Theos-Talk Archives (September 1996 Message tl00282)

Rich,
Good points, but let us be honest and remember that Crowley never claimed to
want anything to do with virtue and was lousy at business, most creative
types are and that's why god created agents.
When we look at the personal life of anyone in this field the best way to go
about it is to judge it by such things as internal consistency, or what is
the degree of hypocrisy manifested and did the person accomplish his stated
ends.
Now when somebody starts making absurd claims, like he is the son of god or
enlightened, then it is time to start twirling the finger around the ear.
I rather like a lot of Crowley's ideas (though I have tried to avoid some of
his extremes) and think that he's certainly as good a candidate for the
position of World Teacher as boring old Krishnamurti,but that doesn't mean
that he was right about everything and his personal life was an awful mess.
 In fact, he was the sort of person I have tried very hard to avoid becoming.

My feeling, however, is that the personal life of a thinker does not bear on
the quality of the ideas.  Someone may live a life of fine middle-class
virtue and probity and be an utter ass.  Someone else may be a drinking,
drug-using, womanizing hell-raiser (my god, am I describing someone I know?
 Nah, I don't do drugs.) and be a great genius.
It is when the ideas are nutty that one must watch out.

Chuck the Heretic