Rating: 
Summary: Primo Overview
Review: "Everything is Under Control" may not be the most handy conspiracy reference book possible, but the breadth of what it covers is remarkable and it's as funny and accessible as all Wilson books. I read most of the book in coast-to-coast transit, and I was singled out to be searched at every airport while this book was in my carry-on. I can't help but interpret that as meaning that "Everything is Under Control" is the kind of book that Big Brother worries about, and that speaks pretty highly for it.
Rating:
Summary: Primo Overview
Review: "Everything is Under Control" may not be the most handy conspiracy reference book possible, but the breadth of what it covers is remarkable and it's as funny and accessible as all Wilson books. I read most of the book in coast-to-coast transit, and I was singled out to be searched at every airport while this book was in my carry-on. I can't help but interpret that as meaning that "Everything is Under Control" is the kind of book that Big Brother worries about, and that speaks pretty highly for it.
Rating:
Summary: Tuned in to the wavelength of parapolitics and conspiracy.
Review: Appearances of books by RAWilson have become fewer and farther between, so a new release seems like nothing less than a major event. The
publication of Everything Is Under Control would be a major event anyway, though, since it imparts Wilson's thinking on a long, alphabetical
list of conspiracy topics. Best known for hissatiric masterwork, the Illuminatus trilogy (co-written with Robert Shea), but also equally
celebrated among cognoscenti for manyvolumes of prosody explicating the future-as-it's-happening (Right Where You Are Sitting Now;
Prometheus Rising), this new book summarizes and reviews a large slice of contemporary parapolitical currents. No other writer sees more
clearly the fuzzy line between satire and the reality of conspiracy culture. Wilson frames the discussion with a long, insightful introduction
linking the uncertainty of the times to the attractiveness of conspiracy theory without dismissing the "theories" or swallowing them whole
hog. Wilson's co-author, Miriam Joan Hill, deserves great credit for assembling much of the information from a web site that accepted
submissions for several months before publication. Of course, many facts and theories did not make it in and readers could quibble with some of the discussion about what's in there. For
instance, Wilson calls the NASA, Nazis and JFK a "reprint" of the Torbitt Document, when in fact it is the first published edition outside the
per order press. In the note about Philip Corso, the retired Army Intelligence office who ostensibly exposed the Roswell military technology
project (Tim Leary once said, "I"ve been working with the technology they gave us since 1963!"), Wilson lists Steamshovel editor Kenn
Thomas as a harsh critic. In fact, Thomas was critical of Corso's critics for jumping the gun and not taking full advantage of the colonel's
obligation to promote his book, The Day After Roswell. Everything Is Under Control is a not an almanac of conspiracy theories--although it
could be used as one--so such criticism is trivial. The book is a think piece that put things into the perspective of Wilson's wit and erudition.
He lists "bisociation" under B, for instance, a term that few researchers know. Arthur Koestler coined it for a certain creative process that
also happens to inform much conspiracy theory. Steamshovel planned to discuss the idea before being upstaged in this manner, in fact, and
may yet examine a few specific examples on the web site soon. So, obviously, Steamshovel readers should tune into Wilson's wavelength. END
Rating:
Summary: VERY, very enjoyable...
Review: I have a problem with this book, in that I practically wet myself reading it... or was it another one? Time I got it again, anyway. After a year or two I had to get another copy because it literally fell apart from too much reading (which is, honestly, very possible). A long, long while ago, in easier days, I had a bunch of friends who were very educated and knew British political history betwen them from the beginning of the 20th century through to the seventies, but that was a long while ago, and I sure miss these guys. There was enough conspiracy material in there to fuel a bonfire! My point is, that beside British Political history, they also knew about philosophy pretty well, Heidigger, Kant, Popper, the works. Also Joni Mitchell, Ralph McTell, Wishbone Ash, etc, etc. Where are you now, brave lads? I have a feeling that they may never have seen this book, and this brings me to my real problems - is it all really true? is the secular world so very confused in this way? I know that RAW is uniquely gifted, and we all love him over here, but the one thing that makes me secretly unsure is the consistency between the writing style ...and the content of the fictional world of the Illuminatus books and this documentary book. Is this the ultimate joke, a complex work of partial fiction? My problem is that RAW obviously knows a huge amount of real history and could run circles round nearly anyone I know at the moment, so who on earth do I ask this time? Or am I going to have to do another MSc in something or other to find out?
Rating: 
Summary: Don't look behind you!
Review: I've been reading and thoroughly enjoying R.A.W. for many years, and this absorbing volume demonstrates his ability to just keep sailing along, turning over rocks and exposing the suspicious underside of history and public affairs. Whether it's the Kennedy assassination(s), UFOs, the Priory of Sion, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Freemasons, Ezra Pound, the Rockefellers, the murder of Pope John Paul I, false memory syndrome, Clifford Irving, the mothman, Fortean phenomena, or some other of the many topics he covers and heavily cross-references, this book will keep you occupied with flipping back and forth, and also checking out some of the web sites whose addresses he includes. The only bit that grates is his slightly cutesy coverage of the Church of the Sub-Genius, with separate listings for the Bob Dobbs, the Sacred Chao, etc. -- especially since Wilson has been in on that extended joke since its invention. In any case, if you're even a tiny bit paranoid, you should read this book!
Rating:
Summary: CONSPIRACY PRIMER
Review: If you are new to the labyrinth world of conspiracy theory and the Generally Weird, and if you are new to the writing of R.A.Wilson, this book is a good beginning to explore his other writings. If you are a Wilson fan, though, you may be disappointed if you are expecting New Wilsonian Revelations. Much of what Wilson covers in the "Cosmic Trigger" books is re-hashed here, especially the Vatican Bank-Roberto Calvi scandal and R.A.W's affection for Discordianism in general and the Church of the subGenius in particular. For conspiracy afficianados, you may be bewildered by Wilson's interest in the Priory of Sion,(even if some of the French Aristocracy fancy themselves progeny of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene...who cares?), and you are bound to wonder why your own favourite conspiracy or Secret Society isn't mentioned,(I would have loved hearing Wilson's spin on Opus Dei, that scary right-wing Roman Catholic organization that sometimes seems like it wants to turn the world into a Carthusian Monastery and also no mention of the proliferation of strange contrails in our skies. Sound TOO paranoid? If it is daytime as you read this, and it's a sunny day and not very windy, leave your computer for a moment, go outside, scan the skies and I bet more than a few of you will see not one, but several contrails in the sky...) Still, a fun/frightening read by one of the world's great truly free thinkers.
Rating: 
Summary: RAW Lite: Fun to read, if insubstantial
Review: If you look in the "pop culture" section of your local Big Record Store, or if you look in the occult section of your local bookstore, you'll probably find Robert Anton Wilson's latest book: "Everything is Under Control: Conspiracies, Cults, and Cover-ups." This oversized paperback is apparently RAW's attempt to cash in on the "hipness" of conspiracy theories; not that there's anything wrong with him trying to make a buck off of Pink gullibility, of course. My Queen of the [CENSORED] Universe picked this one up for me as a gift, and I've been flipping through it for the past couple of days. The book is an oversized paperback printed in large type, obviously meant to appeal to the same crowd that Ivan Stang's famous "High Weirdness By Mail" aimed for. It presents itself as an encyclopedia of many of the most famous, infamous, and wide-reaching conspiracy theories, their authors, and the publications that spawned them. It delves into the histories of the past, and provides glimpses at major events in the development of conspiracies, up to and including the advent of the Internet. Wilson's "Illuminatus!" Trilogy is often promoted as a must-read for faithful SubGenii, but I've found his writing hard to get into. He's rarely boring, but his scholarly, dry style can make those books a tough read, especially when he piles on his plots upon sub-plots galore. "Everything Is Under Control" has a simplistic, A-to-Z presentation that suggests the book is presenting itself as A Beginner's Guide to Robert Anton Wilson as well as a basic introduction to conspiracy theories. It's easy to read, and you can spend hours just flipping through it and scanning hundreds and hundreds of topics you've probably heard of, but don't really know much about. Like most encyclopedias, the book doesn't cover its subjects with extraordinary depth, but it does give you enough basic information to provide you with a starting point if you want to look more closely at the intriguing topics therein. Each entry also includes a suggested reading list, Web sites, and ample references to Wilson's own books for anyone wishing to do additional research. The topics covered include the Illuminati, One World Government theories, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the Hearst conspiracy to ban hemp, Diana's death, Philip K. Dick's "Great Satanic Blasphemy," the Church of the SubGenius, Discordianism, Inslaw and the infamous PROMIS surveillance system, the IRS, Aleister Crowley, the famous zine "Conspiracy Nation" (known to most of the denizens of alt.conspiracy), Freemasonry, alien abductions, the A-Albionic Research group, and hundreds of pamphlets, books, and people I've never heard of. Modestly referring to himself as "the present author" (as when he states that Lyndon Larouche called him a member of the Illunimati), Wilson presents all of the data within the book as honest truths (in much the same way that Donna Kossy does). He tries to keep his biases and opinions to a minimum, instead providing us with a supposedly "honest" presentation of the "facts;" though even he can't resist the temptation to let fly with a barb or two. When describing ZOG (the Zionist Occupational Government), for instance, Wilson notes: "I would like to live in a world where all the conspiracy theories are as absurd as this one." When noting the incident when the CIA's Web site was hacked and the hackers called themselves the "Swedish Hacker's Assocaition," he suggests that this "may provide the Agency with a clue as to where this gross indecency came from. The present author would suspect anywhere except Sweden." (Of course, this is the CIA we're talking about here.) Maybe it's the skeptic in me, but I've tended to enjoy writing in this area where the author doesn't take himself or his subject matter seriously. In this respect, this book would look good on your shelf right next to the "Big Book of Conspiracies," which also presents all of the conspiracies as fact, though the presentation also suggests that everything should be taken with a large grain of salt. The subject matter of "Everything Is Under Control" is also deserving of a hefty dose of skepticism, but Wilson's portrayal of the world according to Them doesn't seem as disbelieving as you may want to think. Of course, Wilson has been researching these subjects for most of his life, and he may know a lot more than he is telling us here. Wilson also introduces the book with a ten-page essay describing his fascination with the fringe. He also ends with a warning: after delving into the world of conspiracy theories for even a short period of time, you'll begin wondering which of the many conspiracies are fake...and which ones are NOT. When something strange or unfortunate happens to you, is it just a coincidence? Or...maybe they really ARE out to get us?
Rating:
Summary: Alphabetical=good
Review: Not having much experience in the world of conspiracy theories, I bought this book as a sort of intro/reference. I must say that Wilson does a good job at keeping things in order (the book is in alphabetical order). The author generously cross-references many interesting topics, lists further reading and supplies ample amount of websites for further clarification. I am a novice in this field, but this book seems to be a great starter for the uninitiated.
Rating:
Summary: An Intellectual Sourcebook
Review: Ordinarily, I would not touch anything sub-titled "Conspiracies, Cults, and Cover-ups" with a ten foot pole. However, I noticed that it was written by Robert Anton Wilson- I had already read all three of his _Cosmic Trigger_ books plus his excellent _Coincidance_. I had Wilson to thank for explaining the work of James Joyce to me so that I could finally comprehend him, so I knew that this book ,too, must be written with intelligence and perception. I was not dissappointed.
If you are jaded and believe that there is nothing new under the sun that you have not already heard of, then get this book. It has been the starting point for so much of my personal research and developement over the last few years that I don't know where to start. It was this book that introduced me to Noam Chomsky's work. And there is just so much more: the Illuminati, the Federal Reserve, the Bank of America Conspiracy, the Bilderbergers, the Great Satanic Conspiracy, the gnostic thought of Phillip K. Dick, the corruption index, the Council on Foreign Relations, Daimonic Reality, the Merovingian Kings, Fletcher Prouty, the "Great Pirates" of Bucky Fuller, LAWCAP, etc., etc., etc.
Rating:
Summary: encyclopedic chaos
Review: This is a definitive compendium of paranoia, tome of temptation, and one of the most amusing looks at history and thought I have ever read. It's nice to keep it on the shelf with other radical works. It will assist you in understanding the craziness of life itself.
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