Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings by Rob Brezsny

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Synopsis

Human beings are selfish, small-minded, violence-prone savages, civilization is a blight on the earth, and the rising tide of chaos ensures that everything's going to fall apart any day now. Right? Wrong, says Rob Brezsny. In Pronoia Is the Antidote to Paranoia, he declares evil is boring, the universe is friendly, and life is a sublime gift created for our amusement and illumination. This buoyant perspective is not rooted in denial. On the contrary, Brezsny builds a case for a "cagey optimism" that does not require a repression of difficulty, but rather, seeks a vigorous engagement with it. The best way to attract the blessings that the world is conspiring to give us, he insists, is to dive into the most challenging mysteries. This witty, inspiring how-to shows how any reader can become "a wildly disciplined, fiercely tender . . . lustfully compassionate Master of Rowdy Bliss."

The newly revised and significantly expanded—by more than a hundred pages—edition of Pronoia is now available (ISBN: 9781556438189).

Biography

Rob Brezsny writes "Free Will Astrology," a syndicated weekly column that reaches nine million readers in over 100 publications, including the Village Voice, where it has appeared every week since January 1999. It is also published on his website, www.freewillastrology.com, and is distributed through a weekly email newsletter with 26,500+ subscribers.

When Utne Reader named Brezsny a "Culture Hero," it observed: "With a blend of spontaneous poetry, feisty politics, and fanciful put-on, Brezsny breathes new life into the tabloid mummy of zodiac advice columns."

In its profile of Brezsny, The New York Times quoted a reader who compared his writing to that of Tom Robbins. The horoscopes "are like little valentines, buoyant and spilling over with mischievousness. They're a soul prognosis."

Before his other book, The Televisionary Oracle, Brezsny's enduring artistic artifacts were music albums, one created as a solo artist and three with the band World Entertainment War, which recorded for MCA. World Entertainment War's albums was nominated for a "Bammie," California's version of the Grammies, and benefited from the promotional wizardry of rock's top impresario, Bill Graham, who managed World Entertainment War until his death.