External Causes (God and Mankind) Want to Eliminate the Self as a Competing Cause or an Alternative Source of Allegiance

Stirner’s preface specifically addresses the demands and claims of (a) religion, which is the cause that promotes the interests of God and his human surrogates, and (b) humanism, which is the cause that promotes the interests of “Mankind” and those who purport to represent it. But where is the “cause” that promotes the autonomy, freedom, and dignity of the individual? Such a cause does not exist, except for that which individuals are able to create for themselves. Such a cause is universally discredited and reviled as “egoism” because the external and collectivist causes that demand the allegiance and submission of the person recognize the threat it presents to their power and interests. The purpose of external causes, such as god and mankind, is to eliminate the self as a competing cause or an alternative source of allegiance. The practice of external causes is to extend their control by ensuring that individuals subordinate their values, meanings, and “concerns” to an allegiance to god, humanity, or some political ideology.

--John F. Welsh, Max Stirner's Dialectical Egoism: A New Interpretation (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2010), 47.