New book announcement from Jesse Walker

Mr. Walker at the Museum of Illusions in Pittsburgh. This may not be the official jacket flap photo. 

From Jesse Walker: "I'm writing another book, folks. It's called THE ANARCHIST AND THE REPUBLICAN, and it relates the stories of Karl Hess, John McClaughry, and the decentralist movements that both men moved through, one working within the system and one ever further from it. It'll be published by Creed & Culture, a new press that's about to debut with a book by Walter McDougall."

Here is the publisher's announcement. 

Reason Magazine article is here.  I blogged about the article, follow the link for the video featuring Karl Hess and RAW. 

Jesse Walker's previous books are The United States of Paranoia: A Conspiracy Theory, a useful background book for Illuminatus!, currently on sale as a Kindle for $3, and Rebels on the Air: An Alternative History of Radio in America, also very interesting. 

Jesse is busy, I may have more Jesse Walker news this week. 

Karl Hess on Robert Anton Wilson [UPDATED]

Karl Hess, center, at the Future of Freedom conference in 1981. Timothy Leary is on the left; I don't know who the person is on the right. Creative Commons photo via Wikipedia, information here.  UPDATE: The other guy is Manny Klausner, a former Reason editor who died  this year, see this obit.]

A followup to my recent post on Jesse Walker's article about Karl Hess and John McClaughry: Jesse sent me a link to a PDF of a libertarian newsletter, the Summer 1981 issue of the Libertas Review, and it has a passage I thought some of you might be interested in, from an article about a speech by Karl Hess:

After the complimenting the audience many times for their good grasp of libertarian principles, he stressed that they be put into action to form a libertarian community. "Everybody can tell you about liberty," he exclaimed, "now we need a place where we can see the damn thing." In this context, he points out, "A statement of principle should simply be an explanation of the way you live your life."

When asked afterward during the question and answer period if there were any authors that influenced or described his position, he mentioned Robert Anton Wilson. Since  he had quoted novelist/philosopher Ayn Rand, saying that reason is the best tool an individual can have, many in the audience were surprised when he quoted Wilson saying, "There is no truth and everything is permissible!" He went on to say that, "Even though there is no truth and everything is permissible, you still must, yourself, say things that you feel to be true, and you must not do things that you feel to be impermissable, and there is no power on earth except the power of your own volition that will lead you in these directions."

Jesse Walker on RAW buddy Karl Hess and John McClaughry

 

Jesse Walker, speaking at a panel discussion about employee ownership (Facebook photo)

I finally got around to reading Jesse Walker's article "The Anarchist and the Republican: How John McClaughry and Karl Hess fought to decentralize power—one from inside the system, one ever further from it."  (Karl Hess in fact was both an anarchist AND a Republican in his lifetime, while McClaughry was a Republican with anarchist principles).

Both men had a whiff of Discordianism about them. Here's a bit about Hess' early days:

"Hess' media career began in 1938, when the 15-year-old son of a divorced D.C. switchboard operator decided he'd had enough of classrooms. So he registered at every high school in town and then told each one he was transferring. Having trapped the truancy officers in a bureaucratic strange loop, he went to work for a radio station and a series of local newspapers."

A bit about McClaughry:

"He amused himself by writing politicians absurdist crank letters under assumed names. He had a hobby of hopping freight trains, a pastime that acquired a Coen brothers quality the day a brakeman joined him in the caboose; McClaughry expected to be kicked off, but the fellow instead insisted they sing old minstrel songs together. He built a cabin in the Vermont woods with no plumbing or electricity, then had a more comfortable home erected on the property; in 1967 he became town moderator of Kirby, and he still chairs his community's annual meetings today."

It's a fairly long article, but if you read the whole thing, it may be the most interesting piece you read today. 

YouTube video: "Subversion for Fun and Profit: An Evening with Karl Hess and Robert Anton Wilson."

New RAW audio and video

The other day, I covered an appearance at an Ohio library of best selling historical novelist Tracy Chevalier. During the question and answer session, she did something marvelous. Every time someone asked a question, she repeated it aloud so that everyone could hear it  and know what she was answering.

I wish Robert Anton Wilson had learned to do this, because it would make the discovery of two new videos (also available as MP3 audio downloads) even better -- some of the answers would be better if I could hear what the original question was.

Still,  this is pretty good: A joint appearance with Karl Hess (about two and half hours) and a solo performance (about an hour and a half ). Both videos were made at the Libertarian Party's 1987 nominating convention and are made available on Libertarianism.org. It works pretty well as MP3 files (the only way I had time to take them in -- I have a long commute) but you'll have to watch at least the first part of the Wilson-Hess video to figure out why you keep hearing those mysterious cigarette lighter noises.

This videos are useful for learning what Wilson called himself in 1987 (instead of "libertarian"), for  learning what women want and for finding out who Wilson named as the "greatest man who ever lived" (not the person I was expecting.)