Dem
47
GOP
53
When (Z) was in high school, there was a dangerous/rebellious work of... maybe fact, maybe fiction called The Anarchist Cookbook. Undoubtedly, many readers have heard of it, because its initial publication predates his high school graduation by 20 years. For those readers who are not familiar, it is full of information about things like how to make LSD, how to make a cattle prod into a lethal weapon, and how to throw a Molotov cocktail the proper way.
The author was a self-proclaimed radical leftist named William Powell who said he wrote the book to give "the silent majority" the tools to fight back against "fascist, capitalist, and communist threats." Later, he repudiated the book, declaring:
During the years that followed [the book's] publication, I went to university, married, became a father and a teacher of adolescents. These developments had a profound moral and spiritual effect on me. I found that I no longer agreed with what I had written earlier and I was becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the ideas that I had put my name to. In 1976 I became a confirmed Anglican Christian and shortly thereafter I wrote to Lyle Stuart Inc. explaining that I no longer held the views that were expressed in the book and requested that The Anarchist Cookbook be taken out of print. The response from the publisher was that the copyright was in his name and therefore such a decision was his to make - not the author's. In the early 1980's, the rights for the book were sold to another publisher. I have had no contact with that publisher (other than to request that the book be taken out of print) and I receive no royalties.
Unfortunately, the book continues to be in print and with the advent of the Internet several websites dealing with it have emerged. I want to state categorically that I am not in agreement with the contents of The Anarchist Cookbook and I would be very pleased (and relieved) to see its publication discontinued. I consider it to be a misguided and potentially dangerous publication which should be taken out of print.
How much of that verbiage, either before Powell's epiphany or after, was legitimate and how much of it was clever marketing is an excellent question. What (Z) can certainly say is that everyone at his high school who had a copy was not making war against any such threats, and almost certainly didn't actually attempt to execute any of the recipes or designs in the book. It was just a "cool" and "rebellious" thing to have, particularly in a time when acquiring a copy was no easy task. Today, they sell it for Amazon Kindle for eight bucks, so it's not so cool or rebellious anymore.
We write this as prelude to a recent article from WIRED magazine headlined "How to Set Up and Use a Burner Phone." There are a fair number of people who adopt a variation on the burner phone concept, often while traveling, by acquiring a disposable phone with pre-paid minutes, and using that in place of their regular phone. That significantly reduces the pain if the phone is stolen, and also means there's nothing on the phone that could antagonize customs officials if they happen to take a look-see.
The WIRED piece is obviously much more detailed, and talks about how to create an actual burner phone. This is not so much a technical challenge as it is a behavioral one. Of course you will want to buy a disposable, pre-paid phone with a non-traceable medium of exchange (presumably cash), but you also have to commit to using the phone for a limited duration, and to not using it anywhere close to where you actually live or work or socialize. The whole point here is to reduce to zero the amount of identifying information you provide to anyone who might get wind of the phone.
There was a time when such an article would have been "for entertainment purposes" just like The Anarchist Cookbook was for most (all?) readers. (Z) has read hundreds of pieces like this, about how to pick locks, or how to cheat at slot machines, or how to evade red-light cameras because they're interesting and are sort of like reading a real-world spy novel. But Americans currently live in a world where some of these things, like the burner phone, aren't just interesting things to read about; there could be a legitimate need.
We bring this up, in particular, because we had a question this weekend from an American ex-pat who was wondering how safe it is to return to the U.S./Southern California for a visit. We wrote that it's not that risky, but several readers pointed out—rightly—that we forgot to say anything about phone hygiene. Visitors to the U.S. have already been pinched because their phones had, for example, memes on them that might give J.D. Vance a case of the sads. So while a full-on burner phone is probably not needed, a burner-lite, where you purchase a temporary phone for use while traveling, is a wise idea. Failing that, at least go through your saved pictures and text messages, and make sure there's nothing there that might cause an over-zealous customs agent to target you.
And in case you are wondering, (Z) did (and does) own a copy of The Anarchist Cookbook. He did not acquire it himself, however; it was a birthday gift from a friend in high school who, like the character Red in The Shawshank Redemption, was known for being able to "get things." (Z)