See for yourself. Take the test. Which of the following quotes comes to us by way of Ayn Rand, the Philsopher Queen of Objectivism -- and which ones were delivered unto us by way of Aleister Crowley, the Beast 666 and prophet of the Age of Horus?
(Yes, I know that some clever HTML coding could turn this post into a real online quiz -- the kind with buttons and automatic score tabulation and so forth. But making that happen would take work, and doing work is against my rational self-interest. Please -- just take the test mentally. You're not being graded. No fair using Google! At the end, I'll reveal the answers.)
1. "What are your masses...but mud to be ground underfoot, fuel to be burned for those who deserve it?"
2. “The purpose of morality is to teach you, not to suffer and die, but to enjoy yourself and live.”
4. “The definition of self-respect contains a clause to include pitiless contempt for some other class.”
5. “How right politicians are to look upon their constituents as cattle! Anyone who has any experience of dealing with any class as such knows the futility of appealing to intelligence, indeed to any other qualities than those of brutes.”
6. “A strong man can eventually trample society under his feet.”
7. “You love only those who deserve it”
8. "I spit on your crapulous creeds."
9. “According to the Christian mythology, he died on the cross not for his own sins but for the sins of the non-ideal people. In other words, a man of perfect virtue was sacrificed for men who are vicious and who are expected or supposed to accept that sacrifice. If I were a Christian, nothing could make me more indignant than that: the notion of sacrificing the ideal to the non-ideal, or virtue to vice. And it is in the name of that symbol that men are asked to sacrifice themselves for their inferiors."
10. "We have nothing with the outcast and the unfit: let them die in their misery. For they feel not. Compassion is the vice of kings: stamp down the wretched and the weak: this is the law of the strong..."
12. “The Way of Mastery is to break all the rules”
13. “Some men are born sodomites, some achieve sodomy, and some have sodomy thrust upon them...”
14. "Pity not the fallen! I never knew them. I am not for them. I console not: I hate the consoled & the consoler."
15. “What I am fighting is the idea that charity is a moral duty”
16. “Ask yourself whether the dream of heaven and greatness should be waiting for us in our graves – or whether it should be ours here and now and on this earth.”
17. “All this talk about 'suffering humanity' is principally drivel based on the error of transferring one's own psychology to one's neighbour. The Golden Rule is silly.”
18. “Ordinary morality is only for ordinary people.”
19. "I am the creator of a new code of morality... a morality not based on faith."
20. “I slept with faith and found a corpse in my arms on awakening; I drank and danced all night with doubt and found her a virgin in the morning.”
21. “The person who loves everybody and feels at home everywhere is the true hater of mankind.”
22. I am unique & conqueror. I am not of the slaves that perish.
(CLICK "PERMALINK" BELOW FOR ANSWERS!)
Here are the quotes again, this time with attributions...
1. "What are your masses...but mud to be ground underfoot, fuel to be burned for those who deserve it?" -- Ayn Rand
2. “The purpose of morality is to teach you, not to suffer and die, but to enjoy yourself and live.” -- Ayn Rand
3. “I am alone. There is no God where I am.” -- Aleister Crowley
4. “The definition of self-respect contains a clause to include pitiless contempt for some other class.” -- Aleister Crowley
5. “How right politicians are to look upon their constituents as cattle! Anyone who has any experience of dealing with any class as such knows the futility of appealing to intelligence, indeed to any other qualities than those of brutes.” -- Aleister Crowley
6. “A strong man can eventually trample society under his feet.” -- Ayn Rand
7. “You love only those who deserve it” -- Ayn Rand
8. "I spit on your crapulous creeds." -- Aleister Crowley
9. “According to the Christian mythology, he died on the cross not for his own sins but for the sins of the non-ideal people. In other words, a man of perfect virtue was sacrificed for men who are vicious and who are expected or supposed to accept that sacrifice. If I were a Christian, nothing could make me more indignant than that: the notion of sacrificing the ideal to the non-ideal, or virtue to vice. And it is in the name of that symbol that men are asked to sacrifice themselves for their inferiors." -- Ayn Rand
10. "We have nothing with the outcast and the unfit: let them die in their misery. For they feel not. Compassion is the vice of kings: stamp down the wretched & the weak: this is the law of the strong..." -- Aleister Crowley
11. “Each man must live as an end in himself.” -- Ayn Rand
12. “The Way of Mastery is to break all the rules” -- Aleister Crowley
13. “Some men are born sodomites, some achieve sodomy, and some have sodomy thrust upon them...” -- Aleister Crowley
14. Pity not the fallen! I never knew them. I am not for them. I console not: I hate the consoled & the consoler. -- Aleister Crowley
15. “What I am fighting is the idea that charity is a moral duty” -- Ayn Rand
16. “Ask yourself whether the dream of heaven and greatness should be waiting for us in our graves – or whether it should be ours here and now and on this earth.” -- Ayn Rand
17. “All this talk about 'suffering humanity' is principally drivel based on the error of transferring one's own psychology to one's neighbour. The Golden Rule is silly.” -- Aleister Crowley
18. “Ordinary morality is only for ordinary people.” -- Aleister Crowley
19. "I am the creator of a new code of morality... a morality not based on faith." -- Ayn Rand
20. “I slept with faith and found a corpse in my arms on awakening; I drank and danced all night with doubt and found her a virgin in the morning.” -- Aleister Crowley
21. “The person who loves everybody and feels at home everywhere is the true hater of mankind.” -- Ayn Rand
22. I am unique & conqueror. I am not of the slaves that perish. -- Aleister Crowley
11 comments:
19 right, 3 wrong.
On all 3 of my errors, I mistook a Rand quote for a Crowley quote. Auntie Ayn was worse than I remembered her.
My favorite Uncle Al quote is from Moonchild:
"There's a thing in the garden."
I suspect it was probably Ron Paul.
Would you please cite your quotations from Rand?
A couple of them, right off the bat are suspect.
#1) I would suspect that she was outlining the mindset of tyrants, a mindset which she adamantly railed against.
#6) I would suspect that she was using the term "strong man" to mean a dictator, as in "a fascist strong man?, again something which she adamantly railed against.
I can only make these claims based upon what I've read of her work, and until you provide the actual cited source material, I have to suspect that you are intentionally cherry-picking out of context quotes which will fit an agenda which you are obviously pushing.
Please provide the citations.
JQS: NOW you may use Google. As I did.
By the way, JQS -- I recall where 6 came from. No, she was not describing a dictator. It was from a notorious "love letter" she wrote in praise of the psychotic murderer William Hickman.
I think we can agree that Ayn was, sexually, one sick cookie.
Actually, I know her type. We know a lot more about extreme BDSM these days, so she's pretty easy to diagnose. I've met others like her.
She's the strong, intellectual woman with an overwhelming urge to submit to -- even be killed by -- Conan the Barbarian. That's the way her sexual clock was set. (See: "L'histoire d'O.") Her fetish was completely irrational, of course: Sex is always irrational, a fact which she, irrationally, never allowed herself to accept.
Her entire philosophy was built around her irrational, unrealizable search for the idealized, remorseless world-conquering hero/savage of her dreams. But she could never find him. The barriers were too steep: Her intellect, her endlessly combative personality, and her mannish looks.
By the way, I will not allow you to mount a defense of Randism here. Believe me, I have HEARD the okie-doke -- heard it loud and clear back in the freakin' 70s -- and I don't need to hear it again. You have nothing to tell me.
I don't allow cultists of any stripe a voice here. If that makes anyone feel censored -- well, I could not care less.
Joseph, It seem that Ayn Rand has left her mark. "I could care less" seem very Randian to me.
Did Crowley actually expect to be taken seriously while wearing that outfit he's sporting in the picture?
He looks like some evil sorcerer from a comic book. Dr. Strange would mop the floor with him. ^_^
Anon: Bah. Why should I listen the the complaints of my obvious inferiors? Commenters are moochers. Bloggers are producers. You small, petty underlings are clearly jealous.
I'm still laughing at the term 'cherry picking' applied to anything Ayn Rand. Cherries are much too wholesome for the association.
I thought the above was funny. I know, I know, you don't care.:)
Love is the Law: Love under Will
- Aleister Crowley
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