Rasp
Senior Editor
[From: The Odinist, no. 46 (1979)]
JOHN SINGER (1/6/1931 – 1/18/1979)
At approximately 12:00 noon on Snowmoon 18, 1979, John Singer, who had waged a valiant 6-year battle with the authorities to keep his children out of the public school system, was shot in the back and killed by a police squad which ambushed him at his mailbox near Marion, Utah. Singer's death, was an act of cold-blooded murder, committed against a brave and high-spirited man who personified the ideals and principles of Odinism, for Mr. Singer exemplified the Heroic Will and Noble Loyalty to our Aryan folk-values that is the standard of our belief and comradeship.
John Singer's slaying was a heinous deed and one of the worst instances of tyrannical evil yet perpetrated in the United States, not only because of the manner in which he was put to death, but because he died trying to keep his children culture-conscious and proud by protecting them from the value-destroying state educational system. Although the establishment media has suppressed most of the facts of the Singer case, enough has become known to ascertain the importance of John Singer's life and death, and the legacy it has for Odinists. His story has far more than local significance, for he is a hero and martyr whose personality typified the best of our folk, and whose tragic conflict with the incumbent system highlighted the universal struggle our folk-group is now fighting to win.
John Singer's career was the 'richest and purest' assertion of the essential values and impulsions of our Indo-European peoples, while the foul and monstrous act of killing him was a lurid manifestation of the raw malevolence of the despotic forces our kinsmen the world over are battling.
Mr. Singer had been a Mormon for years, but later adopted more fundamentalist views; thus he was not a member of our Fellowship, but he was a genuine Aryan warrior-thinker, whose inspiring exploits and attainments should be memorialized. To prevent the life of John Singer from being quietly dropped 'down the memory hole,' we must make a record of what sort of man he was, what he did and why he did it, and why he is worthy of our admiration and emulation.
Strong, healthy character and extraordinary perseverance are what made John Singer the powerful, living force that all Inglings revere; this article is dedicated as a war song in laudation of those inherited traits and qualities that were the vital stuff of this 20th century hero. It will be seen that Singer was slain because he was an exceptional man whom the government feared and hated, and because he had the mettle to stand firm and hold out against all odds. Truly, John Singer was a man of Spirit and Will, whose inborn sense of Honour and Integrity enabled him to audaciously advance what he felt in his soul and to boldly defend his family in a tragically one-sided battle without ever despairing or compromising.
Singer's was an Affirmative Life in the most profound sense of the term, for he succeeded, in making contact with the core of his race-soul, discovering, and then incorporating the eternal folk-consciousness he found there, and in driving himself to put his inner truths into effect despite the unremitting opposition he faced. He epitomized the Independent Spirit that we Aryans have always held to be a supreme human value, and he possessed that 'generous enthusiasm' which has marked our young, mighty and still-evolving folk. His whole being, his living personality, and not his death, should be the main focus of our attention, for the quality-in-action and 'religious dynamism' of John Singer provide an incalculably valuable inspiration and rational lesson to us when we are in critical need of being infused with fighting energy and heartened by the flaming ardour of another Ingling whose 'courage of the commonplace' can rouse the valour and daring inbred into our folk.
His warrior nature made him the antithesis of what the ruling system wants the average man to be, for the present triumvirate of international culture-distorters, bankers and mobsters prefers docile, submissive underlings to men like John Singer who think like Odin and fight like Thor. This is the basic reason why Singer was assassinated; his brother, also from Utah, alluded to the true motive behind the slaying when delivering the funeral address: "Twelve days after his birthday he was felled by an assassin's bullet. My brother, in my opinion, was murdered." (Ass. Press, 1/23/79)
Since Odinists have the duty and privilege of asserting, forwarding and promoting our inborn folk-values, and of doing everything possible to strengthen and improve our folk group, we should, on behalf of John
Singer, perform the function of Hugin and Munin, Odin's ravens of Thought and Memory, and reflect at length about the meaning of Singer's life and commit our conclusions to paper as a memorial to his accomplishments. In so doing, we shall note the complete contrast between John Singer's honesty and bravery and the establishment's cowardice and wickedness which it so blatantly displayed before, during and after his murder.
In particular, our chronology of John Singer will reveal that he was an outstanding representative of the unique Aryan racial qualities surveyed by Professor H. K. Gunther in 'Religious Attitudes of the Indo-Europeans,' and a man of whom it can be said that 'The Force was strong in him.'
THE LIFE OF JOHN SINGER
John Singer was born in Brooklyn, New York, on Snowmoon 6, 1931; the Singer family moved to Germany shortly thereafter but returned to the United States in 1948 and settled in Marion, Utah, a small community about 30 miles east of Salt Lake City, where he established his farm and worked as a television repairman for the next 30 years.
Thus Singer was an archetypical Aryan yeoman farmer, a man who had the initiative, energy and independent will to become self-employed and self-sufficient, always productive and never asking anything from society. Such men and their attitudes are the foundation of our Aryan society and polity, for the Indo-European urge to improvement and democratic form of government are derived from our inherited individualism and Faustian will to betterment.
Later John Singer married, and he and his wife, Vicki, had seven children who now range from 13 to 2 years of age. The Singers obviously understood their duty to perpetuate their racial stock, and fulfilled this obligation by having a large family; it is to both the Singers' credit that they were willing to put forth the effort and to make the sacrifices necessary to procreate our folk group, and their example is a healthy and vigorous defiance of the system's campaign to reduce our fertility to below-replacement levels.
Prof. Gunther summarized the Aryan spiritual inclination that promotes genetic purity and fecundity which Singer practiced in real life: "... Indo-European religiosity is always directly linked with the conviction of the value of birth and pride in heredity, and that man has an unalterable hereditary nature and an inborn nobility which it is his duty to society to maintain." (p. 17)
Beyond this, John Singer apparently recognized, either instinctively or consciously, that the natural order, i.e. the process of genetic upgrading, called Evolution, required him to reproduce his own kind so that his kin group would continue to flourish and to expand. These more profound factors in Singer's motivations were discussed by Prof. Gunther: "Family, nation and state, worship and law, the seasons of the year and the festivals ... the customs and spiritual life, farmland, house and farm; all were related in a world order, and in this order man lived as a member of his race, which was perpetuated permanently in ordered procreation .... Thus within the all-embracing world order, and a requirement of the world order - a direct assertion of the Indo-European religious heart."
Self-reliant, self-trusting Indo-Europeans who guarantee that their traits will be well-represented in the gene pool by having disciplined and selective procreation plays a divine role for the preservation of racial inheritance, the God-given racial heritage. Thus care of the race is both a consequence many offspring are the absolute opposite of the 'ideal' type of drone the global financial clique desires, and thus John Singer already had accumulated two strikes against himself in the eyes of the system.
FAMILY LIFE
As more children came along, the Singers took the time and effort to build their character and instill true and wholesome values in them; the family worked the farm together, and each child was carefully taught manual skills and good work habits in addition to being inculcated with Aryan principles of personal and family pride, self-discipline, and a biodynamic outlook on life. The children's upbringing taught them how to work hard, how to control themselves, and how the world really functions; personal talents and abilities were developed and cultivated too; for example, one son designed and built a small log cabin; one of the girl's artistic bent was encouraged.
Meanwhile, the local school system had finally succumbed to the general trend of educational deterioration; and, along with 'permissive structuring,' had begun to indoctrinate young students with the usual soul-destroying, human-centered (as opposed to cosmo-dynamic) and equalitarian falsities that are being used to ruin our young kinfolk. An alert and responsible parent, John Singer quickly recognized the harm being done to his children, and, on Lenting 29, 1973, he and Vicki withdrew their youngsters from the local elementary school and commenced home instruction.
Mrs. J. S. Wyatt, an acquaintance of the Singers, in her later account of the family quoted John Singer as he gave his reasons for keeping his children out of the public school: "Our children are our heritage; they
are our inheritance. We will be judged according to how they turn out. We no longer trust the public school system. We want the children to be self-reliant, capable people. We have the right to keep them and teach them at home."
Specifically, Singer acted to prevent his children from being brain-polluted and mentally debilitated by what he termed 'immorality'. - He complained that schools would corrupt his children by exposing them to drugs, homosexuality and teachings of racial equality" (Ass. Press, 3/29/79). UPI provided this, more detailed information: Among things to which he objected was the depiction of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in a school text next to a picture of George Washington. "You have put him next to George Washington, making him an equal. He is not." John Singer, unlike many parents, took an interest in his children's schooling and mental development, and when confronted with the issue of racial equality, bluntly told the truth and took immediate and concrete steps to protect his children.
Upon pulling his kids out of South Elementary School, Singer erected a one-room schoolhouse on his farm and applied for state certification as a private academy; although official approval was evidently granted some time later, local authorities never did acknowledge its propriety. It was then that the long campaign of official harassment and persecution began, for the school board's first response was to pressure the Singers into complying with certain 'guidelines' regarding course content. Part of the reason for the local Board's insistance was that since 1973 it had been receiving money from HEW which demanded that local schools comply with its dictates to teach certain subject matters - notably equalitarian and anti-Aryan doctrines - to all students or suffer penalties and loss of funds. Having surrendered its autonomy to the central government, the local school district had to act as HEW's instrument and began to coerce the Singers.
Mrs. Wyatt reported that "the school district insisted that the Singers teach the same subjects ... with the same textbooks and daily hours." Testing and counselling by public school officials was also a condition laid down by the Board which the Singers said defeated the very reason why the children were withdrawn from public school in the first place. Singer was not fooled this phony compromise, and responded by refusing to misteach his children or to return them to the public school.
The next official step, was to launch a legal attack, primarily under the state Compulsory Attendance Law; State Education Supervisor W. D. Talbot directed his underling, V. D. Edrinton to initiate court action, despite the fact that Singer’s certification for academy status was pending. And so began the heavy legal barrage which, coupled with other official and unofficial pressure and intimidation, put John Singer's character to the test for the following 3 years. Here we should note that throughout his ordeal, John Singer remained steadfast, resolute and unbowed, exhibiting what Prof. Gunther calls "the proud belief in inflexible and unyielding courage before destiny" that defines the average Indo-European.
THE COURTS
On Midyear 7, 1977 the legal battle began in earnest; the Singers were sentenced to jail terms and fines, tests, interviews of the children with incredible questions such as 'What would you do if they took your father and mother away?'
Although verification for their private academy was received, the local judge, Bachman, kept insisting on carrying out the sentences. A mental test, performed by a Dr. Cline, had the psychologist admit that Mrs. Singer was 'of sound mind, mentally competent and is overall a remarkably resourceful and adequate woman.' About John Singer, Dr. Cline stated that he was 'in the top 8 percent of those taking the test, that he was tough, competent, resourceful, sometimes stubborn, shrewd and a self-made man.' The doctor found both Singers 'above average in intellect, mental and emotional stability and soundness, and have put together a remarkably cohesive and happy family.'
The life of John Singer truly is exemplified by Dr. Gunther on p. 38 of 'Religious Attitudes': "For the Indo-Europeans, religiosity showed itself as the will which revealed in the midst of destiny, before the friendly Gods, the fitness of the true-natured man who thus became all the more upright and god-filled the more shattering were the blows of destiny. In particular, the best men and the truest natured are expected by the Gods to prove themselves on the anvil of destiny."
Despite the foul character assassination, Singer began to win some popular support; This favourable sentiment was reflected in a frank and plainly-worded editorial in the Park Record, Park City, Utah: "Mr. Singer is a disturbance to many consciences. He is willing to die to protect his children from influences he believes to be harmful. To our utter dismay, many of the wrongs to which he objects have been allowed to get a hold in
our schools by the very ones who are trying to condemn him, not because perhaps they believe they are harmless to the children, but because they do not have as much backbone as Mr. Singer in standing up for what they believe to be right."
It's evident that John Singer and the life-values which he so steadfastly championed were slowly winning recognition, and that a following of sorts was building up in the Marion region.
THE VALKYRIE CHOSE JOHN SINGER
To illustrate to which lengths HEW officials will go to persecute dissenters to their pernicious school curriculum, it was reported that the authorities publicly discussed committing violence against the Singers during the summer of 1978: "Local law enforcement agencies have said publicly that they plan to use 'any and all means' to get the Singers out of their home ... including evacuation of the entire area and a frontal assault; Singer, meanwhile, has promised to resist." Note that the government now planned to invade Singer's homestead, and was contemplating using violence.
Singer himself, however, never intended to inflict physical injury to anyone, for at his funeral, Harold Singer declared that 'his brother repeatedly told him he would never fire the first shot in any confrontation with police.' (AP, 1/23/79)
The final stage of the tragedy began in the first week of Snowmoon, as law officers occupied a farmhouse near the Singer property and put Singer under surveillance; he was observed for 18 days prior to being gunned down, and police noted that he went to his mailbox every day about noon. The nature and extent of this stake-out indicate that the system had carefully planned its moves against Singer, and had formulated its actions long in advance of the actual crime.
Having had two and a half weeks in which to build up their courage and arm themselves to the teeth with full riot gear, on Thor's Day, Snowmoon 18, at about 12:00 noon, a party of 8-12 officers from the local sherrif's office, the State Highway Patrol, and the state liquor law enforcement department surprised John Singer near his mail box, and shot him to death with shotgun blasts through the back. Singer's body was loaded into a pickup truck and taken to Salt Lake City where he was pronounced dead at approximately 12:30 p.m. Since pickup trucks are not ordinarily used by the police, the fact that the raiding party had such a vehicle at the scene shows that the authorities anticipated it would be used to transport Singer's body.
Thus was this Aryan hero wantonly murdered in cold blood; friends and relatives who were finally allowed to view the body stated that he had been shot in the back at close range and that the charge had penetrated his body completely and exited through the abdomen. Afterwards officials claimed that Singer drew a pistol on the police, but since a handgun can be aimed and fired much more rapidly than a shotgun, and since a reasonable man like John Singer would not attempt to draw if he were covered by several persons, it's clear that he did not pull his gun (for if he had, he would have gotten off the first shot) and that he did not resist the police, who safely approached their victim and then shot him in the back while others engaged him in conversation.
Although the official version of Singer's death was given heavy publicity, his brother's statement, the truth, was submerged or
completely edited out. "My brother would never shoot first; they [the lawmen in the shooting party] knew that; they came to kill," said Harold Singer (Spotlight Feb 19).
Vicki Singer was arrested immediately after the murder and incarcerated in Salt Lake City; the children were taken into state custody as the authorities occupied Singer's home.
The authorities lied to Mrs. Singer, telling her that her husband had merely 'been hurt,' and it was not until 7:00 that evening that she was handed a curt announcement stating that John Singer was dead. During the autopsy, as Harold Singer was later informed, John's brain was removed, apparently without permission of his surviving relatives; this illegal act, obviously planned in advance, was done to create the impression that Singer was abnormal, or a 'clinical case' and was another step in the 'mentally ill' picture the authorities had tried to paint.
One unlawful act followed another as the authorities refused to let Singer's mother, Charlotte, and his personal physician view his body. The cover-up was extended when a press conference announced immediately after the slaying, was cancelled and the county coroner, several hours later released a one line statement saying only that Singer had died of gunshot wounds. Already the system was attempting to evade responsibility for the crime it had just committed, but Singer's family and their supporters began to take action to prevent the perpetrators of the atrocity from evading guilt.
THE AFTERMATH
As expected, initial media reports were to the effect that Singer was shot in the side and leq (but such wounds are not likely to be fatal) as he 'pulled a loaded gun' on the arresting officers. These transparent falsehoods failed to halt the storm of angry protests that swept Utah and the nation. No one was fooled by such shabby lies, and on the night of the 18th, a large interstate highway sign in Salt Lake City was painted in huge red letters reading "John Singer was murdered" (AP, 1/20/79). In the first hours after his assassination Singer's shocked and grief-stricken mother summoned the composure to tell the truth to the press - 'He wanted to raise his children decent, and for that he had to lose his life,' said 78-year old Charlotte Singer, weeping during the telephone interview, 'they murdered him in cold blood.' (AP, 1/20/79)
Govenor Matheson's secretary admitted the day after that more than two dozen phone calls protesting the shooting had been received; hundreds more were logged in the following days. At that time Mrs. Bonnie Lee, a housewife, announced that she had organized 'Concerned Citizens for the Singer Family,' and that the organization was demanding a grand jury investigation into the killing. Mrs. Lee reported receiving 125 phone calls supporting the Singers after announcing her action on TV.
The official cover-up intensified as politicians and functionaries became worried at the strong public reaction. The identities and exact number of officers involved in the slaying were 'not available.' A Juvenile Court judge issued an order within hours of the murder prohibiting the press from identifying the Singer children by name, disclosing their whereabouts, or interviewing them, saying 'I think they have suffered enough as it is' (AP, 1/20/79). This hypocritical statement was to camouflage the facts, and the order was not issued for the sake of the children but to protect the bloodstained system. If the general public were allowed to see the Singer youngsters and to identify with them, it would become more sympathetic and thus enraged at the government for its crime.
Three other 'official' actions were forthcoming to dampen popular resentment, as federal and state officeholders moved to put over a combination whitewash-compromise scheme. On Snowmoon 21, Gov. Matheson returned from out of state (although he earlier had taken full command-of the Singer case he absented himself on the day of the raid) and held a press conference at which he said that he was satisfied the policemen's conduct was 'professional'. In tandem with this whitewash was Utah Attorney General, Robert Hansen's 'action on the case'-ploy in which he announced that he had assigned two deputies to 'study' the matter. A similar line was followed by the FBI when an agent who requested (and got) anonymity from the media revealed that the Bureau was going to investigate the Singer killing on the basis of a civil rights complaint (AP, 1/22/79).
These strategems failed, however, to assauge the public, and on Snowmoon 22, over 300 people attended John Singer's funeral where they heard his brother Harold deliver a long eulogy in which he recounted the entire case and declared that his brother was deliberately assassinated. A few days later Vicki Singer was freed from jail and the children released from custody; a closed hearing was conducted, and a sort of compromise effected underwhich two unnamed teachers of a private school will supervise the children's home education. Clearly, the frightened Establishment was attempting to appear 'just and reasonable' in order to counteract the impact its atrocity had had on the local citizenry.
But this gambit didn't work either, and within a month of the shooting, a formal organization, 'Concerned Citizens for John Singer Investigation' was founded, and petitions demanding a grand jury probe of the slaying were being circulated in Utah. To complement the official cover-up, a media blackout was imposed in the state, and within three or four days the story had disappeared from the newspapers and broadcast news reports; Singer's own neighbours and relatives learned no more than those hundreds of miles distant, since local reports carried little more than the sketchy information sent out on the wire services.
The reports appearing elsewhere were generally backpaged and filled with distortions and libels. The chief smear device employed was to describe Singer as a polygamist. In four stories our local liepaper printed, the term was used in every headline, viz. 'Utah Polygamist Fulfills Vows, Dies by Police Blast;' 'Grand Jury Investigation Urged in Police Shooting of Polygamist;' 'Officers 'Professional' In Polygamist Shooting;' '300 Gather for Funeral of Polygamist.'
John Singer was not a polygamist; but the word was used to depict Singer as aberrant, abnormal, socially deviant and wrongfully unconventional, so that the average reader would not be likely to identify, and consequently sympathize, with him. In connection with the polygamist libel, outright lies were printed, e.g. the first UPI story on 1/19/79 stated 'Singer left two wives. He had three children by his first wife, Shirley, and seven children by his second wife, Vicki. The truth is that Shirley Black, who is a relative of Vicki Singer, had lived at the farm for some time with her three children whose natural father is Dean Black. John Singer had never been married to any other woman than Vicki. — No correction of these falsehoods has yet appeared.
In this insidious manner the ideas and values John Singer represented were denigrated, or at least, cast in an unfavourable light. This ad hominem technique is an old standby used to avoid discussing the substance of an enemy's position or belief, and is a variant of the 'guilt by association' ruse. The establishment's objective was to make Singer appear a kook or lunatic, and thus to isolate him from any potential supporters and sympathizers. It's strange that the ruling system did all it could to portray polygamy when alledgedly practiced by Singer as being improper while it goes all out to support and encourage the polygamy of millions of non-Aryan males by supporting their various children through 'Aid to Dependent Children' welfare give-away!
Nationally, the Singer killing received virtually no coverage; the policy was, of course, to kill the story as quickly as possible so that the public would forget John Singer instead of catching on to the totalitarian nature of our government agencies, and to the fact that we are no longer able to decide how our children should be brought up, nor to which degree we are compelled to conform with the demands of such agencies.
Because John Singer was a brave, energetic and upstanding kinsman, we Odinists should do everything possible to disseminate the complete truth about his life and death, and to insure that his spirit and heroic will are transmitted far and wide for a long time to come. It should be kept uppermost in our minds that the murder of John Singer left his wife Vicki without a husband and seven children without a father because he fought to maintain his civil right to self-determination.
In this regard we should note that John Singer's strong and valourous character was matched by that of Vicki Singer, who fought alongside her husband with equal fervour and constancy, and by their children who responded to the challenges of hard farm life and tremendous social and official pressures with outstanding pluck and resolve. John and Vicki Singer stood their ground and battled on to keep their family the way they wanted it to develop; they fully understood that the organic family living a natural healthy life, is the best building block for a strong and stable society.
We owe it to John Singer and to ourselves to more fully appreciate his actions and to deepen our understanding of the Aryan character he represented; we ought to explore the operational meaning of Singer's life and think seriously about him; and our lucubrations are greatly enriched by Prof. Gunther's discussion in 'Religious Attitudes of the Indo-Europeans.'
John Singer vividly expressed the general attitude to life of our folk, for he was uncowed by the threats and harassment meted out by the state, and persistently asserted his values throughout the conflict. Singer's pluck and affirmativeness - as opposed to today's all-too-prevalent conformity and resignation - were the applied form of the typical Aryan willingness to accept one's fate and then accost it as bravely and energetically as possible. This 'living life to the fullest' is at the core of the Aryan soul: "It is the spiritual strength of the Indo-European ... to feel a deep joy in destiny - in the tension between the limitation of man and the boundlessness of the Gods ... Nietzsche once called this joy amor fati. Particularly the men rich in soul amongst the Indo-European peoples feel - in the midst of the blow of destiny - that the deity has alloted them a great destiny in which they must prove themselves." (p. 31)
This "Teutonic imperturbability in the face of merciless destiny" can become in some men a "mocking defiance in the face of destiny" (p. 36); the more reserved John Singer is an example of the former, for he always kept his reason and composure, and never became frantic or rattled - although he did defiantly dare the school board to submit to the same 'psychological' tests as they required of him and his family!
The idea which motivates us Aryans is that a person has to continually test himself and do his utmost in striving for the infinite ideals; only by courageously and nobly attacking destiny can one develop himself into a strong and complete person.
"The Indo-European becomes, a complete person only through his life of tension before destiny. The Teutonic hero, superbly characterized by the Icelandic Sagas, loftily understands the fate meeting him as his destiny, remains upright in the midst of it, and thus is true to himself." (p. 35)
John Singer's admirable and forthright conduct met this criterion fully, and ably illustrated the essential vitality and dynamism of our Aryan personality. This attitude towards life is that of the young soul of a young race, described by Prof. Gunther as "the defiant religiosity of Indo-European youth which challenges destiny to test the strength of the young soul." (p. 38)
Beyond these considerations, the aim or purpose, of fearlessness, is to aid in the maintainance and improvement of the World Order, i.e. in the perpetuation of eternal, orderly evolution. Prof. Gunther describes the Aryan concept of the World Order:
"The broad vision of the Indo-European - a vision of man summoned to spiritual freedom, to theoria, or beholding - such a vision comprehends the whole world, and all divine government and all responsible human life in it, as part of a divine order." (p.47)
In this World-View, the ideal human (or worldly) society for which man is striving, is Midgard which is "the product of the harmonious ordering of human honour and the divine laws" (p. 53). The Aryan's life is devoted to attempting to up-evolve, that is to bring Order out of chaos (Utgard), and thus we Inglings are obligated and honoured to valourously meet our destiny and team up with the gods to promote evolution:
"Midgard, the universal order of life, preserves and renews itself only through the brave and the constant struggle of man and Gods against the powers of Utgard." (p. 53)
It's plain that John Singer was determined to defend his Aryan hearth and home, the vehicle of evolution, against the soul-destroying, chaos-spawning inroads of the bureaucracy, and that he succeeded in fulfilling his destiny even in death.
On page 30 in 'Gods and Myths of Northern Europe,' H. E. Ellis Davidson aptly summarizes the overall outlook and defining spirit that shone so brightly in John Singer:
"Man knew that the gods whom they served could not give them freedom from danger and calamity, and they did not demand that they should. We find in the myths no sense of bitterness at the harshness and unfairness of life, but rather a spirit of heroic resignation: Humanity is borne to trouble but courage, adventure, and the wonders of life are matters for thankfulness, to be enjoyed while life is still granted to us. The great gifts of the gods were readiness to face the world as it was, the luck that sustains men in tight places, and the opportunity to win the glory which alone can survive death."
VALHALLA
Our folk-myth, Ragnarok, signifies the endless succession of worlds that are marked by an infinitude of cataclysmic "Twilights of the Gods"; that never-ending world renewals are brought about by the struggles of brave men in Midgard, the earth space of men's actions, to forward evolution and better the worldly Order. Men like John Singer who fall while fighting this endless battle, are borne to Valhalla by Odin's Maidens, the Valkyrie, or the Chosers of the Slain.
Odin is desirous of gathering all great heroes in Asgard so there will be enough warriors in the clash with the Jotunheim Giants (the agents of chaos) at Ragnarok, the colossal battle at the end of this world and the beginning of a new and better one. The memory of the fallen heroes' exploits and their spirits live on and inspire others in Midgard to furiously battle on, and thus our myth transmits the idea that only if a person dies heroically can his deeds and spirit inspire future generations to fight for progress and evolution. It is the exceptional man, the mental hero (the genius) and the physical hero (the warrior) who embody the spirit-energy that animates the cosmos, that are the force of the universe.
John Singer was both kinds of hero in his own Individual way, and thus he was welcomed at Bifrost, the Rainbow Bridge crossing to Valhalla, by Heindall, the watchman of the gods. Now Singer roams the fields of Asgard, together with other heroes of our folk, returning at sunset to the Hall of the Heroes to drink heavily of the always-flowing mead of the goat Heidrun and to feast upon the inexhaustible meat of Shrimnir, the ever-replenishing boar. And Bragi, the poet of Asgard will patronize John Singer with epic verse and ballad, perhaps likening him to Tyr, conquerer of the Fenris Wolf, or to Tuesco, the Invincible Teutonic war-god.
And here at Midgard, we Odinists give due honour and homage to John Singer by quoting the verse in Njails Saga, so happily and robustly intoned by Gunnar Hamundarson of Hlidarend who, like Singer, was unjustly murdered by a mob of criminals, as he rose from his burial-mound to face the moon:
HAIL JOHN SINGER!
[K.L.H.]
JOHN SINGER (1/6/1931 – 1/18/1979)
At approximately 12:00 noon on Snowmoon 18, 1979, John Singer, who had waged a valiant 6-year battle with the authorities to keep his children out of the public school system, was shot in the back and killed by a police squad which ambushed him at his mailbox near Marion, Utah. Singer's death, was an act of cold-blooded murder, committed against a brave and high-spirited man who personified the ideals and principles of Odinism, for Mr. Singer exemplified the Heroic Will and Noble Loyalty to our Aryan folk-values that is the standard of our belief and comradeship.
John Singer's slaying was a heinous deed and one of the worst instances of tyrannical evil yet perpetrated in the United States, not only because of the manner in which he was put to death, but because he died trying to keep his children culture-conscious and proud by protecting them from the value-destroying state educational system. Although the establishment media has suppressed most of the facts of the Singer case, enough has become known to ascertain the importance of John Singer's life and death, and the legacy it has for Odinists. His story has far more than local significance, for he is a hero and martyr whose personality typified the best of our folk, and whose tragic conflict with the incumbent system highlighted the universal struggle our folk-group is now fighting to win.
John Singer's career was the 'richest and purest' assertion of the essential values and impulsions of our Indo-European peoples, while the foul and monstrous act of killing him was a lurid manifestation of the raw malevolence of the despotic forces our kinsmen the world over are battling.
Mr. Singer had been a Mormon for years, but later adopted more fundamentalist views; thus he was not a member of our Fellowship, but he was a genuine Aryan warrior-thinker, whose inspiring exploits and attainments should be memorialized. To prevent the life of John Singer from being quietly dropped 'down the memory hole,' we must make a record of what sort of man he was, what he did and why he did it, and why he is worthy of our admiration and emulation.
Strong, healthy character and extraordinary perseverance are what made John Singer the powerful, living force that all Inglings revere; this article is dedicated as a war song in laudation of those inherited traits and qualities that were the vital stuff of this 20th century hero. It will be seen that Singer was slain because he was an exceptional man whom the government feared and hated, and because he had the mettle to stand firm and hold out against all odds. Truly, John Singer was a man of Spirit and Will, whose inborn sense of Honour and Integrity enabled him to audaciously advance what he felt in his soul and to boldly defend his family in a tragically one-sided battle without ever despairing or compromising.
Singer's was an Affirmative Life in the most profound sense of the term, for he succeeded, in making contact with the core of his race-soul, discovering, and then incorporating the eternal folk-consciousness he found there, and in driving himself to put his inner truths into effect despite the unremitting opposition he faced. He epitomized the Independent Spirit that we Aryans have always held to be a supreme human value, and he possessed that 'generous enthusiasm' which has marked our young, mighty and still-evolving folk. His whole being, his living personality, and not his death, should be the main focus of our attention, for the quality-in-action and 'religious dynamism' of John Singer provide an incalculably valuable inspiration and rational lesson to us when we are in critical need of being infused with fighting energy and heartened by the flaming ardour of another Ingling whose 'courage of the commonplace' can rouse the valour and daring inbred into our folk.
His warrior nature made him the antithesis of what the ruling system wants the average man to be, for the present triumvirate of international culture-distorters, bankers and mobsters prefers docile, submissive underlings to men like John Singer who think like Odin and fight like Thor. This is the basic reason why Singer was assassinated; his brother, also from Utah, alluded to the true motive behind the slaying when delivering the funeral address: "Twelve days after his birthday he was felled by an assassin's bullet. My brother, in my opinion, was murdered." (Ass. Press, 1/23/79)
Since Odinists have the duty and privilege of asserting, forwarding and promoting our inborn folk-values, and of doing everything possible to strengthen and improve our folk group, we should, on behalf of John
Singer, perform the function of Hugin and Munin, Odin's ravens of Thought and Memory, and reflect at length about the meaning of Singer's life and commit our conclusions to paper as a memorial to his accomplishments. In so doing, we shall note the complete contrast between John Singer's honesty and bravery and the establishment's cowardice and wickedness which it so blatantly displayed before, during and after his murder.
In particular, our chronology of John Singer will reveal that he was an outstanding representative of the unique Aryan racial qualities surveyed by Professor H. K. Gunther in 'Religious Attitudes of the Indo-Europeans,' and a man of whom it can be said that 'The Force was strong in him.'
THE LIFE OF JOHN SINGER
John Singer was born in Brooklyn, New York, on Snowmoon 6, 1931; the Singer family moved to Germany shortly thereafter but returned to the United States in 1948 and settled in Marion, Utah, a small community about 30 miles east of Salt Lake City, where he established his farm and worked as a television repairman for the next 30 years.
Thus Singer was an archetypical Aryan yeoman farmer, a man who had the initiative, energy and independent will to become self-employed and self-sufficient, always productive and never asking anything from society. Such men and their attitudes are the foundation of our Aryan society and polity, for the Indo-European urge to improvement and democratic form of government are derived from our inherited individualism and Faustian will to betterment.
Later John Singer married, and he and his wife, Vicki, had seven children who now range from 13 to 2 years of age. The Singers obviously understood their duty to perpetuate their racial stock, and fulfilled this obligation by having a large family; it is to both the Singers' credit that they were willing to put forth the effort and to make the sacrifices necessary to procreate our folk group, and their example is a healthy and vigorous defiance of the system's campaign to reduce our fertility to below-replacement levels.
Prof. Gunther summarized the Aryan spiritual inclination that promotes genetic purity and fecundity which Singer practiced in real life: "... Indo-European religiosity is always directly linked with the conviction of the value of birth and pride in heredity, and that man has an unalterable hereditary nature and an inborn nobility which it is his duty to society to maintain." (p. 17)
Beyond this, John Singer apparently recognized, either instinctively or consciously, that the natural order, i.e. the process of genetic upgrading, called Evolution, required him to reproduce his own kind so that his kin group would continue to flourish and to expand. These more profound factors in Singer's motivations were discussed by Prof. Gunther: "Family, nation and state, worship and law, the seasons of the year and the festivals ... the customs and spiritual life, farmland, house and farm; all were related in a world order, and in this order man lived as a member of his race, which was perpetuated permanently in ordered procreation .... Thus within the all-embracing world order, and a requirement of the world order - a direct assertion of the Indo-European religious heart."
Self-reliant, self-trusting Indo-Europeans who guarantee that their traits will be well-represented in the gene pool by having disciplined and selective procreation plays a divine role for the preservation of racial inheritance, the God-given racial heritage. Thus care of the race is both a consequence many offspring are the absolute opposite of the 'ideal' type of drone the global financial clique desires, and thus John Singer already had accumulated two strikes against himself in the eyes of the system.
FAMILY LIFE
As more children came along, the Singers took the time and effort to build their character and instill true and wholesome values in them; the family worked the farm together, and each child was carefully taught manual skills and good work habits in addition to being inculcated with Aryan principles of personal and family pride, self-discipline, and a biodynamic outlook on life. The children's upbringing taught them how to work hard, how to control themselves, and how the world really functions; personal talents and abilities were developed and cultivated too; for example, one son designed and built a small log cabin; one of the girl's artistic bent was encouraged.
Meanwhile, the local school system had finally succumbed to the general trend of educational deterioration; and, along with 'permissive structuring,' had begun to indoctrinate young students with the usual soul-destroying, human-centered (as opposed to cosmo-dynamic) and equalitarian falsities that are being used to ruin our young kinfolk. An alert and responsible parent, John Singer quickly recognized the harm being done to his children, and, on Lenting 29, 1973, he and Vicki withdrew their youngsters from the local elementary school and commenced home instruction.
Mrs. J. S. Wyatt, an acquaintance of the Singers, in her later account of the family quoted John Singer as he gave his reasons for keeping his children out of the public school: "Our children are our heritage; they
are our inheritance. We will be judged according to how they turn out. We no longer trust the public school system. We want the children to be self-reliant, capable people. We have the right to keep them and teach them at home."
Specifically, Singer acted to prevent his children from being brain-polluted and mentally debilitated by what he termed 'immorality'. - He complained that schools would corrupt his children by exposing them to drugs, homosexuality and teachings of racial equality" (Ass. Press, 3/29/79). UPI provided this, more detailed information: Among things to which he objected was the depiction of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in a school text next to a picture of George Washington. "You have put him next to George Washington, making him an equal. He is not." John Singer, unlike many parents, took an interest in his children's schooling and mental development, and when confronted with the issue of racial equality, bluntly told the truth and took immediate and concrete steps to protect his children.
Upon pulling his kids out of South Elementary School, Singer erected a one-room schoolhouse on his farm and applied for state certification as a private academy; although official approval was evidently granted some time later, local authorities never did acknowledge its propriety. It was then that the long campaign of official harassment and persecution began, for the school board's first response was to pressure the Singers into complying with certain 'guidelines' regarding course content. Part of the reason for the local Board's insistance was that since 1973 it had been receiving money from HEW which demanded that local schools comply with its dictates to teach certain subject matters - notably equalitarian and anti-Aryan doctrines - to all students or suffer penalties and loss of funds. Having surrendered its autonomy to the central government, the local school district had to act as HEW's instrument and began to coerce the Singers.
Mrs. Wyatt reported that "the school district insisted that the Singers teach the same subjects ... with the same textbooks and daily hours." Testing and counselling by public school officials was also a condition laid down by the Board which the Singers said defeated the very reason why the children were withdrawn from public school in the first place. Singer was not fooled this phony compromise, and responded by refusing to misteach his children or to return them to the public school.
The next official step, was to launch a legal attack, primarily under the state Compulsory Attendance Law; State Education Supervisor W. D. Talbot directed his underling, V. D. Edrinton to initiate court action, despite the fact that Singer’s certification for academy status was pending. And so began the heavy legal barrage which, coupled with other official and unofficial pressure and intimidation, put John Singer's character to the test for the following 3 years. Here we should note that throughout his ordeal, John Singer remained steadfast, resolute and unbowed, exhibiting what Prof. Gunther calls "the proud belief in inflexible and unyielding courage before destiny" that defines the average Indo-European.
THE COURTS
On Midyear 7, 1977 the legal battle began in earnest; the Singers were sentenced to jail terms and fines, tests, interviews of the children with incredible questions such as 'What would you do if they took your father and mother away?'
Although verification for their private academy was received, the local judge, Bachman, kept insisting on carrying out the sentences. A mental test, performed by a Dr. Cline, had the psychologist admit that Mrs. Singer was 'of sound mind, mentally competent and is overall a remarkably resourceful and adequate woman.' About John Singer, Dr. Cline stated that he was 'in the top 8 percent of those taking the test, that he was tough, competent, resourceful, sometimes stubborn, shrewd and a self-made man.' The doctor found both Singers 'above average in intellect, mental and emotional stability and soundness, and have put together a remarkably cohesive and happy family.'
The life of John Singer truly is exemplified by Dr. Gunther on p. 38 of 'Religious Attitudes': "For the Indo-Europeans, religiosity showed itself as the will which revealed in the midst of destiny, before the friendly Gods, the fitness of the true-natured man who thus became all the more upright and god-filled the more shattering were the blows of destiny. In particular, the best men and the truest natured are expected by the Gods to prove themselves on the anvil of destiny."
Despite the foul character assassination, Singer began to win some popular support; This favourable sentiment was reflected in a frank and plainly-worded editorial in the Park Record, Park City, Utah: "Mr. Singer is a disturbance to many consciences. He is willing to die to protect his children from influences he believes to be harmful. To our utter dismay, many of the wrongs to which he objects have been allowed to get a hold in
our schools by the very ones who are trying to condemn him, not because perhaps they believe they are harmless to the children, but because they do not have as much backbone as Mr. Singer in standing up for what they believe to be right."
It's evident that John Singer and the life-values which he so steadfastly championed were slowly winning recognition, and that a following of sorts was building up in the Marion region.
THE VALKYRIE CHOSE JOHN SINGER
To illustrate to which lengths HEW officials will go to persecute dissenters to their pernicious school curriculum, it was reported that the authorities publicly discussed committing violence against the Singers during the summer of 1978: "Local law enforcement agencies have said publicly that they plan to use 'any and all means' to get the Singers out of their home ... including evacuation of the entire area and a frontal assault; Singer, meanwhile, has promised to resist." Note that the government now planned to invade Singer's homestead, and was contemplating using violence.
Singer himself, however, never intended to inflict physical injury to anyone, for at his funeral, Harold Singer declared that 'his brother repeatedly told him he would never fire the first shot in any confrontation with police.' (AP, 1/23/79)
The final stage of the tragedy began in the first week of Snowmoon, as law officers occupied a farmhouse near the Singer property and put Singer under surveillance; he was observed for 18 days prior to being gunned down, and police noted that he went to his mailbox every day about noon. The nature and extent of this stake-out indicate that the system had carefully planned its moves against Singer, and had formulated its actions long in advance of the actual crime.
Having had two and a half weeks in which to build up their courage and arm themselves to the teeth with full riot gear, on Thor's Day, Snowmoon 18, at about 12:00 noon, a party of 8-12 officers from the local sherrif's office, the State Highway Patrol, and the state liquor law enforcement department surprised John Singer near his mail box, and shot him to death with shotgun blasts through the back. Singer's body was loaded into a pickup truck and taken to Salt Lake City where he was pronounced dead at approximately 12:30 p.m. Since pickup trucks are not ordinarily used by the police, the fact that the raiding party had such a vehicle at the scene shows that the authorities anticipated it would be used to transport Singer's body.
Thus was this Aryan hero wantonly murdered in cold blood; friends and relatives who were finally allowed to view the body stated that he had been shot in the back at close range and that the charge had penetrated his body completely and exited through the abdomen. Afterwards officials claimed that Singer drew a pistol on the police, but since a handgun can be aimed and fired much more rapidly than a shotgun, and since a reasonable man like John Singer would not attempt to draw if he were covered by several persons, it's clear that he did not pull his gun (for if he had, he would have gotten off the first shot) and that he did not resist the police, who safely approached their victim and then shot him in the back while others engaged him in conversation.
Although the official version of Singer's death was given heavy publicity, his brother's statement, the truth, was submerged or
completely edited out. "My brother would never shoot first; they [the lawmen in the shooting party] knew that; they came to kill," said Harold Singer (Spotlight Feb 19).
Vicki Singer was arrested immediately after the murder and incarcerated in Salt Lake City; the children were taken into state custody as the authorities occupied Singer's home.
The authorities lied to Mrs. Singer, telling her that her husband had merely 'been hurt,' and it was not until 7:00 that evening that she was handed a curt announcement stating that John Singer was dead. During the autopsy, as Harold Singer was later informed, John's brain was removed, apparently without permission of his surviving relatives; this illegal act, obviously planned in advance, was done to create the impression that Singer was abnormal, or a 'clinical case' and was another step in the 'mentally ill' picture the authorities had tried to paint.
One unlawful act followed another as the authorities refused to let Singer's mother, Charlotte, and his personal physician view his body. The cover-up was extended when a press conference announced immediately after the slaying, was cancelled and the county coroner, several hours later released a one line statement saying only that Singer had died of gunshot wounds. Already the system was attempting to evade responsibility for the crime it had just committed, but Singer's family and their supporters began to take action to prevent the perpetrators of the atrocity from evading guilt.
THE AFTERMATH
As expected, initial media reports were to the effect that Singer was shot in the side and leq (but such wounds are not likely to be fatal) as he 'pulled a loaded gun' on the arresting officers. These transparent falsehoods failed to halt the storm of angry protests that swept Utah and the nation. No one was fooled by such shabby lies, and on the night of the 18th, a large interstate highway sign in Salt Lake City was painted in huge red letters reading "John Singer was murdered" (AP, 1/20/79). In the first hours after his assassination Singer's shocked and grief-stricken mother summoned the composure to tell the truth to the press - 'He wanted to raise his children decent, and for that he had to lose his life,' said 78-year old Charlotte Singer, weeping during the telephone interview, 'they murdered him in cold blood.' (AP, 1/20/79)
Govenor Matheson's secretary admitted the day after that more than two dozen phone calls protesting the shooting had been received; hundreds more were logged in the following days. At that time Mrs. Bonnie Lee, a housewife, announced that she had organized 'Concerned Citizens for the Singer Family,' and that the organization was demanding a grand jury investigation into the killing. Mrs. Lee reported receiving 125 phone calls supporting the Singers after announcing her action on TV.
The official cover-up intensified as politicians and functionaries became worried at the strong public reaction. The identities and exact number of officers involved in the slaying were 'not available.' A Juvenile Court judge issued an order within hours of the murder prohibiting the press from identifying the Singer children by name, disclosing their whereabouts, or interviewing them, saying 'I think they have suffered enough as it is' (AP, 1/20/79). This hypocritical statement was to camouflage the facts, and the order was not issued for the sake of the children but to protect the bloodstained system. If the general public were allowed to see the Singer youngsters and to identify with them, it would become more sympathetic and thus enraged at the government for its crime.
Three other 'official' actions were forthcoming to dampen popular resentment, as federal and state officeholders moved to put over a combination whitewash-compromise scheme. On Snowmoon 21, Gov. Matheson returned from out of state (although he earlier had taken full command-of the Singer case he absented himself on the day of the raid) and held a press conference at which he said that he was satisfied the policemen's conduct was 'professional'. In tandem with this whitewash was Utah Attorney General, Robert Hansen's 'action on the case'-ploy in which he announced that he had assigned two deputies to 'study' the matter. A similar line was followed by the FBI when an agent who requested (and got) anonymity from the media revealed that the Bureau was going to investigate the Singer killing on the basis of a civil rights complaint (AP, 1/22/79).
These strategems failed, however, to assauge the public, and on Snowmoon 22, over 300 people attended John Singer's funeral where they heard his brother Harold deliver a long eulogy in which he recounted the entire case and declared that his brother was deliberately assassinated. A few days later Vicki Singer was freed from jail and the children released from custody; a closed hearing was conducted, and a sort of compromise effected underwhich two unnamed teachers of a private school will supervise the children's home education. Clearly, the frightened Establishment was attempting to appear 'just and reasonable' in order to counteract the impact its atrocity had had on the local citizenry.
But this gambit didn't work either, and within a month of the shooting, a formal organization, 'Concerned Citizens for John Singer Investigation' was founded, and petitions demanding a grand jury probe of the slaying were being circulated in Utah. To complement the official cover-up, a media blackout was imposed in the state, and within three or four days the story had disappeared from the newspapers and broadcast news reports; Singer's own neighbours and relatives learned no more than those hundreds of miles distant, since local reports carried little more than the sketchy information sent out on the wire services.
The reports appearing elsewhere were generally backpaged and filled with distortions and libels. The chief smear device employed was to describe Singer as a polygamist. In four stories our local liepaper printed, the term was used in every headline, viz. 'Utah Polygamist Fulfills Vows, Dies by Police Blast;' 'Grand Jury Investigation Urged in Police Shooting of Polygamist;' 'Officers 'Professional' In Polygamist Shooting;' '300 Gather for Funeral of Polygamist.'
John Singer was not a polygamist; but the word was used to depict Singer as aberrant, abnormal, socially deviant and wrongfully unconventional, so that the average reader would not be likely to identify, and consequently sympathize, with him. In connection with the polygamist libel, outright lies were printed, e.g. the first UPI story on 1/19/79 stated 'Singer left two wives. He had three children by his first wife, Shirley, and seven children by his second wife, Vicki. The truth is that Shirley Black, who is a relative of Vicki Singer, had lived at the farm for some time with her three children whose natural father is Dean Black. John Singer had never been married to any other woman than Vicki. — No correction of these falsehoods has yet appeared.
In this insidious manner the ideas and values John Singer represented were denigrated, or at least, cast in an unfavourable light. This ad hominem technique is an old standby used to avoid discussing the substance of an enemy's position or belief, and is a variant of the 'guilt by association' ruse. The establishment's objective was to make Singer appear a kook or lunatic, and thus to isolate him from any potential supporters and sympathizers. It's strange that the ruling system did all it could to portray polygamy when alledgedly practiced by Singer as being improper while it goes all out to support and encourage the polygamy of millions of non-Aryan males by supporting their various children through 'Aid to Dependent Children' welfare give-away!
Nationally, the Singer killing received virtually no coverage; the policy was, of course, to kill the story as quickly as possible so that the public would forget John Singer instead of catching on to the totalitarian nature of our government agencies, and to the fact that we are no longer able to decide how our children should be brought up, nor to which degree we are compelled to conform with the demands of such agencies.
Because John Singer was a brave, energetic and upstanding kinsman, we Odinists should do everything possible to disseminate the complete truth about his life and death, and to insure that his spirit and heroic will are transmitted far and wide for a long time to come. It should be kept uppermost in our minds that the murder of John Singer left his wife Vicki without a husband and seven children without a father because he fought to maintain his civil right to self-determination.
In this regard we should note that John Singer's strong and valourous character was matched by that of Vicki Singer, who fought alongside her husband with equal fervour and constancy, and by their children who responded to the challenges of hard farm life and tremendous social and official pressures with outstanding pluck and resolve. John and Vicki Singer stood their ground and battled on to keep their family the way they wanted it to develop; they fully understood that the organic family living a natural healthy life, is the best building block for a strong and stable society.
We owe it to John Singer and to ourselves to more fully appreciate his actions and to deepen our understanding of the Aryan character he represented; we ought to explore the operational meaning of Singer's life and think seriously about him; and our lucubrations are greatly enriched by Prof. Gunther's discussion in 'Religious Attitudes of the Indo-Europeans.'
John Singer vividly expressed the general attitude to life of our folk, for he was uncowed by the threats and harassment meted out by the state, and persistently asserted his values throughout the conflict. Singer's pluck and affirmativeness - as opposed to today's all-too-prevalent conformity and resignation - were the applied form of the typical Aryan willingness to accept one's fate and then accost it as bravely and energetically as possible. This 'living life to the fullest' is at the core of the Aryan soul: "It is the spiritual strength of the Indo-European ... to feel a deep joy in destiny - in the tension between the limitation of man and the boundlessness of the Gods ... Nietzsche once called this joy amor fati. Particularly the men rich in soul amongst the Indo-European peoples feel - in the midst of the blow of destiny - that the deity has alloted them a great destiny in which they must prove themselves." (p. 31)
This "Teutonic imperturbability in the face of merciless destiny" can become in some men a "mocking defiance in the face of destiny" (p. 36); the more reserved John Singer is an example of the former, for he always kept his reason and composure, and never became frantic or rattled - although he did defiantly dare the school board to submit to the same 'psychological' tests as they required of him and his family!
The idea which motivates us Aryans is that a person has to continually test himself and do his utmost in striving for the infinite ideals; only by courageously and nobly attacking destiny can one develop himself into a strong and complete person.
"The Indo-European becomes, a complete person only through his life of tension before destiny. The Teutonic hero, superbly characterized by the Icelandic Sagas, loftily understands the fate meeting him as his destiny, remains upright in the midst of it, and thus is true to himself." (p. 35)
John Singer's admirable and forthright conduct met this criterion fully, and ably illustrated the essential vitality and dynamism of our Aryan personality. This attitude towards life is that of the young soul of a young race, described by Prof. Gunther as "the defiant religiosity of Indo-European youth which challenges destiny to test the strength of the young soul." (p. 38)
Beyond these considerations, the aim or purpose, of fearlessness, is to aid in the maintainance and improvement of the World Order, i.e. in the perpetuation of eternal, orderly evolution. Prof. Gunther describes the Aryan concept of the World Order:
"The broad vision of the Indo-European - a vision of man summoned to spiritual freedom, to theoria, or beholding - such a vision comprehends the whole world, and all divine government and all responsible human life in it, as part of a divine order." (p.47)
In this World-View, the ideal human (or worldly) society for which man is striving, is Midgard which is "the product of the harmonious ordering of human honour and the divine laws" (p. 53). The Aryan's life is devoted to attempting to up-evolve, that is to bring Order out of chaos (Utgard), and thus we Inglings are obligated and honoured to valourously meet our destiny and team up with the gods to promote evolution:
"Midgard, the universal order of life, preserves and renews itself only through the brave and the constant struggle of man and Gods against the powers of Utgard." (p. 53)
It's plain that John Singer was determined to defend his Aryan hearth and home, the vehicle of evolution, against the soul-destroying, chaos-spawning inroads of the bureaucracy, and that he succeeded in fulfilling his destiny even in death.
On page 30 in 'Gods and Myths of Northern Europe,' H. E. Ellis Davidson aptly summarizes the overall outlook and defining spirit that shone so brightly in John Singer:
"Man knew that the gods whom they served could not give them freedom from danger and calamity, and they did not demand that they should. We find in the myths no sense of bitterness at the harshness and unfairness of life, but rather a spirit of heroic resignation: Humanity is borne to trouble but courage, adventure, and the wonders of life are matters for thankfulness, to be enjoyed while life is still granted to us. The great gifts of the gods were readiness to face the world as it was, the luck that sustains men in tight places, and the opportunity to win the glory which alone can survive death."
VALHALLA
Our folk-myth, Ragnarok, signifies the endless succession of worlds that are marked by an infinitude of cataclysmic "Twilights of the Gods"; that never-ending world renewals are brought about by the struggles of brave men in Midgard, the earth space of men's actions, to forward evolution and better the worldly Order. Men like John Singer who fall while fighting this endless battle, are borne to Valhalla by Odin's Maidens, the Valkyrie, or the Chosers of the Slain.
Odin is desirous of gathering all great heroes in Asgard so there will be enough warriors in the clash with the Jotunheim Giants (the agents of chaos) at Ragnarok, the colossal battle at the end of this world and the beginning of a new and better one. The memory of the fallen heroes' exploits and their spirits live on and inspire others in Midgard to furiously battle on, and thus our myth transmits the idea that only if a person dies heroically can his deeds and spirit inspire future generations to fight for progress and evolution. It is the exceptional man, the mental hero (the genius) and the physical hero (the warrior) who embody the spirit-energy that animates the cosmos, that are the force of the universe.
John Singer was both kinds of hero in his own Individual way, and thus he was welcomed at Bifrost, the Rainbow Bridge crossing to Valhalla, by Heindall, the watchman of the gods. Now Singer roams the fields of Asgard, together with other heroes of our folk, returning at sunset to the Hall of the Heroes to drink heavily of the always-flowing mead of the goat Heidrun and to feast upon the inexhaustible meat of Shrimnir, the ever-replenishing boar. And Bragi, the poet of Asgard will patronize John Singer with epic verse and ballad, perhaps likening him to Tyr, conquerer of the Fenris Wolf, or to Tuesco, the Invincible Teutonic war-god.
And here at Midgard, we Odinists give due honour and homage to John Singer by quoting the verse in Njails Saga, so happily and robustly intoned by Gunnar Hamundarson of Hlidarend who, like Singer, was unjustly murdered by a mob of criminals, as he rose from his burial-mound to face the moon:
"Hogni's generous father
Rich in daring exploits,
Who so lavishly gave battle,
Distributing wounds gladly,
Claims that in his helmet,
Towering like an oak-tree
In the forest of battle,
He would rather die than yield,
Much rather die than yield."
Rich in daring exploits,
Who so lavishly gave battle,
Distributing wounds gladly,
Claims that in his helmet,
Towering like an oak-tree
In the forest of battle,
He would rather die than yield,
Much rather die than yield."
HAIL JOHN SINGER!
[K.L.H.]
