LaVeyan Satanism and Ayn Rand's Objectivism

Yesterday, in my World Religions class, two students gave presentations about Satanism (one about the philosophy and one about the Church of Satan). Students had been given the assignment to make presentations about either a religion we had not covered in class OR an undiscussed aspect of a religion that we had covered ("covered" being used loosely here). For the record, the kinds of Satanism discussed here are not technically "devil-worshippers" and generally disdain those who are. The Church of Satan was founded in 1966 by Anton LaVey and is atheistic; using "Satan" in a symbolic/mythic fashion to stand for their own form of humanism. While it retains some ritual elements, these are interpreted psychologically for the most part, do not make sacrifices and are fairly strict about not harming children, consensual sexuality, personal responsibility and minding one's own business. Fairly libertarian stuff. And, while listening to these presentations, something struck a bell. It reminded me a great deal of Ayn Rand's Objectivism, which is so popular with political conservatives.

This is the Satanic statement (#4 out of 9) that caught my attention: "Satan represents kindness to those who deserve it instead of love wasted on ingrates!" In my mind, this resonated with the general tendency in contemporary conservative rhetoric to judge and distinguish between the "deserving poor" and some other class of poor that are viewed as societal parasites (Satanism refers to these kinds of people as vampires) that is the most dogmatic in Ayn Randian "Objectivism". As it turns out, Anton LaVey was greatly influenced by Ayn Rand, and I wasn't the first person to notice this (surprise).

Other similarities include: the aforementioned atheism; radical individualism or "egoism" and hedonism; a certain kind of rationalism/empiricism, and ruthlessness towards enemies.
If you want to learn more: Google it. Check out "What is Objectivism?" on The Objective Standard; The Nine Satanic Statements, Nine Satanic Sins and Eleven Satanic Rules of the Earth on the website for The Church of Satan; or Google "Anton LaVey and Ayn Rand" and check out what turns up.