Cynics regarded everybody as equally corrupt... Idealists regarded everybody as equally corrupt, except themselves.

The book was intended to poke fun at the conspiratorial frame of mind. C. The Cosmic Trigger series and other books
In the nonfiction and partly autobiographical Cosmic Trigger I: The Final Secret of the Illuminati (1977) and its two sequels as well as in many other works Wilson examined Freemasons Discordianism Sufism the Illuminati Futurology Zen Buddhism Dennis and Terence McKenna Jack Parsons the occult practices of Aleister Crowley and G.

". [clarification needed]
Wilson described his work as an "attempt to break down conditioned associations to look at the world in a new way with many models recognized as models or maps and no one model elevated to the truth". Robert Anton Wilson (born Robert Edward Wilson January 18 1932 – January 11 2007) known to friends as "Bob" was an American author and polymath who became at various times a novelist philosopher psychologist essayist editor playwright poet futurist civil libertarian and self-described agnostic mystic.