Might Is Right

Content

The author sums up his work as follows: In Might Is Right, Redbeard rejects conventional ideas such as advocacy of human and natural rights and argues that only strength or physical might can establish moral right (à la Callicles or Thrasymachus). The book also attacks Christianity and democracy. Friedrich Nietzsche's theories of master–slave morality and herd mentality served as inspirations for Redbeard's book which was written contemporaneously.

James J. Martin, the individualist anarchist historian, called it "surely one of the most incendiary works ever to be published anywhere." This refers to the book's assertions that weakness should be regarded with hatred and the strong and forceful presence of social Darwinism. Other parts of the book deal with the topics of race and male–female relations. The book claims that the woman and the family as a whole are the property of the man, and it proclaims that the Anglo-Saxon race is innately superior to all other races. The book also contains anti-Christian and anti-Semitic statements.

Authorship

Anarchist S. E. Parker writes in his introduction to the text: "The most likely candidate is a man named Arthur Desmond who was red-bearded, red-haired and whose poetry was very similar to that written by Redbeard." The Bulletin, a journal associated with the Australian labour movement, reported in July 1900 that Desmond (a former contributor to the publication) was Ragnar Redbeard.

Several observers have proposed Jack London may have written or contributed to Might is Right, a claim made by both Anton LaVey and white supremacist publisher Katja Lane (wife of convicted racketeer David Lane). Lane's assessment was based on her judgment on London's writing style and punctuation. However, this idea was rejected by Rodger Jacobs, a biographer of London, since London was only 20 years old at the time, was busy with college, and had not yet developed a mature writing style, nor had he read anything by Nietzsche.

Response

Leo Tolstoy, whom Might Is Right described as "the ablest modern expounder of primitive Christliness", responded in his 1897 essay What Is Art?:

The author has evidently by himself, independently of Nietzsche, come to the same conclusions which are professed by the new artists.

Expressed in the form of a doctrine, these positions startle us. In reality, they are implied in the ideal of art serving beauty. The art of our upper classes has educated people in this ideal of the over-man — which is in reality the old ideal of Nero, Stenka Razin, Genghis Khan, Robert Macaire or Napoleon and all their accomplices, assistants, and adulators — and it supports this ideal with all its might.

It is this supplanting of the ideal of what is right by the ideal of what is beautiful, i.e. of what is pleasant, that is the fourth consequence, and a terrible one, of the perversion of art in our society. It is fearful to think of what would befall humanity were such art to spread among the masses of the people. And it already begins to spread.}}

Parker wrote: "Might Is Right is a work flawed by major contradictions." In particular, he criticized the inconsistency of the book's central dogma of individualism with its open sexism and racism (both requiring a membership in a collective). However, he concluded that "it is sustained by a crude vigor that at its most coherent can help to clear away not a few of the religious, moral and political superstitions bequeathed to us by our ancestors."

Influence

Portions of Might Is Right comprise the vast majority of The Book of Satan in Anton LaVey's 1969 The Satanic Bible, the founding document of the Church of Satan. Though it is no longer included in current printings of The Satanic Bible, early printings included an extensive dedication to various people whom LaVey recognized as influences, including Ragnar Redbeard.

Santino William Legan, the perpetrator of the 2019 Gilroy Garlic Festival shooting in Gilroy, California, mentioned Might is Right in an Instagram post. NBC journalists have claimed it is a 'staple' of white supremacist groups online.

Editions

References

References

1. Gilmore, Peter H.; Introduction, Might is Right: The Authoritative Edition, Underworld Amusements, April 23, 2019, 406 pages. {{ISBN. 9781943687039.
2. Chris Mathews. (2009). "Modern Satanism: Anatomy of a Radical Subculture". Greenwood Publishing Group.
3. (1899). "Immorality as a Philosophic Principle - Nietzesche's Emotionalism". [[The Monist]], Volume 9.
4. (August 18, 2010). "EGO No 6 1985 Twenty Five Pence,".
5. [[S. E. Parker]], [http://www.sidparker.com/essays/ragnar-redbeard-and-the-right-of-might/ Introduction to ''Might is Right'']
6. (28 July 1900). "Personal items". [[The Bulletin (Australian periodical).
7. (4 August 1900). "Parley concerning politics". [[The Australian Worker.
8. [http://london.sonoma.edu/Bibliographies/redbeard.html RUNNING WITH THE WOLVES: JACK LONDON, THE CULT OF MASCULINITY, AND "MIGHT IS RIGHT"] {{Webarchive. link. (August 16, 2014 , Rodger Jacobs, Jack London Online Collection, Sonoma U)
9. [https://books.google.com/books?id=HioKA46blE8C&dq=%22might+is+right%22+author+jack+london&pg=PA1 "Foreward" (sic)] by Anton LaVey, to ''Might is Right'', pub. Shane Bugbee (2003)
10. [https://archive.org/details/whatisart00maudgoog/page/n175 What is art?] Leo Tolstoy
11. Gallagher, Eugene V.. (2013). "The Devil's Party-Satanism in Modernity". [[Oxford University Press]].
12. LaVey, Anton Szandor (1969). The Satanic Bible. New York: Avon Books. {{ISBN. 978-0-380-01539-9.
13. (July 29, 2019). "Gilroy Garlic Festival gunman referred to ''Might is Right'' manifesto before shooting". NBC News.
14. (1896). "Might Is Right (The Logic of To-day) / by Ragnar Redbeard". [[National Library of Australia]].