Two quotes on my mind tonight:

1. From The Job interviews with William S. Burroughs:

Q: Are they happy anywhere?

A: They’re certainly happier in Spain with all the poverty than they are in Sweden with all the prosperity and their high living standard.

Q: But then, Spain is a good example of a highly controlled country with a repressive government, a religious bugbear - just about everything…

A: Just about everything. They have all sorts of troubles. But you see, poverty keeps people busy. You see happiness there in the faces of the people on the streets that you do not see on Swedish streets.

This interview took place in the 70s when Spain was still under Franco. With regard to the question of “being busy” read this and consider what many (most?) of us are “busy” doing in modern post-industrial society.

2. Reality Sandwich interview with R.U. Sirius:

Q: It seems equally possible that we will be thrust into some kind of totalitarian technological hell in which our every movement is watched and our perceptions are closely monitored, a la A Scanner Darkly or 1984. It’s interesting to observe how a force as powerful as technology can simultaneously invoke great dread or great hope in people based on different perspectives of its usefulness in our lives.

A: Yeah, I think that’s actually more of a parallel vision than an opposite vision. These technologies could solve problems and not be disastrous in a physical sense, but they seem to almost inevitably bring on the death of the Western concept of privacy. The scenario could be hellish, considering the current political dynamics: authoritarian tendencies married to paranoias about security are at war with authoritarian outsider anti-imperialists who hate technology and modernity.

But I don’t think the scenario will necessarily be particularly hellish. It could easily resolve into a very liberal control system. In some interview during the ’80s, someone asked William Burroughs about Brave New World and he said (in that great Burroughs voice), “I think it would be an improvement.” I can imagine a very liberal society – pampered by machines – in which people are free to carry on wild festivities in the hippie/pagan/Burning Man traditions, or do just about whatever pleases them, and where the margins on behavior are set really wide, but if you slip over those margins, everybody immediately knows about it and your brain is instantly corrected so that you can’t do that taboo thing again. Instant rehab!

Which of course makes me think of the movie Zardoz

Read it at H+

One gripe: why is a publication so obsessed with the future stuck replicated the decidedly past format of print magazine? The do better than anyone I’ve seen at making this quasi-print webzine into a true hypermedia object with permalinks to specific articles and a search functionality. But they are still stuck replicating the past.

That aside, I’m looking forward to reading this.

New Leary book with an introduction by R.U. Sirius:

Psychedelic guru, Timothy Leary was a psychologist who experimented, wrote and lectured about his investigations of mind-expanding drugs. Here is a collection of just some of his effusive output, much of it written as it happened.

Follow Leary as he drops acid at a prison with inmates, raises his children while the adults are “swimming on a sea of jewels,” becomes incarcerated, escapes prison, and generally expounds upon the politics of mind-altering substances before and after they become “controlled substances” in the U.S.A.

This is an authorized collection of Leary’s writings and lectures, and includes a dozen photos from the Timothy Leary Archive. Drawings by Jared Power.

Leary on Drugs at re/search publications

R.U. Sirius, the editor of the seminal Mondo 2000 and about a billion other things is back with a new project: H+, a transhumanist web magazine. The first issue include Aubrey de Grey, Charlie Stross, Cory Doctorow, Warren Ellis, and much more.

H+

(via Dose Nation)

Before leaving this question behind, I want to say that I’m personally very unenlightened and not a dropped-out Taoist blockhead master by a long shot. In fact, I despise being perceived by people with money, power, and influence as “marginal.” I think it harms me - it assumes that I can’t have as much agency in this world as they have. I think there’s some kind of dynamic at work there where those with a certain lingering market-consensus mentality assert their dominance by taming people and ideas that might otherwise be challenging. They do this by “loving” outsiders qua outsiders, and defining them within the marketspace as having there own little place of acceptance - a place on the far end of the “long tail.”

Full Story: Reality Sandwich.

Before The Open Source Party. Before The Guns and Dope Party. Before The Revolution Party. In 1969, Timothy Leary ran for governor of California against Ronald Reagan. The motto was “Come together - join the party” and John Lennon originally wrote the song “Come Together” for Leary.

According to a letter from Leary published in Mondo 2000 # 6 in 1992, this was Leary’s platform:

1. the basic function of government is to protect individuals against organized gangs and groups.

2. Decentralization: California secedes from the USSA.

3. Another basic function of govt. is to entertain/educate.

4. The government makes a profit. Instead of paying taxes, the citizen received dividends.

5. The profits derived from licensing pleasures: Marijuana license like an auto license/registration, hard liquor, gambling; prostitutes were professionals like dentists or lawyers; LSD, etc., used in state parks or theme parks; Entry taxes - California would be like an amusement park - entrance fees and daily residence fees; Education - California specializes in education - non-Californians paid substantial fees.

The only other info I could find about the platform:

Revealing part of his guber-natorial platform for the first time, Leary pledged solutions to California’s 10 major political problems.

He leaked out only a few of those solutions, but what did emerge was unique — to say the least.

“I’m going to legalize marijuana and charge a $1,000 a year permit fee for those who want to make it,” he said.

“Given the size of California population, that will generate a huge amount of additional revenue each year.

“Then I’ll turn that money over to the police and the forces of the right wing to keep them happy and off people’s backs,” Leary explained.

Wouldn’t that be discriminating against the poor who can’t afford $1,000 a year for the privilege of turning on? he was asked.

“That’s not really a problem,” he explained, “because it’s only a short-term situation — in five years I’ll eliminate all money from Californian society and return to a barter system.”

(Source)

R.U. Sirius has setup a site for a new project: the Open Source Political Party. It appears to be a relaunching of his old Revolution Party idea, but more… serious.

The Revolution Party was a huge influence on me. I’ve always had a sort of mix of libertarian and progressive ideals, and the Revolution Party platform was the first I saw that tried to reconcile both modes of thinking.

In college, I tried to start a Washington State Revolution Party. We had a couple meetings, but the interest just wasn’t there. I went on to spend some time working with the local Democratic Party and doing community work, and after the crushing defeat of the Dems in 2002, decided that the voting public was still pretty far from supporting progressive or libertarian policies.

It wasn’t long after that “Dean-mania” hit and suddenly the “netroots” was born. 2004 came and went, but people were looking to the successes of Democrats in the “libertarian” mountain-west (such as Brian Schweitzer in Montana and Dave Freudenthal in Wyoming) as the model for the future of the Democrats. Looking back it was an exciting time. Reid seemed to be whipping the remaining Dems into some sort of a cohesive opposition party, and Howard Dean become the DNC chairman, pushing “50 State Strategy.” In 2005 I started Rose Colored News, partially to track the successes of this “new progressivism.” The crowning achievement of the netroots movement came in 2006, with the Democrats taking back both the Senate and the House and of course wins by Jim Webb and Jon Tester.

But this year has been a big disappointment. Back in charge, the Dems seem to have accomplished precious little and have taken to playing it safe now that they’re in charge (Reid has been particularly infuriating). The netroots hasn’t really found a candidate in the Democratic presidential race, instead splintering support amongst pretty much everyone running. Meanwhile, Ron Paul has become the Republican Howard Dean, preventing a sort of libertarian/progressive coalition from forming around any Democratic presidential candidate (Richardson and Gravel seem like particularly choice candidates for something like this).

I guess maybe it’s because it’s more fun to root for the underdog that I’ve found myself drifting back over to the thought of 3rd parties, so I guess the timing of R.U.’s new party is apt. But I can’t really get that excited about the prospect of starting a whole new party from the ground up. Lately I’ve been more interested in stuff like Kevin Zeese’s run for senate in Maryland on a Libertarian-Green-Populist fusion ticket, and the libertarian Freedom Democrats.

I’ve actually been working on an Extreme Democracy inspired “open political platform” myself. The basic idea is not a platform for a party, but a collection of policies and solutions that can be modified and used by candidates running for different offices on different party tickets. So I’m sure I’ll participating in the Open Source Party, at least in the platform discussions. Maybe this will finally motivate me to get my stuff into some sort of presentable form.

So, what made Mondo 2000 so special? It was, in my opinion, the best alternative culture magazine that America ever had. They wrote about smart drugs, brain implants, virtual reality, cyberpunk, Cthulhupunk and cryogenics. They covered Laibach and Lydia Lunch in the same issue. The pantheon of writers was a force to be reckoned with: Bruce Sterling, Robert Anton Wilson, and William Gibson all lent their talents, and there was even a Burroughs vs. Leary interview face-off. Then there was the famous U2-Negativland interview, in which Negativland, disguised as reporters, interviewed U2 into a corner to reveal the band’s hypocrisy over their lawsuit against Negativland over sampling. All in all, the magazine took risks. ‘The good dream for me and Mondo,’ said editor R.U. Sirius in an interview with Purple Prose, ‘is overcoming the limits of biology without necessarily leaving sensuality or sexuality behind.’ Issue after issue, Mondo 2000 threw a sexy dystopian bash and invited the decade’s best thinkers.

Full Story: Coilhouse. And be sure to read Joshua Ellis’s comment!

See also: My 2002 interview with R.U. Sirius.

Viking Youth Power Hour: Drone on the Range.

G-Spot: The Secret Meeting.

RU Sirius Show: San Francisco Mayoral Candidate Chicken John.

NeoFiles Show: True Mutations Live! at City Lights (Part 1).

RU Sirius Show: Counterculture, Burning Man & Commerce with Larry Harvey.

Viking Youth Power Hour: Ibrahim for Citizen.

RU Sirius Show: Just Say NOSO - No Social Networking.

NeoFiles Show: Rule The Web with Mark Frauenfelder.

RU Sirius Show: Cartoons For Little Hippies.

RU Sirius Show: Tony Serra Keeps People Out of Iron Cages.

NeoFiles Show: Moira Gunn’s Biotech Nation.

RU Sirius Show: Cyborgs & Revolution.

Plus Ultra Podcast: Plus Ultra Phunny Pharm Medical Medley.

Viking Youth Power Hour: The Vikings Scope ‘Sicko!’

Gspot: Secrets, Cubes and Corporations: An Interview With Douglas Rushkoff.

RU Sirius Show: Free Paris Hilton!.

NeoFiles Show: From Vioxx To Salvia - Everybody Takes Drugs.

RU Sirius Show: Hip Hop & Hyphy Now.

RU Sirius Show: Will We Be Forced To Stop Global Warming?.

NeoFiles Show: Steve Wozniak Talks About His Favorite Pranks.

RU Sirius Show #116: The Kennedy Brothers v. The National Security Establishment.

The Viking Youth Power Hour: It Ain’t Easy Being Green.

RU Sirius Show: Legalize It!

NeoFiles Show: Kevin Poulsen’s Threat Level is A OK.

Sorry, I’ve been slacking on these…

The Viking Youth Power Hour:

Summer Blockbusters!.

Chicago Police Torture.

Greening The Man!.

R.U. Sirius Show:

Not the Prime Time Josh Wolf Interview.

Why Big War is Becoming Obsolete.

Justin from Justin.tv Brings It.

Can a Pacifist be President or Should we Just Stop Breeding?.

Gonzo: Hunter S. Thompson is Evoked.

Punishment & Prison.

Keith Henson’s Space Elevator.

Animals & Guns.

From The Zodiac Killer to Cho.

Snort the Dead?.

NeoFiles:

Chaos in Theory & Practice.

Everything Is Everything.

Immortality or Oblivion?.

Save Net Radio!.

Within John Gilmore & Without Him.

Speaking of R.U. Sirius, the new underground culture site Alterati (founded by James Curcio) has a podcast interview up with Sirius, conducted by Technoccult guest editor Jason Lubyk.

R.U. Sirius interview.

Alterati.

Way cooler than Yahoo! Underground.

Update: Alterati was not technically founded by James Curcio. It is an evolution of Grey Lodge. Jason and another Technoccult guest editor, Wes Unruh, are the editors at large.

NeoFiles: Let’s Get This Non-Biological Life Form Party Started.

NeoFiles: More on Non-Biological Life Forms.

RU Sirius Show: Everything The US Government is Doing About Security is Wrong.

RU Sirius Show: Humble or Hubristic?

The RU Sirius Sho: Kill Your Guru. (interview with Guruphiliac’s Jody Radzik).

Viking Youth Power Hour: 2006 Year in Review.

Dream Like a Viking (An interview with Viking Brian of the Viking Youth).

Neofiles Show #73: True Mutations.

RU Sirius Show: Psychedelic Research is Resurgent.

FrqShow: Will the movie The Number 23 ruin 23 culture?

RU Sirius Show: Cory Doctorow’s OverClocked.

NeoFiles Show: Is the iPod the Perfect Thing?

RU Sirius Show: Yeah, right. Or, Is There Too Much Technohype?

NeoFiles Show: Rudy Rucker on Math, Love & Rock ‘n’ Roll.

NeoFiles Show: Rudy Rucker on Flurb & Subdimensional Telepathy.

RU Sirius Show: Dangerous Sex Talk with Susie Bright.

RU Sirius Show: More Sex with Susie Bright.

FrqShow: Mystery X.

RU Sirius Show: Wikipedia Man Jimmy Wales.

NeoFiles Show: They’re Such She-Geeks!

RU Sirius Show: We’re Going to Kill Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

RU Sirius Show: Will Franken is Funny as Fuck!.

RU Sirius Show: Zen Monkeys Talk About 10 Zen Monkeys.

NeoFiles Show: On Probability Beach with Richard Kadrey.

And, not a podcast but also from the MondoGlobo Network, A Selection of Obscure Robert Anton Wilson Essays.

RU Sirius Show: Who We’d Like to See Dead in ‘07.

NeoFiles: Transgenic Food, Part 2.

RU Sirius Show: Psychotropic Chemical Warfare.

Viking XXX-Mas.

RU Sirius Show: Was Mao as Bad as all that?

NeoFiles Show: Fear of a Transgenic Planet

RU Sirius Show: Documentary Director Makes War On Christmas!

RU Sirius Show: SubGenius Performer & Underground Comix Artist Hal Robins.

NeoFiles Show: NASA Scientist Sez Space is the Place.

RU Sirius Show: Should We Tune Out Media and Experience Interiority?.

Viking Youth Power Hour: Burncast - Sweet Jumps.

R.U. Sirius Show: “It’s A Wonderful Apocalypse” with John Shirley.

Neofiles: What’s Inside of a String Theory?.

Future of Sex teaser. Teaser for Melissa Gira’s new video podcast.

“Adam Gorightly returns to discuss his book, ‘The Prankster and the Conspiracy’, about how Discordian prankster Kerry Thornley became friends with Lee Harvey Oswald and got tied in to JFK assassination conspiracy theories.”

MP3.

(On: The RU Sirius Show).

Frqcast: Johan Ess.

R.U. Sirius: Can Liberal Societies Deal with Human Psychopathology?

RU Sirius Show: Laura Albert aka J.T. Leroy.

NeoFiles Show: A Quantum Connection to Another Dimension.