitute and the still more infamous editor poison the air, side by side; spreading abroad their leprous contagion with every wind that blows. Would that I were a Nero and could play the fiddle! But after all perhaps, it would be a waste of matches and good cat-gut.

  Great men can only evolve from out an environment of comparative personal independence. They come from the mountains and the forest clearings. They grow to maturity with the storm beating upon, and the rains dripping adown them. First, warring against the rivalry of the elements, they develop the tremendous motor-power necessary in after life, for the mastership of man-herds. Entering into the centres of semi-moribund civilizations, they straightaway take the lead as a matter of natural right. They become rulers, chancellors, kings, conquerors, electric batteries, dynamos. Slave-bred swarms toil at their bidding, with zealous contentment and rivals are cast down, as it were, by a “turn of the wrist.”

  Their smile is wealth and honor to lesser men — their frown is poverty, outlawry, or the bow-string. Second-class animals gather around them, and are used up as satraps, governors, lieutenants. If a nation under process of exploitation, revolts, the revolt is suppressed by force. If established rulers are incapable of that task, then are they overthrown; and leaders of Revolt rule in their stead — as a matter of course. Rulers’ control depends absolutely upon their Might. When unable any longer to wield the “death penalty,” their power is departed. The French aristocracy originated in the savage deeds of fierce, long-haired, battle-bred Franks; and their effeminate descendents — were overwhelmed and guillotined by Grim Provincials who came to Paris, hungry for money, power and renown.

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

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

  Man’s body and sustenance is derived, directly or indirectly from the Sun. By it he lives, dies, and has his being. Let heliocentric force be withdrawn for an instant, and all life straightway disappears. Thus everywhere, throughout “Eternity,” under all circumstances and at all times; this world, all worlds, and all that creeps thereon are driven, inspired, vitalized, and guided by active operating Force. Everywhere it is Might that governs, feebleness that is governed, attracted, repelled, controlled.

  Force propels iron-ribbed reindeers of the sea and hurls them plunging though the grey-green surges. Force whirls the loaded freight cars over prairie, range, and river. Force hauls-up from the deep sunk mines, vast treasures of gold, iron, silver, and coal. Force rolls the red-glowing metal ingots into titanic shapes. Force sows the seed, ploughs the field, reaps the grain, threshes the corn, hews the stone, shapes the girders, bridges rivers, mows down forests, builds cities, writes the book — inspires it, prints it, defends it.

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

  If Force is the “all in all” of the planetary systems and of the animal world, may it not also be the open-sesame of sociology — the primeval principle that governs, (and must continue to govern) the relations of tribe to tribe and man to man? Is it not the gospel of antiquity, as well as the logical reducto of To-day?

  Whether in mortgaged republics, pawned monarchies, or hypothecated despotisms, the Sword Power — (that is to say, the military power — the clubbing power) is the ultimate ipse dixit in the measuring-out of right and wrong. As it was in the days of the fierce Sesostris; the devastating Genghis; the venturesome Charlemagne; so is it even now. In all industrial relations Might is ‘monarch of all it surveys.’ Authority is Authority, though it may take on a thousand diverse forms. What is the elemental difference between a Roman mandumus, a Turkish firman, a Russian ukase, a ‘Supreme’ Court injunction, or an Order in Chancery? They are exact synonyms. Whatever their salient phraseology may be; in operation they are visible manifestations of Imperial Power �
�� of Sceptred Majesty. No sacredotal sophistry can permanently disguise this fact; and what is more important, no emotional demagoguery can remove it.

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

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

  Even-handed Justice has never existed in the animate creation and never can. The very idea of it is an absurdity. Evolution knows it not.

  Between beasts of burden and beasts of prey; also between Capital and Labor there is an eternal combat. Natural enemies are they of each other, and whichever proves the stronger must rule — for the time being; or rather, until the next Test. The law of battle is unlimited. It does not end to-day or to-morrow. It persists for all time.

  Between the Optimates and Populares of Rome — and Aristos and the Helots of Greece — the Merchant-Kings and Nubian serfs of Carthage — the Military Caste and the slaves of Karnack and Memphis; the same irrepressible conflict raged for long centuries that is now being waged everywhere, between the Haves and the Have-nots. Indeed the agrarian agitation, and the tumultous strife between the Debtor and the Creditor classes in modern America, is an exact duplicate of what happened in the Græco-Roman world. Modern leaders, however, (on both sides) are poor miserable weaklings, compared with the chiefs of Antiquity. Mere infants are they, delighting in toys and lullabies — seeing, they see not; hearing, they hear not; minds have they, but they know not; laughing and prattling they say naught — most eloquently. To them their petty provincial cradle is the Universe, and their lives an aimless wandering in the land o’ dreams.

  The men who talk of permanently reconciling conflicting world-wide energies, are wasting their breath for naught. Compromise is out of the question (now as of old) except as a temporary expedient. The rich and the poor are both inevitable natural products and complements of each other — like the opposing currents in an electric battery. It is the business of the rich to exploit the poor and it is equally the business of the poor to defeat and exploit — in their turn.

  The oppression of one class by another is always induced by the physical cowardice of the victimized; and Nature has no love for dastards — whether rich or poor. Oppression is one of the necessary phases of evolution. In order therefore to insure the subordination and ultimate annihilation of lower types; the struggle for survival is imposed upon humans as upon all other animals. Even when our ‘eminent’ wiselings are predicting eras of universal peace and contentment; the contending cohorts are preparing to jump at each others throats — as of yore. Might must decide ‘all things’ in the future, as it has decided ‘all things’ in the past: and they who teach otherwise, are either dishonest or have no real conception of the magnitude and sequence of biological determinance.

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

  All realized wealth is transfigured Force; and want of it, a sure sign of sterility and degeneracy. Industrialism is the manipulation of Force — by Force. Brains and muscles are part of the mechanism of gravitation. Descendents of “prisoners-of-war” have been trained for ages in servitude: and they make most intelligent mechanics, specialists, and serving-men.

  Capital is concentrated Force, applied to the extraction and storage of additional Force. It may be operated by its proprietor in any way that he pleases. He is under no obligation to others as to its application or proprietorship. He can ‘do as he likes with his own’ as long as he has the power. He may own the earth by its agency, if he wants to; and he may buy or sell men and nations, if he feels so inclined or thinks it profitable. There is in Nature no limit to his energies or ambitions. All that is needed is Power equal to the design. But the same principles may be acted upon by any other man or association of men; and in the conflict that ensues, fitness is proved — absolutely and without doubt. The ‘rights of the rich’ are what they can maintain; and the ‘rights of the poor’ are no less. No bounds are set to the accumulation of property, and none whatever to its re-distribution. Fair-play is not even an essential or a requisite. It may be established, if mutually desired by both combatants; but it may also be wholly dispensed with. In real life it is always “dispensed with” by those who possess a preponderance of material might.

  Equality can only exist amongst equals. Civilization implies division of labor and division of labor implies subordination and subordination implies injustice and inequality. Woe to me if I speak not truth!

  At such words as these, pusillanimity blanches with timidity — gathers in its Idol Halls, supplicating — “Lord have mercy upon us! — Christ have mercy upon us! — Deliver us from Evil!”

  In primitive communities the Philosophy of Power is thoroughly understood and acted upon by all classes — even by the Servi.[20] The ideas of abstract justice, righteousness, non-resistance, can find no lodgement in an uncorrupted brain. Life is too grim in a camp of hunters and of warriors, for artificialism to meet with anything more appreciative than a good natured sarcasm. He who has to hunt for his family-dinner every forenoon (and seize land on which to build his shelter) is not over likely to enthusiastically swallow the depraved theoria of self-renunciation; or pledge unbounded allegiance to a self-appointed Ring of tax-gatherers — masquerading as political philanthropists. He maintains his own inherent independent royalty, as long as he can; and never surrenders, except before absolutely superior force. Even then he vows limitless vengeance and obligates his sons and sons’ sons, to undying hatred against the domination and spoliation, of his conquerors.

  10

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