Kerry Thornley – Episode 5
In this episode, we chat with writer and historian Adam Gorightly on the life, work and ideas of Kerry Thornley, aka Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst or simply Lord Omar, Jesse Sump, the Grand Caliph of California, and Ho Chi Zen; author of Zenarchy and The Idle Warriors; co-founder of Discordianism and co-author of Principia Discordia.
From Adam Gorightly’s website…
Adam Gorightly has been chronicling fringe culture for two decades. His articles have appeared in nearly every ‘zine, underground magazine, counter-cultural publication, and conspiratorial website imaginable. Bringing a mischievous sense of Prankster-Discordianism to the zany world of fringe culture, once Gorightly connects his dots, readers are plunged into alternative universes which forever alter their view of ‘reality.’
Links…
The Origins of the Thornley/Oswald Manuscript
Slim Brooks, the Human (Discordian) Fly – Historia Discordia
In 1966-67 I had a few articles of subversive intent published in a little magazine called The New Libertarian, and struck up a friendship (by mail) with the editor, Kerry Thornley. We began writing quite long letters to each other (Thornley being in Los Angeles and I in Chicago), astonished at how totally our political philosophies agreed — we were both opposed to every form of violence or coercion against individuals, whether practiced by governments or by people who claimed to be revolutionaries.
We were equally disenchanted with the organized Right and the organized Left while still remaining Utopians, without a visible Utopia to believe in. At times we discussed free-floating libertarian communes in international waters, which in my case gave birth to the anarchist submarine fantasy in Illuminatus, and, later, to enthusiastic support of the Space Migration plans of Leary and Prof. Gerard O’Neill.
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