PREFACE 
XXIX 
Another matter touched upon in these letters is a 
phenomenon that is current today . Groups of young people 
are breaking away from the mainstream of society or the 
so-called establishment , to form little communes which they 
hope will be free from the disease which they see attacking 
society. They want none of it. They have high ideals, 
believing it possible to form utopias of one kind or another 
where corruption, hypocrisy and deceit will be unable to 
flourish. There are hundreds of such communes all over the 
country-all searching for a utopia. 
"I have no patience whatever with Utopia-mongers," wrote 
Crowley. 
Biology simply shouts at us that the happy contented 
community, 
everyone with his own (often highly 
specialized) job, nobody in need, nobody in danger, is 
necessarily stagnant. Termites and other ants, bees, 
beavers; these and many another have produced perfect 
systems. What is the first characteristic? Stupidity . 
"Where there is no vision, the people shall perish. " What 
is the Fighter Termite to do, after he has been blocked 
out of his home ? None of these communities possess 
any resource at all against any unforeseen unfavourable 
change of circumstance . .. . Nor does anyone of them 
show any achievement; having got to the end of their 
biological tether, they stay put, without an aim, an idea, 
an effort . 
If the utopian community or ideal is unworkable, what 
then are the conditions of progress? "Number One is 
obviously 
Irregularity, 
Eccentricity, 
Disorder, the 
Revolutionary Spirit, Experiment." 
These are obviously characteristics of Crowley himself as a 
person, and so we should expect him to project these as being 
the prerequisites for progress. 
His description of the so-called "crazy" adventurer who 
embodies .these characteristics, or the holy man, should also 
be read in conjunction with that lengthy section of The Book