> Robert Anton Wilson is sounding more and more like a fool to me.
Name any "establishment" and RAW has satired it.
While I agree with you that much of his railing against Sagan seems a
bit unfounded (almost personal?), Sagan represents for RAW what the Holy
Inquisition reprsented to Galileo. RAW argues that any scientific claim
that does not comport with established (?) scientific dogma is a
"damnable heresy" and is branded "pseudo-science" or "poor scientific
method" or some other dismissive. For this, the scientific
establishment uses the Infallible Method: They only believe that which
can be demonstrated to their reason, and they are able to demonstrate to
their reason only that which they are willing to believe.
RAW is not a scientist, he's a satirist. Read a few pages of Right Where
You Are Sitting Now and you'll be annoyed with yourself for having
gotten so worked up over it all. It's like being offended at Gulliver's
Travels. His self-ordained mission in life is what he calls "guerrilla
ontology" or "epistemological judo." He seeks only to warp our set
notions of reality into what he calls new "reality tunnels;" much akin
to taking off the lenses we've grown up with, and putting on new ones.
He wants us to question everything. He accomplishes this by mixing just
enough fact with just enough fiction such that the entire thing is
believable. If you take him too seriously, you take yourself too
seriously.
While others may disagree with me on whether or not he really believes
Sagan is a no-good-shit, one thing is certain: "When the Walls Came
Tumbling Down" is hitting bookstores soon, I'll be there with money in
hand.
Regards,
Hagbard