i in por reuae nonse
m endandi
GUINEA PIGS
“the enemy
from within is
our greatest
threat”
“We are warring for Democracy,
but also for civilization, apparently owing to our inherent love
of paradox. We have here a
war within a war. We have not
only to fight the foe without, and
the foe within, but also the foe
that is the worst of all, the overzealous friend. We feel rather
as the President feels about the
Vigilantes. If well-meaning asses
were only mules how useful they
might be in batteries! We are
out to break the political will of
another group of nations, and
our worst foes are those of our
own people who are giving
the show away. We go to war
to defend the rights of the little
nations, and we imprison Irishmen who can not forget that
their mothers were raped by
British soldiers. We are particularly strong on Belgium, and her
representative complains that
there is to be no seat for Belgium on the Allied war council. The Germans go to war for
Kultur, yet they cannot find an
expedient for contracting out
of the shelling of cathedrals.
And if these things are done in
the green tree of the people
in power, what shall be done in
the dry tree, and withered sticks
of the mediocre? We have
our attention taken away from
the business of fighting by the
miserable grunts of these selfadvertising pigs, who are only
guinea-pigs in so far as they
can always be counted on to
sell their souls for a guinea.” –
Aleister Crowley, “We Stand
Above,” from The International,
December 1917
Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be
The Whole Of The Law
Ninety-six years have
passed since Aleister Crowley
wrote these words to describe
the attitudes of his countrymen during World War One.
Social mores have changed
radically since that time. Western civilization has made, by its
own standards, a great deal
of progress. There has been
greater protection of the rights
of women, ethnic minorities, and
an increasing acceptance
of various forms of sexual ori-
27
entation. Our technology has
advanced to a point beyond
the imagination of the average
person of Crowley’s time, giving us unprecedented access
to scientific information, critical
perspectives on world events,
and a veritable garden of delights when we wish to entertain
ourselves. In the physical realm,
we can travel the world in what
would comparatively be considered the blink of an eye,
bringing forth a blending of
culture in which styles of dress,
culinary traditions, and spiritual
ideas once confined to particular countries are adopted, enjoyed, and studied by whoever
finds it their Will to do so. Taking
all of these things into con