Robert Anton Wilson

Robert Anton Wilson, anarchist philosopher, humorist, and essayist, is sadly no longer with us as of yesterday. He will be deeply missed by freedom-lovers everywhere. This information thanks to the Void

http://johnnyvoid.blogspot.com/2007/01/all-hail-eris.html

Robert Anton Wilson probably did more to popularize anarchism in the English speaking world than probably any other contemporary person. His humourous novels, the most famous of which was the Illuminatus Trilogy, co-authored with the late Bob Shea, as well as a series of other novels such as Cosmic Trigger were read by hundreds of thousands of people. Not only did he populate his books with anarchists, Wobblies and all sorts of other freedom-seeking folk, but he made the reader aware of their ideas. But he did not stop with anarchism as a political or social ideal, but created his own distinct anarchist philosophy based upon his study of Semantics, psychology and the functioning of the human brain. He did this at a time when most anarchists remained trapped within 19^th Century philosophies and a minority rejected scientific rationalism altogether. Wilson avoided both New Age irrationalism and the vulgar rationalism of the pseudo-skeptic. In his anti-dogmatic and thus genuine scientific viewpoint, almost anything was possible, but possibility did not mean that an alleged phenomenon necessarily existed. Wilson was open to the Marvelous, to Freedom, yet did not dance off the edge of the cliff.