Millennium

by Peter Lamborn Wilson, Hakim Bey (pseud.)

In an interview and four additional essays, Hakim Bey explores how the blind panopticon of Capital remains most vulnerable in the realm of ‘magic’—the manipulation of images to control events, hermetic “action at a distance.”

Genres: Nonfiction, Philosophy, Essays

128 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1996

About the author

Peter Lamborn Wilson also writes under the pseudonym Hakim Bey.

Reviews

[Interzonatron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent and quick read. The central thesis that courses throughout the book is the question of what happens in this new “one world”, whereby capitalism has won & communism has lost. There is no more dialectic between the two & therefore there’s also no third way. My favorite essay in the book was “Religion & Revolution”. Sidi Hakim hit the proverbial nail on the head with this one. Through an archaeology of knowledge, Sidi Hakim shows the revolutionary potential embedded in many religions from Islam to Shamanism. This is an essential text for any spiritual anarchist.

[tout · Rating 3 out of 5]

I probably read TAZ about ten years ago and sort of randomly started this after staring blankly at my bookshelf, wandering around the books. I hadn't realized how much he's coming out of the autonomist tradition, of squats, alternative culture, freaks, wingnuttery/diffuse irrationalism. He's writing after the fall of the wall and the end of cold war at time when it was possible to talk about being the third position to the dominant positions represented by the soviet bloc and the western powers. The third position, was a position on the margins, that could leave and carve out space for itself while the other dominant powers focused on each other. But the third position can no longer exist if the second is now gone. This leaves those who see themselves as against the first position needing to rethink their role as revolutionaries rather than drop outs, as being the only alternative against the totality of the one. The war on terror would seem to have complicated this argument, demonstrating that there are other non-state (or stateless) forces to contend with but which could not be considered revolutionary. He also saw a revolutionary potential in radical islam and "jihad" or struggle, of a "nationalism" without a state, of the use of the heterodox within religion, etc. A certain side of anti-state fascism would seem to be faring far better lately than he perhaps naively hoped — far better than the revolutionary potential of these things.

[Christopher · Rating 2 out of 5]

I Loved TAZ and Hakim Bey's Immediatism, but for the life of me this is one of the few books I ever read that I could not figure out for the life of me WHAT THE FUCK the author was going on about? Something to do with Walter Benjamin. H.B. claims not to be a post-modernist, but this writing was pretty damn close to obscurant post-modern bibble babble as one could get. Perhaps I'll try reading this again someday...

[Sean A. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Always strangely worded and wordy but absolutely stunning and imaginative prose. his conclusions and ideas are profound, prophetic and entertaining, but honestly, sometimes he's really reaching...

[Jerome · Rating 4 out of 5]

Better reasoned (and reasonable) than other "Hakim Bey" books, reading this one shortly after Debord's Society of the Spectacle and Vaneighem's Revolution of Everyday Life thoroughly set me in the anarchist camp. His argument that the Cold War was a pyrrhic victory for Western Democracies, whose power has been usurped by Global Capital, is spot on. If you read only one Peter Lamborn Wilson book, you'd do well to avoid the cooky ramblings and pederastic innuendo of T.A.Z. and pick up this one instead.

[Devon · Rating 3 out of 5]

really about 3.5 stars... an interview and 4 essays....mostly pretty good, if somewhat dated. 15 years ago a call for "jihad" would have been read a little differently than now...also the end of the cold war, the end of history, and the ultimate triumph of capitalism must all be seen now in quite a different light than at the time when these essays were written...

[Dylan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally finished, after a couple years picking it up and reading a little. Dense stuff, twists your brain linguistically, good anarchist philosophy, and this was only 96, wonder hows he improved since then

[Writerful Books · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had the pleasure of meeting Peter Lamborn Wilson in the Garden of Delight anarchist bookstore in Dublin back in the early 1990's which sadly closed its doors. This book is his mental meanderings into anarchism, Sufi mysticism and high weirdness.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anarchism is alive and well. I will not celebrate yr millenium.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not my favorite HB, but thoroughly thought-provoking and often enjyably radical.