The Devil has been aware for quite a while that one of His churches ranks stratification as the foundation of its so-called five-point program, which ostensibly contains the goals of the organization. In the words of its founder, Anton LaVey, water should be allowed to find its own level with no attempt to mandate its flow. People are not equal, and allowance for incompetence should be prevented from interfering in human life, because according to Mr. LaVey, this benefits the weak at the expense of the strong.
Satan always enjoys a good phrase that communicates a simple solution to a complex and compound issue. Such childish optimism and joyful obliviousness of the nature of a difficult problem always brings a smile to the Dark Lord’s face, or at least a sardonic smirk. It seems somehow intuitively true that the entire world would become a better place if everyone was allowed to develop into their true selves—a universal Maslowian paradise of self-actualizing indiviuals, no less. It seems almost too good to be true, and as common sense would caution, it is.
The analogy can be taken a little further without being drawn too far; in the present case one may realize that left to its own devices every particle of water ultimately goes downhill not up, and that only violent manipulation can make it temporarily rise. Water that is allowed to seek its own level with no natural or artificial dams, dikes, redirections, or pumps to force its flow and keep it in motion will settle and turn stagnant. The natural flow of water is in the direction of mediocrity.
Satan is confident that LaVey realized this and only desired an abolishment of the control systems in those areas where he believed to be personally unfairly limited, and would eagerly restrict the options for anyone who happened to have conflicting goals. He did specifically address apologists of mediocrity after all, and was undoubtedly in favor of draconian measures against those whom he felt held him back. This sentiment naturally impresses the Prince of Darkness, but playing the Devil’s advocate for a moment, Satan cannot help but compare the attitude with the motto of the eternal underachiever: they would have recognized my genius had they not preferred mediocrity. In Anton LaVey’s case, his proficiency in music and visual arts reached the level of a skilled hobbyist, and his intellectual insights into the nature of mankind would be met with overbearing smiles from any modern day philosopher, anthropologist, psychologist, or sociologist.
The Devil does not hold this against Mr. LaVey, who has now joined us in Hell and is busy being tormented with an unobtainable doppelgänger of Jayne Mansfield (who, incidentally, is also among us, but in a different department). Mediocrity depends on context and is not to be confused with a sweeping average across the entire population. One group of people may have standards which interpret mediocrity far above or below the potential of another group. (Considering the creative and intellectual level that Satan has observed among the members of the “mutual admiration society” of Anton LaVey’s legacy, Satan is confident that Mr. LaVey remains the one-eyed king of the blind.) Anton LaVey was at the very least aware that mediocrity is not going away in the near future, and saw no other solution than isolationism, with space ghettos as the only viable answer.
Now, Satan is not certain whether Anton LaVey had been watching Flash Gordon too self-identifyingly given his striking similarity with Ming the Merciless of said space opera or if LaVey had merely given the solution inadequate consideration, because it is impossible for a self-sustaining human society to exist without a highly diverse set of skills.
This finally provides a key insight: everyone is mediocre in all but maybe a few respects. A brain surgeon is layman in the field of rocket science, the rocket scientist is layman in most fields that do not involve space satellites, and both are laymen plumbers. You are for the vast part mediocre. Mediocrity will not disappear. Any “mutual appreciation society” on some distant moon colony may admire each others’ specific competences all they like, but everyone must be excused for being mediocre on virtually all accounts—and thus mediocrity is inevasibly apologized. This apology violates Anton LaVeys cardinal formula for a better world, but unless it is granted, it is tantamount to equipping each human being with an original sin with no redemption or escape, simply for being human. It is a pipe-dream to believe that mediocrity can be averted save by death or by withdrawing to the insanity of a mind that has closed itself against the reality of the world.
Satan is not convinced that space ghettos will ever be created save for research purposes and expects that even in the best case scenario the exodus will be reserved for those who currently can afford to own private islands in the tropics. There is no salvation waiting in the sky for the Devil’s followers, because none of them will find themselves entitled to an interstellar den. The Devil does not personally care. His Infernal Majesty is content as long as the planets contain a Hell and orbiting or traveling space stations include a section below deck that is decorated with brimstone, sulphorous lakes, and molten rock.
Mediocrity thus being the rule that describes each and everyone of you humans, and space ghettos solving nothing (if ever they be constructed), Satan thinks that one’s opinion on the merits of mediocrity is utterly pointless. The question is how to deal with it right here, and right now.
Everyone is mediocre, and the only immediate reaction that makes sense is the ultimate apology in the shape of a complete recognition and acceptance of this fact of human life and interaction. Satan is inclined to say that humans apologize too little for their shortcomings when they act as if just one proficiency entitles them to an opinion on matters that lie beyond their comprehension, or when they bully people with genuine skill out of their positions. The only proper reaction to such pretentiousness is to understand that everyone is naturally apologized for mediocrity and then move anyone who speaks outside of his or her skill areas out of focus—by force, if necessary.
Satan thinks it is through the acknowledment that all humans are mediocre and excel in very limited areas only that corrective action may be taken to place people of skill into their various areas of expertise, and to prevent people from meddling in those affairs where they know as little as everyone else. This cannot be left to laissez faire governance. One might, for example, assume that some social media playform will regulate itself according to likes and dislikes and eventually reach a desired level, but nothing could be further from the truth … unless the desired level is the lowest common denominator where only mediocrity reigns. Instead, the needed regulation requires heavy interference from people who dare to acknowledge when a person is operating outside of one of his or her fields of incompetence. It is the very opposite of allowing water to find its own level. Water that finds its own level is the deluge that washes away landmarks and distinctions and eventually becomes stale and rotten. Water that is carefully controlled and protected as necessary as a valuable resource, however, is a powerful tool.