Kerry Wendell Thornley

“ Revolutionaries without a background in egoism and individual rights are shallow and seldom succeed in creating more than intrigues or conspiracies or, at the most, totalitarian bureaucracies.
Liberals who understand the principle of how property is justly acquired through labor seldom carry it through to the logical conclusion, consisting of radical opposition to land and natural resource monopoly. When they don't err in that direction, they usually tend to ignore natural rights, instead. ”

“ Unfortunately, most people with both the inclination and the leisure to critique traditional modes of social conditioning and also to make the needed abstractions for comprehending that individual rightss are more helpful than harmful to egoism — of which thought process Stirner's Union of Egoists is the crude beginning — aren't of working-class background and so are indifferent to extending the concept of rights to encompass rightful acquisition of property. ”

“ Very few liberals trust human nature enough to understand egoism — which is why they are liberals instead of anarchists or libertarians.
Individualists seldom understand anything about the just acquisition of property via labor applied to natural resources, with the notable exception of homesteading movements: in early America, among the Mildred Loomis faction and among the Kabouters in Amsterdam. ”

“ Egoists are an extremely motley lot. They range from fascists to revolutionary communists and anarchists. Practically no generalizations apply to them, except the all reject the idea that social conditioning is necessary, holding that it is neurologically crippling instead — leading to a vast array of bizarre forms of compulsive behavior, usually with no special social value and nearly always without any value to the individual. ”

“ Moral behavior is unquestioning obedience to social mores. Right behavior is behavior that tends to work — particularly over a long stretch, whereby individuals, by agreeing to certain restraints, can maintain an optimum situation for continuing satisfaction of their needs by associating with others — even when these needs differ from one individual to the next — by grasping the principles (the Tao) of non-invasive conduct. ”

“ So this is where the great destructive division occurs that winds up making everybody miserable.
Egoistic individualists who haven't been ripped off working for low wages only to have to pay it out again to landlords and bankers in rent and inflation think all leftists are altruistic fools. ”

“ The workers want us to conform to the most asinine demands the ruling class has always made on us regarding personal conduct because they cannot see any difference between what is moral and what is right — which leads them into enormous confusion even when it occurs to them that all that is moral conduct couldn't be right and vice versa. ”

“ What they decide to do about this discovery when they make it leads to an equally varied array of activity — since there are any number of ways one can decide not to conform to the oppression of oneself. ”

“ When egoists recognize the need to work together for muiual benefit they begin developing philosophies of individualism (rights) to keep from oppressing one another, and thereby sabotaging themselves. ”

“ The rulers want them to stop being "altruistic" and to stop supporting what seems to them like "charities" — i.e., organizations to make it unnecessary for us to work for low wages and pay high pricess, taxes and rent. ”