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Title: The Haunted Archipelago Date: July 31, 2021 Source: Retrieved on July 29, 2022 from https://bandilangitim.noblogs.org/2021/07/31/the-haunted-archipelago/ Authors: Isang Alipin Topics: Philippines, Bandilang itim, Anti authoritarianism, Anti politics, Egoism, Love, Anti religion, Atheism
I wrote this to shed light on Max Stirner’s egoism for individuals who live in the so-called “Philippines,” but it can also be for any individual that is interested regardless where they may live. For whomever is reading this: I want to inform you that this contains my interpretation of Stirner’s egoism and my views at the time of writing; however, I hope my interpretation and views can be of use to you.
In the archipelago called the “Philippines” dwell many ghosts! These ghosts in every corner haunt the people that live in the archipelago…where can you find these ghosts you say? In your mind! What exactly are these ghosts? Let us find out together…
Currently, many are being haunted by concepts like religion, state, authority, morality, nationalism, God, law, rights, duty, patriarchy and various other concepts that are treated as higher than their selves—concepts that they think they really have an obligation to follow—sacred concepts.
The people that are possessed by these ghosts, which are also called “spooks,” are doing things to serve the cause of the spook; an example would be a person that believes they and other people have an obligation to follow the law. Because of this, they are slaves of the law, because the cause of the law is to convince you that it is your obligation to obey their command. Because of this, the police are regarded as the servants of the law that you need to obey. If you don’t obey, they say the police have a right to arrest you or even kill you in the name of the law. It could be that a police officer thinks that they are only doing their job because they say it is their duty to fulfill the law. Oh my! This individual is being possessed! If this police officer shot a gun, why blame a concept called “duty” which they say is the reason why they fired the gun when they were the one holding the gun? Was the concept of “duty” the one that pulled the trigger or the police officer? The person fired the gun, not the concept of “duty.” Duty is merely a spook and nothing else! Why would you blame things that aren’t real such as ghosts? These spooks possess people to do the spook’s cause, but these spooks are only in their mind and are not actually real—because even though it looks like they are doing things to serve the cause of the spook, in reality they are doing these for their selves and they are not actually being possessed because there are no ghosts to possess them. But even though these ghosts are only imaginary, because of the people’s belief that there is really a ghost, it is like they’re actually there. Because of the people’s belief, these spooks are affecting their lives and can also affect others. The apparition that cannot be touched now has the ability to affect those that can be touched!
Spooks are excellent tricksters. The concept of a promise is one example of a skilled deceitful spook—because at first—it looks like they’re not a spook, but don’t be fooled! That is also a spook! Promises give you an obligation to obey your past self, it wants to bind you to the wishes of your past self—it wants you to treat your past desires as higher than yourself, it wants to make your past self’s desire sacred. Promises enslave you to obey the desires of your past self. But if in the past you let yourself be a fool to want to do that, why fool yourself again if you know now that you don’t want to do it anymore? That is the spook known as promise, just another sacred concept. An obligation is sacred—something inviolable they say—something an individual treats as higher than their self. Since no power is above you, since nothing is sacred, there are no obligations. Obligations are not real; remove those imaginary shackles! Don’t let yourself be fooled by a feeling of indebtedness. You owe nothing to anyone! Including yourself.
The spook is one really skilled trickster, it will convince you that you do things not for yourself, but for its cause. Oh! Really? Is that really the reason why you do the things you do? Do you really not do things for your own sake? Even if you say that you were only ordered to, aren’t you the only one that can decide if you will follow or not follow what was ordered of you? Didn’t you do it because there was something you wanted or not wanted to happen? Orders are sacred; it is a spook. In the end you were the one who decided what you will do because you were concerned with what was more beneficial to you, because you are selfish.
There is no God, but pretend there is. God—like you—is also selfish. God only concerns their self with their own cause. God does not care for anything else except for their own desire. The state is selfish, just like God, the state only concerns itself with their own cause; the state only cares about things that it sees can help with its own cause. God and the state for many people are higher than themselves; because of this belief of the people towards God and the state, they have convinced themselves to serve the cause of God and the state. But look, God and the state only concern themselves only with their own desires, why don’t you learn from them and do what they do? Be selfish. No gods! No slaves! Why serve the selfish when you could be selfish yourself?
Since all of the selfish always support the wants of their self, we can call them **egoists**. We are all already egoists, but there are egoists that are aware that they are egoists and there are egoists that aren’t aware that they are egoists. The egoist that is aware that they are egoist is the egoist that knows that they are selfish—they know that all things that they do are for their self and that’s that—while the egoist that isn’t aware that they are egoist is the egoist that does not know that everything they do is selfish. But how did we all become selfish? Are there no individuals that aren’t selfish? Isn’t sacrificing your own life to save others unselfish? It is indeed not unselfish to sacrifice your own life to save others, why you ask? If you pay attention to individuals who sacrifice their own life to save others, they are doing that for their own desires; maybe they did that so they can be seen as a “good” individual by other people, maybe they did that so they can save a person that they do not want to be harmed, maybe they did that because they do not want to live anymore, maybe they did that because they think that they will be praised by their country, or maybe they did that because they think they will be given a reward by their god. Whatever reason it may be, they sacrificed their self because that is what they wanted, and because they did it to fulfill their own personal desire—they can be called selfish. How about generous people? Are they also selfish? Of course! If their interest is to give and give, they are selfish because it is still their own interest that they want to fulfill. Do you think about the situation of other people? You are selfish! Do you feed your kids? You are selfish! Do you put yourself in harm’s way for the benefit of others? You are selfish! Because that is your interest. Whether you accept that you are selfish or not, that’s up to you, your answer is also selfish!
What is good and what is bad? There is no morality. Nothing is moral or immoral. An individual has things that they want to happen, things that they want not to happen, and things that they want to not care about—in short—an individual has **wants**. An individual has things that they want, things that they don’t want and things that they don’t care about. These things are not good or bad when it comes to morality, but it is good if the individual sees it as beneficial to them or bad if the individual sees it as harmful to their self-interests. Morality serves as a constraint to individuals that follow it, because it dictates what they can and cannot do. Killing is not immoral or moral, taking things from others is also not immoral or moral. And since there is no morality, nothing is morally right and nothing is morally wrong. It is up to the individual what they think is good or bad for them. Does an individual want to help other individuals? They can help if that is what they desire, but they are not going to be moral or immoral because of what they did. Whatever action that the individual did, if many like or dislike what an individual does, it is up to them on what they will do as a reaction. Don’t fall for the Christian delusion! There are no sinners! Kill the cop in your head! The cop we call **conscience**. What you see as good can be seen as bad for others. There is no moral or immoral behavior; there is desirable behavior, undesirable behavior, and behavior that you don’t care about—all of which you will be deciding for yourself. The individual decides what is bad and what is good, what is pleasant and unpleasant, what is desirable and undesirable for them.
I am not against freedom, but I just want to ask—what do you want to be free from? What do you want to get rid of? Do you want to be free from everything that gives you happiness? Do you want to be free from love? Free from life? Free from everything? Free from yourself? How can you be free from hunger and also be free from the things that prevent you from being hungry at the same time? If you want freedom from everything, what you want is impossible, what you want is a spook—you can’t be free from life and free from being not alive at the same time. And if you were to be free from life, can you really say that you are free if there is no you anymore? How can you be free if there is no **you**? So when you say you want to be free, what you want is not the whole of freedom but only a part of it because you can’t be free from everything. If you want to be free from abuse, you don’t mean that you also want to be free from the things that help you to not be abused. If you want to be loved by others, being free from love does not benefit you. In this case, being unfree is what you want, being unfree from love.
But maybe what you mean by freedom is being free to get something. If so, my question now for you is what is the use of freedom for you if you don’t even use it to get the thing that you want? What is the use of being free to have bread if you don’t have bread? What is the use of being free to go to other places if you have no intention to go to other places? Being free to get something isn’t the same as having that **thing**. Why do you want to have a useless permission like freedom that brings you nothing? When you say you want freedom to have something, what you actually want is that **thing** to be **yours**—you want to be an **owner**.
Ownness is the description of the owner. Your ownness is everything that you are. Ownness is egoism. You are the owner of yourself and you are always the owner of yourself. Your property is your power, and your power is what gives you property. You are your power because you are the only one that has the ability to take and defend your property. You are your property. Your property that was taken from you is not yours anymore until you take it back, because whoever has the ability to take and defend something is the one who owns that thing.
Even if your property is legal or illegal, if that is taken from you, why would you say that it is yours if you don’t have the thing that you say is “yours”? If you don’t have control over the thing is it really yours? Why will you insist on saying that thing is yours if you don’t have any control over that thing? That thing can only be yours if you can take and defend it. So what if you are the “legal” owner if you don’t have control over what you say is your “legal” property; if you are the owner of something—it is yours not because you are the “legal” owner, rather, it is yours because you are currently the one that has power over that thing until it is taken from you by others. If there is an individual that took your property—they are not a thief, but rather they are the new current owner of your former property. Theft is the act of taking the property of others so how did it become theft if what that person took from you is no longer your property, but rather it is now their property because they currently have power over the thing that they took from you? Legality is a fiction. Your experiences are your own, even if they beat you up, your experience while they strike you with their fists—in that moment in time—is your own suffering and they can never have that because they are not you and they can never be you. Legality or money won’t be the one that will decide what is yours and what is not yours, but rather, what will decide is your ability to keep something using your own power. Whether you use your power to deceive, to persuade, to hurt, to love, or whatever it is to get what you want, it is up to you.
You decide what is valuable to you. Your wants are your property—**your** object—you are not there for them, but rather, they are there for **you**. Selfish love is the love that is there for you, this is your property, unlike romantic love in which you’re there for **it**. Love is selfish—many like to love; many want to experience love. Love is a selfish desire—it feels good. If your love is selfish, that is genuine love. If you love selfishly, you are admitting that you love because you want to—you are admitting that you love because that is what makes you happy. You love other people because you like them, you want to take care of them, you want to make them happy, you want to protect them—you want to love because that is your interest; this is how you love selfishly: you love because that is what you want, you love because you want to love.
Like things that you manipulate—or use—for your interest, you also manipulate people around you for your interest; there are things that can become obstacles to your interest, and just like things, there are people that can also become obstacles to your interest. Like things, you can also make people your property for your own interest—not slaves but tools or objects for your own interests—how you use them and for what you will use them is up to you; however, just like using a blade, if you don’t be careful you can get harmed.
What is a union of egoists? This is a name to refer to a relationship in which there are individuals that decided to come together to do their interests. Let us say that there are two kids playing hide-and-seek. These two kids are currently in a union of egoists—these two kids came together to use each other to do what they want which was to play hide-and-seek because that was their interest. Let’s look at scientists that are doing research to understand nature. They came together to help each other achieve their desire; because of this, they have created a union of egoists. One more example of a union of egoists are lovers that love each other, the lovers are using each other for their own pleasure of making each other happy. A union of egoists forms when individuals come together to achieve their desires; when the individual does not have a use to come together anymore, this is no longer called a union of egoists.
There is no word that can determine you, like you there is no word that can determine the Unique. Let us think of an individual who has the name of “Alex.” Alex is a human, but Alex being a human is only a portion of what they are. The human body of Alex is only a part of Alex, but it is not Alex because Alex is more than their body; Alex being smart is one of their attributes, but Alex does not need to be smart to be Alex; the name “Alex” is also not Alex because it is only a name, and we are only using this to refer to them because there is no word that can determine Alex, because Alex is Unique. Like the name Alex, Unique is just a name to refer to what can’t be determined using words, because the Unique, like you, is ever-changing and cannot be determined. You are ever-changing; the current you is no longer the past you, because the past you is not you—because you are the current you, until the current you is no longer the current you. Nothing can be you but you only. You are—Unique.
You’re nothing—not nothing in the sense of emptiness, but rather you are nothing because no word or concept can determine you. Concepts or words are not you, because you are you and not a word or concept; the word “human” is only used to describe you, but you are not the word “human.” You are the creative nothing; from your nothing you create everything. You’re the one who creates yourself conceptually. You are always making yourself from your nothing; you are the creator and destroyer of the concepts that you use to describe yourself. Destruction and creation! The joy of chaos! You consume your old self to create your new self in every moment, constantly consuming and creating yourself in the process. You use yourself to create yourself; you are creator and creature. Because of this, you are creative. You are also nothing, you are the creative nothing.
Imagine one day individuals gain awareness of their selfishness, what would happen if individuals understand that the concept of authority is not real and they became conscious of their power? Became conscious that they can use their power to do what they want, to free the self from the concepts that fool us—concepts that want to deny us from ourselves? No rulers, anarchy—since there were no rulers in the first place. If there is a ruler, there are ruled; but how can you rule if authority was never real to begin with? The egoist does not have a ruler because it is not possible to rule the selfish. You may influence them, but you will never rule them; the selfish will always do things for their own sake, for their own interests, for their self above all.
Let all governments fall! The capitalists depend on the authority of the state to protect their legal property in order for them to use people for their own desire, while the state depends on the people under their dominion to respect their authority. But what will happen then when the authority they depend on so individuals will obey them is no longer respected by the individuals? What will happen then when their concept of authority is exposed for what it is? A lie.
The fall of the state and capitalism, the fall of the hierarchy, the recognition of individuals in their power as selfish people, insurrection—is what will happen when individuals realize what authority really is. Where there is a right, there is an obligation to comply. Rights are sacred; sacred things are a lie. Therefore, rights are a lie; and so the right to be obeyed, which is called authority, is a lie too.
Hello to those who seek freedom. Unleash chaos to destroy the sacred order! There are no rights, only interests. If you want to be free, you don’t have the right to be free, and other individuals have no right to oppress you either. If you have something you want or not want, it is up to you on how you will make a way for that. Be brave. Freedom is not a right, freedom is for those who can take it!
Hello egoist! Everything you do is personal, as life is personal. Your life is about you, and it is yours.
Let all that is sacred fall! You’re no slave! You’re an egoist! The world is yours!
You are the perfect you! Because no one else can be you other than you, and because of that, you are perfect! You may not be perfect in other things, but you are the only one that can perfectly be you and no one else. Even if you change, the current you is still you. You are you and nothing else. You can only be yourself, because for every moment, that’s all you can be—and you don’t need to be anything more. You are everything to yourself and you do everything for your sake. Do whatever.