Mr.Nice Guy.

There are many many misconceptions that the common man has about Satanism. Perhaps it is because Satanists are not common men? I have written a lot of essays in the past about "idiots" and such, so I'd like to stray away from that topic for awhile. It is redundant. We know there are idiots who lack understanding, and I don't want to sound like I am getting hung up on that fact. As a wise, bearded man once told me, "There are sometimes when you show a great deal of understanding, and others when you seem to be surprised by things that are very well known to most people." A fair statement, considering the content of my essays.

This essay instead, is about how being a nice guy can go a long way. I do not ask much of "the herd" in general. Anything I have ever desired to obtain or accomplish has not required their approval on any level. But I mean, let's face it. The world ain't filled with the alien elite. If it was, those words would lose much meaning. Many are self employed, and able to keep to themselves at their own will, live at their own pace. They are generally able to ignore who they wish to ignore, but even at that level of "isolation", they are bound to step into the flock and be forced to wade their way through it. I think like all good chameleons, they have learned to blend in enough to maintain their individuality, but avoid such confrontations. And I will tell you right now, as bold a statement this may be, they most likely didn't do it by being an asshole.

I have to deal with the public on a large scale, every single day. I do not hate my job. If I did, I would not be there, simply. But after eight hours of dealing with clods, the brain tends to get a bit melty; like an ice cream cone being eaten under a hot sun. I have from time to time, gotten a bit testy, and frankly, everyone I work with is probably in the same mind frame of careless monotony that the rest of the crowd is. This has been going on all my life, in many different crowds, and the viewpoint I took to it, before very recently, was "fudge it." Ignore them. Don't engage in conversation. Eyes forward, chin up. Turn your core temperature down to zero. Sure, they leave you alone; aye, you give them no other choice! But you will be doing nothing other then digging a shallow grave.

Magus Gilmore wrote a very good piece in his book, The Satanic Scriptures, about the weak being something like swamp leeches. One or two are a small annoyance, but in numbers, they can topple even the greatest of beasts. This rings very true in any situation, including mine, and potentially, yours as well. I was recently recommended an extraordinarily good book called The 48 Laws of Power, and I can honestly say, it belongs in any Satanists library. It is a perfect example of why my former attitude might have worked for a little while...but that the leeches would eventually begin to latch .. long.

It is hard to recommend to any cynical individualist to have a tolerance of the idiots that make up the herd; but on the contrary, I am not trying to do so. Tolerance is not required to shapeshift, to take a different form. In short; be nice to these people. It does not have to extend past common courtesy, but it is extremely helpful in the long run. You do not have to like them. You do not have to agree with them. But by being rebellious, by being cruel and unkind for no particular reason, you will only be putting yourself in jeopardy; and what self serving individual, what Satanist, would ever want to risk his own skin, for any reason at all?

Not I.