1} Integrity - I live by and fully accept the costs and the consequences of my own choices – as well as the subsequent reactions and collateral effects that these will inevitably produce. I live with honor accepting the full breadth of my responsibilities - even though I may not always fully understand the circumstances that bring them about and so I, sometimes, fail to completely appreciate the situation, and even though much of this past which determines me and directs all my activities has been chosen for me and is immutable in relation to my linear condition – my partial knowledge and understanding will not be used to claim innocence.
I stand, not as ignorant and ashamed, but as cognizant and proud, and to the best of my abilities; not an eternal victim of circumstances but as a man accepting it all as part of the price I must pay for becoming.
I do not selectively embrace my heritage when it flatters and benefits me but, as a man, I embrace it even when it burdens me and casts doubt upon me or forces uncomfortable choices upon me.
This is how I overcome my resentment for all that made me possible and offered me the opportunity, which I call life.
2} Courage - Need is the sensation of existence and dependence is how this existence interacts - ergo strength and freedom are to be considered comparisons between different manifestations of life and not as absolute values I must reach for and then feel embarrassed for not grasping.
It in my attempt, and in the degree to which I realize my goals, which will define me.
For this reason inequality is to be accepted as a fundamental part of all relationships, and the hierarchies they naturally and often intuitively produce.
I will not shirk from this truth no matter how much it insults and/or it hurts me, nor will I be seduced by comforting lies that offer me a relief from its implied outcome.
I will consider this fact a challenge, not a burden.
I will not use my ignorance as an excuse nor will I use it as evidence of my bravery, because not knowing the danger does not constitute valor in the face of it.
My substance will be revealed in the face of the unknown and not the known, making any mention of my ignorance of it a superfluous self-evident fact that is now employed as an apology for one’s naturally occurring anxieties.
My heart will not be appraised by how little fear it feels, but by how much it manages and directs with my mind - Will.
3} Discipline - Power is to be considered, first and foremost, a product of self-control.
He who does not possess any dominance over the energies that make up his own Becoming and/or the one who has failed to know or to appreciate the entirety of his inheritance, has no “right” to stake a claim on any form of command leading to some hypothetical future.
To control one’s nature does not mean to deny it: asceticism should not be taken as a goal in itself, as often all work is, but as a means towards a higher one – a method for sharpening the Will’s focus, resulting in a greater approach towards the desirable idea(l).
The easiest way to remain a victim of nature, and the past, is to be ignorant of it or to reject its determinative power over my actions (thoughts being such actions).
My emotions are not how I govern myself, for they are natural methods of ensuring certain behaviors, nor are my instincts what I identify with, but it is my reason that shall be my central characteristic, my perfect instrument; it is what sets me apart from lower creatures and offers me both an advantage and a burden which I must bear – but it also offers me the possibility for a better appreciation of existence and whatever ephemeral pleasures it has to offer.
Therefore, athleticism and asceticism (ασκηση), will be how I hone my essence, focus its energies and direct its activities – It is how I strengthen my Will.
4} Honor - Reciprocate in kind, and then some; never forget and rarely forgive after the opportunity to correct has been offered and a warning has been issued – for the past repeats itself and you owe nothing to nobody but yourself.
Amnesia is a modern virtue I will not ascribe to, for it makes me a victim of chance and it diminishes the faculties that are supposed to aid me in judging and choosing my way - compassion is another modern virtue I will not ascribe to when it is promoted as a duty towards some idealized concept of otherness, founded upon some presupposed, but not justified, sacredness of life, nor will I ascribe to it when it demands of me a cessation of my own faculties that lead to my own increased appreciation of my choices.
Let them know, one way or another, how you expect to be treated and, in turn, how you will treat them.
Be kind to the kindly and brutal to the brutish; be vulgar to the obscene and arrogant to the pompous - and do so with a multiplying force of ten.
But, also, be considerate of motive, for not all can return in kind what you offer to them.
On this basis is true friendship built - the rational kind - with none of that emotive womanly romantic bullshit many today use to try to make themselves feel worthy of loyalty and sympathy when they are no more than animals that would turn upon the one that risked showing them a degree of respect they did not warrant, and so could never appreciate.
I remain weary of exposing weakens, as the most base and envious will seize upon the opportunity to raise themselves at your expense, and if no other harm is done, a loss of respect is to be expected.
Agape is only as powerful as the reasons underlying it.
Amongst the dull and ignoble no amity is possible beyond the one enforced by social and cultural conventions and induced by superficial immediate gratification.
5} Lucidity – Awareness is what sets me apart from both brute and animal, and discrimination is how this awareness manifests itself, offering me options (free-will).
Race, sex, creed, tribe, nationality, bloodlines, family are all to be considered in evaluating the nature of the other, but they are not to be used to automatically exclude them from reflection and from potential friendships and alliances, nor will they be used as a primary standard of appraisal.
My creed lies in the mind – the only aspect of my species that differentiates and exalts me, in relation to nature as a whole.
Idea(l)s, thinking, consciousness is what differentiates friend from foe, and brother from animal, and my kind from all others, and it is this distinction, and the attention to details it is founded upon, which distinguishes me in relation to them; the rest of it may decide the potentials reached and they may settle the qualities which result in hierarchy (sacred authority), but they do not lead to an off-handed rejection of the other, if and when (s)he adheres to my core principles.
Discrimination is how I determine quantities and, primarily, qualities, therefore I will not shy away from perceiving nuances nor from accepting them as relevant and/or as indicative of character, no matter how many threats and deceptions I am showered with to force me to blind myself.
The senses are my mind’s only access to the world, therefore no dogma slandering, degrading or seducing my mind to abandon them as “illusions”, attempting to cut me off from reality and make me a victim of it, will find a welcoming place in me.
I fully recognize the unreliability of the senses or how the mind often fails to accurately interpret sensual data, but this is no reason to abandon the only tools I have to become aware. It is, in fact, an added reason why I appreciate those that exhibit a higher awareness than the average and why I strive to increase my own; it is why I value those that are brave enough to rely on their own perceptions and the interpretations they result in.
6} Generosity - munificence is how I rid myself of my excess.
I offer freely what I can afford and that which I produce in abundance, not interested in whom feeds on the remnants of my own meals, but I also take note of moochers, beggars and vampires who take without giving in return, whatever they can afford, and who show no gratitude or appreciation for what they have received.
Their pettiness forces me to respond to them in like manner (as was noted in principle #4) and nothing but by niggardly disposition will they find before them, as I am unconcerned about the judgments of inferior creatures.
With their behavior they expose how little they think of me and/or understand me and my own kind - as leeches do not feed on their own kind - and so I will take their assessment for granted and treat them as not belonging in spirit to my own kind, as they obviously do not. Having no conscious or innate knowledge of my principles, showing not even a single moniker of nobility of spirit, I will adjust my own behavior towards them and treat them as they should and beg to be treated.
7} Pride - I am willing to make compromises, for the benefits of ease and for the distractions of companionship, in all matters except on these core principles that define me and with which I identify my spirit of Becoming.
Without them I am nothing, and I refuse to live as a nothing, as a common animal void of all acumen and distinction, governed by the basest of sensations.
Nature is my only foundation, as it is the sum of all the nurturing that determines me; from it I come together, in parts, for a short while, striving towards my consummated state, and to it I will surrender these same parts, having failed, but grateful for the opportunity to try - in the meantime I choose to live as a man.
I seek self-knowledge as a means of more fully understanding myself, gaining levels of self-consciousness that will offer me an assistance in pursuit of my desire to reach my fullest potential and, in so doing, to do honor to my ancestors – paying homage to their own efforts and sacrifices as they were passed on to me.
I do not deny my past, I embrace it, wanting only to control it, so that I may focus its energies upon higher grounds and guide it towards it highest point before I perish.
I will pass on this legacy, if I can, or I will live in accordance with its tenants, as much as I possibly can, and then die knowing that I’ve remained loyal to their promise.
8} Autonomy – Live Lightly, is my mantra, and asceticism is my spiritual faith.
My purpose is self-sustenance as it is the path towards a greater degree of independence, and the clarity this result in.
I submit to its costs, knowing that no final destination will be reached, finding empowerment in the exercise, finding identity and purpose in the journey towards what I shall never fully attain.
I refine my needs, identifying the ones which I cannot do without and casting aside all others as extraneous or as possible future vices, if and only if I have superfluous energies to sacrifice when answering their call.
I, first, determine my elemental obligations to my own sustenance, and I strive to ensure a steady stream of them, towards my partial and fleeting fulfillment, before I grant my excesses to luxuries and passing distractions.
9} Ambition – Social and cultural conventions aside and irrespective of how modernity has limited these concepts and attached them to communal utility, mythological abstractions and popular decrees, my one and only ambition is to improve myself, to the best of my abilities, and it is to attain my highest potential, as this has been determined by my past – then I dare to dream of breaking even this barrier, by appropriating energies from my environment, manipulating and integrating them within my own synergistic flow, and then concentrating their might upon my objective.
In this way, and only in this way, do I achieve the possibility of detaching myself from the determined, even if partially, acquiring the supremacy of what has been called “free-will”.
It is at that moment when I exploit my surroundings, absorbing their wayward energies within my own order, and combining them into one laser-like beam, aimed by the power of my will, when I surpass myself and break free from what has been determined, raising the bar and readjusting my own limitations upwards. With it I also lift my entire heritage along with me, offering a new challenge to my descendants.
10} Loyalty – My allegiances are not as undiscriminating as a whores love, nor is my friendship as frivolous as a little child’s tastes.
When I offer my camaraderie, I do so with care and after a long period of deliberations, observations and testing. The other must prove himself/herself to be authentic, while not being aware that (s)he is being evaluated – then I give of myself with few reservations.
The foundation of my sympathies and of my fidelity is that of trust – nothing exceed this in significance, particularly not lust or what is commonly called “love” in this age of naïve romanticism and superficial materialism, surrendering to instinct and immediate gratification every chance it gets, and pretending it is in a state of enlightenment.
This trust I offer sparingly and with caution, expecting no different in return.
Towards those which I have deemed unworthy of this confidence I owe nothing…and nothing is what they will receive from me – nothing except for duplicity, scorn, and exploitation.
I feel no sympathy towards those not of my kind, and none of my actions in regards to them will fill me with remorse, for they are now one more resource and/or one more obstacle in the environment we share.
I am beholden only to my own kin, those that made me possible and offered me the rare opportunity to experience existence, and to my brothers in spirit, those that contribute to my development, my peace of mind, my simple pleasures, and my constant drive to exceed myself, despite myself.
Being of my species, in a biological (genetic) sense does not offer anyone automatic admittance into the group I consider my kind. My identifications go beyond the genetic and into what has been referred to as memetic, as I am are far more self-aware than an animal. My self-respect prevents me from lowering myself to a level where a rudimentary similarity constitutes a reason to identify myself with an unsophisticated brute and an intellectual midget.
The mind, the attitude, the spirit of becoming exhibited daily and consistently matters far more, to me, than anything else; grace, humility in the face of the unknown, arrogance in the face of the known, self-control and self-knowledge, determination, patience, clarity and an agreement upon the basic tenants of an aristocratic disposition, are far more important in my eyes.
