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Classics of Liberty, Ep. 16: Karl Hess and Robert Anton Wilson: Subversion for Fun and Profit

3,003 views · Published 18 January 2017 · 30:05 · Indexed 10 November 2026

Channel: Libertarianism.org · 2017 · News & Politics

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This episode features an excerpt from Subversion for Fun and Profit, a wide-ranging discussion between Karl Hess and Robert Anton Wilson.

This episode features an excerpt from Subversion for Fun and Profit, with Karl Hess and Robert Anton Wilson. Hess and Wilson are icons of libertarianism and radical individualist thinking in the 1960s and 1970s. 

Karl Hess was an influential figure among high-level Republicans in the early 1960s. As a speechwriter for the GOP, Hess has been credited as the author of Barry Goldwater’s most iconic line, “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice; moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” Over time, Hess became more radical and his close associations with the both the GOP and broader white collar society strained and ultimately dissolved. Hess became an anarchist.

Robert Anton Wilson, is best known for co-authoring the popular Illuminatus! Trilogy published in 1975. Wilson and his co-author, Robert Shea, had been editors at Playboy magazine and began cataloging the letters they’d receive describing various conspiracies of governments and secret societies. Wilson has been described as “maybe” a futurist, author, lecturer, stand-up comic, guerrilla ontologist, psychedelic magician, outer head of the Illuminati, quantum psychologist, Taoist sage and Discordian pope.

The wide-ranging discussion presented here took place at the 1987 nominating convention of the Libertarian Party.

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