üddon's COSMOPOLITAN REVIEW Vol.l.No.l. ^U April. 13.1965. THE BENEFITS MORAL AND SECULAR OF ASSASSINATION If authority success and eugenic usefulness can sanction homicide,then history records numerous murders which have fulfilled the expectations of their perpetrators,and the names of the assassins command the respect all who value statecraft,wisdom and courage; for they were the very pillars of all the most successful of older governments. Those most pleasant to live within and most high in achievement. In the best of these the strongest assassin was the king,for so long as his courage and administrative ability sustained his right to office, and degeneration or abuse of power was corrected by violent dethronement or assassination. The wiser public opinion of the ancient world every­ where approved of assassination as an instrument of political or racial improvement. Works of art abounded. Since that golden age,it must be confessed,the art has seen only retro­ gression almost unchecked. Occassionally some generation or isolated community,by an effort of intellectual emancipation has freed itself temporarily from the domination of the superstitious,the crafty and the stupid; but even in the brightest of these periods the clouds of false civilisation have blinded truly great assassins to the august nature of tlmrdmts, and they are found spoiling some of their own greatest strokes by paying lip-service to the tenets of the mystagogues. Nevertheless encouragement can be found for the hope of a truly universal renaissance (if only the pragmatic sanctions for this art can be made clear to the well-disposed and ins true ted.persons everywhere) in the recurrence,by force of necessity or through individual genius,of natural assassins throughout every generation,persisting even to our benighted day. The history of Italy furnishes so many successful and repaying murders, that it is difficult to select any one of them as a singular example. So we shall more profitably study the apostles granted to the less enlight­ ened northern countries. It is to be regretted that in these cold countries a sad and misguided moral rectitude clouds and confuses (and so prejudices the success) of the deed; as in the attempt to assassinate William the Third of Holland, The idea of killing that experienced assassin when he was innocently out riding ( an ideal moment )was regarded as ungentlemanly. Again: Cadoudal,a man of monumental courage who wished to kill,but not murder Napoleon; Napoleon is not known to have concerned himself with such nice scruples. In the pursuit and maintaining of power assassination is the most effective means of control or elimination. The original assassins were Mahomedans of the Shiite party who flourish­ ed from the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries; being a manifestation of religious enthusiasm they soon sank to the level of Christians. Religion always has a bad effect on assassination,inflating it first to wanton massacre and then to the folly of communal war. But an even greater corrupting force has been the development oimechanical and chemical devices which,placed in, the hands of the ignoble, uninspired and unenthusiastic masses,serve to deprive the assassin of an environ­ ment suited to his art. This démocratisation of war led to the further refinement of highly undiscriminating means of destruction which threaten not only the assassin's field of action but also war itself. An earth barren of our race could not be the scene of our conflicts. To fisti for trout with the appropriate fly is a noble and self-justifying activity - to poison the stream is the act of a cretin. In the medieval world the arbitary action of the assassin was looked upon as better than no justice at all. Tue assassin,generally speaking, ceased to function when recognised law became powerful enough to fulfil his function. "Recognised law?"; "Is not the assassin an amoral anarchist?"1 On the contrary; as a rule he is usually a useful, if sceptical citizen in any country regardless of its system of government.-Assassination is able immediately to benefit any society without causing violent change of political forms; by freeing it from dangerous impurities,removing all anti-social or otherwise unfit persons,venal or incompetent leaders and publicists,thus giving any political system the best chance of attaining its ideal development. All political systems deserve this chance; they represent at their worst and most misguided a dream of progress; and to the objection that a really knave-proof society is impossible to build with human material, the assassin can point out that only a very foolish rogue will risk injuring a society internally (say by commercial monopoly or false news,wanton strike or lockout) if he is likely to be killed by doing so; and politicians will carefully consider the necessity of de­ claring war in the name of one people upon another if they are certain to be among the earliest casualties. The least araiable and socially minded of assassins is rendered so by his restless anxiety and impatience for human progress. The assassin knows that in war ( especially modern war) the most bestial side of human nature triumphs. The army, that ^asylum for nits and half-wits, who are unfitted to live in a civilised society in time of peace,is thrown open; the regular inmates become our warders. At such times who dares to be reasonable? And what would be the point? A.C. SMR. cBSLLINGHAM Undermined in his Purse, Health and Mind by Inept Government, this unfortunate Liverpool Merchant murdered the Prime Minister, Mr. Spencer Percival, in the House of Commons, on 11th May, 1812, thus making a place in history for two persons not otherwise memorable EASTER certain minorities state more fundamental protests,the mainstream supporters of C.N.D. The Irish are getting set to relive the are dutiful,scared or supporters for tactical _ Easter Rising. Camden Town will writhe in reasons) points to a complete failure to *J Holy,and not so Holy.Communion as Christ face the most disturbing fact of all: the is cannibalistically indulged in,and perhaps governments could not (even if they desired 6 recrucified in <Camdeni Town Police Station. it) give up the weapons. The pursuit of But elsewhere,on the roads of England's power is the dynamic factor in world politics, 5 green and pleasant land,the armies of peace and can we complain if the hangman we employ will march! carries out executions? Some way must be found to direct the The logic of the situation is impeccable, 'energies of the dissident groupings assoc­ and to ask the politicians to act otherwise iated wi th the C.N.D. ; these groupings have is like asking chess players not to play for provided the movement urith much of its im­ a checkmate. petus. It was in words like these that one of C.N.D.'s high priests summed up the sit­ War is the health of the State,a sympton uation shortly after the Spies for Peace of individual and collective evasion of \ vulgarly goosed both the police and the responsibility. To decorously march,each pundits of C.N.D. Easter,between lines of policemen is merely to act out an assigned role in a grotesque Marchers!the eyes (or should I say the and lethal charade. eye,its a one-eyed world,) of the world are upon you. Remember that the March has in the past offered participants a rare chance to learn some of the finest lessons of Life- an anarchist that sex is an enjoyable and commendable human activity - that if you are going by song book • - a way which pleases the opposition,that way is the wrong one - that you cannot ask the complex of the states of the world to give Why should the Devil have the good tunes? - up their weapons (you should have learnt General Booth is reputed to have asked. Why this by now),you can only demand this of should the C.P. be allowed to corner most them. of the folksinging market?? - we ask. The alternative is that oil of those guitars will one day stop playing. Bach and It is true that the production of folk­ Bob Dylan' will both be silenced by the"hard songs on records is a commercial enterprise rain* that will bring home to those who have that does well for the Rumanians and Poles the dubious good fortune to survive the and the hardfacedmen in Britain who are do the crushing absurdity of their own history, ing well out of communism. in which the struggle was against life,and the end totally lacking even in dignity., But where are the libertarian songs? Why are even the most progressive folksingers forced to fall back on the dreary Stalin 0* InViet-Nam the Third World War is already Stalin ditties of the thirties? Why do the a reality,but the rest of the world accepts most radical of us still use,in order to the imminence of conflict. Apathy,fear and eschew the International Brigade type of ( hysteria are the components of barbarism - song,the I.W.W. songbook,excellent as it and in the context of barbarism all our was in 1919 when most American workers knew gestures become meanignless;to the individ­ the tunes of the parodies. ual who struggles to créa te,environment becomes too hostile,and his isolation from It is time an anarchist songbook was the struggle lends impetus to the general published. It will be Cuddon's first public­ failure of nerve. ation. One would like to think that the marchers are struggling against this failure of nerve, but the fact that they are petitioning against nuclear weapons and not against the society which produces and needs them (although The Golden Ka of Dennis Wheat ley The Victorian middle-classes were so en­ Ricans on board,being Catholics,would not raptured with the gentility of Sir Walter at tend a C of E.