In point of fact, there is another question which I would like to ask. How many LaVeyan Satanists have you met offline, face-to-face? What sort of people were they? Those within the Church of Satan will claim that even mature thinkers, who are educated, and who have accomplished something of merit in life, who are even ‘mainstream’ and who raise children, are attracted to the thought of LaVey. Does this claim conform to the people who you have met?
I will say that, contrariwise, those members of the CoS whom I have met, and yes, I have met some, fit instead into the sort of cliched perception which many will already make of Satanists. I understand that many wish to be taken seriously as strong-willed intellectuals who command a certain respect, but this desire simply is not met by those whom Satanists, consciously or not, should like to impress. I have found those people to have traits like these:
- They have very little formal education, and are thus largely unemployable, just as LaVey himself was. Those whom I have met have standard jobs in, say, retail environments, and earn very little money per annum. How does this relate to their philosophy as being a sort of Uebermensch who has material power and control over others?
- They are usually young, male, and very much so interested in forms of expression which communicate angst, anger, and dissatisfaction with the world around them. They seemingly try very hard to ‘stand out’ from the ‘Christian-inspired sheep’ around them; and they blend in with each other, finding a certain ‘originality’ in gothic or rivethead inspired ‘fashion’.
- They are usually very angry with Christianity, because they find within it a string of tenets which they perceive as being hypocritical and stupid; indeed, because they fancy themselves original and intelligent, usually very highly so, they feel they are far above such a ‘primitive’ and ‘anti-human’ religion, and they mock those who are so very much below them and who are Christian.
- They have a fascination with being perceived as outsiders, and usually, this is a result of never really ‘fitting in’ with children around them when they were young. That is, they have a neurosis which manifests itself as Satanism; and they feel that if they take their ‘outsider’ status as a badge of honour - a ‘bad guy’ badge, to work from an idea of LaVey’s - that they will have a certain power over others. They therefore wish very strongly to impress others with intimidation.
There are other traits also which I have observed; but I feel my point is made. I wonder, then, what your individual observations are.
) worship themselves.
