Friday, September 18, 2009

Heute die Welt, Morgens das Sonnensystem

By the time Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson published The Illuminatus! Trilogy in 1975, they had both been Illuminati operatives for almost a decade. Their fascination with the group began with the JFK assasination, which they learned was the work of the Illuminati, the secret order that had long been the real power behind most world governments.

Concerned that two drug freaks, helped only by paranoia and creative historiography, had discovered their secrets so easily, the Illuminati approached Shea and Wilson, and brainwashed them. They were assigned to work as agents within the counterculture, to prevent others from making the same discoveries.

The crowning achievement of Shea and Wilson's psyops campaign was The Illuminatus! Trilogy. Based on the premise that all conspiracy theories are true, the effect of this satire was to discredit all conspiracy theories equally, including the true ones. It also served to distract those readers who were on the right track, by encouraging them to look for broader, deeper conspiracies that didn't exist.

Shea and Wilson could thus safely hide the real truth of the Illuminati in plain sight, in a little noted passage in the book, knowing that it wouldn't matter.

This is a brilliant piece of propaganda, and required reading for all our members, no matter how we feel about those Bavarian upstarts.

- E. Q.

(The above note fell out of my copy of this book when I got it. I don't know what to make of it.)

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4 Comments:

At 18 September, 2009 21:53 , Blogger Paul K Egell-Johnsen said...

That's a pretty cool opening for a story.

 
At 19 September, 2009 09:31 , Blogger Bjørn Stærk said...

If so, it's the story Shea and Wilson has already written. ;)

 
At 25 September, 2009 19:25 , Anonymous Asbjørn Dyrendal said...

Cool. I had quite forgotten that note. I may use this for my students next week (conspiracy culture theme) when we're covering Illuminati-history. And a bit of po-mo.

 
At 09 October, 2009 18:32 , Anonymous Anonymous said...

The best conspiracy satire/parody ever!

RAW= Joyce/Burroughs from outer space

 

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