The Prankster Politics of the Discordians

Adam Gorightly’s
Historia Discordia tells the story of the prank
religion Discordianism. I wrote about the book, and about
Discordianism more generally, in an article
for io9. Here’s an excerpt:

History does not record Robert
Welch’s reaction when he received a letter on Bavarian Illuminati
stationery in 1970. Welch was the founder of the John Birch
Society, a conservative group with a paranoid bent, mostly focused
on communist conspiracies but also willing to expand its gallery of
villains to include other secret cabals. The Illuminati are an
18th-century secret society whose alleged efforts to control the
world were regularly decried by groups like, well, the John Birch
Society.

Welch may have been a nut but he wasn’t a fool, and he was probably
pretty sure someone was pulling his leg by the time he saw that the
note had been written by “Ho Chi Zen, Cong King of Gorilla
Warfare.” But I like to imagine that curiosity compelled him to
read on.

“We have been meaning to write you for some time,” the message
began. They claimed they had held off until Harper’s
magazine—which, the letter assured him, the Illuminati
controlled—had interviewed Welch in its August issue. It continued:
“All this is in keeping with our new policy of allowing alert and
sophisticated persons such as yourself and your followers and
associates a more comprehensive review of our activities. For with
96.5% of the entire world now under our collective thumb, we just
no longer see any point in sneaking around behind the scenes all
the time.”

Read the rest here.
Gorightly also has a Historia Discordia blog, which you
can see here and which
I wrote about here.
The Discordians play a big role in chapter nine of my book The
United States of Paranoia, for sale
here.