[This is from another of my blogs - the original can be found
here.]
Yet again, I've recently been told that Anton Szandor LaVey was a fraud, a trickster, a charlatan, a cheat and a general scallywag. All manner of kooks have kindly informed me of this, telling me that I shouldn't be a Satanist because of his un-Satanic lifestyle and that he was a contradiction to his own message.
While I don't invariably get involved in discussions of this type due to the inane intellect of the antagonist, I've been asked this question so many times that I suspect a link that I can quote will serve me better than repeating myself. Therefore, read this and inwardly digest it; if you still wish to pursue your crusade against Dr. LaVey, then you're a retard and shouldn't bother contacting me again.
In fact, go talk to the wall; you were made for each other.
First and foremost, we get the imbecilic statement that Dr. LaVey wasn't actually Dr. LaVey - he was christened by another name and we should judge him on this. Why? As a self professed God of his own choosing, he adopted the title that suited him best, tipping his hat to the influences he cherished. Is it inconveivable to think that a loving son might wish to disassociate from his parents to spare them reprisals for his actions? I needn't belabour this point, though, when I can ask a simple question:
Who is Vincent Furnier? Robert Zimmerman? William Bailey? Brian Warner? Declan McManus? David Robert Jones? Marion Morrison? Anna Bullock? Are any of the aforementioned household names?
No?
You bet your life they are. The only reason they're not familiar in name, is because they chose their own destinies and made themselves into what they wanted to be. If you need help identifying them, use "Google".
Another criticism of the late Dr. is that he claimed many things that weren't true. Despite reams of photographic evidence to the contrary, people are still quick to point out the inconsistencies in some of his claims. "We can't find him on police photography records"; could he have been freelance? "We can't find records of him with the circus or carnival"; is administration the strong point of such people? "Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield claimed they never knew him"; could they have been lying, knowing the damage that could be done to their careers (a problem many Satanists still live with)?
Perhaps the most sobering of this tittle-tattle, is the amount of morons who cite the words of Diane, Karla or Zeena LaVey. Their first, last and biggest problem is that they take them at their words! In lieu of any evidence, people tell me to look at LaVey with cynicism and not to simply believe what I'm told. These people then swallow what other LaVey's have said (Diane, Karla, Zeena and, whisper it, Stanton) in a wonderful display of retarded contradiction. I think your intellectual cud needs chewed a little longer.
In saying all of this, none of the conventional defence is actually necessary when defending Dr. LaVey. When considering Satanism, people discount it because of his personal preferences to life. This is, in itself, stupidity of the highest degree. Because Satanism is about individualism, each and every Satanist will have differences in the way they live. Dr. LaVey lived differently to Magus Gilmore, who lives differently from Magister Nemo, who lives differently to Magister Svengali, who lives differently to every other Satanist on the planet. The bottom line is that being a Satanist is about living your life how you best see fit and not actually worrying about whether you're a Satanist or not; you will naturally fall into that grouping if you're supposed to, hence the "born not made" dictum.
Lumping the personal life of a person in with what is written in "The Satanic Bible" is idiocy, yet, it appears like an intellectual refutation of Satanism, per se. As hinted above, when individualism is key, only the framework of Satanic philosophy will tie people into the
Church of Satan and its viewpoints. In the absence of such framework, you get a gaggle of monkeys jumping around pretending at having a bright and/or industrious existence, when all they're doing is fighting over a banana.
Bad monkey!
However, if you take the above as true, Dr. LaVey was a perfect proponent of Satanism. He lived his life as he saw fit, making changes where required and shifting the comfort levels of everyone who crossed his path. If Satanists are "making history every day", the Dr. was the first, and best, of his kind.
My final point here, however, is the most important. It actually ignores the whole discussion to an extent and identifies what is actually important when considering any religious ideal:
The message.There are a large amount of Thelemites who have sent me messages telling me that LaVey was a conman who should be ignored. When I inform them that Crowley was a buggery addicted, herion addled, sex pest, I'm invariably told that you shouldn't judge the man by his actions but, instead, by the quality of the material he puts out.
Some of you will be nodding your heads in agreement. Others, will have just heard the trap snap shut.
Why on earth should I listen to people who can't actually conform to basic principles of logic? They tell me to look at the work of Crowley when judging him, yet to ignore the work of Dr. LaVey when judging him! The Satanic Bible started an international cabal of eclectic individuals, intellectuals and aesthetes that correspond and work together to this day. The message in The Satanic Bible (as well as Dr. LaVey's other works) is timeless, as it's written from history with a view to the future. As an influence, Dr. LaVey is unrivalled and this is why his detractors, spiteful vermin that they are, come out of the woodwork to attack him. They don't accept that he did what they shouldn't, did what they wouldn't, did what they couldn't. Not only that, he did it with more expertise, class, wit and magical knowledge than they could ever claim.
When judging Dr. LaVey (or anyone else, for that matter), look at what he achieved as opposed to what he didn't achieve. Consider, just for a moment, the lasting impact he has had on Western civilisation and the continuing influence the world feels because of his existence.
The fact is, Dr. LaVey was a monolith; a Satanic archetype that ripped into Christian apathy and showed it for the ridiculous sham that it is. He brought magic to an audience that had a life outside a ritual chamber and encouraged the talented to make their mark however they wanted to make it. He brought together a group of oddities from an international forum, while transmuting fiction, fact, psychology and experience into a wonderful mix that we now know as the Satanic philosophy and the
Church of Satan. And not a single point that is brought against his sexual preferences, his liking of a joke, his choice of friends or the fact he wanted to visit a fish with no trousers can ever change this.
I will end now. But in order to make sure nothing is lost in the translation of this little article, I'll leave you with a famous quote:
"The mistakes of great people are worth more than the mistakes of little people".If you wish to insult Dr. LaVey, present your credentials as his superior. Otherwise, open the fridge, take out the bottle and pour yourself a tall glass of "Shut the fuck up".
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