Robert Anton Wilson: Maybe Logic

Robert Anton Wilson is one of the icons of the countercultural movement, a prolific author and lecturer whose absurdist, politically radical, often outrageous claims and actions (such as proclaiming himself a pope and happily endowing innumerable others with the same title) represent an ontological perspective that this film—which features footage of Wilson spanning a full quarter-century—encapsulates in the phrase “maybe logic.” The concept—or better, attitude—basically derives from the epistemological uncertainty inherent in quantum physics: Wilson extends Heisenberg's principle about probability over certitude in science to knowledge as a whole, arriving at the notion of individual “reality tunnels,” or limited viewpoints, from which a person must escape in order to become open to the full spectrum of possibilities that life offers. It's an idea that might seem like radical skepticism, but is more properly relativist than absolutist, opting for a genial intellectual humility over dogmatism. But director Lance Bauscher's Robert Anton Wilson: Maybe Logic isn't a dry disquisition on Wilson's theories, bur rather an engagingly freewheeling portrait of the man, warts and all, which turns rather poignant toward the close when the effects of his childhood bout with polio return and he emerges as a highly visible opponent of the government's attempt to criminalize the use of medical marijuana. DVD extras include some “exercises” in “maybe logic” for viewers to try. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)