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Letters regarding the forgotten art of the Satanic warlock
This issue:
An Exercise in Bad Taste
It's come to my attention lately that many Satanists, when backed into a corner, will suddenly revert to hypocritical tactics in order to feel better about themselves. While I'm not totally against this, I find it to be repugnant and pitiful when the perpetrator actually believes what they are saying. The most recent tool of the angry appears to be the notion of 'good taste.' Should a Satanist be concerned with what is in 'good taste' and what isn't? I don't think so, and I'm going to tell you why. First, we have to examine what it means to say that someone is exercising 'good taste' or 'poor taste.' As far as I can tell, these phrases are used in two different contexts. The first example of the use of these phrases tends to circulate around aesthetics, primarily the way that someone chooses to present themselves. If you don't like someone's clothing, they have 'bad taste.' On the other hand, if someone is adorned in a fashion which you approve of, they have 'good taste' in clothing. At first glance, using the subjective idea of 'taste' in this manner may seem quite innocuous. After all, we can all tell the difference between 'good' or 'bad' taste in clothing. Right? Artwork that does not meet a community's standards of 'good taste' is not displayed, and often gets the creator of such a quick ticket to jail. Civic leaders are just doing their duty to protect the locals from 'bad taste.' The second way in which the term is applied is much more vicious than the first, and always applied with massive amounts of venom. If someone tells a joke which insults you, it is in 'poor taste.' If an enemy would dare to strike back with full force (would you expect any less?) than they are obviously acting in 'bad taste.' How awful, indeed! An off-color remark in your direction is most definitely in 'poor taste,' while a similar remark from yourself should be taken lightly. Many people would find nudity, blatant sexual language or religious humor to be in poor taste. You can laugh them off as being prudish or stupid all you want, but if you are using the same techniques as those you despise are you really that different from them after all? The idea of 'taste' in general is completely subjective, and clinging to the notion of a collective ideal of 'good taste' is to blindly follow herd morality. I thought that Satanists were supposed to "question all things." I thought that we were supposed to think for ourselves. What happened to that, pray tell? There is no such thing as 'good taste.' 'Good taste' and 'poor taste' are no different than the ideas of 'good' or 'evil' - 'Good taste' is what we like or approve of, while 'poor taste' is anything that hurts our feelings. Any Satanist that throws these phrases about idly has forgotten that their morals and aesthetics do not by any means apply to everybody. If you catch yourself utilizing this archaic and useless attack mechanism, stop and ask yourself: is what this person just did to you actually in 'bad taste' in some undeniable, cosmic way? Or did it just hurt your feelings and you have no better way to counter their attack? Did you at some point consider yourself to be an independent thinker? If so, when did this change? Consider all of this, and be honest with yourself.
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