Doug Casey on Throwing a Really Good Party

(Interviewed by Louis James, Editor, International Speculator

L: Doug, you used to throw a big party every year, and called it the Eris Society. Sounds a bit more erudite than a frat party – what was that all about?

Doug: Well, there was always some alcohol, and almost always tobacco, and usually some firearms, of course, so it made for a nicely mellow party. But it actually stemmed from the publication of my Crisis Investing book, which hit the NYT best-seller list in 1980. Being on the talk-show circuit, I found myself meeting all sorts of interesting people I would not have been able to meet before. So, I thought I'd throw a party and invite some of these people, and get to know them better. I especially wanted to use my late-found notoriety to get to know interesting folks I hadn't met yet.

I decided to throw the party in Aspen, which was then a small town at the end of the road in the middle of the mountains of Colorado. There's always a risk when you throw a party that no one may come, but that first Eris was pretty successful. It was informal. There were about 20 – 25 people, and we pretty much just sat around and talked about ideas for a weekend.

Among the guests I invited were Stewart Brand, who was the founder of the Whole Earth Catalog, among other things. He was great company. I also invited John Brockman, who runs The Edge, one of the leading book agents in the U.S. and a well-known itinerant intellectual. Larry Abraham, co-author of None Dare Call It Conspiracy attended, as did Harry Browne, author of How you can Profit from the coming devaluation and How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World. And Gary North, who writes books faster than a normal person can read them.

L: You didn't have to pay anyone speaking fees?

Doug: No, they came simply because I sent them invitations. I was tempted to pay Buckminster Fuller his reasonable $5,000 fee – a bargain to hang around a genius for a weekend – but it would have run counter to the spirit of Eris. The next year, it grew a bit, and the year after that, it grew a bit more. People enjoyed it and told others, who told others. Over the years, we had some really fantastic people show up, most of them more than once.

L: So, in spite of what some people might think of a radical anarchist like you, the primary ingredient for a really great party, in your view, is really interesting people. It's like when we evaluate companies; we start with the People first.

Doug: Just so. Eris was a forum for people who should know each other, but possibly didn't, to get to know each other. The fact is that most people are starved for stimulating conversation and first-hand exposure to new thoughts. Most people's friends are happenstance. Eris opened the possibility that anyone you met would cause you to say "Oh, you're the guy who…"

L: So, what makes someone interesting? How did someone rate an invite to what sounds like a pretty exclusive shindig?

Doug: The attendees were generally people who had actually done something of significance in their respective fields. They were inventors, authors, innovators and so forth, with the occasional firebrand thrown in to see if the mixture would light up.

L: I know the story, but can you tell our readers why you called it the Eris Society? Every time I tell someone that name, they seem to think I'm talking about some sort of sex club.

Doug: As the song goes, any love is good love, and I'm not going to talk about what went on in people's private intercourse, intellectual or otherwise – but that's Eros. We're talking about Eris, who was a somewhat obscure goddess in Greek mythology, the goddess of discord. The myth tells us that Zeus was planning to throw a party for all the gods and goddesses, but there was one goddess he could not invite: Eris.

L: [Chuckles] She'd ruin the party.

Doug: Nothing personal; it was just her nature. And she hears about this, of course, so she commissions Hephaestus, the smith of the gods, to forge a golden apple, on which is written the word, kalliste, which means, "to the fairest." She throws it into the ballroom, and, needless to say, all the goddesses claim it.

L: Heh. She did ruin the party.

Doug: In the end, it boils down to the three major goddesses: Hera, the goddess of wealth and power, Athena, goddess of wisdom, and Aphrodite, goddess of love. These three ask the gods to decide who should get the apple. But the gods weren't idiots; they didn't want to make one fickle friend and two steadfast enemies by making the decision. So they decide that the fairest man should decide who the fairest goddess is.

It turns out that the fairest man is a Trojan shepherd-prince by the name of Paris. Hermes, the messenger of the gods, visits Paris and tells him what his task is, so of course, immediately thereafter, all three goddesses come down to offer him bribes to get his nod. Hera offers him the richest kingdom in the world, Athena offers to make him the wisest man in the world, and Aphrodite offers to give him the most beautiful woman in the world. Paris chose, as almost any foolish young man would, the most beautiful woman in the world, who turned out to be Helen, the wife of a Spartan king named Menelaus, brother of the Greek king Agamemnon. Aphrodite helps Paris steal Helen from Greece and take her to Troy, resulting in the Trojan War.

L: It always amazes me that the ancient Greeks never realized how human they made their gods.

Doug: [Chuckles] How's that different from today? I far prefer the Greek, and the Norse, gods to more popular competitors coming out of the Near East.

L: So did anyone ever throw an apple into your fun?

Doug: Well, we had some colorful characters, for sure, including fools, charlatans, and rogues, just to shake things up. But I don't think it ever resulted in any wars. I'd say Russell Means, the American Indian movement activist, who subsequently became well known as an actor (Last of the Mohicans, among others), came closest to starting one. I like Russell, but he's definitely got a chip on both shoulders. He's allowed his persona to become too wrapped up in being an Indian; I don't find that any more appealing than when someone sees himself primarily as just an American, or a Frenchman, or a black, or a Jew – these things should be just trivial accidents of birth, not defining measures of the man. But the party lasted for 30 years, and we really did stir up some of the most interesting ideas I've ever heard, and conversations I've ever had.

L: Perhaps you should say, no wars yet. Who knows how many Parises your spreading of ideas has set loose in the world, or what the consequences will be?

Doug: I wouldn't put it past some Erisians to follow in the footsteps of William Walker, who took over Nicaragua for a while in the 19th century. But you know how things go; Eris started as a spontaneous outcropping of order from chaos, but then it evolved into an organization. That of course spelled its doom, as all organizations develop structures that eventually turn bureaucratic. Early on, it was like a free-for-all of intellectual firebombs. Over the years, it became more conventional, more concrete bound, still interesting, but less exciting.

L: For example?

Doug: In one of the early years, Jack Pugsley gave a speech on taboos. Jack was the author of The Alpha Strategy and Common Sense Economics. He told the group that being forward-thinking types from advanced cultures, they didn't think they had any taboos – but then proceeded to show that most were wrong. He went into a discussion of pederasty, homosexuality, and various other topics, and even that highly "liberated" audience got very uncomfortable.