Illumninatus! Author Needs Our Help

Criceratops writes, "Almost every fringe-geek worth their salt has read 'The Illuminatus! Trilogy,' or at least the 'Principia Discordia,' and much of the enlightenment therein came from Robert Anton Wilson. On the eve of 'Xena' being officially named Eris, Douglas Rushkoff's blog reveals that the extremely ill Mr. Wilson can't make his rent. Another testimony to how our society refuses to reward those who enrich it... but not if we can help it!"

If you send him $5, the fnords won't get you.

I bought the Illuminatus! trilogy in college, and it gave me many hours of pleasure--not just from reading the book, but from games, references, in-jokes, cultural bits and bobs and whatnot.

I don't care what he spends his money on, or why he's in trouble, but this is just one of those little bits of culture, like Snow Crash, Neuromancer, Iain Banks' Culture series and any number of other miscellaneous books that contribute to letting me look at life in a more fun way.

I agree with the guy who said "if a bum asks for money, buy him a sandwich". Where this differs is that here's someone who's actually done something cool and worthwhile and inherently nifty.

Re:If you send him $5, the fnords won't get you.

http://www.rawilson.com/ [rawilson.com] - same PayPal address, the author's own site.

Re:If you send him $5, the fnords won't get you.

I agree completely. Even Jesus commanded us all to do background checks before giving a bum an hamburger. That's why he's the savior. He thought of everything!

Re:If you send him $5, the fnords won't get you.

It's truly sad that we cannot just trust those around us

No, it's just sad that you can't let go of $20 without demanding DNA tests and genealogy charts. For me, the website is plausible enough, and the address and everything makes sense, so I'll take the minor chance that my contribution is going to a scammer, or that it's going to the right guy and that he's choosing to use it for something other than rent. Whatever. If either of those turn out to be the case, I will be neither bitter nor angry; it's $20, FFS.

There's no rational reason why it should be so, but karma definitely exists. Just remember this post when the time comes that you genuinely need some minor assistance and people demand urine samples and documentation from lawyers and truestees. "Wow," you will think. "I was a snotty little kid back then." And you will be right.

-b

Payment for his copyrighted work?

Another testimony to how our society refuses to reward those who enrich it... but not if we can help it!"

You posted that on Slashdot, where every third post is a complaint about the tyranny of copyright and payment for the use of intellectual property?

How naive.

Re:Payment for his copyrighted work?

I grow tired of the "Slashdot hates intellectual property rights" argument. I get the sense reading the posts here that very few are against rewarding people that create worthwhile material whether it is music, books, programs or graphical art. What I believe the overwhelming majority here protest is publishers, *AA getting the bulk of profits off the backs of creative geniuses. Also, after paying, "we" want to be able to put it on whatever medium we wish to use what we've already paid for. That's it.

Personally, if I could Paypal bands/artists/creators directly for their works I enjoy, I would. Heck, I'd probably pay again for the same work down the road in the right setting. In the end, the amount they get from me would be substantially higher than what their distributors pay. But that's just me. Your mileage may vary.

Re:Payment for his copyrighted work?

I grow tired of the "Slashdot hates intellectual property rights" argument. I get the sense reading the posts here that very few are against rewarding people that create worthwhile material whether it is music, books, programs or graphical art.

Of course it's not "slashdot" that "hates IP," it's a very noisy, seldom-challenged group of loons that post comments along those lines. The "you shouldn't get to make money later, off of work you did yesterday" crowd is shrill, carping, ridiculous... but also rarely called on what's wrong with their take on things because they also tend to give comfort to people who are too cheap to pay for their entertainment in general.

Personally, if I could Paypal bands/artists/creators directly for their works I enjoy, I would.

And, as is so often pointed out here, you can. Unless the artist has chosen to do business a different way. Most successful/promising ones would rather concentrate on their art, and hire someone to do all of the paperwork, the promotion, the publishing, the legal crap, and so on. Those publishers are sometimes members of a trade association or two, and those trade associations are the pet demons, around here. But people here keep forgetting that many an artists chooses to personally form a studio or a record label so that they can, themselves, help cultivate and promote new talent, and they quickly realize there's a lot to be said for letting a single entity help with their industry representation and other not-about-the-art-itself activities.

So, if you don't like the business decisions that an artist has made (including the media and related DRM-ish stuff that comes with those deals), don't do business with that artist. Couldn't be simpler!

Re:Payment for his copyrighted work?

You posted that on Slashdot, where every third post is a complaint about the tyranny of copyright and payment for the use of intellectual property?

How naive.

You mean the very same slashdot where non-traditional methods of compensating creators are constantly under evalluation and up for debate? Where people recognize that it takes not only time and effort to create something new, but that nothing is ever completely new and that we all stand on the shoulders of the giants who have come before us?

Yes, how naive indeed.

Update to this story - Money raised

FYI there is an update to this posted on BoingBoing yesterday. They were able to raise enough cash to pay for at least the next 2 months rent. Check it out: http://www.boingboing.net/2006/10/03/robert_anton_ wilson_.html [boingboing.net].

Quoting the man

Dr Lecter, my candidate for the male archetype of 1951-2000, will never win any Nice Guy awards, I fear, but he symbolizes our age as totally as Bloom symbolized his. Hannibal's wit, erudition, insight into others, artistic sensitivity, scientific knowledge etc. make him almost a walking one man encyclopedia of Western civilization. As for his "hobbies" as he calls them -- well, according to the World Game Institute, since the end of World War II, in which 60,000,000 human beings were murdered by other human beings, 193, 000,000 more humans have been murdered by other humans in brush wars, revolutions, insurrections etc. What better symbol of our age than a serial killer? Hell, can you think of any recent U.S. President who doesn't belong in the Serial Killer Hall of Fame? And their motives make no more sense, and no less sense, than Dr Lecter's Darwinian one-man effort to rid the planet of those he finds outstandingly loutish and uncouth.

On the strength of that, it's not hard to understand how he ends up being on the fringe of society. Even if he does kind of have a point.

In other news ...

In other news, another 300 cancer patients died today because they couldn't afford the examinations that would have detected their disease earlier, at a preventable stage. Nor could they have afforded the treatment that could have beaten their cancer, even if they'd known about it.

If you're looking for sob stories about nice people falling on hard times, there are for more worthy cases than Robert Anton. Why don't you stop by the local Veterans hospital, or contact the Children's Wish Foundation, if you really have money you feel should be used to help others.

Yes, but

Mr Wilson has clearly given a lot of pleasure to many Slashdot readers. So, as a thank you, some of them might wish to ensure that his last few months of his life more comfortable.

If you're looking to do the most good for the most people per dollar, money invested in, say, vaccine distribution or malaria prevention is always going to outweigh helping anybody living in the West. And that includes US Army veterans and sick kiddies (in fact, the treatment of Western children with life-threatening illnesses is arguably the single most overfunded branch of the medical profession). But it's only human to want to help out those who we feel a connection with in some way. And Mr. Wilson's work has made a connection with many Slashdotters. I'm not among them, I haven't read it. But if, for example, Linus Torvalds or Joss Wheedon turned up destitute on my doorstep, I'd help them out (even though in both cases them ending up destitute would indicate some very poor life decisions), to thank them for what they've given me.

Re:In other news ...

But instead of giving $25 to random folks, I could give that $25 to someone I know.

$23, darling, $23.

Save 2 dollars, and please him even more by showing that you remembered the number.

Ancient Greeks need cash too!

I've heard that the ancient greek civilization has come on hard times too. Since they were the ones who actually created the Eris / Discordia mythology, shouldn't they get a spare dime too? I mean, it's nice to rework some old public domain ideas into a story and copyright it (see Disney), and it's nice to be generous to your fellow man, etc., but I don't get this call to action slashdot article stuff.

I wish it were easier...

...to find out what way is the "best" way to buy published works that funnels the most money back into the content creator's pocket as opposed to the distributor.

Sometimes, it's fairly easy - I prefer to buy CDs at concerts, where a band I already know I like (hey, I did pay for a ticket after all) and possibly some new opening band(s) gets a substantially larger cut of the profit from the sale. Some music and books are also available at the creator's website, particularly if the group or author has a "vanity" label/publisher, and the price is usually comparable to the big-volume retailers.

I don't claim to be a total altruist in the matter, as I do and always will love truly great used book stores (John King's Books in Detroit, anyone?), but in the situation where the price is going to be fairly close (and it often is) from the cheapest method to the one which funnels the most money into the creator's pocket, I'll pay slightly more for the product.

The margin of return to the creator, though, is fairly difficult to pin down in most cases, and where the musicians/authors/etc. know, I appreciate it when they provide that information on their websites.

HUH, Whatever happened

HUH, Whatever happened to christian charity ? I'm not intent on writing flamebate here but really, I for one am sick of people claiming religious morality and sitting on their hands. Oh yeah, I'm an atheist too, but I seem to think that a seventy year old in pain is worth a couple of bucks, and with our health care in canada, well, I know it's just that much harder in the US if you fall ill... Just my two cents. Peace out !

So... why can't I just pay some more taxes...

So that EVERYONE can have good enough, free healthcare, rather than choosing some single lucky soul.

Also, we do value authors - that's why copyrights run out after 25^^50^^75 years so that creators^^^^^large businesses can make money inperpetuity.

Enlightenment Window Manager?

Is someone asleep up there in the editing room? What does a sci-fi author have to do with the Enlightenment [enlightenment.org] window manager? He may have written some nifty (well, strange) books, but AFAIK, he's never coded a epplet in his life. (click the article's icon if you don't know what I'm talking about)

Wrong enlightenment

Am I the only one who was a little confused by seeing the Enlightenment [sourceforge.net] logo up there?

What is he doing

At the risk of sounding like a troll, what is he doing in a private, fee-paying hospital? Is the National Health Service not good enough for bestselling authors?

e17

Who else thoughed at first this was an article
about an enlightenment wm release? heck they even used the icon of e1[67]

i'm all for...

i'm all for helping him out. but instead of doing it because he wrote some geek trilogy, why not because thats what people should do. i happen agree that had he been employeed previously with a steadier job, he might have the money saved to pay his rent, but most of the time i wish i had nothing to do with organized work too.

so, i say give your money to him, but do it for the right reasons. if you wouldn't have given it to anyone, than you're a hypocritical a$$hole

Who's fault is it?

An excerpt from "Wealth of nations" by the father of capitalistic economics, Adam Smith.

"Wherever there is great property, there is great inequality. For one very rich man, there must be at least five hundred of the poor, and the affluence of the few supposes the indigence of the many. [. . .] It is only under the shelter of the civil magistrate [read, the police] that the owner of that valuable property, which is acquired by the labor of many years, or perhaps of many successive generations, can sleep a single night in security."

No comment.

RAW changed my life.

My first exposure to RAW was through the Principia Discordia and the Illuminatus! trilogy, but it was his other books that changed the way I think about a lot of things, Cosmic Trigger and Prometheus Rising especially. Quite honestly, I consider him a great influence, and I suspect there are a lot of others like me. That is why this call for help is meaningful here and elsewhere, and why I'm sending a donation.

Those of you who haven't read any of his work and also feel some sort of strange self-righteous lack of human kindness to the point of telling a terminally ill man to "get a job at Wal-Mart" might do well to never grow old, sick, or widowed.

Good Heart, So What.

I dont know why there are so many out there who could care less about helping others. I think that your careing about someone elses problems says something good about you. But I am in agreement with the others. Why the hell did you waste a perfectly good posting space? You could have put it in a sidenote on something that the others would actually care about. Or even had a web site link to more info if the reader cared about finding out more about it. I say next time think before you post and thanks for letting me know I do like those books as well.

testimony blah blah

"Another testimony to how our society refuses to reward those who enrich it."

Society votes with it's wallets, and deems itself insufficiently enriched.

Damn...

That man is one of my few heroes. Normally I'm of the opinion that I'm doing the world a favor/all the charity I can afford if I'm taking care of myself and not sponging off others. Call it low self-esteem, call it selfish-loutish or anti-social behaviour. I think I'll have to go and order what few books of his I don't have, maybe buy a few I already have and make them this years xmas presents.

Discordianism

Seriously, give the man a break.. This man brought me to the great religion of discordianism [wikipedia.org] brought me to the fold, and reminded me of.. of... dammit, lost my train of coffee... But folks, he really is a great thinker, worth the few pennys, cents, tuppance, whatever, you can toss him. A lot fo his fans (read, me) can't afford to, seeing as we aren't even online as far as finances are concerned.... {they're tracking me, you know}

After having read these post and the article...

I'll comment:

Some of the post here state that, there are people who are worse off and less well known and perhaps such support would be better directed toward them.

Other post questioned why he was receiving private care when he could go to a state hospital.

These are valid points, no argument from me...largely because I don't know much more about him other than he needs help.

However, I'm having difficulty seeing how it follows that it is "morally wrong" or "hypocritical" to provide assistance to someone when:

1) You know they need the help

2) They have, in some way, help you or otherwise enriched your life in the past

3) Maybe you just simply admire them.

If you are moved to help this guy, do so and don't let anyone here call you a "hypocrite". If you're really curious, perhaps use this to learn more about his particular afflicition. Who knows? Someday there may be a fund in his name for this very purpose.

Lance Armstrong's got the "Livestrong" foundation...I wonder what his would be called?

Is there anyone here who hated the book?

God bless the poor guy, and I do feel sorry for him... But I own a copy of this trilogy, and honestly, I tried to read it and couldn't. It was just crap (my opinion, obviously). So I was a little surprised to see so many people here who admired it. Is there anyone here who found it unreadable, like me?

RAW's Life After Death

Robert Anton Wilsons autobiography is titled Cosmic Trigger. There were several updates/sequals including Cosmic Trigger III: My Life After Death [amazon.com]

What the subtitle refers to is the false stories that he was found dead in his home on February 22, 1994 that propagated on the internet and the insights he had from watching the situation unfold [rawilson.com].

I really hope that again the current story is also unfounded. But I am afraid its not, so I will be sending a check.

For all those 'the hippy should gedda job' folks, they might be interested to know that RAW was a (little l) libertarian before it was cool. It fact he was probably one of the seed crystals that fostered the 'coolness' on the internet back in the day.

Also: Former "Playboy Advisor"

R.A.W was an editor at Playboy for several years - his name was on the masthead. Somewhere I have some of those issues. The letters he read must have been great inspiration.

Schrodinger's Cat and The Trick Top Hat were two of the funnest/funniest books I read in my late teens. The Illuminatus Trilogy didn't do much for me, but I do make jokes about the Dog Star from time to time.

Now, I'm going to go Burger.

The story icon threw me

Might be offtopic here, but when I first saw the icon used for the story, I thought to myself "Holy crap E17 [enlightenment.org] released finally! Then I realized that it wasn't an E17 story, and that it also wasn't April first...

I feel I've been wronged in some fashion I can't properly explain.

The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu

I call upon Drummond and Cauty to come forth. The KLF once burnt a million quid made with the indirect help of this mythos.

Humanity

I did not get that the article was, or the comments were saying that the guy is owed something. How about just showing a little humanity and helping out a fellow human being? People now adays have become so cross and disbelieving that it is hard for them to accept the fact that someone might be down and out, and need help...HONESTLY. This person just happened to write books that influenced several generations, take that away, and you still have a human being who needs some help. What say we declare a national "show some damn humanity" day, hell, we have a "Talk like a Pirate" day. Just for the record, I DO NOT give spare change to bums on the sidewalk, nor do I usually fall for the people who are standing along side traffic with a sign that says "Disabled Vetran, Need Help, God Bless". People who genuinely need help, those are the people who I try to help, use your head, and you can usually tell who they are without a lot of strain.

$23.00 Donated

Despite the fact that I've never met the man, and probably never will, Bob has been a great friend to me. I've received enjoyment from his books, I've taken comfort from his ideas and I've spent many hours pondering his philosophy. Now my friend is in need, so I sent him some cash. Perhaps it wasn't much, but it is an amount I know I can afford and since I'm not the only one who counts him as a friend, it'll be multiplied many times over.

Could my donation have done more good if given to a charity? Perhaps so. But I've made donations to Greenpeace, Amnesty International, The St. Vincent DePaul Society, Second Harvest Food bank and others in the past, and I'll continue making such donations.

Ultimately, though, even if I had made no other charitable donations in my life, I'd probably still have donated to help Bob, just because I value what the man has given me and the world. It's worth it to brown bag it for a few days to be able to help Bob out in this small way. If anyone doesn't like that, tough. They have no say in how I dispense my charitable contributions. I wouldn't try to persuade them to donate to Bob against their wishes, so why should they try to persuade anyone not to donate? That so many have tried to do so strikes me as small minded and mean spirited on their part.

I started reading the Illuminatus! Trilogy a...

...few weeks ago. After about 200 pages I gave up. I never give up on books. Well, almost never. But this was the worst written crap I have ever read in my life. I was so let down. This book is a modern icon that has had so many cultural influences. I've had the book on my shelf for many many years. But it was unreadable. It was so bad I could't bear to keep it around the house and sold it again. So here's my recommendation: the idea of the Illuminatus! Trilogy is wonderful. Whatever you do, don't ruin the idea by actually reading the book.

Besides being bad literature it does a terrible job of building up a believable conspiracy theory. This book may have helped create the conspiracy theory genre, but later authors have done so much better with the idea. Even Dan Brown's writing looks good by comparison.

Never read his books, so...

Anyone have a torrent?

less platitudes, more action

pathetic donation made...

He's a Discordian right?

If so, he should embrace the disharmony and chaos that has been set upon him. Evidently he has had too much order in his life.

Choices in life, errr blogs

ok There were about 100 diffeent comments here i wanted to reply to, so i just decided to combine it into one comment of my own:
I have not read his books, but I kow a lot of people who have. many of them are /.'ers. I actually just opened this article to see if it mentioned more about his writing since he came so highly reccomended. I never perceived this article as asking me for money. It is letting those people who have read his works or who hold some respect for him know that he needs help. I am not one of those people so I do not see this article as asking me for anything.
There is no reason to get offended by something you CHOSE to read. There is no reason to announce that we dont know this guy (though I am currently basically doign that hehe).
It is a good service to let the people who would want to know that this man needs help. Those of us who have not been influenced by him can A) wonder why so many were and go read his books and maybe join their ranks, B)move on to other more flamable threads like HP eavesdropping, or C) sit here and bitch about something that really has absolutely no effect on us at all.
I think I will mix a little of A and B together myself.

Come on, people!

Most of the arguments here are whether or not this person is worthy of receiving such donations. Considering that disease & death will spare none of us, and that bad things do happen to good people, how many of us can say with utmost confidence that such a thing will *never* happen to them? I've never read any of his books, but then again, to say that he does / does not deserve anyone's help based on that is just plain callous. Helping, like many other things in life, is not about you. If you are able & willing to help, kudos to you; and if you are not, the least you can do is not to try & discourage those who are.

Email to the Universe?

I guess Email to the Universe didn't sell very well.

Illuminati?

Anyone else read the title and immediately think, "Illuminati?!?" Why do they need my help? Those bastards have been keeping me down for years..."

Look what happened to Nikola Tesla

For such a brillant inventor, he died penniless in the gutter at 86.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla [wikipedia.org]

Perhaps the 'nothing to see here' error...

could be changed to fnord...

Sad News

This is unfortunate that such a great man can fall to such a level after creating so many important and influential pieces of work in his lifetime. RAW is a genius, and his books, of which I owned almost every one, have been a great influence on my life (sometimes to the detriment, but I've always recovered, somewhat ;-) and he is considered on the the greatest "pop" philosophers of our time.

We live in this time of great wealth for some, but in turn, the creators and artists of our world live in squalor; we appreciate and love the work they create, but refuse to give payment, even when it is asked for in great need for help. I know there comments posted here are from the type of people that generally help those in need; I hope that an 'angel' that has been influenced by RAWs work in the past sees this story, investigates, and can give real help to a man that has touches so many lives and minds. I hope to be one someday, it is just too soon for me to be that way, but I plan on it.

Creators do not deserve untold riches for their works, but they do deserve some treatment so that they can survive into old age comfortably. Artists, by nature, are not the most capable of planners, as intelligent and creative as they are. The need to create often succeeds the desire to plan; some get lucky and live well, others not, as we can see here.

I have never met RAW, and unfortunately, may never get to. But I hope such a brilliant man finds the help that he needs to die in comfort and peace. He deserves that.

fiction, fact or satire?

Although i never heard of RAW, i see he was the hero during the New Age era, where
he mixed rare known facts about the Illuminati, with fiction and occasionally added
some jokes. I guess in the heydays of his work he was very popular amongst people
who knew something about this cult.

However things have changed, This Illuminati, Kaballa, Mason stuff has turned out
to be not fiction or satire but the scary truth. Just remember Hugo Chavez's
recent appearance inside the U.N. What happened at the U.N. is of major importance.
Hugo Chavez steals the show at the U.N. quoting from Noam Chomsky latest book
"Hegemony or Survival" [1]. Although wearing a normal suit, he did a almost genuine act
of exorcism from behind the council speakers table:

http://www.niburu.nl/showarticle.php?articleID=143 86 [niburu.nl]
http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2006/9/23/213219/ 005/59#c59 [dailykos.com]
http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_ 23036.shtml [axisoflogic.com]
http://www.counterpunch.org/chavez09202006.html [counterpunch.org]

"The devil is right at home. The devil, the devil himself, is right
in the house.

"And the devil came here yesterday. Yesterday the devil came here.
Right here." [crosses himself] "And it smells of sulfur still today.

Yesterday, ladies and gentlemen, from this rostrum, the president
of the United States, the gentleman to whom I refer as the devil,
came here, talking as if he owned the world. Truly. As the owner of
the world."

The real media file can be found here :

"Hugo Chavez, Venezuelan Pres., at U.N. General Assembly"
rtsp://video.c-span.org/project/ter/ter092006_chav ez.rm

Recently Greg Palast did a exclusive interview with Hugo Chavez from
his home in Venezuela :

"Hugo Chavez: An Exclusive Interview with Greg Palast"
http://www.gregpalast.com/hugo-chavez-an-exclusive -interview-with-greg-palast [gregpalast.com]

pnm:rm.bbc.net.uk/news/olmedia/1985000/video_19856 70_ven22_palast_vi.rm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/ar chive/1985670.stm [bbc.co.uk]

So why is this a important breakthrough? It seems the tide is turning.
If Bushes hegemony was a reality, Hugo Chavez would never been able to
make this speech. Also remember that the President of Iran recently
made his heroic appearance in New York. The crock hunter may have died,
but here's the real hero :

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/iranian-presid ent-steals-the-show-in-new-york/2006/09/22/1158431 902380.html [theage.com.au]

As the plot is folding, the analogy with Tolkiens trilogy, The Lord of
the Rings, is certainly there. "The Evil Eye" on top of the pyramid is
evident. The analogy with the Ring to rule all others Rings may not
seem so straightforward. It seems that this Ring is commonly known as
the holy grail, but the holy grail is a hoax in itself. So what is the
holy grail in fact? Chris Everard from EnigmaTV made a serious attempt
[2] to explain things. He claims that the full knowledge and
understanding of a scripture called The Cabballah is what ordinary man
can give ultimate power with the culmination in power the capability to
kill someone with a

Why do peope continue to think that

if you raight some books, you deserve to be well off for the rest of your life?

Sheesh.

Now, I hope this man gets they money to live comfortably, and I am always glad to see humans act chartitable, but writing books does not, and should not, garantee income forever.

Yes, I have published stories, poems, and over a million line of code, so I do have an intellectual investment into what I am saying.

Enlightenment?

Spiritual event or window manager? One of them has a familiar symbol [sourceforge.net]...

But, hey, every story needs an icon, right?

Dear Eldavojohn

I find your ideas intriguing and would like to subscribe to your newsletter. Yours, Milton Friedman

I wish...

I could have donated this auction to him.

He's probably the reason I had the plate to begin with.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=0 20&item=300035037535&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3 AIT&rd=1 [ebay.com]

In defense of urban living (yeah, more OT)

Lastly, he's lived in Brooklyn his whole life. Fine. I would like to point out, however, that there are many other spots where rent and living is cheaper. I know quite a few small peaceful towns in Minnesota where rent for an apartment is $200/month everywhere.

And let me point out some things. If you live in a major urban area, you're likely to spend more money on rent, but it also become possible to save money in other areas, most notably: you don't need a car. There's likely to be a wide variety of jobs available -- e.g. a struggling writer might do copy-editing or some such to fill in the gaps. Further, someone with a chronic disease like polio might actually be better off living somewhere where public transit actually works, rather than isolating themselves in a sleepy town where they need to get someone else to drive them everywhere. And finally: people are not interchangeable units that you can unplug from one place and plug into another; associations between people matter; culture matters; and hence places matter -- the idea that someone who's lived in an area all their life should just shrug and go "oh well, the yups are moving in, I guess I better bail, hm, rents are cheap in central Texas...", this is in fact a terrible idea, however "practical" and "reasonable" it may seem to you; this sort of thing is a subtle source of some very real problems in American society (a lack of group identity, and hence civic virtue, among others).

As an original playtester of Illuminati

I think we should all go out and buy a DRM-enhanced set of Illumatus books by Robert Anton Wilson.

That way, the embedded RFID chips can be used to complete the grand master plan by the Eco-Terrorists (my idea) to illuminate the Tri-fold Druidic Path and transform our society into a better one in which writers and scientists are treated as gods and business owners and politicians are those we have sentenced for serious crimes against society to serve in such positions with subsistence wages.

Church of the Subgenius

Dunno if this has been posted, but Rev. Stang of the Church of the Subgenius has a writeup about this story: http://revstang.blogspot.com/ [blogspot.com]

Re:I Don't Know, Man

[i] Get a job as a stocker at WalMart and stop being an anarchist/conspiracy theorist (hey, that's what it says on the linked Wikipedia page) refusing to do actual work for money in our 'system'.[/i]

Kind of hard to do that when you're housebound and only have a few months to live, y'know.

And where on earth do you get the assumption that he ever refused to work for money?

Re:Cue all the anarcho-capitalists....

How about some of us who havent read his books consider buying a copy?

Why should I? Fair play, if I come across one of the guys books, and it looks like something I want to read, then I'll buy it. But the tone of your statement above makes it sound like we owe the guy a favour, and I don't see why that should be the case.

Re:Cue all the anarcho-capitalists....

Cos if you buy a copy of one of his books, he'll only get the measley 5% from the publisher

Re:I Don't Know, Man

Get a job as a stocker at WalMart

Did you miss the bit where the article says he's extremely ill? I imagine that a shelf-stacking job isn't a viable option.

Re:I Don't Know, Man

I always find it funny when people try to discourage people from doing good deeds. If you want to start a fund for Robert Jordan I say do it. I won't write a short essay on how I think it's a waste of time and how there may be some hidden agenda to buy drugs with the money.

I understand discouraging people from replying to spam or supporting terrorism, but to discourage people from helping another person just seems like time wasted on everyones part.

Re:I Don't Know, Man

Several things that you supposedly read should have tipped you off.

Summary: "the extremely ill Mr. Wilson can't make his rent"
Article: "whose *infirmity* and depleted finances"
Article: "Bob is a human being in a rather painful fleshsuit"
Article: "I refuse for the history books to say he died alone and destitute"
Wikipedia article (which you say you read) depending on when you read it:
Wikipedia: "This author who has changed the lives of many is dying of post polio syndrome"
Wikipedia: "Robert A. Wilson is currently under hospice care at home with friends and family." ...But you didn't actually read any of this (you even quoted the article wrong after being called out!!). You skimmed a few things, jumped to conclusions, then rushed to get first post by being about as much of an ass about it as possible - revealing how much you're just a sad, sad, excuse for a human being.

RAW himself did not ask for money. A fan of his, however, did. Your high horse died about 2 posts ago, *get off of it*.

Also, you've never once taken a homeless guy into a restaurant. Liar.

Re:I Don't Know, Man

I haven't read any books by him, so maybe I'm really missing out on something. But instead of sending him money, I'd rather send him a letter advising him on how to live a better life throw a steady income job.

You seem supremely qualified to comment, sir. I told Emily Dickinson practically the same thing: "Shut up with that emo shit. It's not paying the bills, and they're looking for a girl to do needlepoint in the village." Sadly, she didn't listen to me, and she died poor, alone, and unappreciated.

Re:I Don't Know, Man

"Get a job as a stocker at WalMart and stop being an anarchist/conspiracy theorist (hey, that's what it says on the linked Wikipedia page) refusing to do actual work for money in our 'system'."

Perhaps you missed the part where he is 74 years old and extremely ill?

I also would like to know more about the why and how he got into his situation, but your comment really seems to be far over the top. Not everybody who is poor is "refusing to do actual work".

Re:I Don't Know, Man

I think the reason is already given: he's ill, and he's receiving hospice care or medical care. Even with insurance, medical bills add up REALLY QUICKLY. For that matter, I don't know how good writer's guild insurance really is (or even if such a thing exists), but I imagine is probably isn't stellar. People can blow through fortunes (like 7 digit fortunes) in a matter of months if there are expensive procedures to be done. I don't know what he makes from book sales or how much he had saved, but he'd have to be a fairly wealthy author in order to absorb modern medical costs without a problem.

Re:I Don't Know, Man

It's not bullshit, but they are businesses with the morals of businesses. And they do drop people unless contractual obligations require that they not.

That said, authors don't have much of a guild. I'd be surprised if they had a group insurance plan. Bob Wilson was crippled with polio as a child, and though he was able to overcome it for years, he also was subject to recurrence (of muscular weakness, not of polio). If he's now both old and sick, he probably can't walk. I'd be surprised if he was insurable for this problem, as it's ... well, not congenital, but definitely pre-existing any possible insurance.

OTOH, a good health plan is contractually obligated to NOT drop you. Such exist. The good ones seem to do reasonably good jobs. (And hospitalization is STILL expensive.)

As for his savings...Bob's books may have sold well for a long period of time, but he was never at the top of the charts. He's never been wealthy, and often lived very near the edge. I'd be surprised if he had any savings. (I'm also fairly certain that the finances would have been managed by his wife, Arlen, who's been dead for years. Also a writer, "relatively successful" [i.e., she's been published in places that paid money, but I don't think enough to live on].)

Writers, painters, musicians...all of these can expect to end life as paupers...if they're lucky. There are exceptions, but that's what they should expect. If Bob was local I'd want to offer him a room and meals. I don't know if I'd be able to, but I'd want to. Unfortunately, he moved away decades ago, and I've lost track of him.

Re:I Don't Know, Man

It's actually a rather complicated situation, and I'm not sure anyone in the US really understands completely how it works. Here is my attempt to explain it anyway.
Basically, medical insurance in theory is supposed to help protect you in the case that you have a bunch of medical bills. In practice what actually happens is that insurance companies either require deductables on the order of thousands of dollars per procedure (where every tiny thing is it's own procedure) or they simply don't cover very much.
Furthermore, unless you're extraordinarily healthy, once you get past a certain age it can be very difficult to get health insurance at all, because insurance companies are afraid you might actually use their services.
Finally on that note, even crappy insurance is extremely expensive- and unless you work for a company who helps pay for it, or are rich, you can't afford health care.
Now, for people who don't have health care, there is Medicaid and Medicare. These are basically government insurance. The problem is that over the last several years they have been gutted to the point where they are even more impotent than they used to be.
Whether you have Medicare or Medicaid or some insurance plan, the bills quickly add up and people are usually left in a situation where they can't afford any more medical treatment. From there the options depend basically on what exactly the person is dying of.
If you get shot/stabbed/dismemebered/etc. Then basically you can walk into any hospital in the US and they are required to give you "stabalizing treatment" - which basically amounts to stopping you from bleeding to death before they take your billing information. For people dying of long term terminal diseases (e.g. cancer, organ failure, etc.) then there are free hospitals. The idea is that when you go to one of these hospitals they take as much as they can get from you, and leave it at that. Of course these hospitals also generally have abysmal quality, so nobody who can afford to pay any medical bills goes to them, so they never get new equipment/have the budget to hire good doctors/etc. This makes a viscous sort of cycle. These also tend to be in rather bad areas in the bigger cities- they mainly serve to tread drug overdoses and gunshot wounds. If you live in a small town and need to get to a hosptial like this- too bad.
Your other choice aside from the free hospital is to go to a hospital that is equipped to give you some of the best medical care in the world, but it basically involves liquidating all of your assets and turning them over to the hospital, then getting as much on credit as you can, then when you have no more to give they cut you off of treatment and transfer you to the free hospital. These hospitals generally aren't equipped to keep up the level of treatment you've been getting, so at this point generally they dope you up on pain killers and let you die.

Re:I Don't Know, Man

Thanks for the info; you've also made me feel infantely better about the NHS, from whom I got anti-epileptic brain surgery absolutely free when I was 15. According to my then conultant only 12 of these particular operations are carried out per year at that hospital (the world renound Great Ormond Street children's hospital). Had we had to pay for it, well I think my parents would still be paying back the debt now, a couple of years short of a decade later.

People continually moan about the state of the NHS, but it's safe to say I'd rather become ill here in the UK than over there in the USA.

Re:I Don't Know, Man

Amen. I've broken a few bones, and had plastic surgery on my ears on the NHS. I guess I should stop being annoyed at how much the government taxes everything, since the NHS sounds so much better than anything Americans will have anytime soon.. :S The pricing does sound extortionate too though. Drug companies must be making a killing (no pun intended).

Re:I Don't Know, Man

This wasn't bad but I think some clarifications might help:

1) It is extremely important to distinguish between employer-provided insurance and privately-purchased insurance. The theoretical purpose of medical insurance is not, as you say, to protect you in case of a large number of bills. It is to pool risk and collect enough money from each insured to cover the cost and a bit of rake-off for the insurer. The purpose of medical insurance *companies* is to make as much money as possible. Therein lies the rub.

Employer-provided insurance tends to be pretty good. Most people work for large companies and these companies use their bulk purchasing power to get something very close to this risk-pooling arrangement. People trying to buy insurance on their own, however, are completely at the mercy of insurance companies. They will face possibly ruinous exclusions, especially the nebulous "pre-existing condition", and a great many hurdles. The insurance companies work hard (which is expensive) to find reasons not to pay the claims of these people.

2) The long-term problem is a bit similar. If you work for a long time for a large company, you are generally well covered until Medicare (*not* Medicaid) kicks in. Increased worker mobility (i.e. decreased job security) makes the insurance problem greater.

3) Medicare hasn't been gutted (though there was a debacle recently with the new PHARMA welfare act, err, new drug benefit) because it is for old people and old people vote. Medicaid has always been pretty crappy because it is for poor people.

4) The US already has a decent program in Medicare and a very good program in the Veteran's Administration Hospitals. However, expanding these programs to universal coverage is politically impossible at the moment.

Even the mediocre NHS is far better (even Canada's crappy system is better though France's system may be best of all) from a coverage per dollar standpoint. The administrative costs associated with the US system are extreme and provide no medical benefit to anyone.

I remain convinced that the US will eventually embrace single-payer under a less corrupt Republican administration (a Nixon-to-China moment if you will) when big business republicans realize they cannot afford it any longer and faux libertarian (that's a bit of snark since I don't believe there are any *real*, i.e. uniformly consistent, libertarians) entrepreneur types realize that the dangers of leaving a job and foregoing insurance can make entrepreneurship far too risky. (I'm not entrepreneurially inclined but if I were, I'd worry a lot less about losing my house since I could always go back to the rat race and rent than losing my insurance since I might get cancer while uninsured and simply die).

Re:I Don't Know, Man

Now you tell me that even if you have health insurance, there's no guarantee that you won't be turned in to soylent green?!

Can anyone explain how your country works in this regard?

As difficult as it is for those of us in less barbaric countries to imagine, you are indeed hung out to dry if your health insurance runs out, and it's only good up to a point. Usually the limit is up to a specific dollar value - or covers treating a given illness for a limited time span. The maximum amount a policy covers it varies depending on the premium you are willing to pay / can afford each month.

Where the system falls down is when someone has a serious long term illness, such as Cancer, and the treatment works, you can easily end up running out of insurance cover 2 or 3 years down the road. When that happens, you have to sell all your possessions (house, car, TV) to pay for the drugs (which are really expensive - often hundreds of USD worth a month). When the money ultimately runs out, and you are lying bed ridden, flat broke in low rent accommodation - having been forced to sell all of your valuable possessions just to stay alive - you simply stop getting the medication you've been getting and you are left to succumb to the illness (that is, to die).

If you have a partner, then they are left with nothing when you die - not even the house you used to live in (because you'll have used up all the money from the life insurance pay out that would already have been made when your condition was diagnosed on the medication you needed to keep you alive), making it a double tragedy for them. I don't know how someone is supposed to get their life back together after something like that.

"Emergency rooms" are required to treat all patients brought in (regardless of insurance or ability to pay), so when you are at the final stage of your illness at deaths door (days, or hours before the end) they will give you medication to control the pain, but that's the extent of the free treatment available (and you / your partner will still get a hefty bill for any services rendered, they just can't - by law - refuse to treat you even if they know for sure you can't pay it).

Scary stuff.

Such is the price people seem willing to pay in return for lower taxation and greater spending power at the checkout.

Re:I Don't Know, Man

The well off person who has millions in the bank to cover all medical eventalities has likely been fortunate enough to have been born with a skill that has enabled them to obtain that money.

Funny. Statistically speaking, the well off person was born into a family that is well off. The secret to wealth is to be born to rich parents, then, since you have money, the money condensation principal kicks in. You can just loan money to those who were born poorer and collect interest.

I've been in tears since this thread started and the thought that America can stand by at let its citizens die sends shivers down my spine.

While the stated goal of pretty much any government program, or lack thereof, is to make people's lives better, we all enter into that with a lot of preconceptions and principals. Americans are predisposed towards independence and each person taking care of themselves. This is reflected in our lack of socialism and in our stance on drugs and firearms. Much of Europe is more predisposed towards placing responsibility on a central authority as is reflected in their beliefs about those same topics. Neither is optimal for quality of life, but it is pretty obvious that overall, Western Europe is closer to the ideal.

If you want to hear some scary numbers take a look at the number of Americans that are financially ruined by medical expenses. I think the last time I heard it was something like 50% of all personal bankruptcies were due to a medical problem.

Re:I Don't Know, Man

Book? Drug addict? Stephen King?

O, Discordia!

Can I buy his book?

If I buy his book, will that help him? Or has he sold the rights on or something?

Re:I Don't Know, Man

if you would have bothered to research just a little, you would've found out why

The general deal is that he's suffering from the more morbid symptoms of post-polio syndrome, can't really walk, has trouble swallowing, and is extremely frail. He has friends serving as fulltime nurses and aids, but doesn't have family capable of providing support. The IRS and medical bills have also worked against his solvency.

Try getting a job with those symptons ..

Re:Cue all the anarcho-capitalists....

You obviously haven't read one of his books... judging from the tone of your post you never will. That's probably for your own good, as you wouldn't grasp them anyway (Yeah, I am soooo 133337 because i read his books). And you know sh*t about him... seems to entitle you at least for some cynicism. I hope you will have the same fate when you grow old. I had a lot of fun while reading his books and will help him out.

Re:Cue all the anarcho-capitalists....

So, I have a job and insurance

He was paralyzed by polio. Try keeping your job and your insurance when you can't even move. I know we have the medical leave act, but I think "I need medical leave for the rest of my life" doesn't count. Even if he had insurance on his own, they'd have almost certainly raised his premium until he was forced to drop it, and if not, he probably hit that 1-2 million dollar lifetime maximum pretty quick by the time he got to 74. Too bad his family isn't rich, the Republicans would be all over it, as long as they weren't the ones that'd have to pay to keep him alive.

It's interesting though. I got a letter from social security telling me that if I became completely disabled today, I'd receive a whopping $160 a month to live off of. The drugs that keep MS from eating my brain cost roughly $20000 a year, and are fortunately covered by my insurance. It certainly would have been a pleasant surprise to discover that the Republicans were actually serious about this "compassionate conservative" thing, but I think it's pretty clear now that they're just full of bullshit.

"Compassionate Conservativism"

A compassionate conservative sees a man and his family eating grass on the side of the road. The CC pulls over and asks "what are you doing?" the man replies, "we are too poor to eat, and cannot find work because of ethnic and religious discrimination". The CC tells him "thats terrible, hop in my car" so the man and his family joyfully get in the car hoping for a hand-up for a job offer of some kind.

After driving a ways, the man asks the CC "So where are we going? Do you know where I can find work?" to which the CC laughs, and says "Oh no heh, I dont have a lawn mower, and the grass is much taller in my yard."
..........
They never understand.

Re:If you're going to donate money...

. . .if you drum up money for someone else, you might have a better chance of succeeding if you ask people to donate to personal accounts of that person. . .

According to Bob's own website the account is his personal PayPal account.

KFG

Re:Cue all the anarcho-capitalists....

So your choice of what car you purchased or what fast food joint you ate at last was compulsary forced on you personally, at gunpoint, by Mike Dukakis and his tank I suppose then?

Re:Cue all the anarcho-capitalists....

In a perfect free-market society, the remedies one needs would cost less, because they wouldn't be patented, being thus manufactured by lots of companies. All goods, including houses and terrains, would cost less, because there would be far less taxes on them, and there would be no additional annual taxes either. Houses would cost way less to build, because the company who makes them would be able to contract extremely cheap labour to build them (persons who would love to receive these low wages, because this is more than the perfect nothing they now receive). Environmental laws, by not existing, would mean the technology used to build the houses, from materials to transportation, would cost less too. And there wouldn't be any laws making more difficult for new house-building companies to enter the market.

As a result, there would be a lot more houses available, driving their prices even further down. And as a secondary result, the monthly house-renting prices would be a lot lower too. All those people who can't currently afford renting a house would afford them, including the cheap-laborers mentioned above.

And this includes Mr. Wilson.

Re:Scam?

It's RAW's paypal account, its even listed on his own website.

Re:I Don't Know, Man

But instead of sending him money, I'd rather send him a letter advising him on how to live a better life throw a steady income job.

You don't get invited to too many parties, do you...

Re:Cue all the anarcho-capitalists....

Hello,

>So, I have a job and insurance, because I don't want to be like this guy.

Trust me, there's no risk you'll ever be like that guy.

Hail Eris!

Re:I Don't Know, Man

When I give money to people on the street asking for it, I take them into the nearest restaurant and order them up a meal and leave.

Sure, but don't you get tired of being beaten up?

Re:Cue all the anarcho-capitalists....

Of course, RAW was one of those anarcho-capitalists and 20 years ago probably would have mocked the idea of helping someone else like that. I love his work, but no longer buy the philosophy behind a lot of it.

Re:I Don't Know, Man

I haven't read any books by him, so maybe I'm really missing out on something. But instead of sending him money, I'd rather send him a letter advising him on how to live a better life throw a steady income job.

Instead of sending him money why not buy one of his books. He should get royalities from that right?

P.S. I haven't read any of his books and doubt I will so I can't say if you're missing out on anything or not.

Re:Cue all the anarcho-capitalists....

How about some of us who havent read his books consider buying a copy?

Buying books is fine, but by the time he gets the tiny royalty from that he'll be dead. And the tiny royalty from a book purchase doesnt't reflect the value received from reading a mind-altering work like Cosmic Trigger.

So send money now. Buy books later.

Re:Cue all the anarcho-capitalists....

If people aren't buying his books, it's probably for a good reason.

Plenty of people have bought his books over the years. Wilson is a well-known author and speaker [rawilson.com]:

Robert Anton Wilson is the coauthor, with Robert Shea, of the underground classic The Illuminatus! Trilogy , which won the 1986 Prometheus Hall of Fame Award. His other writings include Schrodinger's Cat Trilogy, called "the most scientific of all science fiction novels," by New Scientist, and several nonfiction works of Futurist psychology and guerilla ontology, such as Prometheus Rising and The New Inquisition. Wilson, who sees himself as a Futurist, author, and stand-up comic, regularly gives seminars at Eslan and other New Age centers. Wilson has made both a comedy record (Secrets of Power) and a punk rock record (The Chocolate Biscuit Conspiracy), and his play Wilhelm Reich in Hell was performed at the Edmund Burke Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. His novel Illuminatus! was adapted as a 10-hour science fiction rock epic and performed under the patronage of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at Great Britain's National Theatre, where Wilson appeared briefly on stage in a special cameo role. Robert Anton Wilson is also a former editor at Playboy magazine.

If you don't know, or don't like, his work, fine. That's your problem. Go read some other story. But his work is well known among the /. demographic, and some people may want to take action.

Re:I Don't Know, Man

But instead of sending him money, I'd rather send him a letter advising him on how to live a better life throw a steady income job.

RTFA, Jerk. Maybe you can send him a letter advising him "not to die from Post-Polio Syndrome", or not to waste all of his money on needed medical treatment, or maybe you can tell him how it is his own fault for being silly enough to contract Polio (before there was a vaccination for it) in the first place.

Or maybe you could forget the Neocon ideology that holds that everyone in trouble is there because of their own failings. That's just an excuse NOT to care.

And just maybe you could spend a bit of time helping your fellow man rather than preaching at him.

Re:There used to be this guy

Mozart died penniless.

But that was because he was an idiot. Not because he was unsuccesful.

You do what you want, we'll do what we want

No one is forcing you to do anything. We are pressuring you. There's a difference. We are playing on your compassion for other humans. Sick, I know, trying to get you to care about others, what's wrong with us? Don't we understand what America, the free market, personal responsibility and Social Darwinism are all about? This man is sick. Society doesn't value him, he deserves to die.

Okay, enough sarcasm. Here's the deal. We live in a free country. You are free not to help this man. But we are free to call you an asshole to your face. You can't shut us up. You can feel motivated not to help when someone asks for money, and the rest of us will feel motivated to point at you and say, "Look at the poor crippled human, isn't it pathetic, it lacks empathy and compassion and it lives in a hell of its own making because it can not connect with other human beings on a deep and meaningful level. How sad. Glad I'm not like that."

I met Robert Anton Wilson at a conference I was helping give a presentation for in 2000, called Disinfocon. It was put on by disinfo.com, "The yahoo of the weird and unusual." He is a very nice person, very smart, and his books are not garbage. He gave a presentation on the book "Saharasia," by James DeMeo, a student of Wilhelm Reich, which explains the origins of human violence. Very interesting.

You seem to think that because he is poor now, his books must not of sold well. They were on the NY Times best seller list. They are very popular, and every real geek I've ever met has read them. Even if you have not read his books, if you have read any books in the last thirty years chances are you read someone who was deeply influenced by his writings.

I'm truly sad for you. You are obviously missing something which most of the rest of us find to be one of the most important parts of being human. If sharing compassion and empathy were as easy as sharing money, I would give you some of mine.

Re:Cue all the anarcho-capitalists....

You don't even know who RAW is, aren't you?

Okay, here goes: RAW writes books that do, indeed, sell. I own four of them. The Illumninatus! trilogy is the second book on the bibliography of the Hacker's Jargon file. His Schrödinger's Cat trilogy has been called the first quantum sci-fi novel.

His books referenced Buckminister Fuller, Timothy Leary, James Joyce, Aleister Crowley, and Alfred Korzybski, either as geiuses or complete lunatics depending on different character's moods. He's one of the most psychologically aware sci-fi writers, often describing people's 'programming' and 'reality tunnels'.

Frankly, if you don't know who RAW is, I have to question what the hell you're doing posting on slashdot.

So, considering he was a successful writer, or at least as successful as they come, and they won't sell you private insurance if you have post-polio, what exactly should he have done to pay his medical bills?

Re:Cue all the anarcho-capitalists....

Yeah! Luckily, only well-known writer need help in paying their medical bills. There can't possibly be anyone out there in the same situtation who can't appeal to slashdot because he spent his live paving roads that hundreds of thousands of people use every day.