Posted to the Mak Attax open list, April 16th, 2006, 3:47 AM

Look kirkr00ls, I don’t know what you THINK I said, but it certainly wasn’t THAT. First of all, I was not reffering to simple ignorance or active suppression, I was reffering to something totally different. Second of all, I wasn’t even in favor of it. Just because I was bringing up the problem doesn’t mean I think it was great.

Look, let’s divide the problem this way. I’ll walk you through it.

The first problem with mainstream magick (making it, I mean) is the fact that most people don’t believe. You could videotape yourself doing any sort of weird spell or ritual that defies the laws of physics, and show it to a hundred people. And a hundred people would instantly jump to the conclusion of special effects. They’re not ready for the fact that you can make eyeballs grow in your armpits. (On second thought, I’m not sure I’m ready for that either. What would you look at?)

The second part is the Conspiracy Hit Squads who want to keep it all under wraps. Men in Black who come to cocky or showy magi or people just looking to talk about it with hot needles for fingernails at the very least. Either magick scares them or pisses them off, so they take down anyone getting open with it.

The third part is what I’M talking about. IF we can get the world to accept the mystical, IF we can keep from getting gunned down by crazed Vatican preists, IF we can keep from being incinerated by Southern Baptist nutjobs like that guy at Waco… then everyone will be all happy and dandy with spells and rituals, right?

FUCK NO.

Congress and the White House and special interest groups and lobbyists are going to huddle up and a week after the truth comes out, there will be a department to REGULATE magick. Taxes on spells. Permits for spell-casters. A registration system — has anyone besides me seen the X-Men movie, with the Mutant Registration Act? Imagine that but much worse.

They’ll say this is to get rid of the scumbag sorcerors. That won’t work. People who want magick will find it and use it. The difference is the people who want to use it for peaceful purposes will probably not be angry enough to come out swinging at the agents, so they get fined. Or beaten. Or both.

The hardasses will rip through the agents like tinfoil and ask for more.

So what happens to the good guys? What, to be blunt, happens to US? We get screwed by red tape and politicians who don’t even understand what we’re doing. We will not be represented in the House, or the Senate, or anything. There will be sensitives recruited by the government to track down unauthorized magick and stop it by any means necessary. Read up about moonshiners and the attempts by the “Revenoo” to stop them from making duty-free whisky. That’ll give you some idea of what I’m worried about.

Right now, the practical occult is mostly rare, very specialized, and completely unknown to the world at large. But at least it’s FREE. And along with that, Free-form. If it’ll get accepted by the people at large, it will get strangled and bogged down by the already established power structure at the same time. It’s like having a cow, the feds taking it away, and then selling you the milk at four bucks a gallon. Magick is OUR COW. Before we even think about trying to make the scales fall from the eyes of the world, we need to find a way to make the government keep its hands to itself.

I don’t think we’ll have the time, ability, or even cohesion to try after any revelation. The most powerful magician I personally know is MISTY3000, and everytime I see her she’s going on about finding the first gumball machine ever made and using it to complete her set of robot friends. There’s not enough room in her life to petition to government for a redress of greivances against miscellaneous -mancers. No offense Misty, ha ha ha. Please don’t staple me to the chair and make me watch Manos: The Hands of Fate again. I’ll be good.

-Spyked_Punch