This essay is also available as a podcast on anchor.fm and other platforms.
This will be a shorter and somewhat atypical post because I’ll be writing here about the blog and podcast themselves and my plans for them for next year.
First a bit of background. I started writing down my thoughts about religion, philosophy, and Satanism in early November of 2018, just as a way of organizing my thoughts and of being more systematic in the way I approached research into religion and the philosophy of religion. I quickly made some interesting discoveries regarding the contents of the Bible that I hadn’t seen elsewhere, and also realized that I had a unique perspective that might be valuable, interesting, or at least entertaining for those interested in those topics. So, without having anything resembling a plan, I purchased a domain and a hosting plan and started uploading.
I wrote huge amounts of content over those first few months and decided on weekly posts, and decided to stick to that schedule once I had run through all of my initial ideas. There was a two week block early on where I ran out of old content and wasn’t quite sure what to do next and so didn’t post anything, but I got back on track and, other than that gap, I’ve published something every week, for what now amounts to a full year, counting from November 17th, 2018, which was the date on which I published my first essay, “Six Days of Creation and the Sabbath.” I’d estimate the total word count at about 150,000, or about the length of two mid-length novels. Not that every single post or episode has been a winner, but given their overall depth, I think that that’s a remarkable accomplishment, and I’m quite proud of it.
And speaking of posts that haven’t been winners, In July of this year I posted an essay entitled “Satanism and Strategic Thinking,” and that’s by far the piece that I’ve been the least happy with. While I still think it has some useful material, I made a few critical mistakes with that one. First of all, at the time, I was working extra hours at one of my two day jobs, and so had a work schedule that totaled about 60 hours per week, far too much for me to be able to write essays that were up to my usual standards. I should have accepted that fact and simply not published anything, or maybe just one essay, over those three weeks, but I choose sticking to the schedule over producing quality content. I think that the other two essays from that time period turned out much better, but those were already largely completed when I started that work schedule. But for “Satanism and Strategic Thinking”, I had only a couple of weeks with a very limited number of hours to do research into a subject in which I had no prior expertise, and for which I mainly used only a single source.
One of the primary problems with the essay is that it conflates game theory in particular with strategic thinking in general. Game theory is certainly a very useful field of study and can be particularly informative in the process of strategic planning, but it is not, itself, strategy. Beyond that, there isn’t anything in the essay that’s outright inaccurate, but it’s still far from my best work and suffers from a general lack of focus and insight. I’m not looking forward to doing the podcast episode for that essay, because it’ll mean confronting work that I’m not especially proud of. By way of comparison, while my earlier writings were very rough around the edges and often suffered from obscure writing and even mechanical problems, I’m still proud of them because I think I was doing good work in the context of where I was at at the time, just starting the project and not being entirely clear on my own ideas. But by the time I got to “Satanism and Strategic Thinking,” I simply knew better but failed to implement my best judgement. At the same time, doing that reading as a podcast will give me the opportunity to clear some things up.
But that’s not what I’ll be doing here. I’ve returned to my study of strategy, this time focusing on a much broader range of works, including The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides and On War by Clausewitz, and that latter work is an absolute treasure trove for the strategically-minded Satanist; but I have much more research to do before I’ll feel confident writing on the matter directly. There are several other resources I intend to look in to: Jomini, Sun Tzu, and Machiavelli being some of the obvious places for me to turn to next. I will, however, be taking some of the lessons I’ve learned and using them to develop a strategic plan for the long-term future of the Satanist Reads the Bible project. This particular approach to strategic planning is largely based on the work of business strategists Henry Mintzberg, Michael Porter, and Stanley Ridgley.
- Mission
I’ve got my tagline, “Exploring the Bible, Christianity, and other religions and their sacred texts through the lens of Satanism in order to reinvent religion for myself,” which is posted prominently on the blog and which I’ve included in the introduction to every one of my podcast episodes (or at least almost all), but that only describes what I’m doing already. I need a mission statement oriented towards the future and my aspirations for this project.
The mission of the Satanist Reads the Bible project is to become an aggressive force and a respected voice in contemporary philosophy and cultural criticism.
Well, it’s a start, and not a bad one, although I’d like some more clarity on what exactly that means. This is an area where it’s very tempting to let the perfect be the enemy of the good and not put something down until I’m really, really sure of it. Getting this right means asking myself: What is it, exactly, that I want from this whole thing? And that’s a hard question to answer because I live a lot of my life just pursuing my interests and letting them take me where they will. I’m not great at long-term thinking. But I also think I’d regret it if I didn’t take all of the work that I’ve put into this project so far and try to do something with it beyond just having fun researching and writing.
- Objectives
Here I can get a little more into the specifics. At this point, I’m really only thinking ahead through 2020. Eventually, I’d like a 5-year plan mapped out with some really ambitious goals. This is far too vague to be described in terms of objectives, but within five years, I’d like to be doing this project on the level of some of my internet philosophy heroes like ContraPoints and Philosophy Tube, with in-depth pieces featuring elaborate production that really contribute to the zeitgeist of contemporary philosophy, and a broad enough patron base to create a significant revenue stream.
When coming up with goals, I like the SMART system: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-based. I’ll need more objectives for this in the long run, but here’s the big one for the near-future:
500 listeners and 50 patrons by 2021
Specific? Certainly. Measurable? Easily. Achievable and realistic? It’s a growth of a full order of magnitude, so it’s certainly ambitious, but what fun would it be otherwise? I believe in what I’m doing and I think that my work warrants a larger audience, so I don’t think that this is at all out of reach. And I’ve got a deadline on there so time-based is taken care of as well.
- Situational analysis
A good strategic plan has to mesh with the environment in which it will be executed. I think a variety of analyses would be warranted here, but I’m presenting this as a starting point rather than something I’ve completely fleshed out. To start with, here’s a classic SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis:
Strengths: The innate distinction of an authentic philosophy channel based on Satanism. My skills as a writer. My work ethic. My knowledge of references. My experiences with various religions and various life situations. A small but loyal listener base and a small group of invested patrons.
Weaknesses: The niche obscurity of Satanism. Satanism not being taken seriously as a valid approach to philosophy and religion. Relative popular disinterest in religion, philosophy, and philosophy of religion. Anonymity.
Opportunities: Connecting with other podcasts on philosophy. Expanding areas of philosophical exploration (as I’ve already started to do with the series on the Marvel Cinematic Universe and philosophy). Negative attention from conservative religious groups (and yes, that’s definitely an opportunity rather than a threat).
Threats: Burn-out. Disruptions of my private life. Financial strain due to focusing on this over more potentially profitable projects. Dwindling interest from long-term fans. Diminishing returns regarding the subject matter being explored.
- Strategy
So, given all of that, what then am I actually going to do?
My immediate plans are to take some time off. It’s not unusual for me to throw myself into something and do it non-stop until I get burned out, and given my aspirations for this project, I need to avoid that. And as much as I enjoy the reading, research, writing, and recording, I’m looking forward to not doing that for a couple weeks and having some time to develop some other projects of current interest. Knowing me, I’ll probably at least get some things started, but in any case, A Satanist Reads the Bible will return with a new essay and a new podcast episode — and I’ve only got some inklings as to what the subject matter might be — on Friday, December 13th.
When I return, I’ll be doing fewer episodes, but working to make them longer, more in-depth, and better in every way I can think of. I’ll be doing one essay every two weeks and one podcast episode a week, alternating between new content and readings of old content, until I run out of old content, and then I’ll decide how to proceed at that point. I might bring back some of the old features, like poetry and music reviews. I believe that this approach will capitalize on my strengths and opportunities and mitigate my weaknesses and threats, at least to some degree.
But one of the main things that needs to happen in order to achieve my objective is for me to up my social media game, which is something that I’m not at all looking forward to. While I’ve been posting my essays sporadically on reddit, I don’t have any social media presence beyond that, even in my personal life. A Satanist Reads the Bible has a Twitter account but I never use it, and nothing on Facebook. That all needs to change. I’ll need the help of anyone who’s willing, but one thing at a time.
- Implementation
The implementation phase of strategic planning is exactly what it says on the tin: taking the strategy and doing it. That said, not much to write about here. First step will be to come back on December 13th with some great content, and then I’ll continue implementing my strategy with regards to content from that point forward. And also starting at that point, I’ll look into social media options and develop a specific social media strategy for A Satanist Reads the Bible.
- Control
In order to ensure proper execution, I’ll be monitoring my metrics closely, tracking changes in the differential of my total audience, projecting that out to the end of 2020, and making adjustments in the strategy based on the result of social media campaigns. I’ll go back quarterly and write and publish a strategic review describing where things are at and what changes I need to make in order to achieve my objectives.
Something I’ve taken so far from my readings of Clausewitz is that a strategic plan that is finalized and set in stone is no strategic plan at all. True strategy must accommodate and even welcome the chaos of life and change fluidly as the situation progresses. I have a systematic plan for returning to and revising my strategy over the coming year, which I’ve already presented, but I’ll be aiming to return to my draft document frequently, at least monthly, making revisions as they arise.Profuse and grateful thanks to all of those who have supported me and helped me make it this far. A Satanist Reads the Bible has been a refuge in the chaos of my life. I remember many occasions where, suffering from acute stress and anxiety, I’ve put on my headphones, dived into my research and writing, and forgotten about everything else. I’ve learned a lot as a philosopher and a writer and I’ve grown a great deal as a person. Looking back at my older writings, it’s amazing how things have become more clear and solid as I’ve returned to those ideas and explored them from different angles, so I know that this project has helped me grow spiritually as well. But for all that, there have been many times that I would have given up on this if I didn’t think that I had a receptive audience, so I mean it very sincerely when I say that I wouldn’t have been able to do it without you. And special thanks to my patrons, who are providing not just moral but financial support and making an investment in the future of the project. Hail to all of you, and ave Satana.
I hope you’ve found this piece interesting and informative. If you’ve enjoyed it, I encourage you to look at some of my other essays, and to sign up for my mailing list (form on the sidebar) so you can stay current on my latest work. And if you find my approach to philosophy and religion at all valuable, I hope that you’ll stop in at my Patreon page, which features bonus content for patrons, and that you’ll stop back by to check on my new content. I’ll be publishing new work every Friday evening. I also have a reading list, which contains links to the books I used to research this and all of my other stories. Clicking through and buying books is a great, easy way to support my work.