Magick Without Tears

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