Editing Jack Parsons (section)

===Politics===
{{quote box|width=246px|bgcolor=lightblue|align=right|quote=[Parsons] had witnessed the blinding overnight successes achieved by the government-by-terror [[totalitarianism]] of [[Stalinism|Stalinist]] Russia and [[Nazi Germany]]. He had the foresight to see that [the United States of] America, once armed with the new powers of total destruction and surveillance that were sure to follow the swelling flood of new technologies, had the potential to become even more repressive unless its founding principles of individual liberty were religiously preserved and its leaders held accountable to them.
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Two of the keys to redressing the balance were the freedom of women and an end to the state control of individual sexual expression. He knew that these potent forces, embodied as they are in a majority of the world's population, had the power, once unleashed, to change the world.|source= —[[William Breeze]] (Hymenaeus Beta), current Frater Superior of Ordo Templi Orientis{{sfn|Beta|2008|p=xi}} }}

From early on in his career, Parsons took an interest in socialism and communism,{{sfn|Beta|2008|p = ix}} views that he shared with his friend [[Frank Malina]].{{sfn|Pendle|2005|pp = 90–93}} Under the influence of another friend, Sidney Weinbaum, the two joined a communist group in the late 1930s, with Parsons reading [[Marxism|Marxist]] literature, but he remained unconvinced and refused to join the American Communist Party.{{sfnm|1a1 = Pendle|1y = 2005|1pp = 120–123}} Malina asserted that this was because Parsons was a "political romantic", whose attitude was more anti-authoritarian than anti-capitalist.{{sfn|Pendle|2005|p = 122}} Parsons later became critical of the [[Marxism–Leninism|Marxist–Leninist]] government of the [[Soviet Union]] led by [[Joseph Stalin]], sarcastically commenting that

{{blockquote|The [[dictatorship of the proletariat]] is merely temporary — the state will eventually wither away like a snark hunter, leaving us all free as birds. Meanwhile, it may be necessary to kill, torture and imprison a few million people, but whose fault is it if they get in the way of progress?{{sfn|Parsons|2008|p = 11}}}}

During the era of [[McCarthyism]] and the Second Red Scare in the early 1950s, Parsons was questioned regarding his former links to the communist movement, by which time he denied any connection to it, instead describing himself as "an individualist" who was both anti-communist and anti-fascist.{{sfn|Pendle|2005|p = 293}} In reaction to the McCarthyite [[red-baiting]] of scientists, he expressed disdain that

{{blockquote|[s]cience, that was going to save the world in [[H. G. Wells]]' time is regimented, straight-jacked, [and] scared shitless, its universal language diminished to one word, security.{{sfn|Pendle|2005|p=290}}}}

Parsons was politically influenced by Thelema, which holds to the ethical code of "[[Do what thou wilt]]". In his essay, "Freedom is a Lonely Star", Parsons equated this principle to the libertarian views of a number of the [[Founding Fathers of the United States]]. By his own time, he wrote, these values "sold out by America, and for that reason the heart of America is sick and the soul of America is dead."{{sfn|Parsons|2008|p = 4}} He proceeded to criticize many aspects of contemporary U.S. society, particularly the police force ("[t]he police mind is usually of a sadistic and homicidal trend") and note they carried out the "ruthless punishment of symbolic scapegoats" such as African-Americans, prostitutes, alcoholics, homeless people and sociopolitical radicals, under the pretense of a country that upheld "liberty and justice for all."{{sfn|Parsons|2008|p = 9}}

To bring about a freer future, Parsons believed in [[Sexual revolution|liberalizing attitudes to sexual morality]] stating that, in his belief, the publication of the [[Kinsey Reports]] and development of the [[Psychonautics|psychonautical]] sciences had as significant an influence on Western society as the creation of the [[atomic bomb]] and the development of [[nuclear physics]]. He believed that in the future the restrictions on sexual morality within society should be abolished in order to bring about greater freedom and individuality. Parsons concluded that

{{blockquote|the liberty of the individual is the foundation of civilization. No true civilization is possible without this liberty and no state, national or international, is stable in its absence. The proper relation between individual liberty on the one hand and social responsibility on the other is the balance which will assure a stable society. The only other road to social equilibrium demands the total annihilation of individuality. There is not further evasion of nature's immemorial ultimatum: change or perish but the choice of change is ours.{{sfn|Parsons|2008|p = 13}}}}

[[Jack Cashill]], American studies professor at [[Purdue University]], argues that "Although his literary career never got much beyond pamphleteering and an untitled anti-war, anti-capitalist manuscript", Parsons played a significant role—greater than that of [[Church of Satan]] founder [[Anton LaVey]]—in shaping the Californian counterculture of the 1960s and beyond through his influence on contemporaries such as Hubbard and Heinlein.{{sfn|Cashill|2007|pp = 43–46}} [[Hugh Urban]], religious studies professor at [[Ohio State University]], cites Parsons' Witchcraft group as precipitating the [[Modern paganism|neopagan]] revival of the 1950s.{{sfn|Urban|2006|pp = 136–137}}<ref>{{cite web|title=Hugh Urban|url=https://comparativestudies.osu.edu/people/urban.41|website=comparativestudies.osu.edu|publisher=[[Ohio State University]]|access-date=January 1, 2015|date=December 14, 2011}}</ref>

[[Robert Anton Wilson]], a cult writer and occultist known for his works of nonfiction and science fiction, described Parsons' political writings as exemplifying an "ultra-individualist" who exhibited a "genuine sympathy for working people", strongly empathized with [[feminism]] and held an antipathy toward [[patriarchy]] comparable to that of [[John Stuart Mill]]. Wilson argued in this context that Parsons was an influence on the [[Libertarianism in the United States|American libertarian]] and [[Anarchism in the United States|anarchist]] movements of the 20th century.{{sfn|Wilson|2004|pp = vii–x}}

Parsons was also supportive of the creation of the State of Israel. He made plans to emigrate there when his military security clearance was revoked.{{sfn|Beta|2008|p = ix}}