Might Is Right

This article is about the 1890 book. For the concept, see might makes right.

Might Is Right

File:Might is right.jpg
Author	Ragnar Redbeard
Language	English
Subject	Social Darwinism
Genre	Philosophy
Publisher	Dil Pickle Press
Publication date	1890
Publication place	United States
Media type	Hardcover, Paperback
Pages	96 (paperback)
ISBN	0-9728233-0-1

Might Is Right, or The Survival of the Fittest, is a book by pseudonymous author Ragnar Redbeard. First published in 1890, it heavily advocates amorality, and psychological hedonism. In Might Is Right, Redbeard rejects conventional ideas of human and natural rights and argues that only strength or physical might can establish moral right (à la Callicles or Thrasymachus).

Individualist Anarchist historian James J. Martin called it "surely one of the most incendiary works ever to be published anywhere." This refers to the controversial content such as the viewpoint that weakness should be regarded with hatred and the strong and forceful presence of Social Darwinism in the text. There are also controversial parts of the book that deal with race and male/female relations, claiming that the woman and the family as a whole is the "property" of the man.

Reaction

Leo Tolstoy discussed the philosophy of Might Is Right in his 1897 essay What Is Art?:

"The substance of this book, as it is expressed in the editor's preface, is that to measure "right" by the false philosophy of the Hebrew prophets and "weepful" Messiahs is madness. Right is not the offspring of doctrine, but of power. All laws, commandments, or doctrines as to not doing to another what you do not wish done to you, have no inherent authority whatever, but receive it only from the club, the gallows, and the sword. A man truly free is under no obligation to obey any injunction, human or divine. Obedience is the sign of the degenerate. Disobedience is the stamp of the hero."

"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."

Editions

Year	Publisher	Notes
1890	Auditorium Press
1896	A. Uing Publisher
1903	A. Mueller Publishers
1910	W.J. Robbins Co. Ltd
1921	Ross’ Book Service
1927	Dil Pickle Press
1962	unknown publisher	18-page abridged edition
1969	same unknown publisher	Expanded 32-page edition
1972	Revisionist Press	Reprint of 1927 Dil Pickle edition. ISBN 978-1478225171
1984	Loompanics Unlimited	ISBN 0-915179-12-1
1996	M. H. P & Co. Ltd.	Centennial edition, with intro by Anton LaVey.
1999	14 Word Press	St. Maries, Idaho
2003	Bugbee Books
2005	29 Books	Reprint of 1927 Dil Pickle edition. ISBN 0-9748567-2-X
2005	Dil Pickle Press	Edited and annotated by Darrell W. Conder. ISBN 0-9728233-0-1
2008	Zem Books
2009	Edition Esoterick	German hardcover edition. ISBN 978-3-936830-31-6
2012	Kustantamo Vuohi Julkaisut	Finnish edition. ISBN 978-952-92-9531-9

External links

• Might Is Right text
• "Hypocrisy, Plagiarism and LaVey," by John Smith, contains comparisons of quotations from Might Is Right with similar quotations from The Satanic Bible