Long podcast takes on RAW

Harland Grant

The Dawdler's Philosophy is a podcast that features a scientist, Harland Grant, and a scientist, R.T.P. McKenna, "addressing Big Ideas both original and derived."

The podcast has just launched a new series, "Haunting the Margins," addressing marginalized thinkers, and the first one, lasting two hours and five minutes, is about Robert Anton Wilson. Topics covered include model agnosticism, how thinkers get marginalized, "correct answer machines" and other topics familiar to RAW fans.

The discussion is generally sound, although (1) as Rasa points out at the website, RAW was not, in fact, Jewish and (2) model agnosticism does not mean all models are equally sound. It's more about using a model so long as it is useful, but discarding it if you find a better one.

The podcast is available on iTunes, so many podcasting apps should be able to pull it in.

Apparently, I'm not going to emerge

Peter Thiel (Creative Commons photo)

From time to time, I have fantasized about finding a billionaire who was (1) a Robert Anton Wilson fan and (2) crazy, someone who would be willing to fund this blog so it would be more of a full time project and less like something I have to do part time, fitted in around a full-time job, keeping my wife and cats happy, etc.

This became very slightly less of a fantasy with the creation of Emergent Ventures, a philanthropic organization run by the doughty Tyler Cowen (frequently mentioned on this blog for years) and funded initially by Peter Thiel (who as I've mentioned has been trying to achieve some of the ideas proposed by Robert Anton Wilson). In his blog post, Dr. Cowen wrote, "We welcome the unusual and the unorthodox."

I figured I could give him "unorthodox," so I applied for money,  laying it on thick about Wilson's importance as a thinker, the blog's ability to introduce libertarian ideas to an audience that normally ignores them, the original journalism and scholarship I've been able to carry out such as obtaining Robert Shea's anarchist zines and interviewing Wilson's book editors, etc.

All I know about the review process is that Cowen makes the decisions himself (so, possibly, I was able to get him to read this blog! If so, hope he found something of interest). It was interesting to write out a justification for the blog. I also enjoyed the "Schroedinger's cat" period of several weeks of not having actually been turned down.

But my "No" email from the Mercatus Center duly arrived Tuesday. It says, in part, "We are sorry to inform you that we are not able to fund your request. Due to the large volume of applications, we are also not able to offer individual explanations for these decisions.

"Please do note that our rejection should not be taken as a negative judgment of you or your work. For instance, many requests simply fall outside the scope of our mission, or we believe would be better supported through traditional venture capital or philanthropic investments."

(I've mentioned Cowen a number of times in recent weeks as I waited for a response, but that's just business as usual at this blog, not an attempt to curry favor. I've mentioned him for years.)

Due to the ongoing dearth of crazy billionaires, I am actively exploring and thinking about other options to expand the reach and effectiveness of this blog and related freelance ventures.

Robert Anton Wilson on 'Morality Mania'

Robert Anton Wilson's article "Morality Mania" is another great work of literary archaeology by Martin Wagner, reproduced at Wagner's RAW site.

Written in 1978, it's one of Wilson's more libertarian pieces and also seems to anticipate today's culture wars. It's full of sharp observations. A sample:

Of course, every human society has some system of criminal law. Such laws should be rational and obviously necessary: their function is, as Sophocles said, to protect the citizen from force and fraud. This is absolutely all that a rational mind wants, or will voluntarily accept, in restrictions on personal freedom. My right to swing my fist ends where your nose begins.

This common-sense, mind-your-own-business theory of law has never been satisfactory to moralists, all of whom are determined to ram their private taboo system down everybody else’s throat. This is because moralists, like psychotics, do not think objectively, but subjectively; they don’t even know what objectivity means. For instance, read any rightwing blast at Larry Flynt and then read the attack on him in Mother Jones for February-March 1978. The same subjective smog, the same inability to see or observe without prejudice, appears in both the paleo-puritanical right and the neo-puritanical left. The moralist cannot perceive anything but his/her own emotions; facts register indirectly, as emotional storms in the glandular system. 

More on Communism, the Beatles and Illuminatus!

A photograph of the Rev. Billy James Hargis. As Adam Gorightly notes, the picture of Jesus behind Rev. Hargis shows Jesus with short hair, apparently in a bid to make the Son of God look more like a patriotic American and less like the kind of long haired hippie who would listen to a Beatles album.  

Adam Gorightly recently posted "The Raymond Broshears Files Part 1: Welcome to the Garrison Investigation Funhouse," about a rather colorful character associated with the Garrison probe of JFK's murder, and when I posted about it, I talked about the connection between Broshears and the Rev. Billy James Hargis, an evangelist in Tulsa, Oklahoma (where I grew up) who was also an explicit anti-Communist. I once attended a service at Hargis' Christian Crusade church (as part of a comparative religion class in the Unitarian church my family belonged to), and I knew a kid at school whose family went to the church. I then went off to college at the University of Oklahoma and read Illuminatus!, which has a reference to a Christian Crusade publication by David Noebel, Communism, Hypnotism and the Beatles; An analysis of the Communist use of music, the Communist master music plan.

Adam has now done a follow-up post at Historia Discordia, "Addendum to 'The Raymond Broshears Files Part 1' ” which discusses Rev. Hargis and which includes a particularly great prank letter that Robert Anton Wilson wrote as a purported fan letter to Noebel (the letter is by "the Rev. Charles Arthur Floyd II" representing an apparent religion, the "Decided Ones of Jupiter the Thunderer.") The letter points out that while Noebel has done fine work, he has "only scratched the surface of the music problem," noting that Beethoven was a high ranking member of the Bavarian Illuminati, "and his music, especially the Fifth and Ninth symphonies, is entirely worthless and seditious, being full of libertine, libertarian, anarchistic, Illuminated Seer ideology." (Wilson may have only been joking -- I don't know -- but the Jan Swafford Beethoven biography goes into considerable detail about how the Illuminati actually influenced the Ninth Symphony and other works. It is my impression that Wilson thought he was only joking when he wrote Illuminatus! and only later discovered the Beethoven-Illuminati ties, but I can't give you a citation; can someone help?).

If the name "Charles Arthur Floyd II" is nagging at you, Charles Arthur Floyd (aka "Pretty Boy Floyd,") was a bank robber from Oklahoma who as shot to death, age 30, in Ohio. "Pretty Boy Floyd" is a tune by Woody Guthrie, covered by many other musicians, that has the great line, "Some will rob you with a six-gun, and some with a fountain pen."

David Noebel is apparently still alive. His classic expose, Communism, Hypnotism and the Beatles, is available at the Internet Archive, apparently as part of an FBI file obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

Kerman/Beethoven reading group, Week Sixteen

"Coversheet of Beethoven's Op. 130 as published in Berlin on June 2nd, 1827." (Caption and illustration via Wikipedia).

By Eric Wagner, guest blogger

This week please read sections 1 – 3 of chapter 10 (pg. 303 - 327) and listen to Op. 130 repeatedly. Please comment on this week’s reading/listening and continue to comment on previous weeks’ readings/quartets.

I hope all goes well. Kerman emphasizes this quartet’s problematic nature due to the fact the Beethoven decided to remove the original finale and publish it separately. Please keep in mind that Beethoven contemplated breaking up the Hammerklavier and the Ninth Symphony in a similar fashion. Beethoven sometimes felt ambivalent about his most radical compositions.

I love how Bob Wilson wrote about the Hammerklavier. Op. 130, with its original ending, seems the quartet analogue for that sonata, ending with an earth shaking, unprecedented fugue.

Pg. 321 – “And the Great Fugue, Schindler’s ‘Monstrum aller Quartett-Musik’ - who would have thought of yoking this giant with a midget like the Presto second movement?” I once saw the Phoenix Suns play the Washington Bullets when 7’7” Manute Bol and 5’3” Muggsy Bogues both played for the team. They would often come off the bench at the same time, and, with their bright blue and red uniforms, I found the visual effect quite trippy.

Trump administration targets pot legalization groups [UPDATED]

National Institute of Drug Abuse graphic showing the increase in drug overdose deaths in the U.S. 

Drug overdoses from hard drugs have killed hundreds of thousands of Americans in the past decade, and the problem is getting worse nationally. As my link shows, 2017 was a record year for deaths nationally (and also, I might add,  in Ohio where I live.)

The Trump administration has shown little interest in genuinely dangerous drugs but instead is using the IRS to target groups that advocate for the legalization of marijuana. This blog post reprints a Wall Street Journal article (which at the WSJ is behind a firewall) that gives the details. Tax exempt status is a really big deal in the U.S. for nonprofits, so this is a significant (and also illegal) act of government repression and an attack on free speech.

Hat tip, John Merritt.

UPDATE: Here is a clickable link for the article Joshua linked to in the comments.  Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, quoted in the article, lost his re-election bid, a notable loss for the legalization movement, although on the whole the Democratic takeover of the House was a positive.

New book on conspiracy theories

If your interest in conspiracy theories wasn't sated by reading Illuminatus!, or by reading Jesse Walker's excellent book The United States of Paranoia: A Conspiracy Theory (a history of conspiracy theories in the U.S., including a chapter, "Operation Mindfuck," that discusses Robert Anton Wilson and Discordianism), there's a new book that might interest you.

Jesse reports on a new book, Conspiracy Theories and the People Who Believe Them, put out by Oxford University Press, an anthology that includes a contribution by Jesse.

Mr. Walker's contribution, "What We Mean When We Say 'Conspiracy Theory'," is available as a Reason magazine article. 

Incidentally, in a section of the piece debunking a widely-believed newspaper report that described Osama bin Laden as having a lair in Afghanistan worthy of a James Bond villain, Jesse writes, "When American forces arrived at Osama's actual base, they found that the Independent report was a fantasy, something better suited for a legend about Hassan i Sabbah than a realistic assessment of bin Laden's methods and capabilities." Just another little test if you can spot the Robert Anton Wilson reference that creeps into many of Jesse's pieces, like a cameo from Alfred Hitchcock.

Final 'Pigspurt' performance announced

Daisy Eris Campbell (from Twitter). 

Daisy Eris Campbell has announced the final UK performance of Pigspurt's Daughter on Twitter: Dec. 10 at Kerwick Town Hall in the Shetland Islands. Dec. 10 is Ken Campbell's birthday.

No information on tickets announced yet; keep on eye on Daisy's Twitter.   When the date comes a little closer, perhaps you can contact Lerwick Town Hall.

Thankful for my readers

Photo by Timothy Eberly on Unsplash

I would like to take a moment to express my thanks to everyone who reads this blog.

Whether you've become my friend as a result of this blog, or taken a moment to post a comment, or sent me a tip, or written a guest post,  or written a blog post linking to me, or posted on social media with a link to me, or taken the time to answer my questions, or sent me a book, or simply read a post,  or done anything else to help me, I really appreciate you.

It occurred to me a few months ago that this blog is maybe the only thing I do that I have complete control over. When I'm at work, although I am trusted with a great deal of leeway, I have to make my boss and my publisher happy. At home, it's important to me to please my wife and our cats. (Anyone who has a cat will appreciate the saying that "Dogs have owners, cats have staff.") Even my reading, my favorite leisure activity for decades, is often dominated by work assignments or volunteer activity. The only person I have to answer to for the blog is me.

Since I began this blog, I have had more than two million page views, according to Blogger. I get several hundred  page views a day, sometimes more than 1,000 in a day. These numbers will not impress the folks at Boing Boing or Marginal Revolution or any other the other blogs I read, but given that I am writing about someone who for most readers is an obscure cult writer, it also shows that somebody is interested. If you are interested in Robert Anton Wilson, you are not alone.

War on some drugs podcast

Jacob Sullum (Twitter account photo) 

Yesterday I listened to an interesting Reason magazine podcast featuring Nick Gillespie interviewing Jacob Sullum, who often writes about drug policy. The topic is "Why Can't Psychedelics (and Other Drugs) Just Be for Fun?" Obviously, a provocative title, but the podcast explores who should decide what you can put into your body. Topics include  Timothy Leary, black market vs. legal weed, how to talk to your children and other issues.

I've linked to the Reason blog post about the broadcast, but you should also be able to find Reason podcasts on iTunes and the usual smartphone apps.

How to read a Kindle ebook

I like "real" books made of paper, of course, and I still sometimes get them, too, but I also often buy ebooks. It's nice to be able to buy a book without further cluttering the house and for certain books, it's very useful to be able to search the text. The price difference between paper and electronic can be pretty wide. A particularly dramatic example: An Insider's Guide to Robert Anton Wilson by Eric Wagner is $24.50 on Amazon today for paperback, $4.99 for the Kindle.

One disadvantage of the Kindle edition is that while a Kindle e-reader is great for text, it doesn't do well with illustrations and only renders them in black and white. A good fix is to simply put a Kindle app on your smartphone and download a copy there. When I recently read Eric Cline's 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed, I read the text on my Kindle but used my phone to look at the maps. That worked very well.

Beethoven/Kerman reading group, Week Fifteen

Kerman Week 15 - Fugue

By Eric Wagner, guest blogger

This week please read chapter 9 (pg. 269 – 302) and listen to Op. 133 and the first movement of Op. 131 repeatedly. Please comment on this week’s reading/listening and continue to comment on previous weeks’ readings/quartets.

I hope all goes well. I love this chapter, and I find these two fugues endlessly fascinating. The theme of fugue links this chapter with two works of central importance to Bob Wilson, the Hammerklavier and the Ninth Symphony.

Pg. 272 – Kerman sees the first movement of Op. 131 as a clue to the music Beethoven might have written if he had lived longer. Phil Dick said the same thing about the new ending to Op. 130. (I sometimes think of “I’ve Got a Feeling” as a clue to the sort of music the Beatles might have made if they didn’t break up.)

Pg. 274 – I find it interesting that Kerman finds the Op. 131 fugue Beethoven’s most accomplished. I love the reference to Alice’s White Knight on this page.

Pg. 276 – The connection with Bach “Art of Fugue” makes me think of Goedel Escher Bach, another Wilson favorite.

Pg. 300 – I like that Kerman comes right out and calls Op. 131 Beethoven’s greatest quartet. I don’t know if I agree, but I like his forthrightness.

Pg. 302 – Kerman emphasizes the power of repeated listenings. Kerman wrote a wonderful textbook called Listen, and he often emphasizes the power of listening, for which one needs neither virtuosity nor a deep knowledge of music theory.

Beethoven's best string quartet?

The Orion String Quartet

As Eric Wagner's discussion group The Beethoven Quartets by Joseph Kerman continues, tomorrow's post is devoted to Beethoven's Grosse Fuge and the first movement of Opus 131. There's further focus on Opus 131 in a couple of weeks.

If tackling Kerman and all of the quartets was a bit much for you, this might be a good time to tune in.

The String Quartet in C Minor Opus 131 was Beethoven's favorite of the late quartets; as Eric points out, Kerman says Opus 131 is Beethoven's greatest string quartet. I rather like it, too, and as Eric mentioned recently, RAW often brought up Beethoven's late quartets.

You can listen to (and download) a live performance from the Gardner Museum by the Orion String Quartet.  There is also the Alban Berg Quartet on YouTube.

Note also that the Free Music Archive has lots of Beethoven and other music and is closing soon. If you want to check it out, better hurry.