Where the Anarchist Cookbook diverges from much of the other literature that we’ve read in class is that it offers not explanations or justifications for potentially dangerous ideas or philosophies or descriptions of crimes, but actual step by step instructions for the creation of illegal substances and weapons. While we’ve discussed the potential for other books we’ve read to incite violence, the actual political narrative of the Anarchist Cookbook is secondary to the unauthenticated scientific and practical advice offered. It’s a different sort of dangerous than the other books we’ve read. Every text could have been potentially dangerous in someone’s hands and could influence them to commit some ideologically driven crime, but the Cookbook offers sections that could be considered a how-to manual for terrorism and acts of violence. Rather than being philosophically incendiary, it opens the door for pan-ideological malevolence. Attempts are made throughout the book to present a manifesto of anti-government and authority subversive resistance, but most arguments are anecdotal and inconsistent. The structure of the book revolves more around methods than morality and ideological justifications, and though it offers some bland platitudes about using the book responsibly, no real limitations or boundaries for the moral use of the methods of violence explained in the book are outlined or expanded upon into any meaningful moral code. Where these short passages of reflection can be found, “rebellion and mutiny” is glorified and the term “enemy” is applied so amorphously and broadly as to lack any real meaning at all. The vague philosophizing can be easily ignored, allowing any violent movement, including potentially fascist or authoritarian movements diametrically opposed to the author’s beliefs, to use the information in the book. Unlike the other literature we’ve read, the moral and ideological ideas expressed in the Anarchist Cookbook is not the primary danger of the text. The lack of any real ideology is far more concerning.