Might Is Right Read online

  Yawping politicians may harangue base city mobs of hirelings and Christlings with “Alas, poor Yorick!” rhapsody, as if struggle and strife were the evil of all evils. Figures of speech, however, cannot breathe the breath of life into feline philosophies that never have had the slightest foundation in Fact. The survival of the Fittest — the Toughest is the logic of events and of all time. They who declare otherwise are blind. The chief point is this: that Fitness must honestly demonstrate itself not by ignoble theft and theory but by open conflict as per Darwin’s law of battle.

  * * *

  How can citizens be honestly described as free and equal who are not, who never were, “free and equal” in any reasonable sense of the phrase? How can they be even considered men, whose whole lives are governed by cast-iron regulations; whose every movement is circumscribed and restrained by penal threats — even whose secret thoughts are in a constant state of silent repression?

  It is no apology whatever to affirm that the People themselves enact all laws they are commanded to obey. Even that statement is a falsity and if it were true, it would not justify majority Dictatorship or any other kind of Dictatorship.

  The Constitution under which all other laws are born, was accepted, not by us but by bewigged individuals who are long since rotten. We are ruled, in fact by cadavers — the inhabitants of tombs.

  “Why should agreements made by coffined dead men bind and mortgage living, pulsing, breathing beings?

  Their bones have long ago mouldered into ozone and fertilizers, who drew up and signed the Bill of Rights; Magna Charta, the Sermon on the Mount, the Declaration of Independence, our Glorious Constitution, etc., etc. Rotten are the brains that concocted them and the fingers that signed and sealed them. Equally rotten are their irrational and infantile philosophies. Rotten also in their heart, are the men who obey under compulsion voices from the tomb.

  No doubt those old documents served their purpose at the time, but ‘new occasions teach new duties,’ and new ages require, not only new leaders, but new deeds.

  Again, most Acts of Congress are the Machiavellian work of eminent rogues, curse them whose very names are almost forgotten except by partisan chroniclers, and printers of public school histories.

  As for the Common Law, it is an inheritance from those interesting old days, when Saxon and Norman earls (they were genuine noblemen then, for they had won their position by risking their lives in battle) administered ‘Justice’ direct, per media of knotted clubs, hilted knives, and long handled cleavers. That was the only kind of ‘Law’ understood by our ‘uncivilized’ forefathers, for they had not been ‘educated’ into the profound conviction that governments and laws ‘derive all their just powers from the consent of the governed.’ Such an expression would have sent them into convulsions, and he who uttered it would be considered — a most excellent fool.

  No doubt our ancestors were somewhat rude in their manners, somewhat deficient in sweetness and culture but in matters of frozen fact they were decidedly logical. They did not sneak to public meetings and swagger about ‘Liberty,’ ‘Justice,’ and ‘Equality of Opportunity,’ or ‘Rights of Man,’ when they knew full well that not only their lives, but everything they nominally possessed was ‘by leave’ of their conquerors and proprietors. They accepted their position pro-tem, and when again ready, honestly re-entered the doom-ring to test anew their Fate.

  If they could come alive again how those old Pirates and Freebooters would stare in shame and scorn at the sight of their ‘tenderfoot’ posterity, walking up in solemn, horny-handed, hump-backed procession in shoddy rags before an idol-altar called a ballot-box, dropping into its gilded maw, printed invocations for Justice, Mercy, Liberty, “Peace in our time O! Lord!” — Protection, — Cheap Money, — ‘more laws! more laws! more laws!’ How our blonde, clean-limbed ancestors would guffaw? Indeed, they would probably keep on guffawing, till they guffawed themselves to death again.

  ‘Oh!’ they would say: — ‘to think that our seed should have sunk so low!’

  7

  But, Equality before the Law is all we mean whimpers the everlasting sophist — the cunning liar! Let us see! By what rational method can any two litigants be placed in a position of unconditional ‘Equality before the Law?’ First of all, plaintiff and defendant always possess totally different physical and mental characteristics, different personal magnetisms and different sized bank balances. Also all judges, juries, and legal officials are unequals in temperament, ability, courage and honesty. Each one has his own peculiar idiosyncrasies, prejudices, inferiorities, superstitions, and — price. Each again, may be more or less dishonest and more or less subject to financial pressure or caste bias. No two men are born alike: each one being literally born under his own particular star, formed of different material, swayed by different ideals, educated and moulded in a different mill, by a different process.

  Even if all tribunals of Justice were founded upon blind Impartiality, and administered free of cost, it will be plainly seen, that ‘Equality before the Law’ remains a mere chimera, a dream; and of no real value. ‘Equality before the Law,’ is just a meaningless catchword, something like that famous Jesuitism — ‘Liberty regulated by Law.’

  Statute Law may formally confer equal rights and privileges upon unequal citizens, but it cannot enforce itself — it must execute its mandate through human media, and that media is full up to the brim with superiorities, inferiorities, and inequalities.

  No legalism has ever been devised that Strength can not drive its coach and four through; and it is a popular proverb (in all lands) that somehow, there is ‘one law for the rich and another for the poor.’ Indeed the poor can never be placed upon an equality with the rich — not even by the pillage of the rich.

  Whether they are the Fittest or not, the present proprietors of wealth should never permit themselves to be plundered, without a savage struggle.

  Sooner or later, the hour of this struggle in its acute form shall arrive, but the Rich must not dread it. If they prepare in time, the result shall not only justify their mastership, but render it impregnable — if they are Fit. To be respected and secure, Aristocracies must rest themselves upon Sworded Might, not upon paper-credits, consols, and bond issues.

  Should the Opulents be conquered and pillaged, that in itself will be conclusive evidence that they are neither the Fittest nor the Best. Upon this earth there is no such thing as Equal Justice.

  All legal tribunals are based, not upon ideal concepts of Justice and Fair Play, but upon effective armed Strength. This is a truism. Robbery under arms, laid the corner stone of every Court House in Christendom and elsewhere. How then can the robbers and the robbed — the eagle and the pigeon — the chicken and the hawk be placed in positions of genuine equilibrium before removable officials, specially paid and appointed, to ‘vindicate the Law’ — that is to give forcible effect to the Dicta of the Strongest.

  All judges are authorized avengers armed to the teeth and all hangmen are licensed assassins, trained to kill. These words are not spoken in disparagement. Assassins and avengers! Ha! If that be so…

  Truly they that “seek the Lord” do suffer hunger but — lions seek for prey.

  When an army of occupation settles down upon an enemy’s territory, it issues certain rules of ‘procedure’ for the orderly transference of the property and persons of the conquered into the absolute possession and unlimited control of the conquerors. These ‘rules of procedure’ may at first take shape as orders issued by military generals’ but after a time they develop themselves into Statute Books, Precedents, and Constitutions. Indeed all Law is now and ever has been, the mandate of successful belligerents or rather the mandate of the few masterful personalities that ever inspire them.

  Equality before the Law, is thus a contradiction in terms for Law itself is an incarnation of Inequality. It is true only in the subjective sense, that all who obey the Law are equally the servants of those who make it or caused it to be made.
/>   Drum-head court martials are really Law Courts in embryo. Congresses and Parliaments are merely committees of rapacious tax-gatherers. Legislators may describe themselves as ‘representatives of the people,’ but that is only a cunning masquerade. Their chief vocation is to strengthen ‘the Law,’ uphold ‘the Constitution,’ vote the annual ‘Appropriations’ and devise ways and means of exploiting the nation or of permitting it to be systematically looted by their accomplices, or — their Masters.

  The principles that govern a ‘hold-up’ are the selfsame principles that govern government. No government on earth rests on the consent of the governed.

  It is reasonable therefore for a confederation of masterful bandits to place themselves in positions of absolute equality, before their intended victims. The idea is absurd on the face of it. Brigandage necessitates inequality: and every government on earth, is organized and enthroned Brigandage.[6]

  Las Casas, the Spanish Jesuit, was the first in America to spread about the false, subversive, and shameful theory of ‘equal human rights’ but since his time, it has been boastfully accepted on all sides, by vast hordes of witless persons who are in all countries, the numerical majority. “The race of fools” as Plato sagaciously remarked, “is not to be counted” — not even in this ‘land of the free.’

  Although Equality (in any shape) has never been scientifically proven nor logically defended: nevertheless it passes from tongue to tongue, from brain to brain in current discussions, for ‘gospel truth’ — just as clever counterfeit coins are passed unsuspectingly from hand to hand.

  The Equality superstition is tolerated by clear-seeing men, for one reason only. It assists them to govern the thoughts: and by governing the thoughts, to exploit the property, energy, and labor-force, of their soft-minded, good natured neighbors: who really believe it to be true — who think it, glad tidings of Great Joy.

  Behold! When the fraudulent ‘equality of natural rights’ evangel, is mellifluously poured forth in the Market Places by suave dollar-hunting attorneys; or half educated mechanics; even those staid citizens (whose whole life is of it a direct disproof) lead the roaring, raving, yelling crowd,’ in its maniacal bellowings.

  Lo! the Angel of Lunacy is camped in their souls!

  8

  Every atom of organic matter has its own vital peculiarity. Every animate being is different in osseous structure and chemical composition. Ethnology, Biology, History, all proclaim Equality to be a myth. Even the great epics of antiquity are all glorifications of inequality: inequality of mind — inequality of birth, of courage or condition. Can equality of body, equality of mind, equality of origin, equality before the law, or any other kind of ‘equality’ be demonstrated by any one fact?

  Mentally and morally, every breathing being is a self poised monad — a differentiated ego. No two germs, planets, suns, or stars, are alike. Among the higher vertebrates this is especially so, and consequently, the only law that men ought to honor or respect; is the law that originates, and finds its final sanction in themselves — in their own consciousness.

  Inequality is summed up in the scientific axiom “inferior organisms succumb, that superior organisms may survive, propagate, and possess.” In other words, the proper place for Lazarus is to rot among the dogs. And the proper place for Cæsar is at the head of his irresistible legions.

  From the soles of his feet to the crown of his head the bones, skin and flesh of his body — even the grey brain pulp — the electric nerves and tissues — mental ganglia and internal viscera of a man belonging to the African, Mongolian, Semite, or Negro breeds are all fundamentally different in formation, constituents, and character; from the corresponding anatomical sections in men of Aryan descent. The points of non-resemblance may be superficially unperceivable, but they are organic — deep seated.

  Notwithstanding the dexterous writers of strategic fables, dross is dross, gold is gold: and some men are born better, born nobler, born braver than others.

  Aristocracy by birth rests upon an unalterable scientific basis of heredity and selection — but an aristocracy of money rests mainly upon bolts and bars — i.e. upon laws, that may be abrogated at a moments notice.

  Though unable to reason out, in logical sequence their inherent abhorrence of social and racial equality yet most men instinctively detest it — in practice.

  What white father for example, would encourage the marriage of a hulking thick skulled Negro with his beautiful and accomplished daughter? Would he enthusiastically ‘give her away’ to the matrimonial embraces of a Chinaman, a Coolie or the leper-hugs of a polluted ‘mean white’? Is there ten such citizens even in North America, where equality of birth and condition is so much speechified and — never seen? Is there five? Is there one who would not rather see the daughter of his loins, stiff, stark, and cold in her shroud? Should that one exist (he being of sound mind) let him speak. Then and only then, can this diabolical gospel of intrinsic equality be reconsidered.

  Meanwhile, plain practical citizens are justified in regarding it, not as a self-evident truth, but an insolent, malignant, and abominable lie — a lie that shall yet be stamped out forever — with blood and fire.

  You have only to look at some men, to know that they belong to an inferior breed. Take the Negro for example. His narrow cranial development, his prognathous jaw, his projecting lips, his wide nasal aperture, his simian disposition, his want of forethought, originality, and mental capacity: are all peculiarities strictly inferior. Similar language may be applied to the Chinaman, the Coolie, the Kanaka, the Jew, and to the rotten-boned city degenerates of Anglo-Saxondom: rich and poor. Vile indeed are the inhabitants of those noxious cattle kraals: London, Liverpool, New York, Chicago, New Orleans: and yet, in those places is heaped up the golden plunder of the world.

  Ethnographists of the very highest authority, assert that over ten thousand years ago, the black, white and yellow types of men-animal were as pronounced, and as ineffaceable as they are to-day. The hieroglyphics and records of ancient tombs and monuments, cuneiform inscriptions, antiquarian researches, and the systematic study of pre-historic skulls and skeletons all bear the same uniform testimony.

  Inequality of birth and condition, can never perish from off the earth. Never! and why should it? Who can fill the valleys up and lay the mountains low?

  9

  Even the giddy doctrinaire who so cunningly concocted the bombastes-furioso fictions of the Declaration[7] could not apparently have believed them himself. Was he not a slave-driver (residing among slave-drivers) who bought and auctioned human cattle for dollars and cents ALL THE DAYS OF HIS LIFE? No doubt for purposes of state-craft and necessary war-craft he wove his philosophic preamble of Strong Deceit. Probably also, he was comparatively honest, and even sincere but among the alluring priests of Unreason, the most dangerous is the fanatical propagandist.

  When Jefferson dictated his fatal and untenable abstraction, he was not even original but plagiarized Zeno the Stoic, Jack Cade, Savonarola, Milton, Plato, John Ball etc. Zeno said: “All men are by nature equal,” but carefully refrained from attempting to demonstrate it. Milton defended it in his prose essays, Plato voiced it in his ‘Republic,’ John Ball preached it in medieval England, Savonarola perished trying to establish it in Florence. Jack Cade, Robenspierre and Christ were also failures — ghastly failures.

  “If human experience proves anything at all,’ writes James Fitzjames Stephens, ‘it proves, that if the restraints are minimized, if the largest possible measure of Liberty is accorded to all human beings; the result will not be equality but inequality, reproducing itself in a geometrical ratio.” Remove the restraints and see how quickly an aristocracy based on Merit would mow down an aristocracy based on Credit.

  In actual life, he who claims equality with another, is ever called upon to prove his claim, not by a grotesque abracadabra of silly phrases, parroted from antique philosophers or blue-mouldy documents but by actual deeds — that is to say, by producing his credentials.
Constitutional theories are all very well to humbug stridulating slaves but in a freeman’s household, or business, they are not ‘legal tender.’ Among men of affairs, natural egalitarianism is regarded as amusing moonshine — mere spread-eagleism, fit for public meetings only. Business minds thoroughly understand, (having learnt by bitter experience) that some men are destined by Nature to bear command and some to obey: aye, even for a thousand years before their birth.

  No one can study the laborers on a farm, the ‘hands’ in a big foundry or factory, the seamen in a large seaport, the nomadic hirelings on a railroad construction gang: or the clerks and salesmen in a city warehouse, without perceiving at a glance, that the vast majority of them are extremely poor specimens of humanity.

  The ideal type of manhood or womanhood, (that is to say, “Ye Thoroughbred”) is not to be found among these captive hordes — for captives they really are. Their heads are to a large extent unsymmetrical, their features distorted, ape-like, unintelligent. Their bodies are out of all proportion, dwarfed, stunted, diseased, malformed, cretinous.

  Their movements are contracted, artificial, ungainly, and their minds (outside of routine) are utter vacuums. When compared with the traditional idea of Strength, Beauty, Courage, and Nobleness of character, they are an extremely ill-bred herd of cattle: exhibiting all the psychological stigmata of inherited rain-rot and of physical decay. “A crown of thorns on every brow — that is the wage they’re earning now.”[8]

  Nine-tenths of them are positively repulsive in language, mentality, and in general appearance. They even display an extraordinary low average of animality; and upon the slightest exposure perish off, like sheep that have the lung worm. Heated rooms, woolen clothing, and stimulating beverages, are the means whereby their watery blood is kept in languid circulation. Every new generation is feebler, and more debased than its predecessor. All the scientific evidences of mental, moral, and bodily deterioration, are markedly accentuated in them — their timidity is proverbial.[9]