Might Is RightorThe Survival of the Fittest is a book by pseudonymous author Ragnar Redbeard, generally believed to be a pen name of Arthur Desmond. First published in 1896, it advocates amorality, consequentialism and psychological hedonism. In Might Is Right, Redbeard rejects conventional ideas such as advocacy of human and natural rights and argues in addition that only strength or physical might can establish moral right. The book also attacks Christianity and democracy. Friedrich Nietzsche's theories of master–slave morality and herd mentality served as inspirations for Redbeard's book which was written contemporaneously. James J. Martin, the individualistanarchist historian, called it "surely one of the most incendiary works ever to be published anywhere." This refers to the book's assertions that weakness should be regarded with hatred and the strong and forceful presence of Social Darwinism. Other parts of the book deal with the topics of race and male–female relations. The book claims that the woman and the family as a whole are the property ofthe man, and it proclaims that the Anglo-Saxon race is innately superior to all other races. The book also contains anti-Christian and anti-Semitic statements.
Authorship
writes in his introduction to the text: "The most likely candidate is a man named Arthur Desmond who was red-bearded, red-haired and whose poetry was very similar to that written by Redbeard." The Bulletin, a journal associated with the Australian labour movement, reported in July 1900 that Desmond was Ragnar Redbeard. However, the Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey and white supremacist publisher Katja Lane both believed novelist Jack London was substantially involved, if not the author of the entire book; the latter based her judgment on London's distinctive grammar and punctuation. Rodger Jacobs, a biographer of London, said: "the notion is as ludicrous as suggesting that the author of White Fang was a cross-dressing hermaphrodite who buried his sexual shame in manly exploits". The Monist journal stated that "Ragnar Redbeard is a most ardent admirer of Nietzsche." The author sums up his work as follows:
Response
, whom Might Is Right described as "the ablest modern expounder of primitive Christliness", responded in his 1897 essay What Is Art?: S. E. Parker wrote: "Might Is Right is a work flawed by major contradictions." In particular, he criticized the inconsistency of the book's central dogma of individualism with its open sexism and racism. However, he concluded that "it is sustained by a crude vigor that at its most coherent can help to clear away not a few of the religious, moral and political superstitions bequeathed to us by our ancestors." Author Chris Mathews suspects that the work is at least partly intended to be a satire of Social Darwinism, and he also characterizes it as a "proto-fascist white power manifesto".
