William Wyatt Posted December 11, 2014 Posted December 11, 2014 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Anton_WilsonAlthough I find myself consumed by Molyneux as a philosopher. I used to browse over the world of other figures. As I come from a fucked up childhood, I was drawn into the dark psychedelic music of tool, the anti-establishment preaching of Bill Hicks etc. Around that time I considered myself an agnostic, yet I was still searching for something, constantly trying to apply a unified grand theory to my existence.I found that I agree'd with RAW on almost every topic, I'm still yet to read his books, but I still like many of his ideas. He's been called a left-libertarian, but here he clearly identifies as a voluntaryist, and rejects forced communism.. As for his agnosticism about everything, I believe he just misdefines uncertainty about everything, I think he would have some agreement and dissagreement with moylneux, He has clearly not completely come to grips with his childhood, doesn't put much fault on his parents from what I've seen. Although he grew up in the Brooklyn great depression, maybe his parents weren't all that abusive for the time? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjUDfbGmhLAHe seems to be drawn to transcendental though given his use of Psychedelic drugs and interest in Crowley.given my experience I am also drawn to the unknown psychological effects of certain audio frequencies, dancing and ritualistic techniques. Stef has even admitted that in theatre school, acting like a tree and grounding to the earth had positive psychological effects... Regardless of his shortcomings, definitely a unique perspective. A transcendental realist perhaps? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEZtw1yt8Kc .
William Wyatt Posted December 11, 2014 Author Posted December 11, 2014 All hail Eris. Oh haha.... Yes I know he seems to be into discordianism, which is essentially a parody to religion... Or holistic philosophy to stop people on acid from overthinking existence and focus more on their personal journey... TO quote wikipedia..... "The religion has been likened to Zen, based on similarities with absurdist interpretations of the Rinzai school, as well as Taoist philosophy. Discordianism is centered on the idea that both order and disorder are illusions imposed on the universe by the human nervous system, and that neither of these illusions of apparent order and disorder is any more accurate or objectively true than the other There is some division as to whether it should be regarded as a parody religion, and if so to what degree.[1] Discordians use subversivehumor to spread their philosophy and to prevent their beliefs from becoming dogmatic[citation needed]. It is difficult to estimate the number of Discordians because they are not required to hold Discordianism as their only belief system,[2] and because there is an encouragement to form schisms and cabals.[3][4]"
prolix Posted December 13, 2014 Posted December 13, 2014 Great thread. The only criticism I would have of Bob is this. He could have stressed the empirical and scientific nature of some of the spiritual stuff he talked about. I think if you take in his full body of work and account for his empirical thinking on things like "Anarchist, Voluntaryist, Agnostic about Everything" then his spiritual stuff is properly in context. But I think there is a (mis?)conception that he holds spiritual beliefs ( he may have; I am agnostic on the subject) because of some of the valid parallels to Crowly, McKenna & Watts in his work. But I do think Bobby was an empiricist first and foremost and had a wild penchant for visual and poetic speech second...
Mister Mister Posted December 13, 2014 Posted December 13, 2014 He is not just "into" Discordianism, he is one of its major founders.I was very influenced by RAW and read almost everything I could by him a few years ago. His fiction is the best, really pioneering, humorous, well-researched, nuanced, and never comes to a conclusive end. Along with Pynchon, Vonnegut, and others he is seen as one of the major influential figures in "post-modern" literature. My favorite is the Historical Illuminatus Chronicles, read it!I don't remember him talking much about his childhood except a story where he was taught in Catholic School by Nuns about the book of Job, that the Devil ground up glass into Job's eyes even though Job was a good man, just to prove a point. RAW as a young man lay awake in bed terrified that the Devil would ground up glass into his eyeballs. Later in life he was having eye troubles, and ended up working with a Reichian therapist, who connected the physical pain he was having to its psychological origins in his history. His books "The New Inquisition" about the increasingly rigid dogma of Institutionalized Science and Medicine, and his book "Everything is Under Control" on Conspiracy Theories demonstrated that he was willing to entertain alternative ideas and explore them without judgment, without the emotional need to accept or reject them off the bat. He rejected the certainty both of the mainstream scientiss, and of the New Agers and the conspiracy theory maniacs. That kind of approach really spoke to me, as I found that people either swallowed the "official" narrative on everything, or would swallow every wild idea just to be alternative. What I got from him in general is the value of uncertainty. Of course this is the beginning of philosophy, the humility to admit that you may not know. But unfortunately he just ends with uncertainty as a conclusion rather than a starting point, and gets lost in complete relativism and rejection of Aristotelian Logic and Laws of Identity which I think is a mistake. Also his obsession with Quantum Physics and Transhumanism, both of which I am convinced are in great error, is very problematic with me. But truly an interesting thinker, intelligent, funny, full of compassion and good humor. 1
TheRobin Posted December 19, 2014 Posted December 19, 2014 well, I "only" read Illuminatus and the one with the Multiple Worlds (forgot it's name) and this man is completely batshit. I think if it wasn't for the sex and drug scenes in the books I doubt anyone would care about his ideas.
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