The UK won’t hold elections for Prime Minister 2012, but London will elect its mayor this year. In this post, we’ll look at why you should vote for Aleister Crowley instead of Boris Johnson, Ken Livingstone, or Brian Paddick; and we’ll have a special suggestion for UKIP.

Aleister Crowley for Mayor of London

It’s true: Aleister Crowley is dead. Sure, he tore up his British passport and declared independence for Ireland. We still believe he is the best candidate for mayor of London. After all, Aleister Crowley was named one of the “Greatest 100 Britons” in a 2002 BBC poll, and he invented the use of the “V for Victory” as a magical foil to the Nazis’ use of the swastika. Surely we needn’t point out that Aleister Crowley lived in London for much of his life, and that he is probably as well-known there as Mickey Mouse is in the U.S.

The reasons to vote for Aleister Crowley are many (see our Top Ten Reasons, Ten More Reasons, and Yet Another Ten Reasons to support Aleister Crowley in 2012). Another major reason is this: the election for mayor of London is a farce, and should be exposed as such.

A big turnout of people voting for Aleister Crowley would also send a message that Aleister Crowley has political ideas that deserve to be taken more seriously than the three main candidates for mayor. Of all the cities in the world that could hear this message, London may need to hear it more than any other. London is the home of the tabloid magazine John Bull, which originally called Aleister Crowley the “wickedest man in the world.” We dispel this and many other myths about Aleister Crowley in our post, Ten Myths about Aleister Crowley busted by AC2012. With that, let’s have a look at the three major candidates for mayor of London.

Boris Johnson

Donald Trump, er, Boris Johnson, a.k.a. BoJo, current mayor of London.

When we first set out to research the other candidates, we were shocked to learn that Donald Trump is the incumbent mayor of London. Then we realized it was another buffoon entirely who goes by the name of Boris Johnson. Not to be overly superficial, but is this really the image that the people of London want for their mayor?

Seriously though, “BoJo” banned the use of alcohol on public transport in 2008. Really? This is the wrong direction for liberty. Here at AC2012, we advocate ending all forms of prohibition. If someone is drunk on the bus, they needn’t be arrested unless they are committing some real crime against someone. Last we checked, carrying alcohol and being drunk are not harmful in themselves. As Aleister Crowley wrote, ‎”All artificial crimes should be abolished. When fantastic restrictions disappear, the greater freedom of the individual will itself teach him to avoid acts which really restrict natural rights. Thus real crime will diminish dramatically.”

Johnson also supports the widespread use of surveillance cameras as a way to increase London’s sense of security. We’ll take a closer look at this issue later in this post.

Ken Livingstone

Ken Livingstone, former mayor of London

A self-described socialist, we predict former London mayor Ken Livingstone will be the winner of the 2012 mayoral race. Aleister Crowley was a strong critic of socialist ideals and attempts to create a perfect society. In his book, Magick Without Tears, he wrote:

“As I think that totalitarian methods are already on the way to extinguish the last spark of manly independence—that is, in self-styled civilized countries—it seems to me that we all should regard with shrewd suspicion any plans for ‘perfecting’ social conditions.”

We have already seen Livingstone implement the “congestion charge” which is essentially a toll for driving motor vehicles in certain areas during times of high traffic congestion. This too is the wrong direction for individual liberty. Why not instead make it easier to use alternate forms of transportation?

More important than traffic laws are the inherent losses of freedom that occur when socialist ideals are given greater importance than individual sovereignty. Socialist ideals entrench and institutionalize class consciousness. As Crowley wrote elsewhere in Magick Without Tears:

“Socialism means war.  When the class moves as a class, there can be no exceptions.”

Read more about class consciousness in our post, “Occupy AC2012.”

Brian Paddick

Brian Paddick, London mayoral candidate

We would certainly be pleased to see an openly gay man as the mayor of London, especially given the persecution and book burning that Aleister Crowley endured for his bisexuality and erotic writings. Paddick tried for many years to repress his homosexuality, and even married a woman in trying to meet the expectations of his Christian faith and his family. We are glad that he eventually stopped that nonsense. As Aleister Crowley wrote in his commentary on The Book of the Law:

“The sex-instinct is one of the most deeply-seated expressions of the will; and it must not be restricted, either negatively by preventing its free function, or positively by insisting on its false function.”

Brian Paddick traveled to Norway where he married his current husband. While Aleister Crowley was not a fan of the institution of marriage, nor of the nuclear family, he certainly would have supported the right of any individuals to agree to any domestic arrangement regardless of the sexes or genders of those individuals. For more on this subject, see our three posts on the subject of same-sex marriage:

• The Reign in Maine
• Eucharist of Life
• Public Enemy #1

We also find on Paddick’s website that he has some ideas about how to reduce rape in the city of London. This too is good news from our perspective. As we have pointed out in an earlier post, Aleister Crowley viewed rape as a serious crime. In a free society, there must be no place for such heinous violations of individual rights.

Paddick is also a former police officer, and as such he has been a proponent of a more relaxed approach to drug prohibition. If you missed it before, do have a look at our post on ending all drug prohibition.

As much as we like Paddick’s attitudes about sex and drugs, we still know nothing about his feelings concerning rock & roll.

We also don’t know much about his politics in general, other than the above. Surely a mayor of London will be faced with more issues than gay marriage and rape. Yet we find very little on his own website which would show that he has awareness of any other matters. For example, the riots which took place in London last August.

London Riots

Do you suppose that the next mayor will solve the problems that led people to riot in the streets of London last August? The riots hurt small businesses, and served to entrench the perceived need for an oppressive police state. Aleister Crowley was for a minimal police presence, but even he suggested that police intervention in cases like these riots would be proper, in his “Considerations of an Open Letter to Labour”:

“The police shall interfere with civil liberty in two cases only: firstly, when any individual demands redress against aggression of any sort–including the bullying of boys and girls by fanatical parents. Secondly, when the peace is menaced by bands of persons associated for the purpose of imposing their ideas by force upon their neighbours.”

The riots in London were problematic on both counts of engaging in violent aggression and being a menace to the peace. London spiraled out of control last August, and other mayoral candidates have spoken about this, but they will go beyond merely using police to prevent such catastrophes in the future. They will institutionalize tyranny in London, as if surveillance and interference in civil liberty weren’t bad enough already.

The surveillance state already in place in 2009 did not prevent the London riots, and the perception that the cameras offer any security is an illusion. Privacy, says Aleister Crowley, is “less attainable every year as the Meddlesome Matties invade every corner of life.” More surveillance will not prevent riots in the future and Aleister Crowley is the only candidate who would place considerations of individual liberty over an illusion of security.

UKIP

We haven’t mentioned the UK Independence Party candidate for mayor, for one main reason: he hasn’t got a chance. Look, UKIP, you all have some great ideas, but you should seriously consider nominating Aleister Crowley as your candidate. You’d surely get more votes if you did.

Promoting Aleister Crowley for Mayor of London

If you want to help promote the idea of voting for Aleister Crowley in the coming election, head over to our downloads page where you will find graphics and PDF files that you can use to create your own fliers and brochures. Feel free to copy any content from this site or write your own! Help to rehabilitate Aleister Crowley’s reputation in his home city of London.