Max Stirner and Ethics

Max Stirner seems to have espoused that the egoist is beyond ethics, beyond descriptive adjectives or abstractions like good or bad, or praiseworthy or blameworthy. He proclaimed that labels and categories distort, misrepresent and do not clearly and concisely capture the essence of the agent, the individual, either morally or actually. Labels and abstractions distort and enslave, not tell the truth about the egoist or allow him to remain free to be himself.

Stirner has a point but he is more wrong than right here. I like his egoism--and he may be the source of existential claims that the authentic existent is be is beyond and transcends the application of ethical labels to his character and actions.

God and spirit, love, good, beauty, liberty and truth exist. Humans are born evil, run in evil crowds, live and die in a corrupt social arrangements, in a fallen world ruled by Satan and Lera. For humans to have a chance at redemption and salvation, they must be ethical creatures in line with God, so that the decent, recessive traits of their constitutions can be trained and habituated to prefer individual-living to group-living, to prefer God to Lucifer, to favor Good Spirits over the worship of Evil Spirits, to chase after spiritual and moral goodness while rejecting spiritual and ethical wickedness, pursue the beautiful and uplifting over the ugly and sordid, to elect to live freely, renouncing a life of slavery, and embracing truth and reality over falsehood and morality.

The Dark Powers exist. They will prevail and win the soul of nearly every human in any generation without God-sponsored and God-driven moral upbringing for the young.

Absolute, certain knowledge is rare and mostly unattainable, but very near absolute, certain knowledge is available to wise human perception, reception, interpretation and right reasoning. Ethical concepts and ethical descriptive adjectives are substantially truthful, meaningful, accurate and applicable to people, words, actions and thoughts. The judging of the actions of others and oneself is of enormous importance and value if moral standards are to be instilled, set and maintained against the natural, perpetual rebellion of the savage human heart.

I applaud Stirner for his egoism, and I love the existentialist no-compromise approach to inviting in truth, authenticity and liberty into the agent's life, regardless if the price paid, but they are mistaken in rejecting rational characterization of what constitutes moral behavior and moral values. Ethics come from God as the Ten Commandments and other divine instructions handed down, and no human soul, no human enterprise and no ideology is outside of being given ethical appellation.