A voluntary association or union (also sometimes called a voluntary organization, unincorporated association, or just an association) is a group of individuals who enter into an agreement as volunteers to form a body (or organization) to accomplish a purpose.^{[citation needed]}

Strictly speaking, in many jurisdictions no formalities are necessary to start an association. In some jurisdictions, there is a minimum for the number of persons starting an association. Some jurisdictions require that the association register with the police or other official body to inform the public of the association's existence. This could be a tool of political control, and also a way of protecting the economy from fraud. In many such jurisdictions, only a registered association is a juristic person whose membership is not responsible for the financial acts of the association. Any group of persons may, of course, work as an association but in such case, the persons making a transaction in the name of the association all take responsibility for it.^{[citation needed]}

Legal status[link]

An unincorporated association has been defined as existing:

"...where two or more persons are bound together for one or more common purposes by mutual undertakings, each having mutual duties and obligations, in an organisation which has rules identifying in whom control of the organization and its funds are vested, and which can be joined or left at will."^[1]

In most countries, an unincorporated association does not have separate legal personality, and few members of the association usually enjoy limited liability.^[2] However, in some countries they are treated as having separate legal personality for tax purposes.^[3] However, because of their lack of legal personality, legacies to unincorporated associations are sometimes subject to general common law prohibitions against purpose trusts.

Associations that are organized for profit or financial gain are usually called partnerships.^[4] A special kind of partnership is a co-operative which is usually founded on one person—one vote principle and distributes its profits according to the amount of goods produced or bought by the members. Associations may take the form of a non-profit organization or they may be not-for-profit corporations; this does not mean that the association cannot make benefits from its activity, but all the benefits must be reinvested. Most associations have some kind of document or documents that regulate the way in which the body meets and operates. Such an instrument is often called the organization's bylaws, regulations, or agreement of association.^{[citation needed]}

Civil law[link]

Under certain civil-law systems, associations are considered a special form of contractual relationship.

Australia[link]

In most Australian states a similar set of laws allows not-for-profit associations to become legal entities with a limit to the liability of their members. An example of such a law, the Associations Incorporation Act (South Australia)^[5], allows for the creation of a legal entity able to buy and sell land and in general enter into legally binding contracts. Many clubs and societies begin life as an unincorporated body and seek to attain incorporated status to protect its members from legal liability and in many cases to seek government financial assistance only available to an incorporated body. Clubs and Societies wishing to incorporate must meet the provisions of the relevant state act and lodge their constitution with the corresponding state government authority.^{[citation needed]}

Canada[link]

Under the Quebec Civil Code an association is categorized as a type of statutory specific contract set forth in a constitution. An association can become incorporated with its own legal identity so that it may, e.g., open a bank account, enter into contracts (rent real estate, hire employees, take out an insurance policy), or sue or be sued.^{[citation needed]}

France[link]

In France, all voluntary associations are non-profit and are either unincorporated (association non-déclarée) or incorporated (association déclarée), public (association d'utilité publique) or private, and are created in terms of and governed by the Waldeck-Rousseau Act 1901. This is why association loi 1901 is subjoined to their name, except in Alsace-Moselle which is governed by local law in this regard (the area was German in 1901) and are therefore called association loi 1908.^{[citation needed]}

Germany[link]

The German Civil Code sets out different rights and rules for unincorporated associations (nicht eingetragener Verein) with legal identity (Vereine, art. 21-79 BGB) versus incorporated associations (eingetragener Verein) with full legal personality, which, in the eyes of the law, are treated as partnerships (Gesellschaften, art. 705-740 BGB). Associations can be for-profit (wirtschaftlicher Verein), non-for-profit (Idealverein), or public (gemeinnütziger Verein).^{[citation needed]}

United States[link]

In Texas, state law has statutes concerning unincorporated non-profit associations that allow unincorporated associations that meet certain criteria to operate as entities independent of their members, with the right to own property, make contracts, sue and be sued, with limited liability for their officers and members.^{[citation needed]}

Freedom of association[link]

The freedom of association stands in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:^{[citation needed]}

Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights also protects the right to freedom of assembly and association.

See also[link]

• Active citizenship
• Anarchism
• Club
• Collective
• Cooperative
• Eingetragener Verein
• Ry
• Society
• Swiss Verein
• Voluntaryism

Notes[link]

References[link]

• For English law on Unincorporated Associations see:Ashton & Reid on Clubs and Associations, Jordans, 2nd ed (2011); Stewart, Campbell, Baughen 'The Law of Unincorporated Associations', OUP (2011).

Robert Anton Wilson
At the National Theatre, London, for the 10-hour stage version of Illuminatus! in 1977
Born	Robert Edward Wilson (1932-01-18)January 18, 1932 Brooklyn, New York
Died	January 11, 2007(2007-01-11) (aged 74) Capitola, California
Spouse(s)	Arlen Riley Wilson
Influences Aleister Crowley · Buckminster Fuller · George Gurdjieff · James Joyce · Alfred Korzybski · Friedrich Nietzsche · Ezra Pound · Wilhelm Reich · Erwin Schrödinger · Lysander Spooner · Benjamin Tucker · Ludwig Wittgenstein ·

Robert Anton Wilson (born Robert Edward Wilson, January 18, 1932 – January 11, 2007), known to friends as "Bob", was an American author and polymath who became at various times a novelist, philosopher, psychologist, essayist, editor, playwright, poet, futurist, civil libertarian^[1] and self-described agnostic mystic. Recognized as an episkopos, pope, and saint of Discordianism, Wilson helped publicize the group through his writings, interviews, and strolls.^{[clarification needed]}

Wilson described his work as an "attempt to break down conditioned associations, to look at the world in a new way, with many models recognized as models or maps, and no one model elevated to the truth".^[2] His goal being "to try to get people into a state of generalized agnosticism, not agnosticism about God alone but agnosticism about everything" (cf. solipsism, acatalepsia, Pyrrhonism).^[3]

Early life[link]

"Is", "is." "is"—the idiocy of the word haunts me. If it were abolished, human thought might begin to make sense. I don't know what anything "is"; I only know how it seems to me at this moment.

— Robert Anton Wilson, The Historical Illuminatus, as spoken by Sigismundo Celine.

Wilson, born Robert Edward Wilson in Methodist Hospital, in Brooklyn, New York, spent his first years in Flatbush, and moved with his family to Gerritsen Beach around the age of 4 or 5, where they stayed until he turned 13. He suffered from polio as a child, and found generally effective treatment with the Kenny Method (created by Elizabeth Kenny) which the American Medical Association repudiated at that time. Polio's effects remained with Wilson throughout his life, usually manifesting as minor muscle spasms causing him to use a cane occasionally until 2000, when he experienced a major bout with post-polio syndrome that would continue until his death.

Wilson attended Catholic grammar school, most likely the school associated with Gerritsen Beach's Resurrection Church^{[citation needed]}. He attended Brooklyn Technical High School to remove himself from the Catholic influence. While working as an ambulance driver Wilson attended New York University, studying engineering and mathematics.

He worked as an engineering aide, a salesman, a copywriter, and as associate editor of Playboy magazine from 1965 to 1971. Wilson adopted his maternal grandfather's name, Anton, for his writings, at first telling himself that he would save the "Edward" for when he wrote the Great American Novel and later finding that "Robert Anton Wilson" had become an established identity.

In 1979 he received a Ph.D. in psychology from Paideia University in California,^[4] an unaccredited institution that has since closed.^[5][6] Wilson reworked his dissertation, and it found publication in 1983 as Prometheus Rising.

Wilson married freelance writer and poet Arlen Riley in 1958; they had four children. Their youngest daughter Luna—beaten to death in an apparent robbery in the store where she worked in 1976 at the age of 15—became the first person to have her brain preserved by the Bay Area Cryonics Society.^[7] Arlen Riley Wilson died in 1999 following a series of strokes.^[8][9]

[edit] The Illuminatus! Trilogy

Among Wilson's 35 books,^[10] and many other works, perhaps his best-known volumes remain the cult classic series^[11] The Illuminatus! Trilogy (1975), co-authored with Robert Shea. Advertised as "a fairy tale for paranoids," the three books--The Eye in the Pyramid, The Golden Apple, and Leviathan, soon offered as a single volume—philosophically and humorously examined, among many other themes, occult and magical symbolism and history, the counterculture of the 1960s, secret societies, data concerning author H.P. Lovecraft and author and occultist Aleister Crowley, and American paranoia about conspiracies and conspiracy theories.

Wilson and Shea derived much of the odder material from letters sent to Playboy magazine while they worked as the editors of the Playboy Forum.^[12] The books mixed true information with imaginative fiction to engage the reader in what Wilson called "guerrilla ontology" which he apparently referred to as "Operation Mindfuck" in Illuminatus! The trilogy also outlined a set of libertarian and anarchist axioms known as Celine's Laws (named after Hagbard Celine, a character in Illuminatus!), concepts Wilson revisited several times in other writings.

Among the many subplots of Illuminatus! one addresses biological warfare and the overriding of the United States Bill of Rights, another gives a detailed account of the John F. Kennedy assassination, in which no fewer than five snipers, all working for different causes, prepared to shoot Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, and the book's climax occurs at a rock concert where the audience collectively face the danger of becoming a mass human sacrifice.

Illuminatus! popularized Discordianism and the use of the term "fnord". It incorporates experimental prose styles influenced by writers such as William S. Burroughs, James Joyce, and Ezra Pound.^[13] Although Shea and Wilson never partnered on such a scale again, Wilson continued to expand upon the themes of the Illuminatus! books throughout his writing career. Most of his later fiction contains cross-over characters from "The Sex Magicians" (Wilson's first novel, written before the release of Illuminatus!, which includes many of his same characters) and The Illuminatus! Trilogy.

Illuminatus! won the Prometheus Hall of Fame award for science fiction in 1986, has many international editions, and found adaptation for the stage when Ken Campbell produced it as a ten-hour epic drama. It also appeared as a Steve Jackson role-playing card game called Illuminati and a trading-card game called Illuminati: New World Order. Eye N Apple Productions and Rip Off Press produced a comic book version of the trilogy.

On the Illuminati[link]

Near the end of his life, Richard Metzger interviewed Robert Anton Wilson and asked him about the Illuminati. His answer was:

Richard Metzger: You have studied the Illuminati for years. Have you come to any conclusion about their aims?

Robert Anton Wilson: Usually when people ask me that question, I give them some kind of a put-on, but I can't think of a good and original put-on that I haven't done several times before. So I'll tell you the truth, for once. After investigating the Illuminati and their critics for the last 30 years, I think the Illuminati was a short lived society of free thinkers and democratic reformers that formed a secret society within Freemasonry, using Freemasonry as a cover so they could plot to overthrow all the kings in Europe and the Pope. I'm very happy that they succeeded in overthrowing all the kings, I just wish that they had completed the job and gotten rid of the Royal family in England too, but they did pretty well on the continent. I'm sorry they haven't finished off the Pope yet, either, but I think they're still working on the project and I wish them luck.

— Disinformation: the interviews. By Richard Metzger.^[14]

[edit] Schrödinger's Cat Trilogy, The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles, and Masks of the Illuminati

Wilson wrote two more popular fiction series. The first, a trilogy later published as a single volume, was Schrödinger's Cat. The second, The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles, appeared as three books. In-between publishing the two trilogies Wilson released a stand-alone novel, Masks of the Illuminati (1981), which fits into, due to the main character's ancestry, The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles' timeline and, while published earlier, could qualify for the fourth volume in that series.

Schrödinger's Cat consists of three volumes: The Universe Next Door, The Trick Top Hat, and The Homing Pigeons. Wilson set the three books in differing alternative universes, and most of the characters remain almost the same but may have slightly different names and different careers and background stories. The books cover the fields of quantum mechanics and the varied philosophies and explanations that exist within the science. The single volume describes itself as a magical textbook and a type of initiation, and implies that some people have gone slightly insane just by reading it. The single-volume edition omits many entire pages and has many other omissions when compared with the original separate books.

The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles, composed of The Earth Will Shake (1982), The Widow's Son (1985), and Nature's God (1991), follows the timelines of several characters through different generations, time periods, and countries. The books cover, among many other topics, the history, legacy, and rituals of the Illuminati and related groups.

Masks of the Illuminati, featuring historical characters in a fictionized setting, contains a great deal of occult data. Intermixing Albert Einstein, James Joyce, Aleister Crowley, Sigmund Freud and others, the book focuses on Pan and other occult icons, ideas, and practices.

Plays and screenplays[link]

A play by Wilson, Wilhelm Reich in Hell (published as a book in 1987 and first performed at the Edmund Burke Theatre in Dublin, in San Francisco, and in Los Angeles) included many factual and fictional characters, including Marilyn Monroe, Uncle Sam, and Wilhelm Reich himself. Wilson also wrote and published as books two screenplays, not yet produced: Reality Is What You Can Get Away With: an Illustrated Screenplay (1992) and The Walls Came Tumbling Down (1997).

[edit] The Cosmic Trigger series and other books

In the nonfiction and partly autobiographical Cosmic Trigger I: The Final Secret of the Illuminati (1977) and its two sequels, as well as in many other works, Wilson examined Freemasons, Discordianism, Sufism, the Illuminati, Futurology, Zen Buddhism, Dennis and Terence McKenna, Jack Parsons, the occult practices of Aleister Crowley and G.I. Gurdjieff, Yoga, and many other esoteric or counterculture philosophies, personalities, and occurrences.

Wilson advocated Timothy Leary's eight circuit model of consciousness and neurosomatic/linguistic engineering, which he wrote about in many books including Prometheus Rising (1983, revised 1997) and again in 1990 with Quantum Psychology (which contain practical techniques intended to help one break free of one's "reality tunnels"). With Leary, he helped promote the futurist ideas of space migration, intelligence increase, and life extension, which they combined to form the word symbol SMI²LE.

Wilson's 1986 book, The New Inquisition, argues that whatever reality consists of it actually would seem much weirder than we commonly imagine. It cites, among other sources, Bell's theorem and Alain Aspect's experimental proof of Bell's to suggest that mainstream science has a strong materialist bias, and that in fact modern physics may have already disproved materialist metaphysics.

Wilson also supported the work and utopian theories of Buckminster Fuller and examined the theories of Charles Fort. He and Loren Coleman became friends,^[15] as he did with media theorist Marshall McLuhan and Neuro Linguistic Programming co-founder Richard Bandler, with whom he taught workshops. He also admired James Joyce, and wrote extensive commentaries on the author and on two of Joyce's novels, Finnegans Wake and Ulysses, in his 1988 book Coincidance: A Head Test.^[16]

Although Wilson often lampooned and criticized some New Age beliefs, bookstores specializing in New Age material often sell his books. Wilson, a well-known author in occult and Neo-Pagan circles, used Aleister Crowley as a main character in his 1981 novel Masks of the Illuminati, included some elements of H. P. Lovecraft's work in his novels, and at times claimed to have perceived encounters with magical "entities" (when asked whether these entities seemed "real", he answered they seemed "real enough," although "not as real as the IRS" but "easier to get rid of", and later decided that his experiences may have emerged from "just my right brain hemisphere talking to my left").^[17] He warned against beginners using occult practice, since to rush into such practices and the resulting "energies" they unleash could lead people to "go totally nuts".^[18]

Wilson also criticized scientific types with overly rigid belief systems, equating them with religious fundamentalists in their fanaticism. In a 1988 interview, when asked about his newly-published book The New Inquisition: Irrational Rationalism and the Citadel of Science, Wilson commented: "I coined the term irrational rationalism because those people claim to be rationalists, but they're governed by such a heavy body of taboos. They're so fearful, and so hostile, and so narrow, and frightened, and uptight and dogmatic... I wrote this book because I got tired satirizing fundamentalist Christianity... I decided to satirize fundamentalist materialism for a change, because the two are equally comical... The materialist fundamentalists are funnier than the Christian fundamentalists, because they think they're rational! ...They're never skeptical about anything except the things they have a prejudice against. None of them ever says anything skeptical about the AMA, or about anything in establishment science or any entrenched dogma. They're only skeptical about new ideas that frighten them. They're actually dogmatically committed to what they were taught when they were in college..."^[19]

Probability reliance[link]

In a 2003 interview with High Times magazine, Wilson described himself as "model-agnostic" which he said "consists of never regarding any model or map of the universe with total 100% belief or total 100% denial. Following Korzybski, I put things in probabilities, not absolutes... My only originality lies in applying this zetetic attitude outside the hardest of the hard sciences, physics, to softer sciences and then to non-sciences like politics, ideology, jury verdicts and, of course, conspiracy theory".^[20]

Wilson claimed in Cosmic Trigger: Volume 1 "not to believe anything", since "belief is the death of intelligence".^[21] He described this approach as "Maybe Logic."

Wilson wrote about this and other topics in articles for the cyberpunk magazine Mondo 2000.^[22]

Economic thought[link]

Robert Anton Wilson favored a form of Basic Income Guarantee; synthesizing several ideas under the acronym RICH. His ideas are set forth in the essay "The RICH Economy" found in The Illuminati Papers.^[23]

Other activities[link]

Robert Anton Wilson and his wife Arlen Riley Wilson founded the Institute for the Study of the Human Future in 1975.

From 1982 until his death, Wilson had a business relationship with the Association for Consciousness Exploration, which hosted his first on-stage dialogue with his long-time friend Timothy Leary.^[24] entitled The Inner Frontier.^[25][26][27] Wilson dedicated his book The New Inquisition to A.C.E.'s co-directors, Jeff Rosenbaum and Joseph Rothenberg.

Wilson speaking at the Phenomicon

Wilson also joined the Church of the SubGenius, who referred to him as Pope Bob.^[28] He contributed to their literature, including the book Three-Fisted Tales of "Bob", and shared a stage with their founder, Rev. Ivan Stang, on several occasions. Wilson also founded the Guns and Dope Party^[29] and its corresponding Burning Man theme camp.^{[citation needed]}

As a member of the Board of Advisors of the Fully Informed Jury Association, Wilson worked to inform the public about jury nullification, the right of jurors to nullify a law they deem unjust.^[30] He supported and wrote about E-Prime, a form of English lacking all "be" verbs (words such as "is", "are", "was", "were" etc.), and preferred the term "maybe logic".^[31]

A decades-long researcher into drugs and a strong opponent of what he called "the war on some drugs", Wilson participated as a Special Guest in the week-long 1999 Annual Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam,^[32] and used and often promoted the use of medical marijuana.^[33]

Wilson co-founded and became the primary instructor of the Maybe Logic Academy, named for his agnostic approach to all knowledge. Fellow instructors include Patricia Monaghan, Rev. Ivan Stang, Philip H. Farber, Antero Alli, Peter J. Carroll, Starhawk, R. U. Sirius, Douglas Rushkoff, Erik Davis, Lon Milo Duquette, and David Jay Brown.

Death[link]

On June 22, 2006, Huffington Post blogger Paul Krassner reported that Robert Anton Wilson was under hospice care at home with friends and family.^[34] On October 2, 2006 Douglas Rushkoff reported that Wilson was in severe financial trouble.^[35] Slashdot, Boing Boing, and the Church of the SubGenius also picked up on the story, linking to Rushkoff's appeal.^[36][37] As his webpage reported on October 10, these efforts succeeded beyond expectation and raised a sum which would have supported him for at least six months. Obviously touched by the great outpouring of support, on October 5, 2006, Wilson left the following comment on his personal website, expressing his gratitude:

Dear Friends, my God, what can I say. I am dumbfounded, flabbergasted, and totally stunned by the charity and compassion that has poured in here the last three days.

To steal from Jack Benny, "I do not deserve this, but I also have severe leg problems and I don't deserve them either."

Because he was a kind man as well as a funny one, Benny was beloved. I find it hard to believe that I am equally beloved and especially that I deserve such love.

Whoever you are, wherever you are, know that my love is with you.

You have all reminded me that despite George W. Bush and all his cohorts, there is still a lot of beautiful kindness in the world.

Blessings,

Robert Anton Wilson

—^[38]

On January 6, Wilson wrote on his blog that according to several medical authorities, he would likely only have between two days and two months left to live.^[39] He closed this message with "I look forward without dogmatic optimism but without dread. I love you all and I deeply implore you to keep the lasagna flying. Please pardon my levity, I don't see how to take death seriously. It seems absurd." He died peacefully five days later, on January 11 at 4:50 a.m. Pacific time.^[40] After his cremation on January 18, and his family-held memorial service on February 18, 2007, his family scattered most of his ashes at the same spot as his wife's - off the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk in Santa Cruz, California.^[41][42]

A tribute show to Wilson, organized by Coldcut and Mixmaster Morris and performed in London as a part of the "Ether 07 Festival" held at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on March 18, 2007, also included Ken Campbell, Bill Drummond and Alan Moore.^[43]

Works[link]

Bibliography[link]

Fiction[link]

• The Sex Magicians (1973)
• The Illuminatus! Trilogy (1975) (with Robert Shea)
  • The Eye in the Pyramid
  • The Golden Apple
  • Leviathan
• Schrödinger's Cat Trilogy (1979–1981)
  • The Universe Next Door
  • The Trick Top Hat
  • The Homing Pigeons
• Masks of the Illuminati (1981)
• The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles
  • The Earth Will Shake (1982)
  • The Widow's Son (1985)
  • Nature's God (1988)

Autobiographical and philosophical trilogy[link]

• Cosmic Trigger Trilogy
  • Cosmic Trigger I: The Final Secret of the Illuminati (1977)
  • Cosmic Trigger II: Down to Earth (1992)
  • Cosmic Trigger III: My Life After Death (1995)

Plays and screenplays[link]

• Wilhelm Reich in Hell (1987)
• Reality Is What You Can Get Away With (1992; revised edition—new introduction added—1996)
• The Walls Came Tumbling Down (1997)

Non-fiction[link]

• Playboy's Book of Forbidden Words (1972)
• Sex and Drugs: A Journey Beyond Limits (1973)
• The Book of the Breast (1974)
• Neuropolitics (1978) (with Timothy Leary and George Koopman)
• The Game of Life (1979) (with Timothy Leary)
• Prometheus Rising (1983)

• The New Inquisition (1986)
• Natural Law, or Don't Put a Rubber on Your Willy (1987)

• Neuropolitique (1988) (with Timothy Leary & George Koopman) revision of Neuropolitics
• Sex, Drugs and Magick: A Journey Beyond Limits (1988) revision, with new introduction, of Sex and Drugs: A Journey Beyond Limits
• Ishtar Rising (1989) revision of The Book of the Breast
• Quantum Psychology (1990)
• Everything Is Under Control: Conspiracies, Cults and Cover-ups (1998) (with Miriam Joan Hill)
• TSOG: The Thing That Ate the Constitution (2002)

Essay collections[link]

• Email to the universe and other alterations of consciousness (2005) collection of essays and new material
• Coincidance: A Head Test (1988) essays and new material
• The Illuminati Papers (1980) collection of essays and new material
• Right Where You Are Sitting Now (1983) collection of essays and new material

Editor[link]

• Semiotext(e) SF (1989) (anthology, editor, with Rudy Rucker and Peter Lamborn Wilson)
• Chaos and Beyond (1994) (editor and primary author)

Discography[link]

• A Meeting with Robert Anton Wilson (ACE) cassette
• Religion for the Hell of It (ACE) cassette
• H.O.M.E.s on LaGrange (ACE) cassette
• The New Inquisition (ACE) cassette
• The H.E.A.D. Revolution (ACE) cassette and CD
• Prometheus Rising (ACE) cassette
• The Inner Frontier (with Timothy Leary) (ACE) cassette
• The Magickal Movement: Present & Future (with Margot Adler, Isaac Bonewits & Selena Fox) (ACE) Panel Discussion - cassette
• Magick Changing the World, the World Changing Magick (ACE) Panel Discussion - cassette
• The Self in Transformation (ACE) Panel Discussion - cassette
• The Once & Future Legend (with Ivan Stang, Robert Shea and others) (ACE) Panel Discussion - cassette
• What IS the Conspiracy, Anyway? (ACE) Panel Discussion - cassette
• The Chocolate-Biscuit Conspiracy album with The Golden Horde (1984)
• Twelve Eggs in a Basket CD
• Robert Anton Wilson On Finnegans Wake and Joseph Campbell (interview by Faustin Bray and Brian Wallace) (1988) 2 CD Set Sound Photosynthesis
• Acceleration of Knowledge (1991) cassette
• Secrets of Power comedy cassette
• Robert Anton Wilson Explains Everything: or Old Bob Exposes His Ignorance (July 30, 2005) Sounds True ISBN 1-59179-375-0, ISBN 978-1-59179-375-5

Filmography[link]

Actor[link]

• Túneis da Realidade, Os (a.k.a. Who Is the Master Who Makes the Grass Green?) (1996) Edgar Pêra (Portugal)
• Manual de Evasão (September 16, 1994) Edgar Pêra (Portugal)

Writer[link]

• Wilhelm Reich in Hell (2005) (Video) Deepleaf Productions

Himself[link]

• Children of the Revolution: Tune Back In (2005) Revolutionary Child Productions
• The Gospel According to Philip K. Dick (2001) TKO Productions
• 23 (1998) (23 - Nichts ist so wie es scheint) Claussen & Wöbke Filmproduktion GmbH (Germany)
• Arise! The SubGenius Video (1992) (V) (a.k.a. Arise! SubGenius Recruitment Film #16) The SubGenius Foundation (USA)
• Borders (1989) Co-Directions Inc. (TV documentary)
• Fear In The Night: Demons, Incest and UFOs (1993) Video - Trajectories
• Twelve Eggs in a Box: Myth, Ritual and the Jury System (1994) Video - Trajectories
• Everything Is Under Control: Robert Anton Wilson in Interview (1998) Video - Trajectories

Documentary[link]

• Maybe Logic: The Lives and Ideas of Robert Anton Wilson, a documentary featuring selections from over 25 years of Wilson footage, released on DVD in North America on May 30, 2006.^[44]

See also[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Robert Anton Wilson

• Official website, now maintained by his family
• RAW Data 2.0, Wilson's blog, now maintained by his daughter, Christina
• RAW Data, Wilson's first blog
• Guns and Dope Party, Political party created by Wilson and Olga Struthio
• Maybe Logic - The Lives and Ideas of Robert Anton Wilson
• Right Where You Are Sitting Now Podcast Extensive two-hour Robert Anton Wilson tribute podcast, featuring audio clips, and interviews with friends of Wilson.
• A collection of RAW audio/video from his publisher A collection of RAW audio/video from his publisher
• Robert Anton Wilson at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Works by or about Robert Anton Wilson in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

v t e Recreational drug use Major recreational drugs Opioids Buprenorphine (Subutex · Suboxone) Codeine Dextropropoxyphene (Darvon · Darvocet) Diamorphine (heroin) \ Morphine (Opium) Hydrocodone Hydromorphone (Dilaudid) Methadone Mitragyna speciosa (Kratom) Oxycodone Depressants Barbiturates Benzodiazepines Ethanol (Alcoholic beverages) GHB Kava Nonbenzodiazepines Stimulants Amphetamine Arecoline (Areca) Betel Caffeine (Coffee Tea) Cathinone (Khat) Cocaine (Coca) Ephedrine (Ephedra) Mephedrone Methamphetamine Methylphenidate Nicotine (Tobacco) Theobromine (Cocoa) Entactogens MDA MDMA (Ecstasy) Hallucinogens Psychedelics Bufotenin Psychoactive toads Vilca Yopo DMT (Ayahuasca) LSA LSD-25 Mescaline Peruvian Torch Peyote San Pedro Psilocybin \ Psilocin (Psilocybin mushrooms) Dissociatives DXM Inhalants Nitrous oxide alkyl nitrites – poppers, such as amyl nitrite Ketamine MXE Muscimol (Amanita muscaria) PCP Salvinorin A (Salvia divinorum) Deliriants Atropine and Scopolamine Datura Deadly Nightshade Henbane Mandrake Dimenhydrinate Diphenhydramine Cannabinoids JWH-018 THC (Cannabis Hashish Hash oil) Oneirogens Calea zacatechichi Silene capensis Drug culture Cannabis 420 Cannabis cultivation Cannabis smoking Legal history of cannabis in the United States Legality of cannabis Marijuana Policy Project Medical cannabis NORML Religious and spiritual use of cannabis Stoner film Psychedelic Art Drug Experience Literature Music Other Club drug Counterculture of the 1960s Dance party Drug paraphernalia Drug tourism Entheogen Hippie Party and play Poly drug use Rave Self-medication Sex and drugs Problems with drug use Abuse Dependence Prevention Opioid replacement therapy Rehabilitation Responsible use Drug-related crime Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder Illegal drug trade Long-term effects of cannabis Neurotoxicity Overdose Date-rape drug Passive smoking (of tobacco or other substances) Legality of drug use International 1961 Narcotic Drugs 1971 Psychotropic Substances 1988 Drug Trafficking Cannabis reform at the international level State level Drug policy Decriminalization Prohibition Supply reduction Policy reform Demand reduction Drug Policy Alliance Harm reduction Law Enforcement Against Prohibition Liberalization Students for Sensible Drug Policy Transform Drug Policy Foundation Drug policy by country Australia Canada Germany India Netherlands Portugal Sweden Switzerland Soviet Union United States Just Say No Office of National Drug Control Policy School district drug policies California Colorado Maryland Virginia Other Arguments for and against drug prohibition Capital punishment for drug trafficking Designer drug Drug court Drug possession Drug test Hard and soft drugs Illegal drug trade in Colombia Mexican Drug War Narc Opium production in Afghanistan Politics of drug abuse War on Drugs Zero tolerance Lists of countries by... Alcohol consumption Cannabis legality Annual use Lifetime use Cigarette consumption Cocaine use Opiates use

Étienne de La Boétie (French: [etjɛn də la bɔeˈsi] ( listen); [bwaˈti] or [bɔeˈti] in local Périgord dialect;^[1] 1 November 1530, Sarlat-la-Canéda – 18 August 1563) was a French judge, writer, anarchist,^[2] and "a founder of modern political philosophy in France."^[3] He "has been best remembered as the great and close friend of the eminent essayist Michel de Montaigne, in one of history's most notable friendships."^[3]

Life[link]

"La Boétie was born in Sarlat, in the Périgord region of southwest France, in 1530, to an aristocratic family. His father was a royal official of the Périgord region and his mother was the sister of the president of the Bordeaux Parlement (assembly of lawyers). Orphaned at an early age, he was brought up by his uncle and namesake, the curate of Bouilbonnas, and received his law degree from the University of Orléans in 1553. His great and precocious ability earned La Boétie a royal appointment to the Bordeaux Parlement the following year, despite his being under the minimum age. There he pursued a distinguished career as judge and diplomatic negotiator until his untimely death in 1563, at the age of thirty-two. La Boétie was also a distinguished poet and humanist, translating Xenophon and Plutarch, and being closely connected with the leading young Pleiade group of poets, including Pierre Ronsard, Jean Dorat, and Jean-Antoine de Baif."^[3]

He served with Montaigne in the Bordeaux parlement and is immortalized in Montaigne's essay on friendship.

Writings[link]

La Boétie’s writings include a few sonnets, translations from the classics, and an essay attacking absolute monarchy and tyranny in general, Discours de la servitude volontaire ou le Contr'un (Discourse on Voluntary Servitude, or the Anti-Dictator).

The essay asserts that tyrants have power because the people give it to them. Liberty has been abandoned once by society, which afterward stayed corrupted and prefers the slavery of the courtesan to the freedom of one who refuses to dominate as he refuses to obey. Thus, La Boétie linked together obedience and domination, a relationship which would be later theorised by latter anarchist thinkers. By advocating a solution of simply refusing to support the tyrant, he became one of the earliest advocates of civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance. Lew Rockwell summarizes La Boétie’s political philosophy as follows:

To him, the great mystery of politics was obedience to rulers. Why in the world do people agree to be looted and otherwise oppressed by government overlords? It is not just fear, Boetie explains in “The Discourse on Voluntary Servitude,” for our consent is required. And that consent can be non-violently withdrawn.^[2]

It was once thought, following Montaigne's claims, that La Boétie wrote the essay in 1549 at the age of eighteen but recent authorities argue that it is "likely that the Discourse was written in 1552 or 1553, at the age of twenty-two, while La Boétie was at the university."^[4] Some Montaigne scholars have argued that the essay was in fact the work of Montaigne himself. The essay was circulated privately and not published until 1576 after La Boétie's death. He died at Germignan near Bordeaux in 1563. His last days are described in a long letter from Montaigne to his own father.

References[link]

Constructs such as ibid., loc. cit. and idem are discouraged by Wikipedia's style guide for footnotes, as they are easily broken. Please improve this article by replacing them with named references (quick guide), or an abbreviated title. (July 2010)

1. ^ Paul Bonnefon, Œuvres complètes d'Estienne de La Boétie (Bordeaux: C. Gounouilhou, and Paris: J. Rouam et Cie., 1892), pp. 385-6 (available online in pdf format at Gallica).
2. ^ ^{a b} Rockwell, Lew (2011-02-11) Étienne de la Boetie and Egypt, LewRockwell.com
3. ^ ^{a b c} Rothbard, Murray, Ending Tyranny Without Violence
4. ^ Ibid., p. 38 n. 2. "Having remained long in manuscript, the actual date of writing the Discourse of Voluntary Servitude remains a matter of dispute. It seems clear, however, and has been so accepted by recent authorities, that Montaigne's published story that La Boétie wrote the Discourse at the age of eighteen or even of sixteen was incorrect. Montaigne's statement, as we shall see further below, was probably part of his later campaign to guard his dead friend's reputation by dissociating him from the revolutionary Huguenots who were claiming La Boétie's pamphlet for their own. Extreme youth tended to cast the Discourse in the light of a work so youthful that the radical content was hardly to be taken seriously as the views of the author. Internal evidence as well as the erudition expressed in the work make it likely that the Discourse was written in 1552 or 1553, at the age of twenty-two, while La Boétie was at the university. See Bonnefon, op. cit., pp. 390-1; and Donald Frame, Montaigne: A Biography (New York: Harcourt Brace, & World, 1965), p. 71" (37-38 n. 2).

Bibliography[link]

• Œuvres complètes, Editions William Blake & Co., 1991. ISBN 2-905810-60-2
• Discours de la servitude volontaire, Editions Mille et une nuits, 1997. ISBN 2-910233-94-4
• Discours de la servitude volontaire, Editions Flammarion, 1993. ISBN 2-08-070394-3
• The Politics of Obedience: The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude, translated by Harry Kurz and with an introduction by Murray Rothbard, Montrèal/New York/London: Black Rose Books, 1997. ISBN 1-55164-089-0
• The Politics of Obedience: The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude, translated by Harry Kurz and with an introduction by Murray Rothbard, Free Life Editions, 1975. ISBN 0-914156-11-X

Secondary sources[link]

• Keohane, Nannerl O. ‘The Radical Humanism of Étienne de la Boétie’, Journal of the History of Ideas. 38:119-130, 1977.
• Lablénie, Edmond. ‘L’Énigme de la “Servitude Volontaire”’, Revue du seizième siècle. 17:203-227, 1930. [French]
• Podoksik, Efraim. ‘Estienne de La Boëtie and the Politics of Obedience’, Bibliothèque d’Humanisme et Renaissance. LXV(1): 83-95, 2003.
• Rothbard, Murray. 'Ending Tyranny Without Violence', originally titled The Political Thought of Étienne de La Boétie

External links[link]

Find more about Étienne de La Boétie on Wikipedia's sister projects:
	Quotations from Wikiquote
	Source texts from Wikisource

• The Politics of Obedience: The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude, from The Ludwig von Mises Institute, Online Edition (PDF).
• (English) Discours de la servitude volontaire, translated and with an introduction about its reception.
• (French) Text on Wikisource.
• Poetry (in French).
• (Dutch) Vertoog over de Vrijwillige Slavernij (pdf)
• Etiennedelaboetie.net – Website dedicated to the works and life of Etienne de La Boétie
• Don't Vote Party – Perhaps some of Boétie's thoughts in action.
• Ending Tyranny Without Violence(The Political Thought of Étienne de La Boétie) by Murray N. Rothbard.