EST salesman Werner Erhard, who converted loads of people in the ’70s and ’80s to a higher level of self-awareness–or some shit–by gathering them in hotel ballrooms and hectoring them, just gave his first interview in a couple of decades. He is still a piece of work. From Lucy Kellaway’s Financial Times article:

“It turns out Werner Erhard sees himself as something far greater than nice. He solemnly tells me that he is, without question, a hero.

‘Here’s my definition of a hero. A hero is an ordinary person given being and action by something bigger than themselves. One thing I’m sure about is I’m real ordinary. Yet I’ve had the chance to touch the lives of a lotta people.’

It is true that Erhard has touched many lives – I’ve come across plenty of his converts – but I’ve never really grasped what it was that they learnt in those long days in hotel ballrooms.

‘People understood that nothing is significant. Life is empty and meaningless, and it’s empty and meaningless, that it’s empty and meaningless.’

I nod, a little confused.

‘Until what is significant is created by you, you aren’t living your life, you are living some inherited life.'” (Thanks Browser.)

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John Denver interviews Erhard on the Tonight Show, 1973:

Bucky Fuller + Erhard: