
American Anarchist
1
The book, as I read it,
advocates the violent overthrow
of the American government.
I was very fed up
with the government.
But it wasn't...
It wasn't a call to action.
There's no call to action
in the book itself.
How often do you read the book?
I haven't read it
since I wrote it.
I don't have a copy of it.
On the original,
it was just the warning.
"Keep in mind that
"are illegal
and constitute a threat.
"Also, more importantly,
"almost all the recipes
are dangerous.
"This book is not for
children or morons."
It's true.
It's not a book for children,
and it's not a book for morons.
Um...
The book is published in 1970.
You were equipping people
with this knowledge to do what?
I'm... Yeah,
I don't think that...
I don't think I hoped they would do
anything with it, quite frankly.
"This is a book
for anarchists...
"those who feel able
to discipline themselves
"on all the subjects, from drugs
to weapons, to explosives."
I don't think the book
actually says,
"This is what you should do
with this information."
In fact, it doesn't.
"A freedom fighter
can never surrender,
"for if he does, he becomes
part of the problem.
"There is no trial
in times of trouble.
"Just torture and death."
It's not, you know, "let's go
and burn the government down."
I... That's not there.
"The only laws an individual
"are those
he instills in himself.
"There is only one choice
for a real man,
"and that is revolution."
"This country,
with its institutions,
"belongs to the people
who inhabit it.
"Whenever they shall grow weary
of the existing Government,
"they can exercise their
constitutional right of amending it,
"or their revolutionary right
to dismember or overthrow it."
So, what were you advocating?
I think I was advocating
people to think for themselves.
Bomb-making is essentially
open-source information.
And it has been that way
for a long time.
It has been that way
since before the Internet.
In the late 1960s
and early 1970s,
when we had lots of bombings.
Bombs went off in Southern
California, Northern California,
also in New York City.
From the middle of that morass
emerged this:
"The Anarchist Cookbook."
So many bombings in the '70s,
large dynamite bombs
all over the place.
And we would frequently find
"The Anarchist Cookbook"
at the bomber's house when
we served the search warrants.
"The Anarchist Cookbook"...
A do-it-yourself
bomb-making manual
written in the early 1970s
by William Powell.
Would you
say you are uncomfortable
identifying yourself
as an American?
I'm not comfortable
with an identity
that links me with
one patriotic group.
Over the years, have
you been contacted by the media?
Oh, there was a string
of invitations to interview.
Requests from
BBC, "Newsweek,"
"The Guardian," Charlie Rose...
I didn't know
who Charlie Rose was.
There were several others,
which I turned down.
Kind of out of touch
with the media
and the media culture.
And I've been living
outside the United States
for the last 36 years.
That's where I'm comfortable.
In 1967,
I was 16, 17 years old.
Started to hitchhike
towards New York City.
It was the summer,
Lower East Side.
The pot and psychedelic cult.
and claim they
Power to the people!
Power to the people!
It was heady times.
People were left wing,
they were certainly anti-war.
People were very much aware
Feminism was
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"American Anarchist" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2021. Web. 24 Jan. 2021. <https://www.scripts.com/script/american_anarchist_2666>.