Pretend Enemies and Hollow Good Guys
Good Guy Badges are what Satanists' call the little shallow things people intentionally do to appear 'good'.
"Man is a selfish creature. Everything in life is a selfish act. Man is not concerned with helping others, yet he wants others to believe he is! [...] The first rule of the prideful is to make an exhibition of piety and charity, with a Goodguy Badge to pin to his lapel. Man cannot progress one step further towards his own godhood until he removes that Goodguy Badge"
People are on the whole weak and pathetic. They are not in touch with their own emotions or psychology. To question their own motives is impossible. They don't know why they seek acceptance from others, why they are doing what they are doing in life, or where they're going. But they want to be seen as a good. Every culture develops "good" symbols, and every group of people come to chose common "symbols of good" in order to feel good about themselves upon seeing that others, outside their group, do not display those symbols. This is social psychology in action, and it is shallow, pretentious and hollow, serving to boost the egos of those who do not have genuine skills.
Anton LaVey points out correctly that the genuinely worthy gain recognition through strength of character and talent. But "the rest attempt to gain it by attaching a label to themselves".
"Consciously or unconsciously, people tend to behave in a way that boosts their own social position. Not everyone is good at this, but it is a major part of all Human psychology. Part of our social self-esteem often includes the desire to be seen as socially good: In other words, people adopt a "good-guy badge""
Creating The Bad Guy
Because many people are worthless, there is a need for people to make themselves feel better about themselves. A good way to feel good about yourself is to fight for a cause you believe in. That would be the method of the strong; to fashion the world into the shape they want it to be. But the path of the untermensch is not so brave. They will create enemies, and declare themselves on the side of 'good', and then do nothing more!
The weak want an enemy that can't fight back, a goodguy badge that won't fade, and recognition that requires no work! This, my good readers, is the shallow path of the weak and I am sure you have recognized many of its lost wanderers. Such people often do not know why they are apathetic or lazy; the reason is because once they've got their goodguy badge, they do nothing else! That is why LaVey says... to progress, to become, you need to drop the goodguy badge!
Many god-believers, be they Muslim, Christian or even polytheists, have chosen to accept a belief system where they get to pour scorn upon a fictional bad guy (say, the devil), and pour praise upon a fictional good guy (say, God, Muhammad or Jesus), yet not actually have to do much work besides! What the strong call subservience and weakness, the Christians call "salvation by faith". In other words: All they have to do is claim to be on "God's side" and they've got their goodguy badge! People will like them! Society will approve! And they won't have to do anything. Because if they tried to do things, everyone would realize they're talentless morons with no important wishes or wants! Without goodguy badges, peoples' inadequacies come to the fore. Creating an enemy in order to denigrate it is a perfect way of attaining goodguy badges! Long live the enemy!
Satanism
Long live the enemy, indeed. Strength, power, willpower and confidence are required of those diabolical few who choose not to wear goodguy badges. In fact, if you really wanted to make things hard, and you saw that the mindless masses are weaving themselves into a web of confusion with their semi-believed goodguy-badges white-light nonsenses, then you could actively wear... a bad guy badge!
In recognition of the delusions of the masses and the petit psychology of group dynamics that leads people into frivolous associations with imaginary goodness, the Satanist proudly stands apart from the crowd, with a symbol of cleansing fire.
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Satan represents the state of affairs recognized by Satanists: That all good is based on evil: That love and altruism are both selfish and carnal. Satan represents the evil and uncaring attitude of the dark force in nature. It represents good being dependant on evil and life being ultimately defeated by death. Satan represents all of this evil which in turn creates all good. Without our evil sides we are lost and Satan represents acceptance of this."
Some examples of goodguy badges
- The vegetarian whose diet is a result of poor ego... they want other people to see them as a concerned citizen, a defender of animal rights! To attain the goodguy badge is easy... they become a vegetarian. This is concealed selfishness in action. Even the untermensch in question doesn't know why they want to be seen as a moral, good person through this method. Of course, it would be much better if they campaigned against unethical food production, but that would take too much effort. Also, it would be better for them to buy meats from ethical sources (say, free range farms, etc), and therefore support the conversion of the meat industry from factory-methods to free-range-methods. But that would require research! No, the person who cannot be bothered to campaign and cannot be bothered to research can obtain a goodguy badge by merely becoming a vegetarian and doing little else. It works, because it is hard for an outsider to question their motives. And they come to believe their own lie!
- The person who condemns the violence on the street, but does nothing about it. He wears a goodguy badge in his vocalisations, but is a typical untermensch and cannot act
- The person who pretends to be tolerant to one group of friends, yet agrees that we send all non-white British "home", to his other friends. This untermensch wears various goodguy badges to suit different groups of people (many people do this); and yet he doesn't act on either of his assumed roles!
- The person who makes a large noise about their good deeds. Compare this to the silent hero who humbly, and with much strength of character, performs good deeds and doesn't immediately go tell people about it!
People in public positions are the worst at adopting goodguy badges. They hide every selfish motive... and as such, no-one trusts them! Because everyone knows that everyone has ulterior, selfish motives. The more you hide them, the less trustworthy you are. A goodguy badge or two is socially acceptable, even normal for the masses who lack genuine strength of character, but if you start collecting them en masse like a sex-starved sociopath, then you give the game away and everyone knows you're not sincere! Hence the odd contrasts of people who are in the public eye; they feel compelled to collect more and more goodguy badges as their audience grows. Their companions who do not do this and serve through willpower and determination tend to have the better, more honest, more capable admirers! A shallow veneer attracts only shallow followers; the leader with his goodguy badge is man blind to his own motives, leading the masses who are also blinded from his selfishness by his veneer. The totality of this system should be called "the herd", because they are all sheep, and nothing more.
Not all Causes are Shallow
Take care not to attribute every good act the status of shallow social engineering. Many people rightly do good things for generally good reasons. Some who wear the goodguy badge are also actually good people. If they are doing good, then does it really matter what their true motives are? If they are deluded into thinking their good acts are selfless altruism, not a long-term social technique to seek power, then the delusion can be challenged but their good acts should be commended, in themselves.
Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater! Don't reject good causes in the name of rejecting your goodguy badge! Stick with the causes, but change your attitude towards them. Get in touch with your own state of mind and know where your self-appraising good actions are shallow, and where they are meaningful.
To be a Satanist, to be a worshipper of the self and a worshipper of truth, you cannot accept these false and shallow goodguy badges. To shed lies and deceit, to purge them with fire, is to will more honesty and more responsibility upon people. To see people in their true light! Then, the strong will be seen for who they are! And the weak will be seen for who they are! And goodguy badges will be seen, at last, as the deceitful, confused and selfish contradictions that they are!
Hail Satan, Hail the Infernal Empire!