(no subject)
Are we a generation truly influenced by men like Hunter S. Thompson, or have we merely seen Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas one too many times? Do his words truly resound in our time? Dr. Thompson came to us during the Nixon era, when America was yet young in its depraved corruptibility. Is living through Bush worse, or merely a continuation of the debauchery of Reagan? We did not experience Woodstock. Nobody advocates LSD, we merely advocate men like Timothy Leary, claiming such minds should also be given a voice. Has America been raped for so long that such men mean nothing to us, merely an ideal? People of God everywhere, protesting at abortion clinics, cheering for war, boycotting homosexuals' rights. Jesus, is this what we wanted? The issue of race has polarized us all. A half century away from the front lines... freedom marches, sit ins, Dr. King, it all happened, victory was attained, yet we still hyperbolize and debate such racial overtones everyday. In the news, on television. Everywhere. Yet each passing year brings nothing substantially different. Has the national character been so irreversibly altered? Have we given up on ourselves, content to merely be entertained by the very people who tried to truly say something? Or were men like Dr. Thompson merely the wild-eyed druggies of their time, and we have inherited no more than that grim cultural persona? Will I remember this train of thought in the morning, or was it merely designed to keep my mind occupied while I smoked a cigarette, manifesting no more than the subconscious musings of boredom? I don't know... Is there anything deeper to be found here? Or, as a great man once said, perhaps we just buy the ticket, take the ride... and continue humping the American Dream.