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 2005 Dil Pickle Press cover
Author	Unknown, see authorship Ragnar Redbeard (pseudonym)
Language	English
Subject	Social Darwinism
Publication date	1890
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (hardback and paperback)
Pages	96 (paperback)
ISBN	9781682040232

Might Is Right, or The Survival of the Fittest, is a book by pseudonymous author Ragnar Redbeard. First published in 1890, it heavily advocates egoist anarchism, amorality, consequentialism 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). The book also attacks Christianity and Democracy. Friedrich Nietzsche's theories of master–slave morality and herd mentality serve as a clear inspiration for Redbeard's book written contemporaneously.

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.

Some have suspected that the work is at least partly intended to be a satire of Social Darwinism. It has also been characterised as a "proto-fascist white power manifesto".

Authorship

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 Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey and white supremacist publisher Katja Lane (wife of The Order member David Lane) both believed noted novelist Jack London was substantially involved, if not the author of the entire book; the latter based her judgment on London's distinctive grammar and punctuation. However, Jack London scholar Rodger Jacobs said, "the notion is as ludicrous as suggesting that the author of 'White Fang' was a cross-dressing hermaphrodite who buried his sexual shame in manly exploits". London was born in 1876, so he would have written the book in his early teens by the time it was first published in 1890.

The author sums up his work as follows:

"This book is a reasoned negation of the Ten Commandment - the Golden Rule - the Sermon on the Mount-Republican Principles-Christian Principles- and "Principles" in general. It proclaims upon scientific evolutionary grounds, the unlimited absolutism of Might, and asserts that cut-and-dried moral codes are crude and immoral inventions, promotive of vice and vassalage."

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 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.

S. E. Parker wrote: "Might Is Right is a work flawed by major contradictions." He particularly criticised the inconsistency of the book's central dogma of individualism with its open sexism and racism. 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 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.

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	Revolva	Russian edition with commentary. ISBN 5-94089-036-5
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	ISBN 978-1-329-41381-8
2009	Edition Esoterick	German hardcover edition. ISBN 978-3-936830-31-6
2012	Kustantamo Vuohi Julkaisut	Finnish edition. ISBN 978-952-92-9531-9
2014	Camion Noir	French edition. ISBN 978-235779-620-1
2014	Aristeus Books, ed. Dragan Nikolic	Second ed., Eng. edn. ISBN 978-1682040232
2018	Zem Books	Hardcover ed. ISBN 978-1-387-51811-1
2018	Noir Anthologie	Spanish edition ASIN B07DH2QWS8
2019	Underworld Amusements	The Authoritative Edition. ISBN 978-1943687039

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
• Might Is Right Audiobook Audiobook from Zem Books