While I was at work yesterday, I kept thinking about something I'd read in Don Webb's 'Fire and Force' book. Crowley and the Saturni people were against 'compassion'. Today, I found the exact Crowley quote:

"Compassion is the vice of Kings: stamp down the wretched & the weak: this is our law and the joy of the world." ('Book of the Law', Section 2, verse 21)

This very much reminds me of something LeVey/Redbeard said:

Blessed are the strong, for they shall possess the earth. Cursed are the weak, for they shall inherit the yoke.
Blessed are the powerful for they shall be reverenced among men - Cursed are the feeble for they shall be blotted out." (Book of Satan)

This is 'survival of the fittest' at its most cruel. Crowley and Company were influenced by Nietzsche (1884-1900). Nietzsche was against the 'slave morality' of Christianity and envisioned a breed of 'supermen' whose 'will to power' would set them off from the herd of inferior humanity. (That's what I get from the briefest summary found on the web.)

What did Nietzsche say? (Looking at a brief gathering of his quotes)

"What is good? All that heightens the feeling of power in man, the will to power, power itself. What is bad? All that is born of weakness. What is happiness? The feeling that power is growing, that resistance is overcome." (Friedrich Nietzsche, The Antichrist, section 2)

That certainly sounds 'heroic'. And yet, weakness happens. Infirmity comes to everyone if they get old enough. Taken on surface appearance, the weak and feeble certainly do seem to be 'cursed by fate'. But do we need to curse them as well? A merciless attitude towards others may return to us someday. This is not in our self interest. Yet, is there any merit at all to the Nietzsche/Crowley view?

Don Webb is looking for the best slant in his book addressed mainly to Thelemites:

"As long as such men and women are not killed by compassion, which keeps their Wills from developing - heroes will emerge."("Fire and Force", page 47)

I thought about how compassion might keep the Will from developing. I think this is very much like the Jung quote:

"Where love rules, there is no will to power; and where power predominates, there love is lacking. The one is the shadow of the other."- Carl Jung

And yet each needs 'the shadow'.

Earlier, I was thinking about attributes of Set, and the nature of his 'Unstoppable Will'. This aspect has no compassion in it. Set does not have a soft heart for weak individuals. Either he admires us for the pluckyness of our struggles, or he's rather indifferent. It's not that injury, illness and misfortune don't come to us, as well as everyone else. It's that, no matter what, we keep struggling, we don't give into defeat. That we keep struggling, we don't give up, that's what he admires.

The best possible slant to what Crowley and Company mean by their 'vice of compassion' is regard for fools. If we have the choice of helping someone who is making something out of their life, as compared to some loser who will always be a loser, or who has a good chance of staying a loser, to pick the potential winner, and not to reward stupidity. It may sound cold, but I agree. I have only so much time, energy and resources. I don't want to waste it on fools. It may sound elitist to admit there are a certain percentage of fools out there, but there are.

It's a hard reality, but the weak and feeble are hosed. I hope I don't get 'weak and feeble' like that. But then how do we define this? Infirmity comes to everyone if they get old enough. To be cruel to someone if they are infirm isn't wise. But let's say there are two infirm people, I'm going to look more favorably on the one with spirit, who keeps trying despite their difficulties. But what of the case of deep depression? I was there once, and that's an awful hell. There is no worse hell than that which we create for ourselves. Or did I create it? Was it part heredity and environment? SOMEhow, I got out of that. But it wasn't by giving up. Staying at that job, 'playing it cool' enabled the most difficult Xeper point of my life. I climbed out of that rathole of depression by myself. Yes, it did help that I had people pulling for me. But I had to do the work.

I think we have to think about what is in our best interest. Crowley died mostly friendless because his general nastiness scared friends away. His 'Scarlet Women' had a horrible fate. This WASN'T in his self interest. Caring for those people and causes dear to our heart isn't weakness, there can arise a sort of strength of will from that. Just ask any mother who cares about her kids and protects them fiercely.

But the notion of 'unconditional love for all' is a very skewed concept. To squander one's affection on fools makes oneself a fool.

However, there is a balance between 'being killed by compassion'- being easily taken advantage of and being a tyrannical bully who makes enemies everywhere. In our 'quest for sovereignity, the 'vice of Kings' is to go to either extreme.

After reading Dr. Acquino's comments on Crowley, I see I have come to the same position he did:

Viewing 'compassion as a VICE is "The 'law of the jungle', raised to its most complex expression in the writings of Nietzsche. One of the prerogatives of an independent intellect, however, is that of defying the law of the jungle - to enable the weak or injured to survive in order that they may prove their worth under other circumstances. Excessive devotion to one extreme means cruelty. Excessive devotion to the other results in weakening the self through the hosting of parasites. An Aristolelian 'Golden Mean' must be sought." (page 141, Commentary on 'Book of the Law', Third Draft of book on Temple of Set)

That is the point of Xeper, that we can become more than just 'animals in the jungle'. While the animals have a fierce nobility all their own, we can choose our actions with more thought. We don't operate only from instinct. Conscious choice enables a conscious evolution.

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