Jesse Walker’s wonderful obit for Robert Anton Wilson at Reason.
Also, here’s a post to Reason’s blog about Wilson’s influence in libertarian thinking. I chime in in the comments with some quotes by RAW about socialism, not so much to refute the idea that he was a libertarian, but to show the nuance of his political thinking.
R.U. Sirius’s Revolution Party platform was a great attempt at creating a reasonable fusion of libertarian and left-wing political thinking, though I think it was ultimately too heavy on goals and too short on solutions (Note: I once tried to found an official Washington State Revolution Party based on R.U.’s platform).
RAW’s diverse literary legacy includes the likes of Grant Morrison, James Curcio, and Damon Lindelof… but what about his political legacy? I’ve been impressed with the balanced thought of a lot of people at Reason Magazine (especially Walker), and I think Abe Burmeister is one of the most insightful commentators around (I’ve plugged his Nomad Economics book before). And of course, Ken Macleod. Any other “non-Euclidean” political thinkers I’m forgetting?
January 16, 2007 at 8:40 pm
RAW lived what he preached, about creating your own belief system(B.S).Taking bits and pieces of any system (political or religious), and making your own BS, is part of being a self-aware, well-integrated individual.Most people today call themselves “Independent”. Non-Euclidean thinker- William Irwin Thompson
January 16, 2007 at 9:57 pm
My feeble contribution to the RAW distortion in the reality field with 23 more “23’s” in a tribute here.
January 18, 2007 at 6:34 pm
Goals should be secondary for political activities. Means should come first. The future can’t be predicted, and success / failure of our efforts to reach goals will change our goals along the way. Deciding to adopt certain means and not others is a path that will cause less harm and, by default, will match our goals more closely. Goal: less violence. Means: be less violent.