Well it was a culture of hedonism, where everything needed to be done in excess. Whether it was free love or the drug culture, moderation was inexistant. What nobody thought about was the reality. The ideals outweighed any rational thought and that left a gaping hole for people like leary, ginsberg, krassner, etc. to present their "leadership". They were the authorities at the time preaching against the mainstream establishments. Much like today we have the Erowid info, and we have the governments info. One side says, "do it! it will make your life amazing. You'll get super powers and attract beautiful women." The other side says, "dont do it! it will make you kill your family, rape innocent old women, and poop on your neighbors face." There was no voice of moderation then or now. Nobody saying, "yeah this stuff is interesting if you respect it and those around you. If you do it too much you may experience an addiction, or some other adverse effect. Be careful and research a lot before you decide." ...there are a lot of underlying ideas that i see him getting at. wish we could just ask that crazy MF.
i think he means that everyone just jumped into this acid bandwagon. taking acid everyday isn't going to lead to enlightenment. taking acid, then reflecting on your experience, and what you learned or saw. what ended up happening was a shift to harder drugs. haight ashbury's free medical clinics, couldn't help all of the junkies get off of heroin, or coke, or whatever they had graduated to from the pot, lsd, shrooms, or mescaline. it is truly sad the way this movement ended, there was so much promise. woodstock and the human be-in are two great examples of the promise in the movement. both were festivals that promoted love and peace, and the concert went off wonderfully. everyone came and enjoyed themselves. now look at woodstock '99. a disaster. i haven't researched this much, but i've heard that the place was torn to pieces, there were fights everywhere, and the garbage was disgusting. oh what an age we live in huh.
the 60's happened because of the baby boomers of course there was fuel then. has anyone read romeo and juliet? the main idea in that story is that the youth can love and have fun, but the older people control and start wars. leary tried to sell conscious expansion, but very few people took him seriously. there was so much going on that it was difficult for people not to get caught up in it. the few people that did take him seriously didnt get "caught in a grim meat hook reality", they got caught up in a buddhist monk type paradise that couldnt be tolerated by the american government. leary tried to set up psychedelic clinics all over the country, but of course that couldnt be accepted by the establishemnt. he wanted the drugs to be used for research uses only in these clinics. what no one really grasped was the idea that these drugs are a key. si i dont think thompson fully understood the 60's counterculture.
That monologue has kept me up at night wondering why I was born in this sullen, hypocritical, godforsaken generation. I honestly don't think I was meant for this time.