An exploration of “Non-Euclidean Politics”-RAW style
(The following are the class assignments and commentary from “Non-Euclidean Politics,” taught by Robert Anton Wilson at the Maybe Logic Academy.)
Robert Anton Wilson’s final course taught at the Maybe Logic Academy was called ‘Non-Euclidean Politics’ and it covered some of the political and economic theories that most influenced him. The class ran from January 23rd to March 13th, 2006 and was an amazing recap of Wilson’s political philosophy. Wilson, most identified himself as an Anarchist, but with a caveat. His most favored brand of Anarchism was the American Individual Anarchists of the early 20th Century. While some could mistakenly group Wilson in with a number of Libertarians, like Murray Rothbard, who were also influenced by Individualist Anarchists like Benjamin Tucker and Lysander Spooner, Wilson did his own thing with the knowledge. When he did call himself a Libertarian, he mostly called himself a Left-Libertarian. Left-Libertarianism seems to have been more frequently represented in the alternative media than today. Other Left-Libertarians at the were time Timothy Leary, Carl Oglesby, author of The Yankee Cowboy War, and SEK3. Later, Wilson would name check Noam Chomsky’s Left-Libertarianism as something with which he vibed. (Chomsky’s favorite Anarchism is Anarcho-Syndicalism — this is a cool brand of Anarchism that focuses on worker-controlled workplaces.)
I discuss in detail in my upcoming book, Chapel Perilous: The Life and Thought Crimes of Robert Anton Wilson, some of the fundamental influential thinkers in Wilson’s life when it came to his overall philosophy. Tucker is one of those major influential thinkers for Wilson; as is R. Buckminster Fuller, the American inventor, mathematician, and philosopher. Within his Non-Euclidean Politics course at MLA, Wilson consistently drew parallels between the visions of Tucker and Fuller when it came to making things work for everybody on earth.
Before I get ahead of myself, a few more words about Wilson’s words. New Falcon published Wilson’s final book, Email to the Universe in 2005. The book was another omnibus collection of his articles that had been collected on various fan sites over the years. Unlike Leary, Wilson didn’t have an official archivist. Plus, he and his family moved so often that he barely kept any of his own archives. With many unearthed articles now on the web, New Falcon thought it was time for another Wilson book. This book contained a reprint of Wilson’s article ‘Left and Right: A Non-Euclidean Perspective” the contents wherein Wilson unpacked during the course.
Over the course of eight weeks Wilson laid out his lessons. He presented each week with titles that provide insight into his political philosophy. They are as follows: Week 1: Stateless Socialism; Week 2: Socialism and/or Individualism; Week 3: Heritage; Week 4: Alternatives; Week 5: A Good Hen Roost; Week 6: Future Positive; Week 7: The 8-Fold Path; 8: Week A Fuller Universe.
I have posted the assignment from Week 1 of the course on here, along with some of my own brief commentary. (I may circle back to much of this information in future posts.)
The title of Week 1 was Stateless Socialism?! Wilson’s message was clear in his forewords for the class when he wrote that “this class does NOT intend to convert you to one different way of thinking but to introduce you to several alternatives — -systems almost always ignored by the corporate Media and State education.”
How can there be a such thing as “stateless socialism,” when one of the key elements of socialism is to have heavy involvement from the State?
To answer that question and illustrate this paradoxical notion of a socialism without a state, Wilson provided and essay from Benjamin Tucker called “State Socialism and Anarchism,” Lysander Spooner’s Libertarian classic “No Treason,”, and Ezra Pound’s Canto 78 for his The Cantos.
“No Treason” was comprised of essays that dealt with the institution of Slavery. Spooner, an abolitionist, argues in the essays that the US Constitution, if were a document that meant what it said there would be zero slaves. The Constitution, argues Spooner, guaranteed every person born in America the same rights under the law. The reason for this was because every human being, no matter race, color, creed is endowed with the same rights in accordance with Natural Law.
To Spooner then, we are endowed our rights not by the US government, but by our Natural existence. As such to enslave another human being is a direct violation of the US Constitution. Spooner further extrapolates that because Slavery was in existence for so long while the government professed that it adhered, revered, and respected the US Constitution, the document is pure bunk. Therefore, the US Constitutional Holds No Authority over the rights of human beings.
Pound’s Canto 78 from the Cantos was part of the section of the Cantos dedicated to John Adams. They are fitting called “the Adams Cantos.” The jewel of Canto 78, as far as RAW was concerned, is where Pound says that all wars are economic in nature. As Wilson notes, this poem contained the line “there are no righteous wars.” This marks where Wilson’s mind was at in his last days. He was vehemently opposed to the military-industrial complex, and he drew parallels to other artists and thinkers who had examined why wars begin in the first place.
In the week 2 assignment RAW recommended that readers look at four sources in order to reflect on the notion of Socialism aiding in the further refinement of the philosophy of Individualism. In doing so the sources are Oscar Wilde’ essay “The Soul of Man under Socialism,” snippets from the RAW’s Guns n Dope Party, Crowley’s Book of the Law, and some quotes from Benjamin Tucker. Wilson presents his thoughts for this week’s assignment as a quasi-multiple-choice test.
Wilson opens the assignment with the statement, “Socialism will destroy the individualist, artist, bohemian.” Then he presents the multiple-choice answers and drops Wilde’s essay as something for participants to look at and think about the notion of socialism and art as it relates to the notion of the individualist. And of course, the “bohemian,” then after that. There’s lots to unpack with that one.
Wilde’s essay is an outstanding manifesto for the artist as ultimate individualist. It’s the artist who dives deep into the true notion of living as an individual, says Wilde. Individualism is a disruptive and chaotic force and humans are always aiming for something more. Wilde became convinced that anarchism was the ideal societal structure for human to live in.
What stands out as well about Wilde’s essay is his argument that socialism will bring about increased individualism. This sounds like such anathema to many libertarians today, but Wilde’s logic is enticing. Wilde stated that socialism would free people up from menial jobs and provide more free time for them to pursue better uses of their time like Art.
For those familiar with Wilson’s work, Wilde’s essay sounds something like Wilson’s RICH Economy from his book, Schrodinger’s Cat. Wilson’s aim was like Wilde’s. He wanted more time and less money worries to create more Art. He wanted the same for others.
Wilson next asks participants to ponder his ‘Guns and Dope Party,’ which was an idea he promoted beginning in 2003 when he said he was running for California office under the Guns and Dope Party. His logic was that there were more people who smoked weed and more people in favor of carrying arms than any other demographics in California, therefore these two groups should join forces and vote the other parties out of office. A pretty Libertarian take on things.
The GnD Party mission statement was best stated as “we advocate: 1. Guns for those who want them; no guns forced on those who don’t want them (Quakers, pacifists, etc.) 2. Drugs for those who want them. No drugs forced on those who don’t want them; 3. An end to Tsarism and a return to Constitutional democracy; 4. Equal rights for ostriches.” Another interesting topic Wilson raised was the notion of state secession. He explored the idea of California seceding from the rest of the US at the time.
Wilson next asked participants if they thought mysticism and revolutionary movements were always opposed to each other. In doing so, he suggested people look at Crowley’s Book of the Law in these explorations.
One thing that became clear to me while researching and writing Chapel Perilous: The Life and Thought Crimes of Robert Anton Wilson was how isomorphic Magick is with Yoga. In this respect, in thinking about Mysticism and Revolutionaries, one who comes to mind is Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo was a revolutionary in India before becoming a yogic mystic. So, there’s one.
Finally, Wilson asked participants to ponder some of Benjamin Tucker quotes.
A couple of Tucker’s quotes are, “If the individual has a right to govern himself, all external government is tyranny. Hence the necessity of abolishing the state.” And also, “The shortest way to change a radical into a conservative, a liberal into a tyrant, a man into a beast, is to give him power over the fellows.”
In the assignment for this week, Wilson wanted readers to ponder the notion of socialism/anarchism, revolutionaries, and mystics. Politics and mysticism.
In this week’s assignment, Wilson asked participants to look at an essay that described the work of Henry George. George was a journalist in San Francisco, who experienced poverty while things were booming from the Industrial Revolution. The experience led him to examine the economic system of America during that time of rising wealth, for a few. (The full name of the book is Progress and Poverty: An Inquiry into the Cause of Industrial Depressions and of Increase of Want with Increase of want: The Remedy.) Progress and Poverty asked how it was possible for there to be poverty in America when so many people got rich from the Industrial Revolution. The book was a huge best-selling hit which made Geroge famous.
George released the book in 1879, and the photojournalist Jacob Riis said the Progressive Era started in that year because of George’s book. Besides asking why poverty accompanied Economic and Technological progress, George also asked why there were boom and bust cycles within the Capitalist economic system? Why should we accept such a volatile economic super structure? George said the solution was to be found in the LAND. He proposed a ‘Single Tax,’ that would cover the necessities of a society like ours. His ‘Single Tax,’ states that although people should own the value that they produce themselves, like inventions, works of art, etc., Economic Rent derives from land — natural resources, etc. — and the land should belong to EVERYONE.
Next Wilson asked participants to contemplate the Social Credit idea conceived by CH Douglas. Douglas said that economic downturns are caused by the Discrepancy between Cost of Goods and the amount of money paid to the Workers who made them.
Douglas envisioned a government intervening in the economy and providing Debt-Free money to people directly in order to combat the loss of purchasing power that arises in economic systems like ours. He disagreed with the classical economists who say that there are only three factors of Production: Land, Labor, and Capital. Douglas said that Cultural Heritage should also be included I that list of economic factors.
“Cultural Heritage,” says Douglas takes the form of knowledge and techniques that have accumulated within humanity since the beginning of civilization. About all this Douglas wrote, “We are merely the administration of that cultural inheritance, and to the extent the cultural inheritance is the property of all of us, without exception.”
Douglas also believed that economic sabotage has been messing with the economy for too long. He directed readers to look at how accounting methods used by companies finagle the consumer out of even more money as we as now forced to pay for all of the production, including the waste. As a bar fly once told, “Shit rolls downhill.” (Cooking the Books!)
Douglas also claimed that machines will eventually replace most human labor. Instead of panicking society should prepare and pay those workers who are forced into unemployment from the robots taking over their jobs shoveling shit. Douglas says that humans should be paid when robots take over because those Robots are the result of our own Cultural Heritage and therefore belongs to all of us.
By looking at all this it sounds like Douglas would have been in favor of a Guaranteed Annual Wage.Wilson then asks participants to compare Social Credit with ideas from Tucker and Spooner in areas of interest and war.
When it comes to Alternative Currencies, Wilson wrote all this long before Crypto currencies. However, he was hip to the Proto-Crypto take of theories like Tim C May whose work is seen as an influence on the current Crypto world. Wilson was interested in Local Based Alternative Currencies. Things like the Ithaca Hours movement started by Paul Glover.
I studied Alternative Currencies for a while after this class. I even travelled to Ithaca to interview Paul Glover and learn more about Alternative Currencies. I then constructed my own Vision for Alternative Currencies and how they will intersect with the lives of Touring Musicians.
Here is an article I wrote about all this: The Alternative Currents Tour Network | by Propaganda Anonymous | Aug, 2022 | Medium
Finally, Wilson asks participants to read about alternative currencies. Then an article about Korzybski’s notion of ‘Time Binding.’
1. Read this essay about Henry George then Compare George’s ideas about rent with Tuckers ideas.
2. Read a wiki page on Social Credit then compare Spooner and Douglas on the topics of interest and War
3. Read an article on micro-credit, social credit, and local interest free alternative currencies. Then compare Tucker and Douglas.
4. Compare the theories of Douglas, George, Tucker, Spooner, and Korzybski.
As RAW wrote, “CUSS and DISCUSS”
Wilson titled week 4: ALTERNATIVES and in it he explored Alternatives to the corrupted economic systems that currently run the world. He begins this assignment suggesting participants contemplate the notion of what he called “Velocity Money.” Velocity Money is the idea that money needs to circulate within in an economy for that society that uses the money to thrive as a whole. Money is like the blood of the body politic. When blood no longer flows within a body, that body is dead.
Nest Wilson asks MLA’ers to briefly look at the personage and the work of Silvio Gesell. Gesell was a German born economist and writer who briefly settles in Argentina in his life. He moved to Argentina to start a business with his brother, but an economic depression put a kibosh on his mercantile dreams.
This economic depression got Gesell thin king about the structural problems that lay at the heart of the capitalist system. His thoughts and solutions were published in his book, The Natural Economic Order.
Gesell was inspired by the work of Henry George as they share the belief that the earth was for every human being Equally. Gesell disagreed with George’s ‘Single Tax’ solution, however. He believed that Land Reform Taxes would be shuttled onto the backs of the renters of the land that is being taxed. In other words, landlords, in order to not come outta pocket for the tax, will just have the renters pay it in the form of higher rent, etc.
Gesell’s solution to the Land problem was to abolish ALL private ownership of Land and replace the institution with a Public-Lease on Land.
Wilson asked participants to look at The Natural Economic Order. The briefest description of this book and idea is that Gesell believed that Self-Interest was a healthy inclination for humans and instead of being restricted it needs to be supported. Gesell called for Free, fair business competition and called for the Removal of ALL LEGAL AND INHERITED PRIVILEGE.
This would even the playing field and everyone would have to rely on their own hard work to build their wealth. No longer will rich kids born on third, thinking they hit a triple have undeserved power in economic environments. In the Natural Economic Order, it is the most Talented who receive the most financial reward.
When it comes to Velocity Money and Gesell’s Natural Economic Order, Gesell also proposed a new type of currency. He recognized how Compound Interest, which allows people to make money without putting in actual labor — i.e., passive income, throws the notion of economic competition out of whack. Things like Compound Interest make people hold on to and horde money. To Gesell this is slow economic suicide, as again Money is like blood and needs to flow throughout a community for the community to thrive and stay alive.
Gesell proposed a Negative Interest Currency, which loses value the longer someone holds on to it. This is a complete 180 from how our economic system currently functions. Gesell’s Negative Interest Currency would encourage monetary circulation throughout the community, and more opportunity for those with little or no money t gain access to it and create things with it. This, after all, is what Capitalism is Supposed to be about.
I read on Wikipedia that Gesell gets categorized as a “liberal socialist.” The Wikipedia page listed out other ‘Liberal Socialists” as well. I found many names that Wilson writes about. For instance, the British historian RH Tawney gets his own section in the ‘Liberal Socialist” section. I learned about Tawney’s work from reading Wilson and Shea’s Illuminatus! Trilogy. As one of the Appendices of the novel has a short description of the Medieval “Banks of Piety” that were established by the Dominican Order in the (1200s?) to combat the Usurious money lending practices that existed in their region. These Banks of Piety offered money to people without charging Interest on the Loans, thus allowing these poor people to factually build a life without being ass raped by interest charges. The source of this ‘Banks of Piety’ was RH Tawney’s book Religion and the Rise of Capitalism.
Here’s the quote from Illuminatus! About the Banks of Piety:
“There was private money long before there was government money. The first revolutionary (or reformist) use of this idea, as a check against galloping usury and high interest rates, was the foundation of “Banks of Piety” by the Dominican order of the Catholic Church in the late Middle Ages. (See Tawney, Religion and the Rise of Capitalism.) The Dominicans, having discovered that preaching against usury did not deter the usurer, founded their own banks and provided loans without interest; this “ethical competition” (as Josiah Warren later called it) drove the commercial banks out of the areas where the Dominicans practiced it. Similar private currency, loaned at a low rate of interest (but not at no interest), was provided by Scots banks until the British government, acting on behalf of the monopoly of the Bank of England, stopped this exercise of free enterprise. (See Muellen, Free Banking.) The same idea was tried successfully in the American colonies before the Revolution, and again was suppressed by the British government, which some heretical historians regard as a more direct cause of the American Revolution than the taxes mentioned in most schoolbooks. (See Ezra Pound, Impact, and additional sources cited therein.)
During the nineteenth century many anarchists and individualists attempted to issue low-interest or no-interest private currencies. Mutual Banking, by Colonel William Greene, and True Civilization, by Josiah Warren, are records of two such attempts, by their instigators. Lysander Spooner, an anarchist who was also a constitutional lawyer, argued at length that Congress had no authority to suppress such private currencies (see his Our Financiers: Their Ignorance, Usurpations and Frauds). A general overview of such efforts at free enterprise, soon crushed by the Capitalist State, is given by James M. Martin in his Men Against the State, and by Rudolph Rocker in Pioneers of American Freedom_(an ironic title, since his pioneers all lost their major battles). Lawrence Labadie, of Suffern, N.Y., has collected (but not yet published) records of 1,000 such experiments.” (Iluminatus! Trilogy)
Tawney gets listed as a ‘Christian Socialist’ in other descriptions. I find it interesting that within RAW’s badass work of existential rebellion and hedonic engineering is a strong current of Christian mysticism that leans towards Socialist and Anarchist. When one examines writers like Tawney it's not that surprising.
Lastly, Wilson asks participants to read about Wilhelm Reich’s Work-Democracy concept. This is basically Reich’s belief that for fully integrated and functioning humans there really is no such thing as Work. People will Work and Happily so if they have healed the emotional plague that resides in all of all. (I will write more about Reich and hi ideas more in future posts)
Here is one quote from Reich about his concept of ‘Work-Democracy.’
“Work democracy cannot be imposed on people as a political system. It depends on the consciousness on the part of the working people in all professions of their responsibility for the social process. This consciousness may be present, or it may grow in an organic manner, like a tree or an animal organism. The growth of this consciousness of social responsibility is the most important prerequisite for the prevention of the cancer-like growth of political systems in the social organism. If they are allowed to grow, they will sooner or later bring about social chaos. Furthermore, such consciousness of responsibility alone will, in the course of time, bring the institutions of human society into harmony with the natural functions of work democracy. Political systems come and go without stopping or fundamentally changing the social process. But the pulse of human society would stop and not return should the natural life functions of love, work and knowledge cease for only one day. Natural love, vitally necessary work and scientific search are rational life functions. They can inherently be nothing but rational. Consequently, they are diametrically opposed to any kind of irrationalism. Political irrationalism which infests, deforms and destroys our lives, is — in the strictly psychiatric sense — a perversion of social life, caused by the ostracizing of the natural life functions and by their exclusion from the determination of social life.”
War and the men who start them was a topic of Week Five in Wilson’s Non-Euclidean Politics class. RAW begins his lesson with a quote from Pound’s The Cantos.
“War, one after another,
Men start them, who couldn’t put up a good hen-roost.”
RAW’s sourcing of Canto 18 is interesting. The Canto itself is one of my favorite ones from Pound’s confounding text. The Canto begins with some words about Kublai Khan, Genghis Kahn’s grandson. Genghis started the Mongol Empire, which remains the second largest empire in history, second only to the British Empire, during its day in the 13th Century. Next Pound references, or samples, a quote from Napoleon and then quickly transitions into visions of Basil Zaharoff, the Greek born international weapons dealer.
In Canto 18, Pound samples words from Marco Polo, the Venetian traveler and writer, who spent seven years in Khan’s court during his journeys. Polo tells how Khan created a paper currency that had no value other than the word of Khan, who as the Great Khan of the Mongols, had total dominion. In other words, Kublai’s paper money was not based on anything tangible, like paper money is supposed to represent. (These old-timey rulers sound like the original Cosplay LARPer’s don’t they.)
I like this quote from Canto 18; “And the Indian merchants arriving/ Must give up their jewels and take this money in paper.” So, Khan had visitors to his kingdom run the jewels and in exchange he’d give them paper that was only based on his word. (This is all according to Pound.)
One other reason why Canto 18 is so powerful is the attention Pound placed on Basil Zaharoff, who should be more well known today. Zarahoff is perhaps singlehandedly most responsible for the beginning of the Era of the Machine Gun. (It should be noted that in Canto 18, Pound uses a pseudonym for Zarahoff. He calls him Zenos Metevsky.)
In 1888, Zarahoff and Thorsten Nordenfelt teamed up with Hiram Maxim, the inventor of the first automatic machine gun, and formed Maxim Nordenfelt Guns & Ammunitions Co. Two years later, Zarahoff squeezed Nordenfelt out and stayed in biz with Maxim. In 1897, Zarahoff gets Maxim to sell his facilities to him and Vickers, the British machine gun manufacturer. For the next thirty years Zarahoff sold machine guns to everybody. He sold to opposing armies. Thus, making him extremely wealthy. (Seemed like a nice enuff fella)
For reading, Wilson asks participants to look at The Molecular Biology of Paradise by David Pearce. I remember the discussion that this document set off in the class. I found the manifesto’s claims as something not likely to happen soon for humanity, but I let Pearse’s vision take me away while reading it. It’s a great read! I loved that RAW promot4ed it. I remember the first-time reading Prometheus Rising, and Wilson writing about human immortality, and radical life extension. Wilson’s logic blew me away and I remember where I was while reading this.
Now I felt like he was doing it again, and it was dope. Challenge yourself and imagine a Radically Amazing Future for All Sentient beings. One thing that stood out most for me when reading Pearce’s work was his inclusion of All Sentient beings, every living breathing being on this earth, will be taken along the hedonic road of healing and good health. Happiness increases Exponentially! Once we figure out how to cleanse ourselves from the genetic inheritance of shitty feelings and aggression and learn, through science and technology, to increase joy in life the world will get better. It makes sense that Wilson was interested in this text. Take a look at Pearce’s manifesto here: The Hedonistic Imperative — Abstract (hedweb.com)
RAW next asked participants to do some exercises in General Semantics, which you can go find yourself, ya lazy bum!
Lastly, Wilson asked participants to look at Bucky Fuller’s “World Game.” This was Fuller’s answer to War Games, those mega conference events where grown adults think of all the ways to murder large segments of the human population in the name of Victory. Fuller wanted to create the alternative that coincided with his overall vision for humanity of advantaging all without disadvantaging the many. The idea was to “make the world work for 100% of humanity in the shortest possible time through spontaneous cooperation without ecological damage or disadvantage to anyone,” thus increasing the quality of life for all people.
It was in the Non-Euclidean class where I first learned about Fuller’s World Game scenario. I found it deeply inspiring, as is most of Fuller’s work. I first learned about Fuller’s work through reading RAW. Wilson’s inclusion of Fuller as a character in Illuminatus! Trilogy made Fuller sound like an amazingly important thinker and someone I needed to look up. I read a number of Fuller’s books thereafter. Critical Path remains a hugely influential work from the time I first read it in my early 20s. I remember reading in the book some statement he write about how many people in the developed world engage in pointless work. Work that does not to benefit humanity as a whole nor themselves in the long run. He said that roughly 60% of jobs could be categorized as such. (Do not quote me on that. But read Critical Path and tell me if I got that number correct or not.) Reading that sentence made confirmed my resolve that I was not going to waste my time working some dead-end job for the rest of my life. Instead, I have worked a series of dead-end jobs for short periods of time. I’ve been able to create Art within the moments of reprieve from having to grovel to pay for food, clothes, and shelter. As Ricky’s dad tells Bubs in Trailer Park Boys, “That’s just the way of the Road, Bubs. The Way of the Road.”
I was so inspired by Fuller’s World Game scenario that I took part in a collaboration between the Buckminster Fuller Institute and the United Nations in the summer of 2006 or 2007 at the United Nations. I’d make sure to smoke a fat blunt every morning before arriving at the UN. Just cause, ya know.
Week 6 of the course was in Feb 2006, when Wilson’s Post-Polio was getting worse, and his IRS problems had been hounding him. (What IRS problems you ask? Well, dear reader, you have to read the book Chapel Perilous: The Life and Thought Crimes of Robert Anton Wilson to find out.)
Needless to say, Wilson’s physical body was not doing well. He may have, at this point, been knowing and accepting of his impending demise. Which makes the titles for Week 6 even more interesting. “Future Positive” was the title and that is where Wilson’s mind was focused.
That said, he was physically frail at this point and Lance Bauscher, director of Maybe Logic-the Wilson documentary, had most likely been transcribing RAW’s words for his MLA responses by this point. So, the week’s assignments were light and somewhat repetitive of earlier weeks assignments. They appear as four bullet-points with little explanation.
First, RAW asks MLA’ers to look at an article that discussed Time Binding and Synergy theory. Time Binding is a notion thought up by Korzybski which, very briefly, says that because humans have the capability of creating maps, artifacts, inventions, books, scientific theories, we are able to learn things quicker because earlier humans figured it out and documented it for others to observe. This act of Map Making is what makes humans different says K.
Synergy theory, again super simply put, basically says that people can create more with less energetic expenditure when more people (but not too many) are involved.
The work of K and Fuller complement each other nicely. Bruce Kodish and Susan Presby Kodish, in their book, Drive Yourself Sane, noted that General Semantics helps people evaluate events with more refinement than how we usually interpret events. Drive Yourself Sane, noted that General Semantics helps people evaluate events with more refinement than how we usually interpret events.
Buckminster Fuller’s focus, which he called, Anticipatory Design Science, was to begin from the farthest direction outward and work your way in. Korzybski, again, focuses from inward to outward. (Bruce Kodish has talked about this in his work.)
Another interesting tidbit Wilson dropped in Week 6 was a link that talked about Social Credit being fought for in China. I am unaware if that specific Social Credit campaign kicked off in China or not.
RAW’s last note asked MLA’ers to look at his TSOG ideas about a mystical tsarism erupting within US medical field. One of Wilson’s main philosophical and medical concerns for the future of humanity at this stage in his life was the cessation of pain. He found very little use how Pain has developed in the human animal and was thinking of ways that would help alleviate such pain. That’s one reason he enjoyed Pearce’s Molecular Biology of Paradise. It’s also a reason he loved Weed so damn much too.
Week Seven’s assignment was presented in four simple points. The first two were dedicated to The Octave of Energy, a theory that was originally conceived by the ancient Greek philosopher Pythagoras, and a topic RAW wrote about over his career. In the assignment, Wilson asked participants to read his article “The Octave of Energy,” and to then say whether they thought the theory would fit under the categories of Mysticism, Materialism, “a masterful synthesis of Eastern and Western psychology,” or “just a lot of blather.”
Here’s RAW’s ‘Octave of Energy’ article: The Octave of Energy.
RAW’s Octave of Energy article presents the Leary-Wilson ‘8 Circuit Model of Intelligence,’ and synthesizes it with GI Gurdjieff’s 8 Levels of Consciousness, Leary was also influenced by Gurdjieff’s psychological system, as Gurdjieff also utilizes the metaphor of the Octave within his own psychological theories.
Next Wilson asked participants to consider whether “we” should follow faith-based systems of research-based systems?” While this sounds like a vague question, RAW was referring to something specific. In 2001, George W. Bush established the Office for Faith-Based Initiatives wherein Churches, and other religious organizations could receive funding from the US government. This, of course, pissed RAW off, as he was always quick to remind people that the America was NOT a nation built on religion, as the founders were mostly Deists. This has been true ever since the Treaty of Tripoli which declares America NOT a Christian nation. The whole point of America is about the Separation of Church and State. Bush’s plan to provide federal funding for “faith-based initiatives” contradicted the Separation of Church and State.
Here is a link to the George W Bush library providing a description of what the Bush administration was seeking to do with their ‘Faith based initiatives.’ Office Of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives | George W. Bush Library (georgewbushlibrary.gov)
And here’s an article written in 2007 detailing why Bush’s Faith-based initiatives failed. The Bush Faith-Based Initiative: Why It Failed — Capital Research Center
Lastly, RAW asked participants to read an article about Silvio Gesell’s theories found in an article he provided. Here is a link I found from a person who started a YouTube Channel discussing the ideas of Gesell.
Wilson titled the final week of his class, “A Fuller Universe,” which reflected the focus of the week being the work of Buckminster Fuller.
One thing I remember RAW saying in this class was that he was seeking to show that Benjamin Tucker’s “Non-Coercive” society (RAW also called this “a Non-Zero-Sum Society”) was similar to Fuller’s notion of Advantaging all without disadvantaging any. Fuller provided a map for people all over the world to cooperate and utilize world resources to make humanity greater as a whole. Instead, world leaders constantly fearfully backstep into modes of savagery which pits nations, and people, in intense competition for resources.
Fuller and Wilson are also clear that most, if not All Wars, begin over Resources. As humanity violent resists the disruptions brought on by this age of global climate, viruses, and economic collapse, the last thing we should be doing is gearing up for another World War. Which is exactly what seems to be happening. That is unless, Everyday People can Stop It.
RAW’s focus on Fuller’s World Game seems like something the World can could benefit from right now. Perhaps the sooner people, and the governments elected by the people learn the ways of the World Game the sooner we may all avert War and ensure Peace.
Lastly, RAW asked participants to critique Benjamin Tucker and Silvio Gesell’s economic ideas from Bucky Fuller lens.
What did Gandhi say about Civilization?
