| | Hang on a minute mate,-
stare myopically at only the positive, life-affirming premises in his mixture -- no matter how few or peripheral -- and then, through wishful thinking, inflate their significance in order to pretend to ourselves that we have found some kindred soul. That's a false characterisation of those who might feel more than a tad of sympathy toward Satanists. Much of what you say is right and fine, but fine words butter no parsnips.
It is impossible in matters touching practical life to be consistently wrong, which is one reason why we can nearly always find something agreeable in another's conception of life. A second reason is that even fools, by chance, are sometimes right. So we are agreed.
There will be no argument from me that Objectivism has intellectual allies anywhere. We are at war. We are alone.
However, there's a big difference between our enemies and the brain-dead fog. I'm talking about the wim-worshippers, the sanctioners, the victims- or, as it was put in the 1st Xmen movie, with compassion few of us can generate, "the uninformed". To encapsulate Nietzsche, there are three groups: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. This group is The Ugly, they're not bad- they're just so much fog. The Objectivist, he is The Good. And when it comes to respect "I like the man with the bitter drop" , The Bad. He stands for something. He is a player, the ugly are the played. We are at war, it is honorable.
Immediately I have sympathy toward Satanists, at least they're not sitting on the fence. But neither are countless other conception of life standpoints, some of which you name.
However, unlike the conceptions of life you name there is a uniqueness that marks out Satanism for just a little bit more sympathy- to me. It is their sense of life. Though their spirit is dangerous and drunk and defeated and corroded by failure and envy and hate, unguided, unprepared and un-Objectivist it is their point of similarity with us. Our passionate spirit is in bleak contrast to their tortured and caged one- but still, there it is.
Surely of all the attributes to have in common the sense of life burning inside is worth a little extra respect than other commonalities like self-interest, virtue ethics, logic, pride, heroism, man as an end in himself, universal suffrage, work-ethic, political equality, honesty, efficaciousness of art or all other things that Objectivism might share with other conceptions of life. Surely a sense of life is the sum total of all of these lesser things.
For all their ignorance, misdirection and Puritanical baggage these guys refuse to lay down and submit. It's as if a semi-paralysed man, who might have been hurt in a horse-riding accident, refused the paralysis expected of him and strove to walk just the same. Or like a fictional heroine dieing but choosing to crawl on in the snow.
They are unique among The Bad in their passionate sense of life and have too much heart, have overcome too much suffering for me not to feel more than a tad of sympathy toward Satanists.
"If I'm gonna be damned, I wanna be damned". They're as misguided as any we're at war with but by god they know the pathos of life! Satanists, if you had but chosen the right philosophy what Objectivists you'd have made!
ps If IOS/TOC had the fire of Satanists what Objectivists they'd make
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