Climbing the pyramid

I'm in a class right now that's supposed to teach people how to be successful, both in school and in life. That's all it's supposed to do: teach people success. In fact, the class is called Student Success. Today I realized that only two people in my class have the potential for such success, assuming that others don't get their act together. Only two. That leaves about 28 sets of dreams dashed like so many pieces of broken china upon the hardwood floor of life. I won't detail who those two are, since they aren't relevant to what I have to tell you.

I was speaking with my professor before leaving class today and he mentioned that he was nearly done with the subject material he wanted to cover by the end of the semester, bear in mind, the semester is less than halfway over. He said that there just isn't much to teach about success. He normally teaches economics, see; and in economics, there's more to teach than just supply and demand. There's also theory. In fact there's lots of it. It's kind of like philosophy. The core of philosophy is generally 'who(are we?), what(does it mean to be?), and why(are we here?)'. Now that's just philosophy in a nutshell. Imagine the obscene amounts of philosophical theory!

Success is much more cut and dry. To be successful, you must perform and achieve your very best. If you can't or won't do that, then success will be forever beyond your grasp. More than that though, you must constantly expand on what you can achieve. Some people claim that they tend to crack if expected to perform under the constant pressure of performing at their peak. That's fine. Every company needs cubicle meat, and those are the lazy bastards that fill that very mediocre part of the ecosystem. Since life is constant competition, you must achieve more and perform better than everyone else who wants what you want. Despite what your kindergarten teacher and therapist tells you, not everyone is a unique snowflake. You wanna be a multi-million dollar singer? You want to be a doctor? You wanna be a teacher? Tough cookies! Millions of people want just what you want and may, in fact, be better qualified to get what you want more than you are.

You want success? Well you gotta get more well rounded and versatile than the competition. You also have to realize that the other people who want what you want are being your friends because they're trying to see if you know something that they don't. If you want to play your cards close to the vest, that's fine. Understand though, that if you meet up with someone who has some grand dream in common with you, you should try and see if you can pry any loose bits of information from them, also. You have to keep an eye on those who have the same goals you do. One day you may find you and them at a job interview, and if they know your weak area, you can bet that they've got it covered. That's right, the friends you make filling out a job application aren't just being friendly because you and them have something in common...he's scoping out the competition.

Also, you must realize that if you want to succeed you must smash the competition. You're kindergarten teacher may have taught you that as long as everyone plays we all always win. Anyone who's watched the Olympics, even once knows that only one person walks away with the title "Best in the world at _____". Everyone else returns home ashamed to train for another four years. So your teacher was full of bullshit, not to put too fine a point on it. In order to succeed, you must break some hearts. This means you will need to cause some hurt to others. For some of us, this might not be a problem (it might even be fun!), but many people raised in the bondage of conventional morality won't want to hurt anyone. And while it's true that we're all unique, we're not all special.

Finally, to win at life, you must know yourself. You might be thinking, 'hey I already know who I am, fuck you!' Well knowing your identity isn't the same as knowing who you are. You need to take your list of 'likes' and 'dislikes' and 'about me' sections and ask why you like or dislike them or why or how you are who you are. This tells you a little bit about your beliefs. From there, you need to ask yourself 'why' until there is nothing left to question. You also need to ask some very serious questions about yourself as a human being. This is much tougher than it sounds, since most people answer their own internal questions in a way that will avoid causing a negative self-image. I'll tell you now, if you ask yourself who you are and you like all the answers, you lied to yourself. I asked myself some very important questions about myself about a year ago ('What do I want?, What can I have?, Can I do more?' just to name a few) and I felt ashamed of myself and almost hated who I was. Now I know that I had only taken the first step on the road of success.

If someone hasn't told you already, I'm telling you now: Life is unfair. Life is made of hard work for pain when you'd rather just sit back and have a beer. I assume if you're reading this, you're looking for a profound truth. Well here it is: There is no secret to success, only a plan of action. If you want to succeed you must do nothing less than your best. You must also make sure that today's best is tomorrow's worst (in other words, constantly evolve). You also need to make sure you can do better than everyone around you. You must have the gravel in your guts to be able to smash the dreams of those who want what you want. Finally, and most importantly, you must know yourself. Now try filling up a whole semester with that and you'll see why I'm glad I'm not my teacher.

Take the goat by the horns

An acquaintance of mine recently asked me "What has Satanism done for you?" Well I often find it hard to answer that question, largely because I find myself focusing on myself rather than my religious leanings. This evening though, an answer came to me as I was shaving; and so I share it with you, dear reader.

Satanism didn't do anything for me. Satanism is merely a religious philosophy. Like any religion, philosophy, or ideal it can't do anything by itself. It's like momentum: it can move things or people as long as there are things to be moved. To put it more succinctly, Satanism is a tool. It can't do anything for you any more than a gun can deliver unto you a dead deer or a wrench can fix your plumbing. These tools can do nothing on their own. They can only give you the means to do what you want them to. In other words, Satanism can't make you sexier or smarter or a better human being. Nor can it give you the motivation to do those things. What it can do is give you reasons to do all of those things yourself.

So then you might wonder 'How did you use Satanism to help yourself?' Well Satanism is a religion that encourages selfishness. Rather than concern yourself with others, you should wonder more about what you can make Satanism do for yourself. Asking what it does for someone else should be relatively obvious; it gave me the tools to make myself the person I am today. If you like the person I am or hate my guts, either one is fine. Do not misinterpret me though, the Church of Satan does not make someone into anything they are not already capable of being. In other words unless you're already an outstanding individual, Satanism won't make you into one. You should also never tread the Left Hand Path lightly. Embracing Satanism because your hero is or because the love of your life has will only end in your own troubles. Those are the actions of sycophantic followers, and the Church of Satan has no room for such people. If you know a Satanist though, and are intrigued by the thought of what you can make of yourself on that path...well that's a different story.

So to conclude. The simple answer to the above question is this: Satanism didn't do anything for me. It enlightened me as to why I should do things for myself. Also, if you're potentially Satanic material; you should focus less on me and more on yourself.

Social Slavery

A common buzzword in use today is "Political Correctness". It's a silly concept really. You can't not minimize anyone all the time. Anytime you praise yourself, you immediately minimize everyone surrounding you. If you state that you prefer any culture over another, you're being politically incorrect. There's no escaping it.

I won't excuse those who go about intentionally insulting other races, cultures, ideas, policies or behaviors. But I will excuse their right to do so. That's our right to free speech. Unfortunately, not hurting peoples' delicate sensibilities seems to trump our freedoms. Mass media is beating our constitution to a pulp. Just how sad is that?

Mass media has put people into a position where we are vilified for having opinions that differ from others. This means that while you're still entitled to your First Amendment right, you will become a social pariah for exercising it. This is because inevitably there would be someone who feels offended by your opinion. No matter what you say, your hands are tied by political correctness.

What's more ridiculous is the fact that political correctness has no use to the common man. Look at that first word there: political. I could see political correctness being useful or even necessary if I were (just off the top of my head) a politician. But I'm not. There's no demographic I need to target or suck up to. Hence it's useless.

So keep this in mind: Every time you say 'people of color' or 'African-American' you may be sparing the feelings of some pansy black man, but you're also being the victim of the Thought Police. So exercise your First Amendment right, you can't possibly protect everyone around you. Trying to do so shows that you are only a slave trained by society at large. If you would be free you must throw off the shackles of political correctness. If you want to be politically correct, then you should just take a vow of silence.

-Hail,
Wormwood