"Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law"
A particular post on the intriguing Mental Rebellion blog brought to mind the above quotation by Aleister Crowley (aka "The Great Beast 666").
Well, just like libertarianism and pyramid schemes, these "words to live by" sound pretty good (especially to the egotistically inclined) until you do the math. In Crowleyworld, you'll need either a very big gun or a very deep hole.
(In law school I looked for a long time for a t-shirt w/ Crowley's ugly mug and the "Do What Thou Wilt . . ." slogan. I never found one. Today, I think I would prefer Judge Dredd's "I Am The Law!")
posted by brainmarket @ 6:02 AM
11 Comments:
Translation: Do what you want, that's the law?
Break it down for me, honey.
Nim:
I do what YOU want, right?
OK, now I want you to sleep on the couch.
I like this as a tee shirt idea. (But you've moved on to a movie tee shirt idea, so fine.) I'm sure there's a way to make it happen.
--Anon (so you can tell me apart from those other anonymous posters)
To say 'do the math, you'll need either a very big gun or a very big hole' means, I believe, that someone who decides that he is the law will be a solitary figure. Let's give Nietzsche his due though, because he cannot be refuted by simple rhetoric ad populum, especially when one distrusts the populus. Doesn't history have its share of people like Cyrus the Great, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Augustus, Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan, Napoleon, and the various 20th century mutations who did an impressive job of being their own law by gaining the support of others. Even if it would be difficult in this massified culture of ours to become such a figure, that does nothing to lessen the appeal of the principle. One can certainly recreate such a life on a smaller scale, and who knows what possibilities the future will offer.
Thank you for your support of my blog.
I invite you to look at the post called "Refute This" that I made on my blog on 9 June. That's the argument in its original form, as it dates back to the Greek sophists of the 5th century B.C. It retains its force, I think. Nietzsche, who was a classical scholar by trade, thought so, too.
Whoops, that's obviously the particular post you had in mind.
i fought the law, and the law won!
Nature's Rebel:
The mathematical lie of Libertarianism, Crowley, and Pyramid Schemes is that EVERYONE can succeed by exploiting others.
Obviously (at least to the mildly skeptical), such schemes--freedom to exploit others without regulation (Libertarianism), do what thou wilt but watch out for someone else doing what THEY wilt with a bigger stick (Crowley), selling the right to sell to others who will at some point not exist (pyramid schemes)--create a strong elite brandishing big guns (figuratively or even literally) and an exploited or even fearful majority either serving the elite or hiding from them.
Oh, I forgot to mention that some of the majority may--instead of fearing or despising the elite--might aspire to membership of that elite.
You are appealing to a prevailing perspective as it exists right now, and most people in our society would agree with you. But that has never been a foundation for a convincing argument over time, because prevailing perspectives change. I am inviting a debate about the logic of the proposition. Is it really wrong, all concern for exploitation, big guns, elitism, and aspiring majority aside?
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