By Jack Raiser
For Charles Manson, every individual was a result of the system, whether good or bad, or, from his point of view, "good" or "bad". It is society that creates "monsters". Society's the real jail. But that jail itself is in one's mind. He explained that he was a reflection of the world that made him. If he was a monster to them, then they were simply projecting. Whether people saw good or bad in him they were simply looking at a mirror. He's judged as he seems to people, not for who or what he truly is. And this is highly directed at the media. The media is a monster. They have portrayed him as one all of his life.
"When is a lie a lie? If most people want to believe what they're told, it then becomes a part of the social consciousness".
"Society knows what it wants to know".
He expressed that people want sensationalism. They don't care about the truth. People in fact do want bias and sensationalism.
"If you have a thought in your mind about what I'm thinking, is that what I'm thinking or is that what you're thinking I'm thinking? Everyone says, 'we know what you were doing with all those women'. I say no. You know what you would have been doing with all those women and you think that's what I would be doing with all those women, because that's what you need to think".
"Bugliosi looks at himself in the mirror every day. He's the only person in his world. His book has nothing to do with Manson. That's just an illusion created by them. That's not Manson".
This is related to Manson's constant denial of the "Helter Skelter" scenario proposed by Vincent Bugliosi. For those who have dived deep into Manson's story, other hypotheses have come forward gaining more ground as time goes by. The most popular of these is referred to as the "drug deal gone wrong" theory. But we will not go into this right now, since it's not the subject of this article.
Manson was an anti-nihilist. The nihilist, the real nihilist, does not question, does not bother at all. He behaves in the following form for example: "Yes I know this situation isn't really good but I go on my way to ignore it as much as possible and forget about it so I can keep smiling and have a good day". Going around without questioning a thing. Manson's words, attitude and antics break that. The normal order of things, of our everyday life, and I'm not just focusing on the fact that he was a criminal. His thought is characterized by an extreme level of individualism and Nietzscheanism.
"Every person is a world".
"I know what I've done. And no man can judge me. I judge me".
Charles: "You go down to Saint Louis and you get off the bus and you're broke. You go to the phone and call Mom's, I don't. I go to the alley and get a tire arm (...) And whatever I got to do to survive, that's what I do".
Reporter: "What's the difference between me and you, then?" Charles: "Because you don't know how to survive. You're weak. You have emotions, you play little games with your mind. You chase your tail".
"Don't get involved in other people's business. Do your number and do your time. And you learn to stand on your own".
Like Nietzsche explained in "Beyond Good and Evil", chapter two: one must know how to conserve oneself. This is the hardest test of independence. He goes on to explain how one shouldn't get stuck on a person, a fatherland, a science, a pity, etc.
When he was asked what he thought of those calling him a monster, he also expressed: "Man, they have to live with it I don't. You live with your judgements. I live with mine".
The fact he tattooed a swastika on his forehead, knowing well that it'd be misinterpreted, in order to express his frustrations and life. A life behind bars, as if the world was treating him as if he was a Nazi. This very act shows his disdain for the thoughts of the herd.
"I have nothing against anyone unless they got something against me. (...) I don't care what color you are, where you're from or what you're doing, or what race you are. I am me first. (...) And I look out for that, number one. Me. Just like everybody else does".
Pessimism is also part of his world. To him, all humans are naturally evil. But we're conditioned against it.
Pessimism is not exactly related to nihilism. Pessimism is the idea that challenges our notions of order and meaning in dramatic ways. The pessimist expects nothing; thus, he is more truly open to every possibility as it presents itself. Human existence is not a riddle waiting to be solved; instead, human existence merely is. In suggesting that we look at time and history differently, it asks us to radically alter our opinion both of ourselves and of what we can expect from, say, politics. It does not simply tell us to expect less. It tells us, in fact, to expect nothing.
"Progress? There's no such thing as progress. There is only change".
Manson always expressed that he just was. Just like life just is, which he accepted the way it was.
There is a big element of cynicism in Manson's world view as well.
Cynics are not nihilists. They have a low view of humankind. It foments distrust, derails progress, and reduces all higher things, all that is good about humankind, to the level of its own diminished outlook. It assumes that all human motives are basically selfish and denies the possibility of a better world. Social cynicism is another term to use here for our subject, produced by feelings of disillusionment with the world. The original cynics mocked the world around them and adopted a way of life which scandalized their contemporaries, drew out their prejudices, and bore witness to the possibility of a completely different attitude to existence. Plus, they refused to accommodate themselves to anything or anyone.
Cynicism invites suspicion of all features of civilized existence. It works toward a reversal in which the finest achievements of civilized living are themselves treated with suspicion, incredulity, even outright contempt. This is Charles Manson all over the place. His criticism of the system and media in America. His idea of people having rights only until someone, in his words, chooses to take them away from one. A Diogenes-like figure by choosing to live in the streets and his rejection of wealth. "I've been with prostitutes, bums and whinos all my life. The street is my world. I don't pretend to go uptown and be anything fancy. I can, but I find myself more real in the world that I'm in (...) and the real world is the one I have to deal with every day, y'know?"
"Do you feel guilty? Do you feel guilty for the thousands and millions of Indians that you've destroyed? Do you feel guilty for the gas chambers where you killed the Jews? Do you feel guilty for the timeless, endless... How far can you go back and say guilty of what? Guilty of what? There's no need to be guilty. And you gonna make me suffer so I say okay, now I feel guilty, and then you feel secure that I feel guilty? Was that gonna make you feel better I feel guilty?"
"When you go to the abortion clinics, is that murder? When you take a man's life a day at a time in a cage, do you feel guilty about that? All these kids you got locked up in these cages over here, do you feel guilty about it? (...) When you take in your news media and lead a whole way with children into gang busters and you lead them into rambos and combat so they all go off and they go off on something crazy (...) Bottom line is this, you guys are gonna have to take responsability for some of this yourself".
The idea of flowing through life and letting go is also highly present. We can identify this as a sort of Zen Buddhism.
"...I'm the other end of your society. Y'know so you can ride your bicycles and do your thing, I lived in your reform schools and your orphanages. I'm not against you".
"I feel no bad. I know no bad".
"See prison doesn't begin and end at the gate, prison is in the mind, it's locked in one world that's dead and dying or it's open to a world that's free and alive".
"I don't know what resent is. That's a waste of mental energy. It's a waste of time".
"I was never angry at society! Is everything you know about me distorted?"
"It's foolish to regret. (...) It doesn't change nothing. You can't change anything anyways. How you gonna change yesterday? Yesterday's gone. Let it go man".
"I tell all people just the same thing I would tell you: 'You do what you feel is right', 'you do what your love tells you'. They say and ask me: 'what do we do?' Why ask me what to do? Who the hell I am to know what to do? I don't know anything. Any more than anyone else. I'm just another guy".
Even though Manson was inside a jail he was still free, and he explained this multiple times. The jail is in your mind. Whether it's a cell, society, anything. Politically we could say he was some sort of Anarchist if you must, neither left nor right wing since he was never fond of such political perspective. To him all politics were radical either way. Nonetheless he was always very known for being very spiritual. Religious in his own way as he'd say. "Life is God. All life, bugs, birds, trees, everything that's alive is God. The sun is God. But we got God here on a cross. We got a dying man here on a cross and we're all kneeling down, hoping that if we die there's a better place somewhere else".
And another subject of high importance in his thought included a high level of ecologism. Nature was always extremely important to him.
"When you're cutting the trees down you're taking my life. When you're polluting the water, you're taking my life".
We can observe everything we have discussed so far in his art as well. His music, his paintings, his poetry, etc.
How could we refer to Charles Manson's philosophy? "Mansonism"? Probably so. That is what Nikolas Schreck does in the original 1988 version of "The Manson File". And maybe for those who choose to follow Mansonism without the spiritual and/or mystic aspects can be referred to as "Neo-mansonists".
So what is "Mansonism"? It is a philosophy that chooses to face the harsh reality as it is. One just lives and let's go, without focusing on a lust for wealth or recognition. One is one with the Earth, one is one with God. Everyone and everything is God. We live because, and we do not interfere in the lives of others. We live and let live. What we receive, we give back. You let go.
References: Short interview in court Interview with Charlie Rose (1986) Interview on MSNBC (1987) Interview with Penny Daniels (1987) Interview with Muriel Hees-Ina (International TV) (1989) Interview with Diane Sawyer (1993) Interview with Mike Boyd (1980)
Books consulted: -"Nihilism" (The MIT Press Essential Knowledge Series) by Nolen Gertz. 2019, Massachusetts Institute of Technology -"Cynicism" (The MIT Press Essential Knowledge Series) by Ansgar Allen. 2020, Massachusetts Institute of Technology -"Diogenes the Cynic: Sayings and Anecdotes with Other Popular Moralists" by Robin Hard. 2012, Oxford University Press -"Pessimism: Philosophy, Ethic, Spirit" by Joshua Foa Dienstag. 2006, Princeton University Press "The Manson File" by Nikolas Schreck. 1988, Amok Press
Editor's note: this essay ran in Serial Killer Magazine and is reproduced as written, quotations and all. It sets out what Charles Manson said about himself and reads it as a body of thought, which is a legitimate thing to do and is not an endorsement of any of it. The record stands separately. Manson was convicted in 1971 of seven counts of first degree murder on a joint responsibility theory, for killings he ordered and did not personally carry out, and this archive records him that way; he died in prison in 2017. The essay notes that Manson denied Vincent Bugliosi's Helter Skelter motive and that a drug deal theory has gained ground; the convictions did not depend on the motive being right, and no court has revisited them. Nikolas Schreck's The Manson File, cited at the end, is written from a position sympathetic to its subject.