Christian Humanists and High Weirdness

I never expected any Venn overlap to occur between High Weirdness and The Year Of Our Lord 1943 — after all, what could an academic account of three west coast hippies who dropped a ton of drugs and sought direct contact with demonic entities* have in common with a loose coalition of Christian public intellectuals who earnestly hoped to influence the direction of education in the post-war West?

Quite a bit, it turns out — much of it due to a shared horror of the Military Industrial Complex that took shape during the '40s and became the dominant force of the 20th Century.

I hope to explore some of this overlap, because RAW and McKenna would be equally horrified to consider themselves companions to the likes of C.S. Lewis and W.H. Auden. And I can only imagine Davis and Jacobs rubbing eyes in disbelief at my breezy assimilation of their work.

Somewhat in sync with both these books: School Daze by Keith Gessen, and The Real Problem At Yale Is Not Free Speech by Natalia Dashan. We have been collectively besieged by (and, I think, have collectively bought into) a “Phooey On The Elites!” attitude — mebbe, perhaps, some sober second-thought is called for?

Alright, one excerpt each from the two books in question — 1943 and High Weirdness — and I am off to can tomatoes. A happy weekend to you!

*Well . . . two of 'em went magickal (Terrence McKenna and Robert Anton Wilson); Philip K. Dick's experience seems to have been a) unbidden and b) distinct in both character and outcome from the others.