

Burn After Reading: William Powell and the Anarchist Cookbook - dnetesn
http://harpers.org/blog/2015/02/burn-after-reading/

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nkozyra
By the time it got to teenaged me (mid-1990s), much of the (non-incindiery)
information was quaint and outdated, but I always found the whole thing
fascinating, even if it didn't appeal to my nature.

I can understand wanting it out of print, but it also gained prominence during
an age of information diaspora that brought with it interesting, iterative
retellings and modifications of the information. It served as a rolling early
Wikipedia for shenanigans (or worse) through he age of the BBS, into the early
commercial Internet. I can't remember how many modified versions I encountered
on places like FidoNet.

There is a near-universal, primal teenage boy attraction to this kind of
stuff, sometimes with real, awful intent but more often as a sort of
maturation fantasy mechanism. That it was expressed in some sort of compendium
shouldn't be a source of lifetime regret.

Edit: The FBI FOIA response with their file on the AC is supremely
interesting: [http://rc.vc/files/docs/FBI-
AnarchistsCookbook_1971-1999.pdf](http://rc.vc/files/docs/FBI-
AnarchistsCookbook_1971-1999.pdf)

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smhenderson
Wow. I've heard of the book of course but never really thought about who wrote
it. I feel bad for the guy. These days things we'd rather people forget end up
on the internet where they are likely to stay forever. This guy grew up in a
time where that wasn't really the case for most people but he sure got hit by
it.

Reading this reminded me that I haven't had the "if it ends up on the internet
it may follow you around for life..." talk with my kids recently. Time to do
so again!

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jonathankoren
I was given my copy from a friend in college. I keep it on a shelf. The first
time I read it, I was amused how juvenile the book becomes. The whole back
section about making bombs was basically, "Ingredients: 1 bomb." The drugs
section was pretty much just edibles, with recipes that read like something
out of Betty Crocker, but an inevitable "1/2 cup of pot". And then of course,
there's the "bananadine" recipe.

Now when I read it, and look at the crude drawings, I think it's pretty
obvious that this was the writings of a troubled high school student.

Now, The Terrorist Handbook, is a different can of worms...

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mindslight
A quote from near the end sums up the entire article: "All hippies at one time
or another renounce themselves. Sooner or later they put a tie and a coat on."

~~~
amarte
I totally disagree that the tone of that comment sums up the article in the
slightest.

While the article makes it clear that Powell now regrets authoring The
Anarchist Cookbook, it is also made clear that the reasons for his regrets are
far more interesting and nuanced than the quote above would have you think:

"When Powell was in his late twenties and teaching special-needs students in
New York, he returned to White Plains High School. At the school he had
struggled academically and socially, and looking through his results from two
intelligence tests, he found what he took to be a clue to his unhappiness.
“There was a huge discrepancy between my verbal and performance I.Q.,” he
says. “That would have been a clear red flag in today’s world that something
was going on. But at that point in time, nobody paid attention to it.” Powell
thinks he likely had a learning disability of some sort, which contributed to
his trouble in school, his alienation as a young adult, and his current work
to support learning-disabled students."

Powell spent the rest of his life trying to help frustrated young people like
his former self, which is far more profound and noble than an old hippie
selling out.

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mindslight
The reasons for his regrets are ultimately irrelevant from an impartial
position. They're only compelling if you've bought in to the reactionary
yellow journalism narrative.

He played his part while authoring the thing, and then went on to join with
the system that he was rebelling against. He's now fat and happy, has
internalized the rules of the system he once hated, and is now examining his
previous behavior using the framework of said system. This doesn't change the
message of what he once wrote, or why it continues to resonate.

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Animats
There's a whole genre of that stuff. Look in the back of any gun magazine for
ads.

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vezzy-fnord
That Billy Blann is certainly an interesting character.

It should be noted that _The Anarchist Cookbook_ is a very widely forged book
these days. There are a ton of compendiums of various BBS text files or
assorted clippings which claim to be successors, alternate editions and
whatnot. An FAQ dated to 2000 actually summarizes things well:
[http://files.righto.com/anarchy/](http://files.righto.com/anarchy/)

