Robert Shea. Photo from Bobshea.net.
Via Jesse Walker on X, I read an article in the Intercept which says that the FBI "the FBI maintains a program specifically for combating anarchists, called the Anarchist Extremism Program."
"An internal FBI threat advisory obtained by The Intercept defines Anarchist Violent Extremists as individuals 'who consider capitalism and centralized government to be unnecessary and oppressive,' and 'oppose economic globalization; political, economic, and social hierarchies based on class, religion, race, gender, or private ownership of capital; and external forms of authority represented by centralized government, the military, and law enforcement'.”
Robert Anton Wilson's interest in anarchism waned somewhat over the years, but Illuminatus! co-author Robert Shea called himself an anarchist, put out the anarchist zine No Governor (see the Robert Shea Resources at the right side of this page) and was otherwise active on the anarchist zine. He was rather strictly opposed to violence (he equated violence with statism), but I wondered if he showed up in the FBI files, anyway.
So I've filed a Freedom of Information Act request to see if there is anything. Naturally, if I get something, I will post about it here.
As I wrote in 2013, there have been attempts to get information on what the FBI files had about Robert Anton Wilson. Apparently, there's not much there.
2 comments:
So, if we reformulate, one of the mission of the FBI as stated by itself is to protect and ensure the safe continuation of capitalism, the centralized government and economic globalization, as well as political, economic, and social hierarchies based on class, religion, race, gender, or private ownership of capital.
Call me an 'anarchist violent extremist individual' if you will, but this all sounds terribly dystopian and authoritarian to me.
As for considering a terrorist someone who self-immolate, pardon my infinite stupidity but wtf?
I can picture the scene, with the FBI arriving on time to catch this guy:
"If you kill yourself, we'll shoot!"
It seems like it's one of those laws/lists that isn't used at mass scale for round-ups based on ideology, but to single out and persecute those who do wish to change the system. So, as long as you don't make attempts to change the system based on the othered belief system, you'll be just fine...
Believe what you want, so long as you obey. -The Management
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But seriously, I think Aaron carried out noble task and the anarchists have been using it for propaganda and gathering solidarity, support.
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