You Won’t Find Shelter in this Helter Skelter
An Analysis of the Relationship between Charles Manson and Accelerationist Propaganda
By Ashton Kingdon
The Manson family was a messianic counterculture cult and commune, fueled by sex and drugs and set in the backdrop of the “Summer of Love,” boasting approximately 100 members at its peak. The group was led by notorious criminal Charles Manson and is perhaps best known for the Tate-LaBianca murders in which seven people, including pregnant actress Sharon Tate, were murdered in August of 1969. These murders were part of Manson’s apocalyptic prophecy – a race war he termed “Helter Skelter.” Accelerationist propaganda featuring the code words “Helter Skelter” was a common staple on the now-defunct platforms of IronMarch and Fascist Forge. This imagery was subsequently recycled on Gab and Telegram in the aftermath of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests following the murder of George Floyd. This article considers why accelerationists continue to use this terminology in their propaganda today.
Manson’s Manipulation of The White Album
When the Beatles released their White Album in 1968, it was inconceivable that the songs “Blackbird,” “Piggies,” and “Helter Skelter” would be interpreted as cryptic messages informing Manson of an apocalyptic prophecy. Paul McCartney’s song “Blackbird,” composed in support of Black women involved in the Civil Rights Movement, was perceived by Manson to portray Black Americans as viciously fighting the establishment. Similarly, “Piggies” — originally intended by George Harrison to be a social commentary — was interpreted by many to be an anti-police anthem; Manson specifically thought that the line in the lyrics, “what they need’s a damn good whackin’” applied to the American police. During the Tate-LaBianca murders, knives and forks were used to stab the victims; these were the items mentioned in the song. Moreover, human blood was used to smear “Political Piggy” on the walls. This was paired with other anti-police imagery and terminology, demonstrating Manson’s goal to make the police and media believe that Black organizations fighting police brutality, such as the Black Panther Party, were responsible for the murders. It was Manson’s hope that laying the blame at the feet of Black organizations would kickstart the race war of Helter Skelter.
Paul McCartney used the image of a Helter Skelter as a metaphor for the decline of the Roman Empire – a descent from top to bottom. Manson re-interpreted this meaning, drawing parallels between the lyrics to verses in the ninth chapter of the Book of Revelation, which tells of a hellish bottomless pit opening up in the world and a plague of anthropomorphic locusts coming to torture the unfaithful until an angel blows a trumpet to God. Furthermore, Manson represented the Beatles as being the “Four Horseman of the Apocalypse” – biblical figures who appear following the unsealing of the first four of the seven seals, with each representing a different facet of the apocalypse: conquest, war, famine, and death. These catastrophic prophecies were allegedly confirmed through the lyrics of Helter Skelter.
Manson’s perception that the Beatles’ “Helter Skelter” represented the fall of man was fueled in part by his belief that growing tensions between Black and white people in the 1960s would erupt into a cataclysmic race war, resulting in the slaughter of nearly all white people. It was Manson’s belief that escalating tensions between races would end in violent murders of whites by Black people and vice versa, leading to an eventual eruption of a full-scale war. Simultaneously, he theorized racist white people would turn against their anti-racist neighbors. In his view, the white community’s infighting combined with its alleged war against Black people would lead to white annihilation and consequent Black victory. Manson’s plan was for the Manson family to hide in Death Valley and wait out the race war in a secret underground city. After the war’s end, his group would rise from the desert and take over the victorious Black people who, Manson believed, would be incapable of governing themselves. It was the failure of this prophesized war to materialize that spurred Manson to order the Tate-LaBianca murders with the objective of igniting Helter Skelter.
Helter Skelter 2.0
Over the past few years, when white supremacists utilize “Helter Skelter” in their propaganda as code for “race war,” it is typically not employed to describe racial violence in a narrow or specific sense but rather to signify a large-scale, almost apocalyptic clash between races. Thus, “Helter Skelter” has been adopted by contemporary accelerationists operating on the platforms of IronMarch, Fascist Forge, and Siege Culture, among others. The term “accelerationism” is frequently used to refer to an eschatological life or death “last stand” by white supremacists who are seeking to hasten the collapse of society. This narrative has clear links to the philosophy of “The Great Replacement,” the conviction that the policies of global leaders are intentionally replacing native European populations with non-European ethnic groups in a “genocide by substitution.” The origins of white accelerationism can be traced to Siege, a compilation of essays written in the 1980s by American neo-Nazi James Mason, who predicted that the destruction of current society is accelerating, is irreversible and unsalvageable. He advocates violent revolution against the government, maintaining that the chaos caused by such white supremacist aggression will lead to the collapse of the government and subsequent rise of National Socialism. His writings serve as a textbook for many violent neo-Nazi groups that include Atomwaffen Division, the Sonnenkrieg Division, and Antipodean Resistance.
Many propagandists who embrace an accelerationist ideology eulogize Charles Manson as a prime mover of their cultish devotion to violent insurrection. James Mason, for example, considered both “Helter Skelter” and the Manson family killings as an example of necessary “direct action.” In the 1980s, Manson and Mason co-founded “Universal Order,” described as more of a philosophical concept or state of mind than an organization or group, which embodied specific lines of thought separating it from the more conservative takes on National Socialism. Both men advocated armed struggle and terrorism through a strategy of leaderless resistance, or the encouragement of autonomous actions by individuals rather than by organizations run through hierarchies. The importance of this message is apparent today, at a time when we have seen violence committed by individuals who are not necessarily openly affiliated with any particular white supremacist groups.
Taking inspiration from Mason and Manson, the hate-filled imagery promoted on platforms hosting the most extreme right-wing radicals, champions the view that today’s politics are bereft of new ideas and means of organization necessary for society to confront and resolve coming annihilations. Thus, the propaganda poster above encourages the view that rather than seeking shelter during Helter Skelter, as Manson initially proposed, accelerationists should embrace the pending race war as an opportunity to fight for the perceived superiority of the white race. Whilst contemporary propagandists may sing from the same hymn sheet as the race war accelerationists of the 1980s, this new generation has the additional opportunity of capitalizing on the growing social discontent that has resulted from the coronavirus pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests following the murder of George Floyd. Indeed, the realities of high racial tension and economic and public health uncertainty, among other looming crises, have left millions marginalized and aggrieved. This naturally sows the seeds for further violence and civil unrest — events that propagandists are keen to capitalize on as a means of inspiring potential recruits to seize the opportunity to fight for white victory.