Summary: KMO and guest Kevin Dole consider why horror writer Thomas Ligotti considers consciousness to be the parent of all horrors. Consciousness is supposed to be the most marvelous phenomenon in existence right? Not according to Ligotti. In his first non-fiction book, The Conspiracy Against the Human Race, Ligotti describes consciousness as the means to achieving new varieties of suffering by enabling us to dread things that haven't happened yet, like out own death, and to suffer insult in addition to mere injury. Better never to have been born, because, Ligotti asserts, non-existence never hurt anybody. Check out Ligotti's story The Red Tower to see if his fiction rings your bell. Please note: Thomas Ligotti advocates voluntary human extinction by attrition, which is to say by not having children. He does not suggest that other people commit suicide, though he defends their right to do so. Consistency and intellectual honesty do not compel him to take his own life. I will delete any further comments that call him a hypocrite for failing to commit suicide. Don't bother posting them.
