Lol, Hunter S Thompson shouldn't be a role model, he was a psychotic nut who abused meth and coke, and shouldn't be a role model unless you want to blow your head off.
He was a lot more than that. A drug culture legend, and while I don't quite see him as a role model, he was and still is a hero to many. Thompson, above all else was someone who openly confronted and challenged the values of many aspects of middle American life in the sixties. He dared to attack politicians in a way that would land him in jail today, and he conveyed a well depicted message of hopelessness if change wasn’t to come. Here we are today, suffering in many ways because these changes to US policies didn’t come, or worse, policies did change but in the wrong direction, often heavily influenced by religious fundamentalism.
Of all his quotes, this one written ~1971 stands out to me because it recognised a great despair that signalled the subsiding of the movement for change. In context with his other writings, I believe it also reflected a major cause as Hunter saw it - The advent of the Nixon era.
From Fear and Lothing in Las Vegas
San Francisco in the middle sixties was a very special time and place to be a part of. Maybe it meant something. Maybe not, in the long run, but no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time and the world. Whatever it meant.
There was madness in any direction, at any hour. If not across the Bay, then up the Golden Gate or down 101 to Los Altos or La Honda. You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning.
And that, I think, was the handle - that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn't need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting - on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark - the place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.
Yet, in some ways the movement does continue, albeit often in a less political manner. I’m speaking of the worldwide doof and underground party movement, where alternative lifestyle choice isn’t so much argued for, it’s simply practiced. No doubt, that will always continue to be.
For a more in depth understanding of the HST, check out these movies/docs
Breakfast with Hunter
Buy the ticket, take the ride
and even have a look at Bill Murray's portrayal of Hunter in "Where the Buffalo Roam"
In response to Heisenberg's other comments, I must also add....
Euthanasia supporter and loud spoken Atheist here! One, who if he had his way would ban dogmatic religion outright and insist on treating it as the malady it is. This is coming from someone who studied Catholicism and most Christian religions first hand as a kid, and went on to complete the Boys Brigade program before being thrown out for persisting with difficult questions. Deciding none of it exactly added up, I then looked extensively into middle-eastern schools of thought and eastern philosophies for close on 20 years, practicing advanced meditation techniques as taught with occult sciences such as Hermetics and Quabbalah. While none were totally convincing, most offered a much more plausible explanation of God than did Christianity. But the answers were still not there. Contradictions everywhere, and a complete failure to reflect known and future discoveries in science - maybe not as bad as the bible, but bad enough for anyone who's honestly seeking the truth to look elsewhere. So, I went back to study science, and all was superbly and dare I say it, divinely explained, including the fear and indoctrination that leads so many people into believing such rubbish.
As a start towards curing that most terrible malady -dogmatic faith- I’d suggest a healthy dose of science. Try the easy to digest work of VS Ramachandran in relation to Temporal Lobe seizures and religious epiphany. You can find that presentation here on
The Science Network program
Beyond Belief. Also check out
youtube. If you
really understand science - and that means meditating for great lengths on the principles and laws of physical sciences - you can be cured, or at least be bent to agnostication, often the first step towards the complete cure - the Atheist's view of life, the universe and everthing. Science then, is truely wonderful - what more do you need?
Getting back to the original topic; Qld Harm Reduction groups do attend doofs when they are able to. RaveSafe is currently in-between funding, but hopefully we’ll be back on track soon. Last year, our group attended most major and minor psytrance related events around SEQ.
There are some interesting comparisons to be made between the average, regular doof patron and the typical patron attending a large one day festival. Most experienced doofers come prepared for their weekend away from home. They also tend to pace themselves better and very few end up needing assistance. While I’m not saying the same isn’t true of some patrons of one day events, the number of those intoxicated, and the level of intoxications are usually greater at one day events, where often the aim seems to be to get as out of it as possible, sometimes as early in the day as possible. At doofs it's the newbees that most often stumble; a new drug, too much of a drug, or simply too many drugs; often also accompanied by a typical gung-ho approach.
Many of the regulars on the other hand tend to save their main treats for a particular time/ act etc. The Sunday morning of a Fri-Sun festival often sees colourful and flamboyant dress-ups, and that for many people is the 'sacred moment'. Sure, experienced people at doofs need help occasionally, but in general, they know their drugs and what to do if something goes wrong.
There also tends to be greater support from old skool doofers towards the newbees. Apathy is sometimes there, but generally speaking, most regulars are keen to welcome newcomers to the scene, and they also want to see these people enjoy themselves and have a safe and rewarding experience.
As said, there tends to be more patrons at doofs who have a better understanding of their drug of choice. They also tend to ask if there's something they don't know or don't understand. Perhaps this is unique to Qld, and dare I say it, perhaps it's also got something to do with us having been around in one form or another for over ten years.
In addressing the general comments regarding the lack of knowledge among many drug takers today, I agree. Ten years ago, when we first began HR outreach, we were well equipped with HR information pamphlets. The number of patrons who would look at those then engage in conversation, indicated the effectiveness of these pamphlets in gaining the trust of patrons and encoraging further dialogue.
Possibly due to government policies designed to minimise any chance of sending the wrong messages, nowadays we aren’t supplied with such pamphlets. So, in a sense that “foot in the door” isn't there like it used to be. Nowadays, many of those seeking information are often quite well informed to begin with, and seek information on more novel or new drugs or interaction potentials with different drugs. Now, while there’s nothing wrong with that, overall compared to 10 years ago, there now seems to be more people taking the more common drugs who have little to no knowledge of Harm reduction, or the dangerous elements associated with those drugs. I can offer suggestion after suggestion as to why this has occurred (and have many times) and while it's important to realise where and why things went wrong, to change this situation the focus now really needs to be on how we are to improve things.
static_mind’s idea of youtube vids is a good start, only the content will have to be very carefully chosen as we need to appeal to all parties while still attracting interest from users. There also needs to be a continued HR presence at doofs. So, if and when our HR group is back 'online' I'll expect all those who’ve added their comments in this thread to be eager to sign up for a drug free weekend in the bush; that’s if you're really serious about reducing harm and promoting the HR message.
I hate when i find out that some of these BL'ers that are respected to know stuff just google and wiki stuff real fast and don't know shit.
Well, that's certainly better than spouting off about something without first checking the facts. How many peer reviewed articles do you see without references?
